Ahhh ... the ever evolving image. The birth of today's blog actually began a few week's back in the January 27th posting of “Message in a Bottle.” In that post, I invited followers to tell what messages in the bottles were waiting for them as well as which character was offering the message. Mind you, I'd made the collage YEARS ago, but on this particular occasion, as is often the case, a student saw something in a way I'd never even seen, much less pondered. And one that opened up an entirely new world for me. It was in the image of the Shaman standing on the Bottle with the Shadow Man behind it:
What's funny is that as soon as I began to see the image through the filter of the spilled Shadow Man, the Shaman, who'd always looked terse to me, began to speak, saying tersely: "Don't right this. Let it spill."
Huh? What? Let all those dark, gooey, uncomfortable emotions and things spill out? Not tidying them up, stuffing them neatly back in the bottle? What good could possibly come of that? Naturally, I wanted to go more deeply into the concept, and so assigned myself an exercise I often give students - doing a simple line drawing of an image that holds particular intrigue, coming up with this:
Huh? What? Let all those dark, gooey, uncomfortable emotions and things spill out? Not tidying them up, stuffing them neatly back in the bottle? What good could possibly come of that? Naturally, I wanted to go more deeply into the concept, and so assigned myself an exercise I often give students - doing a simple line drawing of an image that holds particular intrigue, coming up with this:
And as soon as I saw -that- image, I realized that my Shadow Man wasn't merely a shadow man, he'd become the archetype of a Genie rising out of the bottle! But here's where the story -really- gets interesting. Remember how I'd made the initial collage YEARS ago? As I was drawing and journaling about the Dark Genie, as he'd now become in my mind, I glanced down at my most recent collage, the one I'd made just last week, and who should be on it? You guessed it, the Dark Genie himself, all dark and muscular with the same shaved head working his blue, bubbling magic:
Which speaks of the ever evolving nature of images. The questions I could ask myself now would be:
1.) Why has the Dark Genie appeared in my life?
2.) What "dark" qualities is he composed of?
3.) From what does he get his Power?
4.) What in my life is asking to -not- be righted?
5.) What in my life is ready, aching to be spilled?
6.) Am I ready to let it spill?
7.) How can I most be present with myself in the chaos (as seen by the disheveled laboratory) that will most likely naturally ensue?
These are some of the questions and journaling prompts I could pull from the Dark Genie image. What are some questions and prompts that YOU see?
1.) Why has the Dark Genie appeared in my life?
2.) What "dark" qualities is he composed of?
3.) From what does he get his Power?
4.) What in my life is asking to -not- be righted?
5.) What in my life is ready, aching to be spilled?
6.) Am I ready to let it spill?
7.) How can I most be present with myself in the chaos (as seen by the disheveled laboratory) that will most likely naturally ensue?
These are some of the questions and journaling prompts I could pull from the Dark Genie image. What are some questions and prompts that YOU see?
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