| | |
 | "Drawing the Map" | |
"Invention.... does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; Mary Shelly: |
| That person's experience did not just arrive like a bolt out of the blue. He had prepared the ground for it to happen. He had spent time in exploring his own personality, examining his inner life. His own defences prevented him from seeing the problem because he was looking for the problem from inside of it. But he was ready for change. It was triggered by someone's act of kindness towards him when he was at a low ebb. His receptiveness allowed that kind act to penetrate his shell, and shatter it. As he told me of it, it was plain to see that it had left him quite shaken up. He said that he was in a daze for several days afterwards, only coming to terms with the fact that he had been 'wrong' in his thinking, by stepping outside of the event and seeing it in mythic terms. He said, that if he had not been able to encapsulate his epiphany in naming it as his release from the Lightning Struck Tower, he might well have proceeded to analyse it out of existence; his intellect rationalising his resumption of previous habitual behaviour. |
| Emotional experiences like this can overwhelm the intellect at a time when its support is most required. By recording it in his journal, as it happened, he was able to take it on board, without making it conditional, yet still behaving in a rational manner. In his quest for a solution to a major block in his life, he was already working towards it. The node was not some magical shroud that dropped around his shoulders. He created it. His friend helped him through it. These experiences are curative in their nature, but they are strong medicine. Euphoria is heady stuff. There is always the temptation to stay within the node instead of working through it to come out by a different way from which one entered. One must accept the event, and get on with it. It is not a singular experience, a stage like turning from a pupae to a butterfly. Not a stage in one's development, but an expansion of it. To stay too long in the node is to run the ever imminent risk of emotional burnout. Or forget that your purpose is to travel through it. It should be noted that that reported experience was the end result of a lot of hard work in preparing the ground for it to happen. It was intended that something of a traumatic nature would be the outcome. They are seldom of a spontaneous nature. Such traumatic changes as that are not to be taken lightly, or on a regular basis. It can be a case of being careful what you wish for. Your birthday could arrive before you are ready for it. |
It is vital that you make note of two very important points.
|
| In taking our written description of events and giving them place names, out of the journal and onto to a map, we acknowledge them as having a reality. The map offers a greater authenticity than one gets from flicking through pages of the written word. Furthermore, in actually drawing a graphical map, a series of pictures to illustrate our questing, we can draw in place names then work towards the experience that we consider as being of use to us. How many of us come to the conclusion that we need time out in which to consider our future actions in the common reality, yet hear us tell ourselves and others that we will relax when we have time for it. So draw such a place on your map. Call it "Isolation Island". You now have a definite, defined goal to work towards. Place your own, personal map where you will frequently notice it, and see the effect that it has on your mind. Although very useful in providing a ready made backbone for a map, the way stations of the Tarot are not the only source of inspiration. Invent your own place names. Ones that resonate for you. That call up mental images. |
| Bogged down with an enterprise that is going nowhere, and has no prospects of going anywhere, but which has swallowed your investment of time, money and effort? Hard to just drop it. So draw a place and give it a name such as the "Scree of Despondency." See the situation for what it is, then walk away from it. Struggling to quit smoking? Draw for yourself "The Spring of Life". Stay close to it. Allow its image to work on you. Have you suffered a personal loss, and find that you cannot get past it? May I suggest "The Pool of Sadness"? Set yourself the task of draining it. The Names of the Images are only limited by your imagination, or your reading. "Anger Volcano". See your anger for what it is. Do something about it. Stop acting as though your happiness is the daily sacrifice that it requires. "The Heights of Hope" from which one can get a great view, but a place to have care as to where you step. Look where you are going. Need to get some organisation in your life? Spending too much time in "The Maze of Confusion"? Or the "Pleasure Dome"? Or in any other areas where you do not need to be at that time? Our racial memories respond to place names. Caves, Gnarled Trees, Mirrors, Lakes, Mountains and Valleys. Caverns and catacombs. Chess pieces, shields, castles and monsters. They live in our works of art. Great paintings, operas, ballets, our literature and our dreams. Use them. Bring a mythic quality to your life. |