Inspired Alchemy was founded by Lizzie Gonzalez. (AlcheME...see what I did there?)

It didn't begin with a grand plan to build everything you see here today.

Inspired Alchemy began with a much simpler idea: becoming the alchemist of your own life through inspired action.

Then there was an Inspired Alchemy Facebook Group, but I never planned to have a business. 

Then Inspired Alchemy was opened in 2021. I had no idea what to do with it. 

All I could do was take whatever the next step was. 

Take the step. Follow the curiosity. Pay attention to the little nudge. Try something. Get it wrong. Learn something. Rest. Take another step.

The small steps are especially important *wink*. 

For a long time, that was how I described this work. And honestly, I still believe it.

But Inspired Alchemy has changed meaning over the years because I have changed. Holy shit have I changed. The people around me have changed. And the questions have gotten bigger.

What started as a conversation about inspired action became a much deeper curiosity about what it means to be human.

Why do we do what we do? Do we really have to do anything with it at all? What makes us feel safe enough to change? What happens in our bodies before our minds ever catch up? How do our relationships shape us? What does intimacy, creativity, grief, pleasure, music, play, community, identity, and belonging have to do with development?

Turns out...a freaking lot.

That curiosity eventually became Alchemical Human Development—a way of exploring the whole human rather than separating our lives into neat little categories. This helps us become whole because there is no need to separate ourselves into boxes. 

And somewhere along the way, Inspired Alchemy stopped being the work I do personally. I never wanted any of this to be about me anyway. It never felt right. This is a human thing. A community thing. A sharing thing. Not a ME thing. 

Other humans walk through the door.

They bring different experiences, disciplines, questions, perspectives, stories, and ways of seeing the world. The work expanded. Black Cathedral began taking shape around it. What started outside the Cathedral slowly found its way within its walls.

We're still building it.

We're still questioning it.

We're still becoming.

Still playing. 

Still resting. 

I suppose that's why Perpetual Alchemy was inevitable.

There was never going to be a finished version of this.

Or us.

​

~Lizzie