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Reyo’s book offers an in-depth practical manual to guide the reader into their own conscious connection with both Soul and spirit. Mastery of our personality-ego structures combined with the ‘descension’ of our true Self (Higher Self/Soul) into our physical form enables us to bring more Light into matter, which is not only of immense personal benefit (health, joy, peace), but is also the key to changing our world. This is true service to humanity and the planet.
Being born to a Catholic Medium during World War II was only the beginning of Zulma Reyo’s whirligig tour of humanity. She began attending her family’s spiritualist meetings at the age of seven, watching as her mother’s eyes opened but were no longer ‘hers’. Yet while mediums lose themselves in channelling another entity, Reyo seems to have gone in the opposite direction, keeping the focus on the mastery of the inner self. Although she embraced her family’s openness to the spiritual realm – and found their meetings to be a genuine ‘service of love’ – she ultimately set out on her own spiritual expedition. Leaving home to travel, she encountered an ever-diversifying picture of faith: ‘There was a time when I loved and wanted to be Jewish. Another, when I loved and wanted to be a Muslim.’
Her journey led her to experience important spiritual teachings and teachers in India, Europe, and America, culminating in the publication of Mastery: The Path of Inner Alchemy in 1994. These diverse spiritual and cultural experiences helped her distill the common concerns and longings for transcendence that unite us all. They also bred her discovery and love of the eccentric tapestry that is the human race, fuelling her firm belief in our capacity for enlightenment. In line with this, Reyo seems to have deeply personalised the traumas of the 20th century, and these empathetic wounds bleed into her writing, ever refocusing the goal of spiritual growth and how it can be tangibly applied to healing the world.
According to Reyo, we separated long ago from our Divine Light ‘Source’, spawning the individual ‘I’ and incarnating as Divine sparks in dense bodies of flesh. Inner alchemy is the process of transforming and mastering the personality self, connecting with the true inner Self, thereby vibrating our material bodies at higher frequencies in alignment with the vibrations of our original Light Source. While outer alchemy sought to transmute lead into gold, Inner Alchemy transmutes matter back into Light, helping us realise the ‘philosopher’s stone’ was within us all along. The transformation ‘of your personal self is the ultimate alchemy.’ In contrast to common methods of repression, Inner Alchemy embraces all aspects of the self and transforms them into their highest version; for example, rather than repressing anger, we could instead alchemically transform (sublimate) it into leadership. What may seem negative in our lower bodies and lower dimensions can actually be revealed as positive in our higher bodies and dimensions, transforming destructive energy into constructive energy.
While we may think we only have one body of meat and bones, Reyo contends that in fact we have at least seven bodies: the three lower level bodies (physical, emotional and mental), three higher bodies (higher mental body, causal body and electronic body), and one intermediary etheric body that links the lower bodies to the higher bodies. While our focus may be centralised on one of these lower bodies (usually the physical), we exist in some sense as all of them at once and their layers echo our original descent from (and eventual assent back to) Source. Reyo’s system only expands from here, bringing in twelve dimensions, seven chakras and seven rays, all of which interact in complex ways with each other and the original seven bodies. Such complexities might at first seem intimidating, yet she graciously comforts the reader by reminding us, ‘It does not matter if you are not aware of the precise stages of dimensional activity and their meaning. Knowing the roadmap is not the key: surrender and acceptance of the now and the fullness of your Being is.’
While society reduces our value to our appearance, status, or what we ‘do’, Reyo is offering us an alternative source of identity: it is our Being, not our doing, that could and should be supreme. Through Inner Alchemy and mastering the self, she believes you can embrace your inner Divinity, thereby affirming your deep beauty and everlasting worth. You must ‘awaken to the endlessness that you are…’ Anyone who accepts these claims will surely find in them a valuable source of empowerment against the dehumanising doldrums of the capitalistic, materialistic, superficial self.
Yet the journey is not merely about ourself. Once we have risen up through our bodies and dimensions, we are called to return to the physical universe in order to be an ‘instrument of Light in the world.’ The goal is not merely to transcend matter but to ‘link heaven and earth, Spirit and matter’, in order to elevate and redeem creation. As such, practical advice abounds in Reyo’s work, such as recommended regimens for sleeping and cleaning, as well as potent meditations. Through these practices and the alchemical process, we can allegedly achieve earthly prosperity and health by elevating our bodily frequencies. For Reyo, heaven does not come at the expense of earth – and readers seeking a more balanced picture of existence will likely not be disappointed.
Though some will find Reyo’s system overwhelming, this is precisely because it is attempting to account for the complexities of existence itself. Furthermore, the revised edition comes with a helpful glossary as well as dozens of relatable images and charts, making the book as accessible to all as possible.
