How Alchemy Makes You a Better Manifestor | The Seven, Episode 12
In Episode 12 of The Seven: Living with the Planets, Lucy Baldwin explores the relationship between alchemy, planetary magic, manifestation, identity, and transformation.
Alchemy is often remembered as the old quest to turn lead into gold.
But in the magical and Hermetic tradition, alchemy was never only physical chemistry. It was also spiritual, symbolic, psychological, and initiatory.
Alchemy describes how transformation happens.
Something breaks down.
Something is purified.
Something is recombined.
Something new takes form.
And this is exactly what happens in manifestation and planetary magic.
If you want to manifest something new, you cannot only “think positive” or ask the universe for a result. You have to become the kind of person, with the kind of internal structure, who can receive and hold the result.
Alchemy teaches the process.
Watch or listen to Episode 12 of The Seven here:
Key Takeaways
In this episode, Lucy explores:
alchemy as both a physical and spiritual process of transformation
why alchemy, astrology, and magic all developed within the Hermetic tradition
Hermes Trismegistus, the Emerald Tablet, and “as above, so below”
the philosopher’s stone as the ideal transformed state
solve and coagula as the basic rhythm of magical transformation
why manifestation requires the breakdown of old identities
the seven stages of alchemy and how they map onto inner change
nigredo, albedo, and rubedo as death, purification, and rebirth
how planetary metals connect alchemy to the planets
why real manifestation is an alchemical process, not a mental trick
Alchemy Is the Science of Transformation
Alchemy was a physical practice.
It involved substances, metals, heat, distillation, separation, purification, and recombination.
It also helped give rise to chemistry.
But alchemy was never only about substances in a laboratory.
It was also a symbolic map of reality.
Alchemists were interested in transformation at every level:
matter
mind
spirit
soul
identity
the cosmos itself
The famous quest for the philosopher’s stone was not only a search for a perfect material substance. It was also a search for the perfected state.
The transformed state.
The gold hidden inside the base material.
That is why alchemy is so useful for manifestation.
Manifestation is not just getting something.
It is becoming capable of the thing.
The Hermetic Worldview
Alchemy, astrology, and magic all belong to the same broad Hermetic stream.
Hermeticism sees reality as symbolic, interconnected, and alive with correspondence.
The most famous Hermetic principle is:
As above, so below.
This means the pattern above mirrors the pattern below.
The cosmos and the individual are not separate.
The planets, metals, symbols, inner states, and earthly experiences all speak to each other.
This is why planetary magic works symbolically.
When you work with Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, the Moon, or the Sun, you are not working with random labels. You are entering a web of correspondences that has been used for centuries to describe both the universe and the human psyche.
Alchemy gives us one of the clearest maps for how those correspondences transform.
Solve and Coagula: Dissolve and Recombine
Two of the most important alchemical terms are solve and coagula.
Solve means dissolve.
Coagula means recombine or solidify.
This is the heart of alchemy.
Something must come apart.
Then something new can be formed.
This is also the heart of manifestation.
If you want a new reality, the old one has to loosen.
If you want a new identity, the old identity has to dissolve.
If you want a new pattern, the old pattern has to break down.
You do not simply paste a new desire on top of the same self.
You dissolve.
You recombine.
You become new.
Why Manifestation Requires Identity Change
Many people try to manifest from the surface.
They visualize the thing.
They repeat the affirmation.
They do the ritual.
But the identity underneath stays the same.
I am broke.
I am unlucky.
I am unwanted.
I am not the kind of person who gets this.
I am always behind.
I am not safe when I succeed.
Alchemy teaches that the old material has to be worked.
It has to be heated.
Broken down.
Separated.
Purified.
Recombined.
In magical terms, this means your beliefs, nervous system, desires, fears, habits, and self-concept all become part of the work.
The spell is not only outside you.
The spell is also you.
The Seven Stages of Alchemy
Alchemy is often described through seven stages.
Different systems name and organize them in slightly different ways, but the broad sequence describes a movement from raw material into refined form.
