The Basics Of The Alchemy Of Character Development

Westerners are used to thinking in material terms, and we take the same approach to writing fiction. We tend to think our of characters as primarily material beings, who are challenged by emotions that are themselves evolutionary adaptations to survival challenges. As such, the life of a fictional character is mostly about the neurotransmitters that flow through their brain.

The fundamental viewpoint promoted by this book, instead, is that of viewing one’s characters as primarily frequencies – namely, the frequency of their consciousness. The higher a character’s frequency of consciousness, the lighter their soul, and vice-versa.

In this book, it will be explained, a character’s frequency of consciousness is the most important thing about them. It is the driving force that impels them to take action. It is the fundamental explanatory force that makes sense of the character’s station of birth, his basic motivations, intentions and aspirations.

Herein it is assumed that the reader understands the truth of the phrase ‘turn lead into gold’: namely that this phrase does not refer to physical lead and physical gold, but rather to the transmution of the soul, from spiritual lead to spiritual gold. The true alchemist is not interested in mere material wealth, but in much subtler forms of wealth. This includes the treasures of the world beyond as well as the more sublime emotions here on Earth.

To make a truly interesting story, the main character’s frequency of consciousness has to change. This tends to make for a gratifying reader experience, as long as the reader can identify with that main character. By the end of a good story, the reader ought to have an appreciation for the development that protagonist has undergone to make them what they now are.

In the most typical character arc, a low frequency of consciousness is transmuted into a higher one. This is the typical heroic character arc beloved of stories going all the way back to The Epic Of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh begins his story as a low-frequency hedonist, and ends it as a high-frequency man of his people.

Countless tales follow this same pattern. The protagonist begins the story as a more-or-less normal person, and, through various trials and tribulations, they become something special – stronger, smarter, wiser, better than before. It’s what Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s Journey and it’s been known about since the oral traditions that predated literature.

This character arc is very common, however, so skillful authors like to throw some twists into the story. Sometimes the protagonist has to lose to make the story interesting. As such, the development of a character’s frequency throughout the course of a story doesn’t usually follow a linear upwards progression.

The basics of the alchemy of character development, as described in this book, are the basics of telling an interesting story. It’s all about alchemy – and hence this book is all about alchemy too. The logic is that the Hero’s Journey is primarily an alchemical journey, and that the joy the reader gets from a story primarily comes from the alchemy of character development, and the ups and downs of that development over the course of that story.

There are three main parts to this book.

The first explains the Mithraic Ladder, and its seven steps. The Mithraic Ladder is the axis along which alchemical development occurs. The bottommost step is lead, and the alchemist ascends through tin, iron, copper, silver and mercury to reach the top step, which is gold.

The second explains how a character can move up from one step to the one above. This is keeping in accordance with the principle that people like to read about main characters who overcome challenges and transform themselves while doing so.

The third explains how a character can move down from one step to the one below. This is in keeping with the principle that stories of linear progression are not very interesting, and so readers prefer stories in which the protagonist suffers setbacks, withdrawing temporarily so that they can rise again (or even descend further, in the case of tragedies).

The totality of this book is about how a writer can understand the Hero’s Journey from an alchemical perspective.

This is an excerpt from Viktor Hellman’s The Alchemy of Character Development, the sixth book in VJM Publishing’s Writing With Psychology series. This book will show you how to use alchemy to create deep, realistic and engaging characters for your creative fiction.

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Navigating The Great Fractal (redux)

1. The vastness of the Great Fractal cannot be described in words, but describing how to navigate through it is much simpler.

2. Those unfortunate wretches who don’t know how to navigate the Great Fractal are condemned to live lives of maddening confusion as they are hurled to and fro by the winds of change.

3. Because the materialist paradigm is currently dominant, most people are used to thinking about setting goals in terms of time.

4. According to the received wisdom, time passes, and eventually when enough time has passed and enough effort has been expended, the goal is achieved.

