Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Shape of My Brain



I love maps, diagrams and charts, family trees, architectural drawings, diagrammed sentences, anatomical drawings. I love sigils and symbols, too. My brain "gets" the interconnectedness of things and events so much more fully when I see a picture that includes shapes with lines to indicate where the connections occur, and arrows to indicate direction. So it makes sense that when I receive a lot of intuitive information all at once, my tendency is to draw a chart of what's coming to me.

When I began doing Feri initiations, I received the shape of the ritual fully formed, as a picture. I filled two sketchbooks with drawings, a process that helped me understand at a fundamental level the energy of the ritual.

Schematics are also very helpful when I need healing. During a very bitter romantic breakup, I drew stylized caduceuses as a way to document the break as well as my recovery from it. When a Reclaiming community I had been a part of kicked me out, I drew a mandala evey day for six months as a way to process the exile. It really helped.

This summer I'm at it again, this time I'm intuiting the essential shape of a ritual for soul retrieval. Wary as I am of magic, I figure it can't hurt to sit around doing these drawings. The skills I'm learning aren't harmful either, such as learning how to use a drum to connect with the heartbeat of the earth. What's wrong with that? I've hooked up with some animal guides - never a bad thing, is it? - and have travelled widely in the imaginal realm, learning many wonderful, helpful tidbits. It's quite likely I will never put it all together, which is fine by me. I don't really want to be doing this kind of work. Conjuring tends to bind me. The spiritual path I love best is all about letting go of shaping energy in order to allow a pure and formless ray of divine reality to gently touch my heart.

But the information is arriving on a daily basis, so I'm taking it in with gratitude and appreciation, learning, and drawing the shape over and over. So far I've filled one very thick sketchbook with this shape, and have drawn very large and complicated versions on butcher paper, too.

Because people expressed interest in seeing the schematics, below are a few versions. The ritual is a dance that includes linking to the Pole Star, plunging down to the underworld (like bungee jumping - whee!!), retrieving something then getting the hell outta hell as fast as possible. (When I was a little kid, sometimes I had that feeling coming upstairs from the basement, as if something was chasing me.)

Next it's up to the upper world so that the beneficent beings up there can heal what was missing, re-ensoul the missing link, and fill the work with divine light and wisdom. The ritual ends with a gentle landing on the earth plane.

I know, I know!, kind of crazy sounding, isn't it? Oh well. Call it performance art, or a spiritual calling, or just plain nuts. Mea culpa.

13 comments:

lacochran's evil twin said...

They're graceful. Musical.

Looks a bit tricky, though. Take care to keep your own energy strong.

Squirrel said...

You forgot to say you love those the ubiquitous Tibetan Prayer Flags! Your post on them inspired me to post some. They're everywhere and yet I never did a post on them.

I too love diagrams and maps, when I was a kid, the gift of a map would keep me happily dreaming for hours. Data + theories + energy = these schematics.

I love it.

Barbara said...

Sort of reminds me of a very complicated roller coaster, which also combines fear and exhilaration. hang on tight and make sure your seat belt is buckled! It could be the ride of a lifetime.

Merle Sneed said...

Very nice, Reya.

Reya Mellicker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Reya Mellicker said...

Merle? You liked it? Wow I am so honored. (Merle is the Voice of Reason, he really is.)

lachochran! Take care to keep your own energy strong, is exactly what my spirit guides have advised me to do. That's why they're teaching me how to strengthen the soul as well as the "throne" of the soul. The acupuncture is also extremely centering and strengthening.

There's nothing about anything I'm learning that's bad. I'm wary about doing magic because it hasn't been so good for me in the past. I tend to get energetically bound up when I conjure. It's best when I keep my spiritual life very simple, opening my heart through prayer so that a ray of unformed divine reality might shine mystery into my heart.

Squirrel that's so cool about the prayer flags. We've had much more wind here than usual. I think the windhorse is more likely to visit when there are prayer flags around. Have you had more summer wind than usual?

This ritual/roller coaster (thanks Barbara) is ornate. But it's all good so far.

Deborah said...

the man who mapped the connections of the people in this administration had the giant drawings confiscated by the CIA or FBI or NSA or some such--those are the ones that always got to me and Venn (sp?) diagrams and the sentence parcing too

What really moves me, however is generation of shapes around a point or line which creates a three dimensional shape--your's are moving too fast for me
and
I spent days taking things like a coffee cup and swinging it around a straight line and then describing the resulting object--where it would be hollow, where solid--door knobs are really fun too

These are kind of 3-D and I keep trying to swing them through space to see what DNA solids would come

LOVE YOU

Steve Reed said...

Reya, you could FRAME those. They're beautiful!

(I'm a map/diagram/graphic kind of person too. I used to read maps for fun as a kid. :) )

Reya Mellicker said...

Deborah! Wow that is so right! I'll post the diagrams on the wack so you can study them.

I was planning to draw the shape in chalk on the sidewalk so I could follow its path as if it were a labyrinth, but it is 3-D and vertically oriented, so I ditched that idea.

Today I'm reading about centrifugal and centripital force, the "fictitious" forces that would be so central to this ritual.

Thanks, Steve! Map nerds unite! We could all sit around a table and study maps together. Honestly, that sounds fun to me!

Moonroot said...

Wow - these are both fascinating and beautiful. I think they would make a great topic for discussing over our raspberry vodkas!

Unknown said...

I love the flow of the lines, the sense of journeying - and the colours are so special too. Fascinating.

Lynne said...

wow, those are way cool! beautiful! very artistic!

Anonymous said...

I'm working on a diagram for a tunnel.