One common sequence is:
calcination
dissolution
separation
conjunction
fermentation
distillation
coagulation
These stages are not only chemical metaphors.
They are also psychological and spiritual metaphors.
They describe what it feels like to change.
Calcination: The Fire That Breaks the Old Form
Calcination is the burning stage.
The old form is heated.
Reduced.
Burned down.
In inner work, calcination can feel like the ego being challenged.
The false identity cracks.
The old certainty burns.
The part of you that was attached to being a certain kind of person starts to come apart.
This can feel uncomfortable.
But it is not failure.
It is the beginning of transformation.
Dissolution: The Identity Softens
After the burning comes dissolution.
The rigid form dissolves.
You may not know who you are for a moment.
The old answer does not work.
The new answer is not stable yet.
In manifestation, this can happen when you begin to release an old story but have not yet fully inhabited the new one.
It can feel murky.
Watery.
Uncertain.
That uncertainty is part of the alchemical process.
Separation: What Stays and What Goes
Separation is discernment.
After the material dissolves, you begin to see what belongs and what does not.
What is useful?
What is old conditioning?
What is true desire?
What is fear?
What is inherited?
What is ready to be released?
This stage matters because transformation is not about destroying everything.
Some material is kept.
Some is discarded.
The work becomes more precise.
Conjunction: The New Combination Begins
Conjunction is the joining stage.
The separated elements begin to come together in a new way.
You begin to see a new identity forming.
A new belief structure.
A new relationship with desire.
A new way of holding yourself.
This is where manifestation begins to feel less like fantasy and more like incarnation.
The new self is not fully solid yet, but it is beginning to form.
Fermentation: The Strange Life That Comes From Decay
Fermentation is one of the most magical stages.
Something has broken down.
Something has died.
And yet, new life begins to emerge from the breakdown.
Like a lotus rising from mud.
Like compost feeding the garden.
This stage can be uncomfortable because it involves the mystery of transformation.
You cannot always force it.
You cannot always understand it.
Something new begins to bubble up from what has decomposed.
Distillation: Refinement
Distillation is purification through refinement.
The material is heated, lifted, clarified, and collected in a more refined form.
Psychologically, this is where your desire becomes cleaner.
The old desperation burns off.
The compensatory motive burns off.
The need for approval burns off.
The fantasy becomes more precise.
The desire becomes more true.
Distillation makes the manifestation clearer.
Coagulation: The New Reality Takes Form
Coagulation is the final solidification.
The new form becomes real.
The desire enters matter.
The identity becomes embodied.
The manifestation becomes something you can live.
This is the goal of alchemy:
not only vision
not only longing
not only spiritual insight
but form.
Alchemy is about transformation that becomes real.
Nigredo, Albedo, and Rubedo
Another way of understanding alchemy is through three major color stages:
Nigredo, the black stage.
Albedo, the white stage.
Rubedo, the red stage.
Nigredo is decay, darkness, death, and breakdown.
Albedo is purification, washing, cleansing, and clarification.
Rubedo is life, vitality, embodiment, and return.
These stages repeat.
You do not transform once and then graduate forever.
You die.
You are purified.
You come back to life.
Then another layer begins.
This is why manifestation is not a single moment.
It is a cycle.
Planetary Magic Is Alchemical
Planetary magic uses alchemical principles even when we do not name them.
Every planetary ritual is working with correspondences.
Colors.
Metals.
Symbols.
Archetypes.
Desires.
Identities.
Bodies.
Actions.
When you work with Jupiter, you may be expanding capacity.
When you work with Venus, you may be learning to receive.
When you work with Saturn, you may be building structure.
When you work with Mercury, you may be opening flow, language, and movement.
When you work with Mars, you may be igniting action and courage.
When you work with the Moon, you may be entering rhythm, intuition, and emotional truth.
When you work with the Sun, you may be reclaiming radiance and divine spark.
Each planet offers a different alchemical current.
The Planetary Metals
Alchemy also connects the planets to metals.
