The
Living Calendar
1 Imagine a cage with a
calendar inside. Why is it there? Attempt to remove the calendar from the cage.
What happens?
2 Once you have the
calendar in your hands, take note of your surroundings for the first time. What
is this place? You see someone who is painting over surfaces here. Describe
this scene. What are they painting and why? What else is going on here?
3 Find a spot to stop
and examine the calendar. Describe this calendar and what it contains.
4 Now, you are going to
plant the calendar in the ground as if it were a seed. Choose a spot, dig hole
and place the calendar in the ground. From the calendar grows a portal tree.
The leaves of this tree are like portals, and to stand in the presence of this
tree is to feel transported. This is a slow growing tree. Over time, continue
to return to this spot to revisit the tree. Describe this tree and why you keep
revisiting it over the years.
5 Years later, once the
tree has become fully grown, you visit it and discover that it has produced
fruit: new calendars. Picking one of these, sit down in the shade of the portal
tree and begin reading through this new calendar. Describe the new calendar and
what it contains. This time instead of just reading it, you edit and rewrite
some of the things you see here.
6 As you are sitting
under the portal tree, reshaping the calendar to adjust its focus, someone
approaches and joins you. Who are they? Read them the new calendar. How do they
respond? Give them the calendar, passing possession of it on to them. What do
they do with it?
7 The next time you
return to the tree you find it has fallen and become uprooted, giving way to
some kind of opening that you can literally pass through. You have a sense that
if you go through this opening, your memories of past experiences that were key
triggers in shaping who you are today will be erased. That being said, describe
this opening and why you ultimately decide to go through it. What kind of
experience do you have going through it? What kind of environment do you find
on the other side?
8 Within this environment,
you come upon a set of mirror cubes. Pick up one of these and examine it. Each
side of each cube shows you a different version of yourself in a different
reality. In addition, each cube has a single black side that is made of sound,
which you can hear/feel vibrating. Explain this marriage of sound and matter.
Hold the cube up to your mouth and speak into the vibrating black side. Tell
the story of your timeline of growth as you wish it could have been. Tell how
your reimagined calendar is laid out. When you are done speaking, listen to the
black side and hear the voice of another you from another reality whisper back
its own reimagined history.
9 Imagine the person
you would trust to give this cube to. Suddenly that person enters the scene.
What happens? What kind of exchange do you have that leads to you giving them
the cube? After giving them the cube, they beckon you to follow them and they
lead you on a winding path through this new environment. What do you see along
the way?
10 Finally they arrive
at a door and stop. Describe the door. What do they tell you about the door?
Regardless of what they
tell you, this is a door into the moment. Going through this door will cause
you to walk in on yourself where you are now. In fact, you can imagine a door
in the space where you now are with two people talking on the other side, one
of whom is yourself. How will you receive them if your other self decides to
step through the door? Or, switching back to the other side, what fresh
perspective on this moment will you bring to yourself? As you pass through the
door, allow yourself to completely discard your expectations and everything you
were just told about the door.
11 Pass through the
door and into the space where you are now, but find it to be completely empty
and silent. Stop a moment and listen to this silence. Now imagine centered in
your body a point with three lines coming off it in different directions. This
is a realignment tool which you can use to adjust and manipulate the dimensions
of this place alone. How do you use the realignment tool? In what way do you
reshape your environment? What are the limits of what this tool can do? After
you have finished reshaping the space, what new purpose does it serve?
1 How you remove the
calendar from the cage represents how you help others tell their story
2 The location where the
cage is placed and how the surfaces here are being painted over is
representative of an environment or circumstances where you feel invisible,
without needs or responsibility.
3 The calendar and what
it contains represents your assumptions about where you are headed in life that
you are starting to call into question.
4 The portal tree
represents even older assumptions about where you are headed that you didn’t
even realize existed that are beginning to come to the surface.
5 How you rewrite the new
calendar represents your approach to balancing your goals with the goals of
others.
6 Your interaction with
person who joins you who you pass on the new calendar to represents that part
of you that knows what you really intend to do.
7 Going through the
fallen tree, having your history erased, and the environment you find on the
other side represents a memory of a personal victory that you have forgotten.
This would be a small but important victory that you may not have even realized
happened, such as a moment of subconscious realization, or a moment when an
important idea silently crystalized.
8 Whispers into and out
of the mirror cube represent your approach to sustaining collaboration with
others over a long period of time.
9 Who you give the cube
to and what you see along the way when you follow them represents what you feel
will really result from collaboration.
10 The door and what
you are told about it represents the thing or belief that is holding you back
from taking the next step, the next milestone in your personal calendar.
11 How you alter your
personal space and the purpose you give this space represents your
understanding of equality.
Lessons in
Light
1 Imagine a crooked
house that is pitch black inside. It is perfectly sealed so that no light can
accidently seep in. One of the rooms inside this dark house is an art studio. Describe
this house, the studio, and its purpose.
