“Earth symbolizes the natural crystalline densities created out of Spirit’s energies and sustained by the beings of the elemental kingdom. These tiny creators, in their mimicry of human discord, have transferred to nature mankind’s inharmonious patterns. Thus the convergence of human error upon the planetary body came forth as thorn, thistle, insect, and beast of prey [as well as tornado, hurricane and earthquake]. It is this discord imposed upon the very atoms of substance which the alchemist must remove from his/her embodied laboratory before he/she can create. It is this dross which the walking alchemist will purify with fire. All inner impurities will be burned from you by the Baptism of fire when you choose this path–only then will your outer world be cleansed and harmonious–when your inner world is.”

— book excerpt from Saint Germain on Alchemy