In these pages that we have just gone through together I wanted to infect you with my interest and passion for alchemy. But I confess to you that while I was writing I have feared over and over again, as happened to alchemists, that my journey by flying through this beautiful ancient discipline would not do justice to its depth, to its poetry. And it is that alchemy tries to reflect, through its images, its concrete and sensory experiments, and its metaphorical language - which in the Middle Ages they called "the language of birds" - the immense complexity of our human mind. Trying to summarize this ancient legacy in a few pages is impossible, I know. What I do hope I have achieved is to convince you that, as alchemists, we can explore our mind, explore it, lighten it of many fears and discover its many talents. I hope that alchemy reminds you that within you you enclose a mysterious laboratory where there is hidden gold.
Of course, there are many ways to make alchemical trips, and not all of them go through the alchemist's laboratory. That's just one of the many interior trips you can take! You don't need to go far to discover yourself, although you need to travel physically - tread the earth, get tired, then lie down for a nap or enjoy a moment of shade in a shady forest after crossing a burned and barren field, finding a source and satiating the thirst - is a physical and palpable reflection of our internal challenges, difficulties and joys. That is why pilgrimages are so attractive, those routes that allow us to translate our mental, emotional or spiritual journey into a physical trip, according to the beliefs and desires of each person. Being a physical or mental pilgrim is also being an alchemist: a curious being, eager to understand and understand himself, open to life, to every encounter, to the signs of change, to the unexpected, to a journey of inner exploration, to the adventure of living.