The traditional correspondences include:
Saturn and lead
Jupiter and tin
Mars and iron
The Sun and gold
Venus and copper
Mercury and mercury
The Moon and silver
These metals were not merely decorative.
They were part of the symbolic language of transformation.
Lead becomes gold.
The dense becomes radiant.
The heavy becomes solar.
The raw material becomes perfected form.
This is the alchemical dream.
And it is also the magical dream.
The Real Manifestation Question
Alchemy changes the question from:
How do I get what I want?
to:
What must be dissolved, purified, recombined, and embodied so this can become real?
That is a much deeper question.
It does not bypass the shadow.
It does not bypass the body.
It does not bypass identity.
It asks for transformation at the level of being.
This is why alchemy makes you a better manifestor.
It teaches you that manifestation is not only attraction.
It is transmutation.
-
Lucy Baldwin (00:06.606)
Okay, hello and welcome to another episode of The Seven. I'm Lucy Baldwin and today I'm gonna be talking about alchemy and planetary magic. so alchemy and astrology and magic kind of all developed in the same hermetic tradition. So a lot of the terms that I use in magic are related to alchemy and I just want to...
lay the foundations here for what all of this is about. So the process of alchemy was both a very physical, like chemical process, and alchemy actually led to the field of chemistry in the 1700s. But it was also a metaphor for the mind and psychology and reality itself, but it was also a very spiritual thing. So hermeticists and alchemists and
magicians were all seeking this philosopher's stone. That was sort of the outcome that they were looking for in alchemical work. They were just trying to make this perfect substance that they were seeking. And there were certain philosophical premises that went along with this kind of work. For example, that the universe follows certain symbolic and spiritual
laws that we're going to talk about, sort of what those laws are. And alchemy largely describes the transformation of matter. So it's about moving through stages of transformation, and it's about change and breaking down and building up and kind of this idea of like death and rebirth happening and that things have to kind of come apart in order to create something new. And
Yeah, these exact same principles were applied to the mind too. And that's what we're always doing in magic is we're sort of breaking down old identities, breaking down old beliefs and building new identities and new beliefs and new structures and putting new like matter into our minds. So yeah, planetary magic uses these exact principles.
Lucy Baldwin (02:28.418)
And so one of the key figures in alchemy is this Hermes Trismegistus. So Hermes Trismegistus is a mythical figure. He's sort of like a combination of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes. So Thoth and Hermes are also like Mercury, right? Mercury is the
Roman version of Hermes. So it's like the God of communication, spoken word, written word, magic, travel, these sorts of things. Thoth is not like an exact representation. So Thoth was like the spoken word, like speaking reality into existence. So yeah, but Hermes Trismegistus is this mythical sort of person who are
I don't know if person is the right idea, character, who was basically, what's the word?
Lucy Baldwin (03:41.547)
who was
Lucy Baldwin (03:47.502)
Okay, that authored the Emerald Tablet. And so the Emerald Tablet is a big part of alchemy, and we're gonna talk about it. So, hold on.
Lucy Baldwin (04:07.885)
The Emerald Tablet was translated into Latin and we don't actually know who the original author was, but it was, I mean, in the writing it says, like in the last section, I'm actually looking at it right now, it says, therefore I am called Thrice Greatest Hermes. So...
There are certain sort of patterns that come up in alchemy. And the whole idea is that existence, reality, the cosmos is this sort of like a living interconnected system where the symbols are all connected. it's sort of like they're started to see these patterns emerging.
in reality and they created this whole system around it.
Lucy Baldwin (05:20.173)
So the first version of the Emerald Tablet was in Arabic and it was translated into Latin in medieval Europe and the actual, like the true author of it is unknown, but it was fairly common at that time for people to like basically write Hermes as the author of alchemical and magical and philosophical works.
So that's not that uncommon, that would have happened that way. But the Emerald Tablet became a really important text because a lot of people... So it's actually quite short, but a lot of people did a lot of commentary on it, including Isaac Newton, interestingly, because he did study the Emerald Tablet.
