Healing is about becoming whole. In order to become whole, a transformation must take place. Alchemy is a tradition that is all about transformation. You might associate the word alchemy to a medieval obsession of changing lead into gold, but in fact anything that causes a change in form is Alchemy. When it comes down to changes of form on the physical realm, we speak of external alchemy. There is however another form of alchemy, which is internal alchemy. Within this form of Alchemy it’s not about transforming something on the physical realm, like changing water into steam, or changing a dry teabag into tea. It is about creating change within yourself.
''The wound is where the light enters you''
-Rumi
In order to create these changes I offer different modalities that are very powerful and potent to assist your process of transformation. The main focus of most modalities is to connect you to your heart. The heart knows your purpose, the heart is courageous and the heart is wise. You will only receive and discover that what you are ready for. Still, this doesn’t mean that sometimes you might feel you are not ready to let certain things go and it might be uncomfortable to face the parts of yourself that you’d rather blindfold yourself for.
”Gwendolynn creates magic effortlessly. Our sessions were such a healing experience for me.”
-Anne Bouwmeester
Sometimes in order to create change, we need to burn down the old. This can be challenging, because even though maybe the things we want to get rid of are not serving us, we might still be attached to them. Also, they can be rooted so deeply within us that sometimes it is almost not possible for us to see and reach the bottom of that what is holding us back. I believe in a gentle, yet firm approach. The modalities I work with won’t allow you to hide away for your own shadows, but they allow you to go into an encounter with them whilst feeling safe and held.
MY STORY
MOON PRIESTESS
Gwendolynn, my Welsh name, has many translations. Pure circle, white witch and full Moon are the ones that resonate with me. I have been fascinated by the moon as long as I can remember.
When I was in a period of organising and hosting a lot of events, I was planning this around my moon cycle, so that I would be able to rest when I was in my bleed. Something interesting happened, which is that my period kept changing and my bleed would come exactly at the days that I was hosting the events. I knew there was something powerful to this, but couldn’t pinpoint it. When I shared my experience with a friend, she said ‘Maybe it’s your medicine.’ I knew it was true. Yet until recently, I never fully understood the depth of that conversation.
The Moon tides run in all of us. To me, life is a journey of haling through transformation and one of the key elements is coming closer to my own nature. This is also what I share with people and my medicine and inspiration is the moon. The Moon Is my muse, my main guide. The moon cycles are something all women can relate to strongly, but also men are connected to the moon. As nature is cyclic and we are a part of her, we also have our cycles. And for me, the moon is the strongest portal to connect me to the cycles. The moon represents in many traditions the feminine, the dark, the emptiness, the yin energy. Most of us live in a society where this emptiness is looked at as something bad, this society demands that we are in a constant energy of being productive, being yang, shining. This creates imbalance, because as much as the Sun needs the Moon, we need day and night, masculine and feminine, we need balance between doing and resting. In this time this is a huge theme and for me personally slowing down has been one the greatest challenge that ever came on my path. And it is a challenge still. Because it is so easy to adapt to the fast pace of everyday life that is so characterising for a city. Even when I’m in Bali, I still find that I actively need to slow down and connect to a feminine and yin energy to create balance. I feel it is my purpose to be a reminder for people that we need the feminine principle in order to appreciate the sun and to meet the sun from a heart-centered place. The night and the Moon element has been present a lot for me also within my music. I have been singing many different songs from around the world and when I perform I always feel that the main healing I bring in for the listeners is to be touched by melancholic stories in order to release stored emotions. This melancholy is a quality that I personally connect to the moon as well. Somebody that is very close to me once called me laughing moon and also my father has used this term to describe me. For a while I sang in a band performing music from South-America and we named ourselves Luna Sonriente (which translates as well to laughing moon). For me, this is explaining that I can be very deep and melancholic and at the same time approach this depth very lightly and with joy. I embrace the processes of life that are connected to darkness and emptiness and the feminine. This is why I feel that I am a Moon Priestess and it is also why I choose this name for my professional identity.
INNER ALCHEMY
Alchemy has always fascinated me. There is something about the way the word sounds. Over the past years it started to become more clear to me what role it has always played within my life. After graduating from the conservatory I was determined to bring back the magic that has always been such a strong part of me, but had little place during my years in high school and during my studies. I went on a journey of deepening my understanding of different modalities that I had been connecting to throughout the course of my life, starting in my early childhood years. It was a very organic process in which I experienced a lot of support and synchronicity.
Transformation is such a strong part of my nature. Hence I feel very much connected to Alchemy and the symbol of the Phoenix. I can recall many moments in which I had created something and then completely destroyed it, to find myself creating something new out of the emptiness.
I have always been very interested in the mysteries of life, as long as I can remember. I used to talk to my dad about existence a lot. He is kind of a magician in some aspects, so I sometimes feel as if I fell into the kettle with magic potion as a young girl. I was always learning names of all kinds of flowers, herbs, birds and my dad used to help me also to know which plants have healing properties for certain diseases.
As I believe most children are, I was very much connected to the magical realm. This fascination to the mysteries of life has always driven me to explore everything that has to do with this. Reading about the stars, astrology, different forms of mysticism, shamanism, Celtic heritage and energy was something I did a lot when I was in primary school. Also I gathered some energy practices and rituals here and there and incorporated them within my daily life. I always felt I had to hide away these parts of me, so this was what I did most of the time. I connected to movement and dance a lot and loved to sing for, in and with nature. During the period in which I was bringing the magic back to my life, I did a lot of self-study and practice on several modalities and tried to create a bridge between the technical, emotional and spiritual aspects of music. I knew that they were all connected, but within me they were still separate. I did a lot of ecstatic dance, spent hours in nature, communicating with the elements. Being with the sea and with trees and learning to listen to them again has been so enriching. I also did different courses, connecting to Shamanism, learning how to read the Akashic Records, sexual Alchemy and light codes of Mary Magdalene, who’s energy now plays a main part in my life. Traveling to Bali deepened my understanding of who I am, by connecting to the beautiful people of the community here, to the nature that is bursting with magic and to the spirits of this land.
As I was deepening my understanding of different alchemical modalitiesIn, I was always using them to deepen the connection to my own voice and I was also using them with voice students. They were of great help within the process of marrying the different parts of music (technical, emotional and spiritual). At some point I had a strong realisation: for me these alchemical practices were actually the main goal, rather than the singing within itself. I realised how singing has throughout my life always been an alchemical method, a very powerful one. And with this I understood how Inner Alchemy has always been my main life’s practice and this is what I want to share with the world.
Of course, I am fond of Paulo Coelho’s novel, The Alchemist, which describes exactly how Alchemy is all about connecting to our heart.
Gwendolynn Rachel 