The following article describes the interplay of self-knowledge and relational knowing in the co-creation of the classroom "temenos." A nurturing classroom temenos is a particular quality of relational space which may be experienced by students as a place where they are safe, seen, heard and accepted. The greater temenos of the classroom is shaped and informed by teachers' cultivation of their own "inner temenos" through mindful practices which can help build capacity for relationship. In this article I borrow alchemical language and processes to describe my experience of the relational temenos. I use select personal narratives and two key symbolic images to describe how this embodied knowledge of self and other might allow students and teachers to become more fully themselves. I suggest that it is in this invisible but existent intersubjective space or "innermost layer" (Aoki, 1992, p. 20) of teaching where the potential for transformation and future well-being might be found.