But alchemists, like medieval alchemists, thought of the Emerald Tablet as having sort of instructions for how to do alchemy, for moving through these alchemical processes. And it wasn't exactly like that they read it as a recipe, but they thought that there was like, they thought it was encoded into the Emerald Tablet, like the instructions for moving through these seven stages.
of alchemy. And so there was a lot put into sort of understanding it. One of the key ideas here is, and this is sort of what I keep talking about when I'm saying how everything was sort of interconnected and they saw like the physical world as related to psychological world and the spiritual world. Like they saw these things as all being sort of mirrors of each other. And this is the idea of as above, so below. And of course they were right. And this is
like early origins of us realizing that mind and matter both have influence and power over each other. And there's this idea that all things come from one. And one of the key ideas in alchemy was that like any substance could be turned into gold. Like that at the base level, all substances, if gone through enough processes, could turn into gold. Like they were often seeking gold. Gold was considered
Lucy Baldwin (07:43.606)
it was kind of like the ideal state of matter, this like destination that they were moving towards. And of course that made sense because gold was extremely valuable. so within the... So, okay, there are seven stages of alchemy and initially these seven stages weren't actually perfectly mapped on to the planets, like the planetary system that I work with, but each planet does correspond to a metal.
And I initially thought that they tried to move through each of those metals, but that's not actually how it worked. It's more of like a symbolic mapping on. And actually, they didn't each perfectly map on to a planet initially, but later they have been mapped onto planets, and I'll talk about what those correspondences are. But when we use the planetary symbols, like the symbols for the planets, we are using their alchemical
symbols for those metals that are associated with those planets. So I will share what those associations are at the end. But yeah, the idea is that you can kind of like separate and recombine and separate and recombine. And it's this process of purification. And the goal is this like perfect matter. And you've probably heard there's tons of like myths and stories about people like seeking the philosopher's stone and this idea of like immortality.
and trying to find this perfect substance that can make you immortal. I think that the psychological metaphor, the spiritual metaphor for that is this idea of enlightenment, like we're reaching enlightenment when we go through these psychological versions, like metaphor, I don't know, arc of the alchemical processes.
So they did work though with like real chemicals and sometimes they were actually like really dangerous chemicals. And the starting material was called Prima Materia. And so this was like whatever substance they were starting with. And this could be anything, like you could start with anything and you would go through these different stages of alchemy, the seven stages, and you were trying to...
Lucy Baldwin (10:08.174)
create this, like find this philosopher's stone. And my understanding of it is that it was sort of like, you know, they were doing research and they were always trying to like guess at like which, you know, thing they could start with to find and discover this philosopher's stone. So it was very experimental. And yeah, so some terms that we use a lot in magic that come from alchemy are solve and coagula. So solve really just means to dissolve.
and coagula means to recombine. And so when we're talking about magic, a lot of people use these terms for the different sort of like stages in magic. And I will do an episode soon where I'm going to talk about shadow work and its role in doing planetary magic and magic in general. But Solve is often associated like for me with this sort of like shadow work, this breaking down of old identities.
and coagula is like coagulating into a new thing, a new identity. Of course, as with all of this stuff, everything is interconnected. So like it's the yin-yang, like there is always solve in coagula and there's always coagula in solve. And especially when we bring it into the world of psychology, into the world of the mind.
these two things get really murky. It's almost like the more you understand them, and this is why I struggle to talk about these, that's actually the whole inspiration for this episode about alchemy, because I wanted to talk about Solve and Coagula. But whenever I try to talk about them, I end up getting really murky because I know too much and I can see how Coagula is Solve and Solve is Coagula. But I think that's why the physical like representation of it helps so much because you're talking about literally like
breaking down, breaking apart substances with Solve and separating them and dissolving them into something totally different. And there's very like, these are certain actual physical stages that you do. And then coagula is like recombining them. So I was talking about, know, whatever, nerding out about the art card in the Thoth tarot deck yesterday. And I will do an episode on the tarot also.
Lucy Baldwin (12:27.562)
So much to talk about in the world of magic. And there's a picture of the... And maybe this was part of my inspiration for this episode also. There's a picture of... On the card, it's the pouring of fire and water into a cauldron. That's classic coagula. That's like combining these two things to create something different. Okay, so let's see.
