Skeleton Woman Story Part 3 Concentration

Part II Inuit Skeleton Woman Story as Metaphor for Creative Process:

Mindless or Mindful                                               

Website Gallery V: Da'at, Bridged

In the East, Mind is  a field of intelligence which includes the entire physical body. the word mind is used as distinct from brain. Mind, like nature is vessel of being.  Mindful is an engagement of  knowing, feeling and sensing beyond the five senses. It can also be an engagement of the unknown. Mindless is an automatic reaction rather than response, because the mind is not embodied.

To return to our story, of Skeleton Woman and how it relates to the creative process. The snagging the of treasure begins the roller-coaster chase of delight and terror, the classic theme and traditional myth of creativity. To stand in front of your painting or in front of a blank canvas with emotional presence is the opportunity to be transparent in this adventure. The ego will ask who is the most beautiful, the most grand, or even the worst, always making comparisons to others. The small self does not want to know about the full cycle of creation which includes destruction. No, the slightest whiff of Death sends even the bold of heart into panic. It is no accident that the Buddha, archetype of lucidity, was said to have been tested with images of terror. Often in painting circle, the shadow is the first edge to surface, dragging in tow frightening stories that  have been tucked out of circulation for years.

The part of us that we are least conscious of is the shadow. It is so fundamental that it is an aspect of every archetype. In painting circle I have seen how the shadow can shift an entire painting locked into conservative progression into the arms of the gambler who will throw it away in a moment bravado. Our most profound doubts of ourselves surfaces as we quickly project them elsewhere so that we can flee. Like the fisherman in the story who brings up the potential treasure, we don't recognize what we have snagged as we take off running.
 
A painter in one of my classes did very well in the engagement of the process, but then rejected the  final painting, and began taking techniques classes madly. She ran from the simple language that her soul offered because it was not what she expected. She returned eventually, however,  looking for the the lively images that she had discarded. Sooner or later, one must kiss the beast most feared. The fisherman is our model of entering into relation with Lady Death to find right order. To do this we must stop reacting in blind terror fueled by fears of the past and future.
 
To be present in the moment means to surrender: not  to abandon, give up or give away, but to trust deeply yourself, NOW. Eckhart Tolle says NOW is the only place  you can experience the flow of life, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is a place of acceptance, without judgment. Judgment strangles the creative process. You find quickly in process painting that when you are doing rather than being the life of  your painting slips through your fingers. In  the state of being you know immediately what needs attention. This painting process develops the 'muscle of being'.

Deena Metzger contrasts poem and story, describing poem as a penetration into the essence of something. A poem expresses the inexpressible. She says good poetry goes deeply. Jane Hirshfield says poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. This kind of intuitive painting, which embodies creative process is vertical in all its implications. Story and prose, Metzger says, spreads out, wanting to speak to the mind, to the intellect. The horizontal gathers information, technique, momentum, while the vertical is out side of time, it changes your life as participant. Poetry evokes, as does the process vertical creative process.

Skeleton Woman Story Part 2 Mindless or Mindful

Part II  Inuit Skeleton Woman Story as Metaphor for Creative Process:

Mindless or Mindful                                               

Website Gallery V: Da'at, Bridged

In the East, Mind is  a field of intelligence which includes the entire physical body. the word mind is used as distinct from brain. Mind, like nature is vessel of being.  Mindful is an engagement of  knowing, feeling and sensing beyond the five senses. It can also be an engagement of the unknown. Mindless is an automatic reaction rather than response, because the mind is not embodied.

To return to our story, of Skeleton Woman and how it relates to the creative process. The snagging the of treasure begins the roller-coaster chase of delight and terror, the classic theme and traditional myth of creativity. To stand in front of your painting or in front of a blank canvas with emotional presence is the opportunity to be transparent in this adventure. The ego will ask who is the most beautiful, the most grand, or even the worst, always making comparisons to others. The small self does not want to know about the full cycle of creation which includes destruction. No, the slightest whiff of Death sends even the bold of heart into panic. It is no accident that the Buddha, archetype of lucidity, was said to have been tested with images of terror. Often in painting circle, the shadow is the first edge to surface, dragging in tow frightening stories that  have been tucked out of circulation for years.

The part of us that we are least conscious of is the shadow. It is so fundamental that it is an aspect of every archetype. In painting circle I have seen how the shadow can shift an entire painting locked into conservative progression into the arms of the gambler who will throw it away in a moment bravado. Our most profound doubts of ourselves surfaces as we quickly project them elsewhere so that we can flee. Like the fisherman in the story who brings up the potential treasure, we don't recognize what we have snagged as we take off running.
 
