Best Protection is No Protection – Stage Two of Alchemy

Acrylic on Canvas, 30″ x 24″

In Stage Two of the Nine Stages of Alchemy, we become so good in ourselves that we no longer need to protect. We say: “The best protection is no protection.”

This is the stage of removing the armor, of finally setting down the protections you built after being hurt. Armor only ever comes from one place, a wound, a moment that taught you never again, and every layer added after that builds a fortress that eventually keeps everything out, the pain you were avoiding and the love and aliveness you actually wanted in.

In this painting, one figure stands in the crosshairs and doesn’t care! The figure is dancing free, untouched by the aim, rendered in the perfect gold of Alchemy itself, while another sits below in meditation, undefended, holding the field, having already set the armor down because neither of them needs it anymore.

The color moves softly throughout, shifting as your eye travels, nothing fixed, nothing rigid.

Jaye painted that quiet strength, the freedom of a heart that doesn’t need protecting anymore.

The Contemplation: Sit with the piece and notice what armor you might be ready to set down. Ask what it would feel like to trust that you no longer need it, the way the figure above does.