Lucy Baldwin (13:05.998)
Yeah, and so it's like moving through these stages that we're working towards really gold. Like gold is the metaphor, but gold is also the physical thing that we're trying to seek. That is like the completion of the great work. And moving through these stages is how we sort of like perfect ourselves. And gold is that like perfect substance. So there really is like...
there's a path and there's a direction and there's a destination that we're seeking with this kind of alchemical work. And I think that that's important to acknowledge because sometimes in this spiritual world, things can get kind of like, I don't want to say wishy washy, but the more that I...
It's important to understand that we are moving in a direction and we do have a path and there is this arrow pointing somewhere. Also, on that path, we want to hold this sense of not judging things so much, not being so attached to certain outcomes or things being certain ways. We both want to shed this idea of X being better than Y.
and having to have like this, not that, because we want to be able to surrender to like truth and what is in terms of the physical world, in terms of our own like ways that we are. But we also want to acknowledge that there is a direction that we're moving towards. And that is represented by this like gold, this philosopher's stone. So the three like major stages of alchemy. So I talked about the seven stages. There's kind of, it is a little bit,
There's like these three stages are sort of like I would call them more meta stages within alchemy. And then there's seven stages that I think come from specifically the Emerald Tablet. So the three stages are nigredo which is decay, that's like breaking down and that's associated with Saturn. There's albedo, which is the purification and sorry, and these have colors. So nigredo is black. It's like
Lucy Baldwin (15:23.074)
decay, right? This is like rot and just like breaking down. Albedo is the purification. I see both of these stages as death. Like purification is like after death, you're purified. It's kind of like, I mean, I think of it as like you die in the black stage and you like rot and then you're like cleansed.
I I just really like, I think of it in terms of life and the natural world, it's like you die and your body starts rotting, but then these like bacteria and fungus and animals come and eat you. And that's like the purification process. And you're like nurturing the world around you and becoming purified in that process. And then the next stage is rubedo which is life. It's like, then you come back to life.
then you die again, and then you're purified, and then you come back to life. And so you're moving through these stages of death and rebirth. And so those are the three stages. So it's negrado, which is black, that's decay. It's albedo, which is white, and that's purification. That's also associated with the moon and or Venus. And then robedo, which is completion. This is like life again, red is, and it's red. Red is life. And this is associated with the sun and the gold.
So, nigredo is like destruction, albedo is cleansing and refinement, and rubedo is this like perfected state. And so, you can see how we're constantly moving through these cycles of like death, refinement, then like healing and recovery and like conclusion.
But then we have the seven stages. these really come from, my understanding is that they really come from the Emerald Tablet, which really is. So I just want to say on the topic of the Emerald Tablet, that there's a really amazing book by Dennis William Hawk called The Emerald Tablet that I read this a few years ago. It was a page turner for me. Like I just, couldn't really put the book down.
Lucy Baldwin (17:40.624)
and it really gets into the Emerald Tablet in great detail and breaks down each phrase within the Emerald Tablet and what it means and all of the alchemical correspondences. He really dives into each of the seven phases and takes you through this alchemical journey and also gives a lot of historical background on Hermes Trismegistus and the tale of the Emerald Tablet.
So it's a really good book if you want, if you're interested in what I'm talking about in this episode and you want to go like much, much deeper, I definitely recommend this book. Anyway, so the seven stages. And so you can see these stages as this is like physical chemistry, like experiments and like work that people were doing, that alchemists were doing and magicians were doing in the Renaissance period. And also this can be, this could be like a psychological process.
that you can go through. And you can even move through it consciously. And I have done this with certain things. And you can look at these as like stages that you move through with any given like trauma or thing that you're trying to transform in your life or pattern that you're trying to break or something like that. You can also look at it like the pattern of your whole life. Like where are you in this process? And sometimes we have like seasons of moving through these on a more slow
level. So we can move through these seven stages in a day, we can move through them in a week, we can move through them in a year, we can move through them over a five-year period, depending on what the topic is. It's like maybe in your marriage, you move through them, maybe in your relationships, in your career life, but maybe through just any small thing, you could move through them. So it's just like a pattern, it's a cycle.
just like that cycle of life and death. So this is a little bit more complicated though, and it's not quite as intuitive. So the first stage is calcination. This is burning away structure. This is like fire. It's like literally burning. Then we have dissolution. So dissolution is like dissolving, and this is like very watery, returning to like liquid and sort of chaos.
