Whats in a Name?

Please Note: Since the writing of this article, Alchemy has evolved and expanded into Magic and Medicine. The focus of my business has become Spiritual, holistic coaching, instead of naturopathy.

Words have power, names conjure up images and associations. So when it came time to think of a name for my holistic health clinic, I thought long and hard.  Do I use just one word? Several? What would stand out and yet be easy to remember? What name would capture all that I wanted to convey?  

In the end I settled on Alchemy, and here is the reason why.   Centuries ago, Alchemy was the study and philosophy of taking basic metals, plants etc and trying to transform them into other substances like gold or the elixir of immortality.   Sounds pretty amazing right?

When a client comes into my clinic, the client and I work together to under go our own alchemical journey.  We talk through a comprehensive questionnaire covering areas such as current health, lifestyle, nutrition, past health in order to understand the clients holistic health picture.  Much like the old practice of alchemy, we then take these core lifestyle components and build upon them to come up with a wellness plan that helps to transform the clients health.  

The logo for alchemy clinic, was something I played around with as a student studying naturopathy and herbal medicine.  I came upon the image of the caduceus (a symbol used in medical fields in the US) and after playing around I had an image, that to me, showed both medicine and healing plants.  The image I designed had the staff shown as a tree trunk with roots going into the ground, to symbolise the importance of grounding and stability.  This tree trunk is  topped with a fungi, Amanita muscaria.  This mushroom though poisonous when eaten fresh, has been used in ancient times for healing and expansion of the mind and consciousness (please do not take this symbol as a the clinics endorsement for consuming poisonous plants).  The two snakes entwining the tree are ancient symbols of knowledge.  The wings of the caduceus have been replaced with leaves to symbolise the healing power of plants.  

I later learned the caduceus was also a symbol of Hermes, a god from greek mythology, who was the messenger of the gods of Olympus and the bringer of information/wisdom to mortal man.   This ties in nicely as one of the main principals of naturopathy is that the role of the naturopath is to help educate the client so that they may take responsibility for their own health. Hermes was strongly linked to ancient alchemy writings and symbolism, another reason my reworked Caduceus was used as my logo.