​Has your daily routine sucked away part of your spirit and joy of life? Are you stuck in a machine that has made you part of its purpose instead of part of your own? Are there pieces of your unconscious self showing up in situations or "enemies" that really push your buttons? If you're ready to break the cycle, this show is for you.

Explore these themes and more with The Alchemists on 8/29 through visual art, talks, live music, and more.

****
Alchemist Theatre was born out of a desire to create new ways to celebrate spirituality. As a group of professional and talented artists who are passionate about creating art, we wanted to go deeper, and find different ways to connect to Spirit. We want to inspire people to create art, build community, and become better versions of themselves. As modern day Alchemists, we are here to transform fear into love, and are seeking peers who are ready to do the same.

Live shows every last Wednesday of the month in Reno, NV.
Available for Workshops, Private Bookings, Coaching, & more...

By Professor Daylover

My whole life I’ve held opinions I always thought
were true, but I’ve gone back and forth so many times
​I wonder, what is true?  And this wondering goes for everything,
even God, or, especially God.  As a teenager I feared
the very idea of some paternal figure hoisted upon a cloud,
ready to roll me in the dust for breaking the rules.  So I
became headstrong.  I questioned what I was taught, questioned
everything, and sat upon a fence post, saying “I don’t think
God exists, man, but wouldn’t rule it out, man.”
In my late twenties I came down,
pulled by the Tao, the ancient energy of yin and yang,
an impersonal greatness, the life force always moving
like a river, watching over our very human dramas
unfolding naturally as science.  I could call God the Way,
or the Universe, or Spirit, and think of them as a pinball wizard
setting up this game where I watched myself become the pinball,
starting at rest.  Suddenly I was ejected and shot
around the bend and crashed into bells, bumpers, and shock absorbers
of perspective.  I earned points. I rose.  I fell. I was flicked
back up a few times only to sink and start over                                                      and be fired back into the game once more.
I could watch myself like the ball and find peace, anticipating the
rise and fall, simply observe.  After a while, though, I wondered, how do I
rise above the rise and fall?  How do I transcend the game?
A vision of Christ appeared at that point.  
He was slightly above me and extending
a single hand, almost smiling as if to say, Come on bro, I got you.
“Love the game,” he said, “even the pain because I
am always here.  I am forgiveness and grace and love rolled
into an eternal invitation of freedom. Detach from blame,
not communion with others,” he said, “for you are not the ball but the space
around the ball, always discovering and letting go of what it means to
rise and fall while the ball hangs out in harmonic balance.
The bells and bumpers are real but not what’s true, just like
your opinions.  The balance isn’t true so much as the space
co-creating it, waiting for the cosmos to refine it. So be careful
saying you know what God is, what faith is, what I am, and give
yourself a little space to say, no comment. Fall in love with an
everlasting patience that the ball will achieve its purpose,
always at rest and yet always new with glorious surprise.  

[Delivered live on New Year's Eve, 2017]

How do you know when to fight for something, versus, how do you know when to let go?

How do you know when to hook up to the life support machines, and when do you choose to allow someone you love die?

…Oh, did those sound like rhetorical questions? My bad, 'cause I’m genuinely asking. I hope ya’ll didn’t come here for answers tonight, 'cause all I got is questions. Like, I thought I had enough answers to this question to write a whole sermon, but then I saw the new Star Wars movie and I don’t even know who I am anymore. I saw a piece of myself in every character, even in the dark side.

This is seriously something I’ve been struggling with this year, especially recently—when to fight and when to release. It’s like my inner social justice warrior and my inner zen Buddhist are at odds.

Because there’s a lot of injustice happening in our world right now that needs to be met with resistance -- fierce, strong, compassionate resistance. But where does the idea of resistance belong in the heart of a spiritual warrior who has been called to resist nothing?

I met a young teenage girl at a church in Carson City a few months ago, who had just failed her probation drug test, and was awaiting the judge's verdict on whether or not she would have to return to jail for 6 months. She was absolutely terrified. There were a number of hoops she could jump through to fight it, but mostly she felt the whole thing was out of her control. She told me the only reason she had finally stopped fighting the whole thing was because she sat down in her sadness and made a list of all the reasons she thought God might be sending her to jail:

1) No more survival (she was homeless, and in jail she was guaranteed food and shelter)
2) To force her sobriety (which she had been struggling with in the outside world)
3) To teach others in jail about God (during her last stint in jail, she taught other young girls about the power of faith, and positively affected their lives)

Sometimes our mistakes come with consequences we want to defy. Other times the mistakes of our corrupt and unjust system weigh down on the innocent. Either way, through faith, we can trust that God is always leading us to where He wants us to be.

So, I asked God this question, about fighting vs. releasing, and I heard three answers in return:

1. Follow the signs –whatever they are. Pray and then obey.

2.Remember change is the only constant. So, if you’re fighting to change a system for the better, then fight. But if you’re fighting to hold onto a system or an old version of yourself, it’s probably time to just…let…go.

3. Whenever you approach this fork in the road, do I fight or do I release, take just a moment to totally allow whatever it is you’re fighting. Even if you know you must fight soon, take just this moment…and let the storm sweep you away.

So, let us do that tonight—take all the perceived injustices of our personal lives and our world, and, just until midnight, let’s completely allow them to be. And through this allowance, we will release 2017.