5. Elementalists understand that both the material world and time are illusions. So how, then, does one get from Point A to Point B?

6. Everything that one could possibly wish for is in the Great Fractal: every possible situation in every possible world. One simply has to find a way to navigate there.

7. Getting to where one wishes is not easy, primarily because most people are used to thinking of reality as a planet that one walks around, and are unused to thinking of reality as a metaphysical fractal that one navigates through.

8. Understanding this navigation is a matter of understanding frequency and how frequencies match with similar frequencies.

9. A person’s frequency is the frequency of their consciousness. This can be estimated on a scale from 0 to 1, where 0 is pure unconsciousness (like an NPC) and 1 is pure consciousness (like Buddha).

10. The lower the frequency, the closer to psychopathic behaviour will be exhibited. The higher the frequency, the more it will ease the suffering of the beings around them.

11. A person’s frequency is the sum total of their actions, in both this life and in previous ones.

12. If that person has taken selfish actions that ignore the divinity of others, their frequency will be dark and heavy. If they have taken actions that respect the divinity of others, their frequency will be bright and light.

13. People incarnate into this world because the actions that they have made in previous lives has caused their consciousness to resonate at a particular frequency. This frequency happens to be a close match to the frequency of this world.

14. Every part of the Great Fractal has a frequency that matches closely to the frequency of consciousness possessed by its inhabitants.

15. Given that there are a practically infinite number of worlds in the Great Fractal, there is a world to match every possible frequency that a consciousness might resonate on.

16. In every person’s previous lives, they have been presented with a string of moral dilemmas, just as they have been in this one. In response to those dilemmas, they have made a variety of decisions.

17. The sum total of the correctness or otherwise of those decisions is now represented by every person’s frequency of consciousness.

18. Thus, if you have lived a life where you were selfish and cruel, you will incarnate in a universe populated with other beings on a similar frequency. And this will be perfectly fair – after all, you justified those behaviours by performing them yourself.

19. Therefore, you decreed that such actions were legitimate – even when they’re performed against you.

20. Elementalists call this process assortative reincarnation. It’s an application of divine justice, because every individual consciousness gets assorted to a universe that is appropriate to their frequency.

21. As such, navigating through the Great Fractal is simple. All one has to do is resonate at a frequency of consciousness that matches one’s desired destination.

22. Altering the frequency of consciousness at which one resonates is primarily a matter of applied will.

23. The longer and harder one applies one’s will to the achievement of a goal, the more one’s frequency of consciousness will alter to match the expression of that will.

24. If one’s frequency of consciousness matches one’s desired destination, eventually one will find oneself manifesting there, whether in this life or a life to come – this is actually unavoidable.

25. The laws of the Great Fractal demand that this must be the case, for it is unjust for a high frequency of consciousness to be cast among the lower, or for a low frequency of consciousness to be cast among the higher. This applies on the scale of both one lifetime and a hundred thousand.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

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Balancing The Higher And Lower Selves

1. Understanding everyday life is a matter of understanding whose story we’re telling.

2. There are two fundamental narratives to what this life is about.

3. The first life narrative is that we are rising beasts who have evolved up out of the Earth.

4. The second life narrative is that we are fallen angels who have descended down out of the heavens.

5. The truth is that we are both rising beasts and fallen angels simultaneously. Both of these narratives are true, but sometimes one more than the other, depending on whose story we’re telling at the time.

6. To put too much value on the rising beast narrative is to occlude the divinity of humanity, leading to egotheism.

7. Egotheism bores the gods because it reminds them of the behaviour of children.

8. To put too much value on the fallen angel narrative is to occlude the lived reality inside the Great Fractal, leading to withdrawal.

9. Withdrawal bores the gods because it reminds them of the behaviour of suicides.

10. The imperative to entertain the gods demands that we balance the higher and lower selves, which both contribute to our experience of reality.