Lucy Baldwin (20:05.071)
So, you know, because think about, sorry, just going back to calcination, like a fire like literally burns down your house and like it burns away the structure that was there. And then you can dissolve that into like liquid, which is in motion. And then you have separation where you're isolating the essences. So separation is literally like pulling apart, like separating out the like, I think of it as like the shit from the,
what we want to keep and keep working with. So like literally pulling apart. Then you have conjunction, which is the union of opposites. So like bringing back together. And you can see this is like a, this is a Solve of separation and a coagula of conjunction. like bringing together opposites to create something new. We're kind of looking for like a synergistic effect here, like something that is greater than the parts. And then we're going...
into fermentation. And fermentation is this like rotten, disgusting, just like bleh that leads to new life. So like in that fermentation period, it's like, it's often considered to be uncomfortable, but like something beautiful emerges out of it. I think of the lotus like coming out of the mud. That's kind of where we are in this. It's like we're poking through the mud.
And then distillation, that's like refinement. think about like distilling water, right? You're boiling off the water and you're collecting it and you're sort of like making it pure, making it refined. And then you have coagulation, which is that final like solid form. That's when you have, like you sort of solidify.
into gold and you form this full thing. And so again, we have like with distillation, that's Solve, right? We're refining it. getting the gunk out. It's not called separation, but it is another form of separation. And then coagulation is like sort of solidifying in this final form. That's the final sort of coagula.
Lucy Baldwin (22:24.687)
And so, yeah, these seven stages sort of like describe this process and they are associated with the planets, but again, it's sort of symbolic.
Lucy Baldwin (22:45.359)
I'm just going to go over right now what the planetary metal associations are just so that you have them. So Saturn is associated with lead. lead is dense and it's heavy, but it's also malleable, which I think a lot of people don't realize about lead. And I think that's where the misconceptions about Saturn come in is like, lead...
is, you we think of lead as like poisonous and we think of lead as like, it's just like dense and you can't like penetrate it. But that's where it's protective and but it's also malleable. There's a softness to lead that
I don't know. I just, I think is notable. Jupiter is associated with tin.
Mars is associated with iron, of course, because iron was like used in war, I think. I'm not like a historical military expert. That is my husband. Sun is associated with gold, of course. Venus is associated with copper. Mercury is associated with, you guessed it, mercury. And a lot of people worked with mercury in this alchemical...
process. A lot of times they started with mercury. That was a common substance to use. I think probably because it's liquid and it is kind of maybe easier to work with. don't know. I'm just sort of speculating here. And then the moon is associated with silver. And then of course, each of these also has like an elemental correspondence. like Saturn is associated with Earth. Jupiter is... I'm not even sure. I think...
Lucy Baldwin (24:31.983)
So Jupiter, consider to be associated with the second stage, is dissolution, and that's water in alchemy. it's water. Mars is...
Maybe fire, of course. Sun is, I think of fire. Venus, I think of earth. Mercury, air. Moon, obviously, of course, water. I don't know if I did those right though, and maybe I just want to take that part out.
Lucy Baldwin (25:18.607)
So the way that these were later sort of mapped on, the planets mapped on to...
