The last phase of the alchemical process involves the servants pleading the heavens for divine intervention which comes in the form of an angel who combines the bones into a new king. The new king then sits before the five servants who each now wear a diadem symbolizing their transformation as well.
The new and the old must lie together incubating for a period of time. It is extraordinary to think about how little respect we pay to this process of transformation when we expect new ways of looking at the world to come about with a simple intellectual exercise. In my practice I often observe the change that occurs when one is told he or she has a terminal disease or one's loved one is dying. The change that occurs is very deep and cannot be made abruptly yet discharge planners in hospitals often try to speed this process up not understanding the psychological shift that must take place when the old world and the new collide. Some do not let go of the old very easily and these people become stuck in that part of the process.
I remember giving a talk on hospice and a man in the audience recounted his experience with his brother dying and how he still hadn't forgiven the hospice for not providing IV hydration at a time in which he thought it would have made his brother more comfortable. We know in the field of end of life care that IV hydration can cause serious complications but applying a broad stroke to circumstances like this does not take into account the psychological impact of denying a loved one such a request. The fact that a year later this man is still ruminating about being denied this request speaks to the depth of this process and how one can be stuck in one phase by lack of attention or recognition of what this process is.
