Jonah

There is an old story about Jonah and the Ninevites that we hardly ever hear.

Jonah came from Gath-Hepher, a little town just north of Nazareth. In Gath-Hepher, sunflowers grew so thickly and so abundantly, that the whole land was painted a bright yellow, so much so that the faces, hands, and clothes of the people shown like the very sun itself.

When the Lord called Jonah to preach to the Ninevites, Jonah ran away from the Lord, straight out to the sea.

See Jonah knew something that we don't. In the land of Nineveh, lavender grew so thickly and abundantly that the whole land was painted a dark blue, so much so that the faces, hands, and clothes of the Ninevites shown like sapphires.

Jonah knew that if he went to Nineveh, his brilliant yellow robes would be so coated with lavender that he would turn from his sunshine yellow to a sort of putrid green.

So Jonah went kicking and screaming to Nineveh and his face, hands, and clothes became sickly, and Jonah huffed and puffed and pouted when the Lord would not even destroy the Ninevehites for all Jonah's efforts.

In the years to come, Jonah found that instead of becoming bluer and bluer, his clothes, hands, and face became more deeply and richly green. His difference was more and more apparent, no matter how hard he tried to become the same. 

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There’s no way to change and still be who you were before. Transformation is death. This is why Jonah fled. He knew that he would never be the same, knew that he could never go home, and could never truly fit in his new home. 

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You are overrated. Your home, your beliefs, your current view of the world. All overrated. You got here by accident of birth and blind luck, and even your hard work was subject to luck of learning discipline. May we all be so lucky as Jonah. May we all have the luck of having a god reach down and speak directly to us and say “You shall change!”  

Most of us are not prophets. Most of us are not called directly by the gods. Instead they whisper to us in the quiet corners of our lives, lay a feast of opportunity before us and say “choose!” 

In this way, the gods give us the divine spark of creativity. They share with us the abundance of life and one of the great secrets of the universe: anything is possible if you can betray your past and yourself. 

This is the second rule of alchemy: Have no loyalty to yourself. 

Master this rule, you can become anything. Gold, the meteor-prize at the funeral games, the heart-shaped leaves on the bodhi tree, an autumn storm.