A painter in one of my classes did very well in the engagement of the process, but then rejected the  final painting, and began taking techniques classes madly. She ran from the simple language that her soul offered because it was not what she expected. She returned eventually, however,  looking for the the lively images that she had discarded. Sooner or later, one must kiss the beast most feared. The fisherman is our model of entering into relation with Lady Death to find right order. To do this we must stop reacting in blind terror fueled by fears of the past and future.
 
To be present in the moment means to surrender: not  to abandon, give up or give away, but to trust deeply yourself, NOW. Eckhart Tolle says NOW is the only place  you can experience the flow of life, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is a place of acceptance, without judgment. Judgment strangles the creative process. You find quickly in process painting that when you are doing rather than being the life of  your painting slips through your fingers. In  the state of being you know immediately what needs attention. This painting process develops the 'muscle of being'.

Deena Metzger contrasts poem and story, describing poem as a penetration into the essence of something. A poem expresses the inexpressible. She says good poetry goes deeply. Jane Hirshfield says poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. This kind of intuitive painting, which embodies creative process is vertical in all its implications. Story and prose, Metzger says, spreads out, wanting to speak to the mind, to the intellect. The horizontal gathers information, technique, momentum, while the vertical is out side of time, it changes your life as participant. Poetry evokes, as does the process vertical creative process.

Skeleton Woman Story Part 1 Invitation

THE INVITATION, synchronicity, dreamtime & imagination

Part I: Inuit SKELETON WOMAN Story
                       as Metaphor of Creative Process

Website Gallery I:

An ancient Sufi adage says, Trinkets can be easily bought in the market place, but for treasures you must dive into the depths.

The treasure you receive from creative process is equal to your willingness to enter into the depths of the psyche. The portal into our essence demands the discipline of curiosity and wonderment of the unfolding images of our deep being. Like the fisherman in the story, (see Introduction to Story of Skeleton Woman) we are unaware that we do not know. Also like him, we are hungry for relationship to our creative self but may not recognize it as we search for a way to coast for a while. We think that we can play around, unaware of the profound journey that awaits us. There may be a ticket in our fist at this very moment, that must be paid for even though we have no idea of what or how or when we signed up for the ride.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes talks about three different attitudes in fairy tales of the one who happens on to treasure. The first is the seeker, who does not believe in the nurturing of the soul because of other priorities. Like the guest who politely indulged the celebrant by joining the painting group and dropped into an exquisite soul process and then wanted to continue painting instead of going to dinner.

The second attitude, like the fisherman, is that of the bumbler; the one who comes across treasure while hoping for something else. We have all been blindsided when our deepest desire sneaks upon us. We are just going to take one class. We have no intention of turning the hallway into an on-going mural, or the bathroom in to a darkroom. This was how I traveled to Japan seemingly by default. A journey that ended up being a turning point in my life.

The third is the sacred approach of the one who is looking for a path beyond the borders of what is known. Those that are looking for divine connection,  but not sensing perhaps the new demands that come along with it.  Luckily enough, however, whatever your attitude, the path of adventure is open to you. When you come upon accidental treasure it will propose choices that you could not have envisioned. Often synchronicities are the clues in the treasure map.


SYNCHRONICITY

The difference between coincidence and synchronicity is that the latter is related to our soul path.                                                                  David Richo

Happening on to a treasure is not an accident, but an act of destiny. And as with dreams, if it is not acknowledged, it can stick fast or return again and again, until you pay attention to it. If it is still ignored, calamity will be arranged. Carl Jung coined the word synchronicity, which brought articulation to a variety of experiences that are well integrated into Eastern philosophy, whereas in the West the same experiences have jockeyed between superstition and divine intervention. Most of the population of the world is aware of signs that speak guidance, warning, or send information for the soul. Synchronicity can be used as a powerful tool through journey of the physical world. The more conscious we are of synchronicity the more is appears and the more useful it is
       
DREAMTIME
 
Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing
                        There is a field    
                         I'll meet you there  

                                                                                                Rumi

Dreamtime is outside of psychological time.  Waking dreams, nighttime dreams, myths, the arts, or being present in the now are portals that offer access to the greater realm of existence. If existence means to stand out, then Dreamtime is what stands behind that. It is the background which becomes another kind of vessel. This other vessel, Dreamtime, is traditionally anchored in our cultures stories, traditions and mythological origins. It is the rich body of experience passed on through generations which gives value and understanding of relationship to each other, nature, and place. When a culture is lacking that resource they will borrow or create it through popular culture. For lack of this resource there is a current movement to work the edge of the much needed evolution of our civilization by creating a feminine power model. Others, like Andrew Cohen, are extending the traditional model of spiritual enlightenment to include social evolutionary edge. What Dreamtime do you function from?

