PAINTING into the EMERGING COSMIC MYTH:
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| Majio The Bridge, Da'at |
We are living in a time of unprecedented potential to expand our understandings of ourselves through our relationship to the Universe from which we have emerged. Unprecedented, as the frontiers of science push closer and closer to the origin of our Universe, the human race also presses to understand its own ontological experience in relation to the newly revealed universal principles and the obvious responsibility we must claim for our planet. It is a time of great change, and opportunity, as well as uncertainty, which demands a corresponding reconsideration of our dominant myths. The new mythology must encompass a much more complex array of confirmed facts and information, and yet deliver the fundamental benefit always provided to society through core myths. It must accommodate a 13 billion-year-old Universe, 13 trillion galaxies, the role of quantum physics, a ravaging technological environment, with the meaning of human existence, love, and the human spirit. This is the challenge before us all, and the goal of Studio Anavami is to begin to bridge the gap separating old stories from the new through the creative process. How do we propose to do that?
All of us, including the participants in the ongoing Transformational Painting Circles, feel this is a critical time for our planet. We have used the studio creative process to understand and project into the new frontier of growth our old and familiar archetypes and now long for a theme that we can really sink our teeth into, both in terms of our daily life and in terms of understanding what is going on in the world.
The old metaphor of being at a crossroads has changed from a choice of paths to fleeing the raging fire we have set at our backs. Like tribesmen rushing toward a broad and churning river, we are forced to consider an unfamiliar and threatening challenge in which we have no experience. We must be willing to discard our old and ineffective tools, and adopt new perspectives and knowledge, in order to cross the river. Perspectives can be changed at the individual level by confronting the new element and learning to swim, at the group level by constructing vessels, or at the level of society by constructing a bridge or device to crossover. It is important to consider our own individual predispositions and expertise in order to make the best possible contribution to this process. We are nearing the chrysalis stage, where neither the caterpillar nor the butterfly is recognizable. We can see little in our history to explain or understand the function of this metamorphous. Our traditional geocentric or earth-centered coordinates can no longer guide us as citizens of the cosmos. A greater cosmological order of the Universe is being revealed in the new orientation on the other shore.
At Anavami center we had a rich and lasting experience in the yearlong seminar with Susan Heinz on the Qabalah, which was evident in the exhibition at the Dascom Building. We celebrated the culmination of our eleven large paintings by each creating an art piece: book, shrine, installation, screen or sculpture incorporating the images that emerged from our own journeys. It was immensely satisfying in terms of experience and also the resulting art pieces. Many artists who saw the work wanted to know how the participants produced the body of work. Most of them were not academically trained in art, but each reflected an incredible vitality, individual approach and intrinsic meaningfulness. There is a yearning present across-the-board for a greater vision, one that has synchronistically arrived both at my door step. . .and now yours.
My understanding, experience and even definition of art was radically reshaped through my apprenticeship experience in Japan where artisans embody art as spiritual practice, as a discipline that aligns with James Joyce’s idea that anything that brings you to the center of your being is art. As a visual artist I have found creative process a means of reaching those far shores which demand a fierce imagination, where common sense and intuition, if they are tied to past experience, can only narrow the vision. It requires a transformation of perspective as jarring as the Copernican revolution, displacing the Earth as the center of the Universe. The thrust of our work is to bring all of the creative arts to bear on this transition, to promote the growth of human potential, to broaden human vision, and to spark insight, passion, and intuition.
I worked with Pamela Eakins in the Fool’s Journey, prior to my experience with Susan Heinz, and met Brian Swimme in my graduate studies at Naropa campus in Oakland. When I later sat together with the two of them as they talked about working together, I was thrilled to the core to understand how their ideas dovetailed with those of Joseph Campbell to re-myth the world. Brian Swimme has produced DVDs and books on Journey of the Universe and Powers of the Universe and Pamela Eakins’ will soon be publishing The Lightning Papers.
In the meantime, Rev. Pamela Wylie, Cosmological Mythologist, has created her own work that focuses on the heart of the evolutionary intelligence of the universe, the relationship between the evolving cosmological sciences of our times, and the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions. Pamela’s work is based on her collaboration and studies with Visionary Cosmologist Pamela Eakins Ph.D. Pamela Wylie will be offering two yearlong groups in Santa Cruz in 2012. One in Painting Seminar Format is a talk each month by Pamela, and in conjunction with Anavami Center, the ideas will be explored with small groups through paintings -- please come to the first talk on January 3rd RSVP for directions. The second one, The Emerging Cosmic Myth of Our Time is more of an in-depth study of the Ten Cosmic Spheres of Time and how they connect to the Ancient Mystery School’s text and inform our daily lives. Invitational speakers will participate once the foundational principles are established. Talk and Art Participation Series will take place at Art Space Tannery in Santa Cruz. Ellen O’Hanlon and I will support this experience with an experiential theater component beginning in early spring with informal events from January.
Director of Anavami Center Majio
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| Majio Far Shore |
Rev Pamela Wylie, Cosmological Mythologist, began her journey into the symbolic languages and mysteries of Universe under the direction of sociologist and visionary cosmologist Pamela Eakins Ph. D. at the Pacific Center western mystery school in 1994. Pamela holds the degree of Qabalah Master with a focus on the unfolding cosmology expressed in this ancient tradition. She is completing her degree in Visionary Cosmology and will be the first graduate as well as a contributor to the Pamela Eakins Pacific Center for Visionary Cosmology.
Ellen O’Hanlon, is an artist and has a 16 year private practice as a holistic health practitioner, transpersonal hypnotherapist, with a background in modern dance at both Hunter College and Cooper Union in New York City.
Resources for this work:
Through the painting process we experienced, as in the story, the constant need for commitment, adjustment and surrender which arises continually in the creative process. We were introduced to the concept of makeweight from a quote by Carl Jung where he talks about what is at stake now for the modern individual and asks if he or she knows that they are the makeweight that will tip the scale,which will make the difference to avoid catastrophe. 
This kind of painting arises from seeking personal expansion of awareness and meaning making, from a position of being. The discipline is to stay out of doing; it is not about making a product but more like a journal on a pilgrimage. And as in dream group work each persons contributions becomes a part of the journey andas their images and stories weave into our own. It reminds me of what happens when a painting is so personal and potent that I can not see it in terms of aesthetics. It is interesting to note that a few individuals independent from each other have mentioned that they feel that their appreciation of art dramatically changed as they engage this painting process, feeling more response from the body in a way that connects and makes sense on a personal level.