11. The higher and lower selves are balanced on the Great Masculine Axis.

12. The will to indulge the lower self is the same as the Undergoing Will.

13. The will to indulge the higher self is the same as the Overcoming Will.

14. Depending on which part of the Great Fractal one is in, the local environment will be conducive either to indulging the lower self or indulging the higher self.

15. If the local environment is conducive to indulging the lower self, but a person acts from the higher self, they will soon find themselves in an environment conducive to indulging the higher self, as per the Law of Attraction.

16. If the local environment is conducive to indulging the higher self, but a person acts from the lower self, they will soon find themselves in an environment conducive to indulging the lower self, as per the Law of Attraction.

17. Operating too much from the lower self causes the lived experience to become animal-like. The gods are bored by the predictability.

18. The animal experiences significance but he must suffer for it.

19. Operating too much from the higher self causes the lived experience to become ghost-like. The gods are bored by the unreality.

20. The ghost does not suffer but neither does he experience significance.

21. The gods created us to aspire to rise up the Great Masculine Axis, but to struggle to do so on account of our imperfect wills. They derive great amusement from the ensuing struggle.

22. The correct balance is struck by saying Yes to life as much as is possible while always keeping this Yeasaying subordinate to the First Tenet.

23. The Tenets are therefore a home base from which the Great Fractal can be explored in the service of entertaining the gods.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

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The Law Of Attraction

1. The Law of Attraction is the name given to the observation that the energy a person sends out into the Great Fractal is matched by the energy they receive from the Great Fractal.

2. The Normie, the Tard and the Ham all believe that it’s possible to gain advantage over the world by dominating it through the application of force and will.

3. They don’t realise that, by becoming more aggressive, they make the world around them more aggressive. As such, the Normie, the Tard and the Ham are always fighting.

4. The Elementalist laughs at all three, knowing that the Great Fractal is something to be surfed and not something to be raped.

5. The cause and effect of the Law of Attraction are subtly linked, as they are with most spiritual laws. Therefore the causal link is not as obvious as with physical, emotional and mental laws.

6. The Law of Attraction is as intractable and inescapable as any physical, emotional or mental law.

7. Every decision a person makes, no matter how small, alters the frequency of their consciousness. These alterations therefore determine the beings and environments attracted by that person in the future.

8. The energy of every decision made by a person is stored fractally in the frequency of their consciousness.

9. It can be said that each person’s frequency of consciousness is an expression of the Great Fractal into the spiritual plane.

10. Other beings can detect this frequency of consciousness, and tend to react accordingly.

11. As within, so without: what one perceives in the material world is a reflection of what exists in the spiritual world.

12. The Law of Attraction, then, describes on the metaphysical planes what Newton’s Third Law of Motion describes on the physical plane.

13. High-frequency people attract high-frequency people, because they feel at peace with each other.

14. When a high-frequency person meets a low-frequency one, the high-frequency one tends to come across as cold and unfriendly. These energies drive the two apart.

15. High-vibration people attract high-vibration people, because they can exult in each other.

16. When a high-vibration person meets a low-vibration one, the high-vibration one tends to come across as intimidating and dangerous. These energies drive the two apart.

17. Low-frequency people attract low-frequency people, because they can relate to each other.

18. When a low-frequency person meets a high-frequency one, the low-frequency one tends to come across as untrustworthy and devious. These energies drive the two apart.

19. Low-vibration people attract low-vibration people, because they can commiserate with each other.

20. When a low-vibration person meets a high-vibration one, the low-vibration one tends to come across as pitiful and resentful. These energies drive the two apart.

21. A fragment of consciousness of any given frequency carves channels of probability through the Great Fractal so that fragments of consciousness of similar frequencies naturally flow towards it.

22. The will of any fragment of consciousness tends to attract an environment that matches that will.

23. The Law of Attraction, then, reflects the fact that energy tends to take the path of least resistance. Thus, it would be surprising if there were no Law of Attraction!

24. The Law of Attraction is another way of saying that people’s Minor Aspirations tend to become fulfilled, subject to the fulfillment of the Major Aspiration.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

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