IMAGINATION

The soul journey requires the constant use of imagination...

for without imagination, there are no relationships, no
creativity and no soul.

                                                                  Andrew Scheider

Imagination is an essential aspect of knowing the world, inner as much as outer. Of the four aspects of learning, our culture tends to value thinking above imagination, sensing and feeling. All four are critical to a balanced function for learning about our place in the world. Imagination is necessary to access and retrieve images. Our ego function is confused by imagination, especially when it is not honored in the culture.

Images from Dreamtime are the language of the soul. If you have spent time with your nighttime dreams, events in life that feel like waking dreams, synchronicities or images that spontaneous emerge from writing or visual arts activities, you know that what seems bizarre and ridiculous at first, always has some kind of pertinent guidance. I don't mean wrenching out some far fetched message, but an actual body 'aha' will arise that makes a difference in daily perceptions. The Universe is constantly in dialogue with us. One way of understanding metaphoric language is to imagine that all parts of the dream, poem, Skeleton Woman story are aspects of ones self. Often the role of the soul is personified helping us to experience our innate wholeness.

Introduction of Skeleton Woman Story as Creative Process

 SKELETON WOMAN:

Creative Process as Riding Life's Cycles 
                                                   

Corselet of Death

The archetype of Deathin our culture is often perceived as destrction, the end of something. Another interpretation, however, is that life follows death in a cycles. It is really the cycle of life/death/life, as it is in nature, the process of creativity. 

Lady Death is the elemental feminine nature which demands our 'instinctual  participation' in the only story there is, the story of Life. In the Skeleton Women story she is the disused and misused Life/Death/Life force. In her vital and resurrected form, she governs the intuitive and emotive ability to complete the life cycles of birthing and dying, grieving and celebration....She can tell when it is time for a place, a thing, an act, a group, or a relationship to die..." She knows of endings and beginnings of life.
 
In the Inuit story of Skeleton Woman, a young woman has been thrown into the sea by her father, and in time has turned into a tangle mess of bones. She is hooked by a fisherman who thinks that he has caught a great fish. When he turns back from his net into her mossy bald skull terrified he starts out paddling for his life, he hits land, running until he reaches his village. Clutching his fishing pole the whole way he hears her at his heels. When he finally dives into his snowhouse he thinks that he is safe at last. But as he lights his lamp he sees that he has brought her home with him.

As he gets over his fright, for some reason in the soft ight, he begins to set her bones in order and wraps her in warm furs singing as he works. He crawls into his sleeping furs and falls asleep. In the night, she comes close to him to drink his one glistening tear to satisfy her many years of thirst. She then reaches into his chest taking the drum of his heart to sing on her flesh, and "all the other things that a women needs". She returns his heart, undresses him and joins him as men and women do. They spend the night together and it is said that they were prosperous and happy together all their living days.

The enormous misunderstanding of our civilization is that DEATH is not followed by more DEATH, but by LIFE!! This understanding changes the way we look at everything beginning with polarity.

Skeleton Woman story is an invitation to resurrect your creative self inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jungian analyst and storyteller, I believe corresponds to aspects of Transformational Painting or any other creative process.

Introduction of the Inuit Story of Skeleton Woman as Model for Creative Process: riding life's cycles 

Part I The Invitation: synchronicity, dreamtime & imagination

Signing up to paint. 

Part II Initiation: mindless or mindfulnness

Process throughout.
Part III Concentration: authenticity & creativity
The Painting.
Part IV Undefended Love: surrender
Release the past patterns.

Part V Transformation through Emotional Presence: transmutation & synergy 
Deep engagement
Part VI Calling Forth Heart: Developing a new center  
Fleshing-out your wholeness
Part VII Alchemy of Spirit: Spirit & Material Dance
Recognizing the Journey

As the Tibetian Buddhist say, we are here to practice transcendence and if we do not take the everyday opportunity to meet our small deaths we will not be prepared for the journey of our birth out of physical life. I encourage you like the fisherman in the story, to align the scrambled structure that supports feminine creativity and let her have her way with you by initiating you into the true cycle of Life, which is the cycle of Birth/Death/Birth.