How's That Metamorphosis Working Out? Kinda Slow...

Not long ago, I bought a Christmas ornament at a local thrift store - it cost 50 cents or something like that... I thought it was a cute little handcrafted piece and, after fixing a couple of things that were loose, I decided it needed to be radically altered into something more personal, so I changed the kitty's color to match my little black cat Nancy who passed away this past April.

Before transformation...

Although she's no longer here in the physical world, she's still with me in spirit. I miss you, Cat.

...and after - voila! Happy Holidays, sweet Nancy

Here's the back-side (the pads were pink)

The Path of Transformation

Technically speaking, the process of transformation occurs in three stages, according to the ageless wisdom. The terms used to describe these progressive stages of unfoldment are: transmutation, transformation, and transfiguration. Lifetimes are required to complete the metamorphosis that culminates at the stage of transfiguration, when the light of the Soul pours down upon the outer persona and changes it — permanently.
Those who have approached this stage on the Path depict the process as a harrowing one, portraying an experience that is light-years apart from popular notions of the spiritual path.  In advertisements for books, workshops and conferences, the quest is often portrayed as an exciting travel adventure that can be made luxuriously comfortable and pleasurable. “In actuality,” as we wrote in When the Soul Awakens, “the spiritual path is never pleasant or comfortable, though joy is surely among its ultimate rewards.” 
What makes the process painful is the “task” at its core: blending spirit and matter. To forge a state of unity out of this exteme polarity, that which is of a material nature must be purified and refined in order to fuse with that which is spiritual. The divine spark immersed in matter, the “unit of consciousness” that is a soul, incarnates repeatedly in a threefold form — or personality — to grow in and through material plane experience. As a result of untold lifetimes of experience, a mysterious spiritual alchemy occurs in which the lower self or persona (sometimes called the human soul) becomes vaguely aware of its higher counterpart — the higher Self (also called the spiritual soul, the soul on its own plane). When this awareness reaches a certain kindling point, awakening occurs. Not long thereafter, a seeker of light is born.
 
(Source: http://whenthesoulawakens.org )

Yet another concept for me to wrap my mind around! In a future posting, I'll share my musings about how I imagine Nancy's "transfiguration" process is going... anything's possible, I suppose!