"Turn lead into gold," was the bumper sticker of medieval alchemy, which was a mixture of science, philosophy and mysticism. At the heart of the discipline was the idea that any substance could be created by properly combining the four elements (air, earth, fire, and water). But the holy grail of alchemy was to transmute common substances into gold. Spiritual alchemy is the process of transmuting your energy, including your energetic blocks, into spiritual gold.
Transmutation differs from transformation in that there is an internal evolution or a fundamental restructuring of the core essence or identity of an energy or blockage. Transformation is the difference between ice, liquid water, and steam. They are the same substance, just in different forms—variations on a theme, so to speak. Transmutation, on the other hand, is the difference between lead and gold. It brings something completely different into existence.
If you find yourself believing you've changed and moved beyond a block in your life only to have it resurface in certain situations, this is a good indicator that you may have only managed to transform the issue. Just like water, the form your block takes will depend on your "temperature" so to speak. To truly remove a block, alchemize it—or more accurately, alchemize your consciousness and identity around it.