The Enchanted Loom

I feel moved to post this email from an amazing woman who heard me on the radio last fall. Her metaphoric images are full of spirited life, and I love her image of the culture being in the “neti-neti” stage of childbirth: “We are ‘not here nor there’ but somewhere in-between. Neti-neti is a time when the mother must relinquish her own boundaries and lose herself, becoming a semi-permeable membrane that will allow the spirit of the child to emerge.”

I also love her notion that the human collective imagination is pregnant with “as yet unarticulated” new metaphors. It speaks to the workshop I’ll be doing at Esalen next March on creative process and social change, which feels “pregnant” as well!

 

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hi kim,

i don’t usually post comments on blogs …
but i couldn’t resist responding to your work.

i hope that teachers continue to lean toward the sort of enlivening inspiration and support you offer::
i spent much of my parenting energy ensuring that my children received creative educations and now their adult work reflects that beautifully::

but i wanted to let you know how delighted i was to encounter a kindred spirit when i heard your interview on the radio::

as you described your creative “languaging” of the concept of “aesthetic space” i was reminded of a workshop i took back in 1986 with Hugh Redmond at the ATP Conference, a workshop in teaching Transpersonal Psychology::

he suggested that one should not be averse to allowing silences in the classroom:: and suggested that rather than lecturing or attempting to “fill in” all the space available:: (the fifty minute hour?):: that instead we allow for the “place of ‘I DON”T KNOW’ ” in order for something new to possibly emerge:: also reminds me of the Jungian notion that when the tension of the opposites is held, the previously unimagined third can emerge::

SO, happy to hear that you are bringing this work into the mainstream of readers as well as teachers, and beyond the academic world of psychology

to use a metaphor, this cultural time reminds me of the “transition” stage experienced during child birth ::
the stage that is “neti-neti“, not here, not there ::
when the mother must relinguish her own boundaries, lose herself, become a semi-permeable membrane to allow the spirit of the child to emerge :: trusting that she will reassemble after the birthing process (although that may take 18 years or so ) ::

so, it seems that now especially the human collective imagination is pregnant with “as yet un-articulated” metaphors that resonate with what we are already experiencing ::
again, I’m not involved in the world anymore, I’m “doing a Sister Wendy”
in terms of living a necessarily quiet solitary life but I will share with you my
“KEY” Symbols ::

always numinous and luminous dream themes ::
Weaving Looms and Harps ::
in some dreams they are conflated :: a loom that sings or a warehouse full of looms that weave by day but are transformed into harps for playing music every evening :: beautiful creative images that always fill my heart with gratitude :: in response to these images, i “literalized” them for a time, learning to weave and play a Celtic Lap Harp :: both my loom and harp were handmade of cherry wood (a completely serendipitous similarity) ::

i have passed on the artifacts but the images stay with me ::

last night I began reading Diane Ackerman’s book, An Alchemy of Mind and was delighted to see her chapter titled, “The Enchanted Loom” :: that phrase resonated with the “tone” I receive from my Imaginal Loom/Harps and so I decided to respond to your blog query today but in an email, not a post ::

merely to “resonate” with you …
Ackerman begins the chapter with this quote from Sir Charles Sherrington‘s – Man on His Nature ::

“… an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern,
always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of sub-patterns.”

Blessings on your Work/Weaving,
May your shuttles keep flashing !

 

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Isn’t that a cool letter? Here is the link for my workshop at Esalen on creative process and social change: http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/9329

Happy Weaving!

Best, Kim