In researching Fourth Way material related to the subject of transformation, I suddenly became aware of its obvious etymology: trans (across) form. When we refer to the process, though, we usually intend a greater significance: a change of state.

So I researched the difference between the word transform and the word transmute, which is not part of the Fourth Way vocabulary, and found this:

In general, transformation refers to a change in form, appearance, or nature, while transmutation implies a change that involves the transformation of one substance into another, often at a subatomic level. For example, transformation might be changing the shape of an iron bar into a sword, while transmutation would be changing the iron bar into a gold bar. 

Transmutation, then, is the basis of the alchemists’ search. 

But there is another process, sublimation, which suddenly came to mind, perhaps as a gift of higher forces. Sublimation, in physics, is the conversion of a substance from the solid to the gaseous state without its becoming liquid. An example is the vaporization of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) at ordinary atmospheric pressure and temperature. The phenomenon is the result of vapor pressure and temperature relationships.

I recalled long ago being surprised to see my friends hanging laundry on a line outdoors in the middle of a chilly winter. By afternoon the clothes had frozen and dried into hard cloths that cracked when you folded them. 

I was reminded of this occasion recently when I heard Sappho’s poetry recited in the original Greek.

The presenter was an American poet, professor, and translator of classical verse. First, he recited a few poems of his own. Then he read a translation he had made of Ovid. Then, without an English translation, he recited a long passage from Sappho. Hearing this bypassed the intellectual center completely and created a state just by its particular rhythms and melody. Some of those rhythms are native to the ancient Greek language, and some were probably the conscious choice of Sappho. For me, as a listener, the solid – ice- of ignorance  bypassed the liquid – water of life – and disappeared straight into the air of liberated light.

As an afterword, our presenter projected the text. This showed the Greek characters in shapely arrangements of lines as they appeared on the original papyrus scroll. And they resonated like a musical score with the echo of the recitation. 

I suspect by its unusual length that this was fragment 44, the wedding of Hector and Andromache.

 Conscious influence surrounds us.

Ruth Atkins is one of the editors of https://fourthwaytoday.org, and a former educator. For another recent article by this author, see https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/ruth-atkins/