The way that these planets were later mapped on to the Hermetic stages, because like I said, initially they didn't perfectly match up. It wasn't a one-to-one, but this came about later. I just want to share that with you, how they're associated now. Calcination is associated with Saturn and this initial destruction, just destroy the thing because you're going to create something totally new. Dissolution is associated with the moon.
the unconscious. Separation is associated with Mercury and that's like analysis. Conjunction is associated with Venus, that's union, of course. Fermentation associated with Jupiter, this is growth, right? That's sprouting lotus. Distillation is associated with Mars, that's heat, right? Because remember, we're distilling, like when you distill water, you boil the water. And then
coagulation is associated with the sun and that's perfection. So, and like I said, this mapping is symbolic, but still powerful. And I like how these map on and I use this in my own like magic and working. even though, I don't know, I'm not one those people who's like, it has to be perfectly historically accurate or it's not true. Like I think there is a lot of truth and it's helpful to hold
these mappings and use them even if they're not the original version of it. Because that's what we do. We move through life, we move through time, culture evolves, and our thinking evolves, and the way that things are related to each other can shift and it can become refined just like this process. So yeah, and the planets of course represent forces of transformation.
Lucy Baldwin (27:27.831)
So that is sort of why we work with these planetary magics from like the alchemical level, right? And of course the metals represents the levels of perfection and the sun being like the highest, of course. And it's all about transforming matter and that's what magic is. It's about transforming the mind, transforming the soul and using that to transform matter, right? To like make
matter how we want it to be, to have gold in our lives. So a lot of this comes from this sort of hermetic philosophy and this like Hermestris Magustus character and who of course is associated with Mercury. So this is a very scientific approach and a very scientific take on Mercurial art, let's say.
And yeah, I think that that is pretty much what I wanted to say in terms of this process. one more thing that I want to say about this is that a lot of times, you know, the primal materia is symbolized by lead, even if they're not using lead exactly. And that is because, you know, Saturn and lead is considered like the most like base substance that you're starting with.
it is like that gold. It holds the same place as gold, except it's the opposite, right? It's the beginning. And I think that I just want to convey that this is part of why. This is the sort of like...
Lucy Baldwin (29:12.591)
mapping on of how I often encourage people to work with the planets, starting with Saturn. Like Saturn is the foundation. It is the original substance. And if you can master that, you're so much better off like building from there. So, you know, a lot of times we want to jump to like working with Jupiter, working with Venus, working with the sun. And that can be extremely effective and powerful if you have that like Saturn foundation.
if you have those foundations and you can get those in other ways than just like working with Saturn specifically. Like I'm not saying that Saturn is the only path to building those foundations, but if you don't have those foundations for yourself, then you can get so much more out of all of the other planetary work that you do, planetary magic that you do, if you start by working with Saturn and sort of like build that base for yourself. And I want to just say like really practically what that actually means.
So, in my melt course, which is my Saturn Magic course, it's a lot about learning to, or not even learning to, but practicing, engaging with our grief, engaging with our fear, being present in our bodies, engaging with the physical world, accepting the physical world, understanding what truth is, and not arguing with reality, and just getting those foundational things
of facing up to our limitations and also getting on board with our limitations. there is this, the lead is real. It is part of our experience and our reality as part of the human experience. so oftentimes we wanna push it away and we wanna avoid uncomfortable things, but...
what I see again and again, and part of why I'm so passionate about this is because in just like ending this melt program and seeing how much the people in the program are just like, holy shit, I wish I did this sooner. And it's because...
Lucy Baldwin (31:25.281)
everything else, like it's kind of like, okay, here's a good example in terms of magic, like in life as a human.
If you're not healthy, like if you have like physical ailments that you're not addressing, it will impact everything else, right? Like if you are sick and you're not dealing with it, you're not like taking care of yourself, everything else will kind of be like, will be so much harder, will be so much more difficult. And so you have to kind of address your health first. It's sort of like if you're healthy,
you don't even really think about health that much. I I try to, and I would recommend trying to, but like, it doesn't even occur to you as this sort of like big thing that you need to like worry about and take care of when you just sort of like take it for granted. But if you don't have your health, then it becomes everything, right? Like when you're not healthy, suddenly that is the most important thing. Like it has to be because that's like,
your life, that's your health, that's your body, that's your ability to function and feel good and feel able and have creativity and all of it. But a lot of times what happens is people can have, let's say, illness, and here I'm speaking more metaphorically in this Saturn metaphor, that we just aren't even acknowledging. And if you acknowledged it and identified it and addressed it,
and took care, then everything else would be so much easier. It's like if you're walking around and you're deaf and you don't even know that you're deaf, or you know what I mean? Or you're walking around with a broken leg. I mean, this is maybe too extreme, but you don't even realize, but everything hurts and everything's hard. And it kind of pulls your attention away from everything that you're trying to do, but you don't realize that that's what's going on. And so...
