Distilling the Essence into a Book

“The act of distillation is the process or art
whereby the invisible is made visible”
…Jeanne Rose 2001

Writing a book can be more of a mystery than a chore, more of a spiritual journey than a total act of will. And because the alchemy that goes into writing a book is invisible to everyone but the writer ~ (until, that is, the book is complete and available to be read by those fortunate beings who will get to receive the benefits of that alchemical process) ~ it is difficult to show this process directly.

That's one reason why I love to use the analogy of distilling roses into natural perfumes and essential oils. There are parallels. Though a beginning book-writer might not think so at first, as s/he steps over the threshold of desire and into the at-first daunting unknown. It is that unknown that both calls and daunts the writer, actually. The call is towards what is not yet visible, or even consciously known to the writer. The daunting aspect is "What do I do?"

So the alchemy of book writing proceeds ~ admittedly, with less of a formulaic certainty than distilling rose petals into rose perfume ~ step by step into the unknown of oneself, until that veil has lifted sufficiently to reveal the glory of what has been seeking to be revealed through the writing. The writer, often unbeknownst to her or himself, plays all the parts of the distillation process, save one. The writer is the rose garden (or acres of rose fields) that will be harvested to produce the bewitching scents. The writer is the harvester, rising at dawn to pluck the fragrant blooms in their perfect moment. The writer is the worker, hoisting the sacks of rose petals (soft and fragrant, but bulky) into the truck, driving the truck to the distillery, spreading the petals onto the floor to reach the desired state, placing them into the still or alembic, and monitoring the progress of their transformation. 

I said, "all parts of the distillation process save one." That one is the transformative process itself, something that writers ~ and all of us ~ can set the stage for, but cannot do directly. This is something larger that holds us and distills us, makes of our own composted material (both in us and what we have written) an essence, refined out of the "lower nature" of our being. This transformation, which many of us devoutly seek, takes place in the heart, and changes our outlook, our centering, our contribution to the world and our own inner evolution.

We can certainly go through this distillation process without writing a book, ever. And yet writing a book from the deeper Self (which is what I teach and offer as book-development services) is one way to go through this distillation process.

The benefit? The "perfume" at the end is the book ~ and, who the writer has become in the course of writing the book.

And this is why I call Rose Press, "Books & Other Fragrant Offerings."

To see what treasures are available for you, go to the Rose Press website: http://www.rosepress.com/. We have books on the Creative Process; on Money & the Inner Life; and on Healing. And more than being "about" these subjects, they give the actual scent of healing, so that as a reader you come out fragrant. (And that is a very sweet thing.)