Labyrinth Dreams

// November 24th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Labyrinths, metaphor

One of the great side effects of immersing myself in studying, painting and walking labyrinths all this month is that they’ve begun to seep into my dreams.

I’m reading an amazing book called ‘Dancing at the Edge of Death’ by Jodi Lorimer, which traces the origins of the labyrinth back to the Paleolithic era. It’s an engrossing book and has me viewing labyrinths in an entirely different light.

Part of the reason I’m drawn to them is that sense of power the symbol holds, and walking along that symbol can be a charged experience. But to hear about the depth of the labyrinth’s history and it’s connection to the birth of metaphoric thinking in humans is breathtaking.

In my dream the labyrinths weren’t on the ground, they were small phosporescent forms floating around the heads of the people I was with. That’s the image I played with for today’s Art Every Day Month offering.

Red Dragonfly

// November 22nd, 2010 // 5 Comments » // labyrinth picture, Labyrinths, metaphor

I used to belong to a writing group a few years ago, and our main focus was on exploring emotional issues through metaphor, story, and poetry.

One day in response to the writing prompt I wrote a piece about an experience I had with a dragonfly.

I found out later that some cultures saw dragonflies as messengers between worlds.

That dragonfly quality seems to be a nice fit with the labyrinth, which also serves as a conduit between worlds: the inner and outer worlds, intuitive and rational, prehistoric and modern.

Or maybe it’s the walker who takes on the dragonfly quality of being the messenger between worlds, and the labyrinth is the field in which this occurs.

Hhmmm.

6 Impossible Things: #5 Dream Boat

// April 9th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // creativity, curiosity, illustration

Creativity is a non-linear process. We start out at Point A and end up at Point C, or Point Q, or any other point that happens to not be called Point B.

This is because, on the way from Point A to Point B , impossible things happen that steer us away from our original endpoint and onto fresher, shinier, more startling destinations.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with Point B as a destination, just that the creative way to get there probably starts at Point W, or some other ‘non-A’ point.

Anyway the point is: a key feature of the creative life is that seemingly impossible things occur along the way that really kick things along, but only make sense in retrospect.

This is a series of posts presenting 6 impossible analogies for these ‘things’

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6 Impossible Things: #5 Dream Boat

How do we get the rational and intuitive parts of our mind to work together? Here’s one possibility:

A small boat carries you across a dimly lit river that flows at the base of a cave. Images appear: some stay solid, some shift. As the small vessel makes its way across the river you watch these images, remembering. Each image contains something of importance. Each image is a small star, its unique light offering a glimpse into your inner-world.

You can use the rational mind to build a boat for dream-travel. Write down one or two brief questions in a notebook you keep by the bedside. Allow your dreaming mind to  work for you. When you wake up jot down any images you can remember from your dreams, and look at them through the lens of your questions.