Lucy Baldwin (33:31.748)
I realize these are kind of extreme examples, but this is what it feels like spiritually and psychologically to work with Saturn. you're one of those people especially who's like, because I know because this was me and also because I've seen so many people go through this like, holy shit, this is what I've needed all along. And even talking about like I tried Jupiter magic and I had major Jupiter.
expansion, right? I did Venus Magic, I did other magics and then had major results and then major collapse. And it's because you didn't have the foundation. so the idea is that, oh, but so if you're somebody who just feel like you're constantly at odds with reality, in like...
frustration with how things are. Thinking that things should be different, just frustrated, having a lot of regret and sadness and just frustration at what seems to be happening. It's like you're struggling to juggle all the things and manage your life and show up and find that creativity if you're having blocks and things like that. This is...
this is the place to start is with Saturn. So it's kind of like, I feel like with a lot of the planets, it's like we're going from good to better. And with Saturn, we're just like getting to that solid baseline of like, okay, like I'm good now. And now I can start to like really embrace my creativity. And you know, this can also look like like having a lot of ideas, but never following through or taking action on them. Like that's a Saturn problem.
So it's this really like foundational stuff. It's not sexy. know, it's not people are not like, I really want to like take like learn how to get my shit together. And and that's not you know, it's like I want more money. But like maybe the reason if you're if you're in scarcity, like if you're in scarcity all the time and you're like why I'm trying all these things, like why isn't it getting better? Like why haven't I resolved it by now? And I'm doing the Venus magic. I'm doing the Jupiter magic. It's like start with Saturn.
Lucy Baldwin (35:51.266)
So that's my little spiel at the end here about that. And of course you can get my Saturn course at any time. It's always available. It's called Melt and it's just really, really good. That's the feedback that I've gotten. And I could just feel how fucking helpful this stuff is. So working with Saturn can be extremely life-changing, especially if you're, yeah, kind of like...
just in it a lot and feel like there's no good fucking reason why you should still be in it or like that your other magics aren't working, start with Saturn. And that's what I have to say about that. Thank you so much for watching another episode of The Seven. I will see you in the next one.
New to Lucy’s work?
Start with Lucy Baldwin’s complete overview of planetary magic here
This episode is part of The Seven: Living with the Planets, a podcast exploring planetary magic as a path of self-growth, ritual practice, desire, embodiment, and spiritual transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is alchemy in magic?
Alchemy is a symbolic, spiritual, and physical tradition focused on transformation. In magic, it describes how old identities, beliefs, and patterns dissolve and recombine into new forms.
How does alchemy make you better at manifestation?
Alchemy shows that manifestation is not only asking for a result. It requires identity change, purification, embodiment, and the ability to become the kind of person who can receive and hold the result.
What do solve and coagula mean?
Solve means dissolve. Coagula means recombine or solidify. Together, they describe the alchemical rhythm of breaking down the old form and creating a new one.
What are the seven stages of alchemy?
The seven stages are often described as calcination, dissolution, separation, conjunction, fermentation, distillation, and coagulation.
How is planetary magic related to alchemy?
Planetary magic and alchemy both use correspondences, symbols, metals, archetypes, and Hermetic principles. The planets and metals form part of the same symbolic language of transformation.
Next Steps
If this episode resonated with you, continue exploring Lucy Baldwin’s work here:
You’ll find current offerings, free practices, podcast links, and ways to go deeper.
A good next step is the free guided Existential Kink practice available there, especially if you want to explore desire, shadow, receiving, and radical approval in a more embodied way.