2 Inside the lightless
studio is a creature or animal made of smoke who is sculpting things out of
luminous gas. What is he making? Who is he making them for?
3 What happens to these
forms when the smoke creature opens the sealed windows to allow sunlight in?
How do these gas sculptures change in response to the light?
4 When the studio
becomes flooded with light, the form of the smoke creature dissipates leaving
the studio filled with smoke. Now the doors to the studio open and guests
enter. Who are they and why are they here? How do they respond to what they
find in here?
5 Upon examining the
sculptures closer, they see that they are covered in some kind of symbols. This
is the language of light. Describe these symbols. What is the purpose of this
language of light?
6 The smoke that fills
the room begins to stir and a voice is heard. This is the voice of the Sun who
will now engage his students (the people who entered the room) in a lesson in
speaking the language of light. Imagine and describe the voice of the Sun. What
does the lesson consist of and how is it taught?
7 The Sun teacher now
leads the class in the following imagination exercise titled Lamp Makers.
The students make
themselves comfortable and listen as voice of the Sun guides them through these
images:
Visualize a potter
working at the potter’s wheel. The clay vessel that he or she is making is
meant to be illuminated from the inside so it is covered with patterns of
holes. What are they making and for what purpose? What topics are they thinking
about while they work?
Visualize a weaver at
the loom. He or she is making fabric lanterns that are illuminated from the
inside by electric lights. What are they making and for what purpose? What
subjects are they thinking about while they do this?
Visualize a glass
blower at work by the furnace. The glass artwork that he or she is making is to
be illuminated from the inside. What are they making and why? What ideas are
they having as they create?
Repeatedly run these
scenes in a looping cycle, shifting from one into the next, into the next, and
back again, faster and faster and faster until they start to blend together
into one scene. What is this one scene? What is their one creation? What idea is
now resonating in their one mind?
Interpretations for Lessons
in Light:
1 The dark studio in
the crooked house: represents unrealized intentions, or a reoccurring situation
that causes you to become out of touch with your true intentions.
2 The smoke creature
sculpting luminous gas and who it is making the sculptures for: represents how
you respond once you realize your true intentions.
3 What happens when the
sunlight is let in: represents a process of personal growth you went through in
the past. If you revisit your memories of this time, because of how you’ve
changed since then, you will discover a new aspect of it that you didn’t see
before that ties into what you are going to do next.
4 Who enters the room
and how they respond to what they find: represents the things you do that are
almost enough to bring your ambition to fruition but not quite.
5 The symbols on the sculptures.
The language of light: represents your beliefs toward challenging
transformations.
6 The voice of the sun
and its lesson: represents how you forgive yourself for the thing you always
fail at.
7 What the lamp makers
are thinking after they have been spun together: represents your understanding
of the implications of fusing ideas together.
The First Field
1 Allow yourself to meditate on the idea of beginnings. What
is about to begin? What is approaching on the horizon? What is something that
is not understood now but will soon become understood? As you allow this,
visualize a field and the sky above it. Describe the relationship of the sky in
contrast to the field.
2 Place yourself somewhere in the sky above the field. How
are you supported in the sky? Are you floating or standing on some kind of
platform? What are you doing up here? Look for some means of getting from the
sky to the ground. How do you get to the ground?
3 On the way down you encounter something or someone that is
traveling past you on its way up. Who or what is it and what do you do?
4 Once on the ground you walk until you reach a spot where
you buried something many years ago. You dig up some kind of object that emits
light. What is it?
5 You use the light to scan the field. Wherever this light
falls it illuminates invisible things. What do you see revealed?
6 The main thing you are looking for is the remains of an
abandoned house. Where do you find the house when you finally spot it and what
does it look like? Go inside the house and describe the interior which changes
in response to the light. In what way does it change?
7 In your search of the house you encounter a half human
half animal hybrid. What is this hybrid being a combination of and how does it
react to you? What do you do? After this initial exchange you sit down and eat
a meal together. Describe this scene.
8 At some point in your conversation you steer onto a
different topic, beginning a dialogue that explores three questions. Who are
the people that used to dwell here on this land? Will they ever return? Why or
why not?
10 After this discussion the creature gives you a map marked
with a very odd symbol showing where the people went. Describe the map and the
odd symbol. Understanding your intention to journey to this place, the hybrid
presents you will additional items that will be useful to you on your journey.
What are these items?
11 You leave the house and find some kind of airship waiting
for you. Onboard the airship are other occupants. What is their response toward
you like? What is their purpose aboard the ship? Board the ship and go back
into the sky.
Interpretations for The First Field:
1 The field and the sky represents how you make peace with
role expectations.
2 The means of getting from the sky to the ground represents
how you let go of desire.
3 The person or thing you encounter on the way down
represents the part of your personality that you have let go because it does
not serve you, and by doing so you have set it free.
4 The buried object that emits light represents a part of your
original purpose, your original life task/agreement that you have strayed from
but are now at last getting back to.
5 The invisible things you see in the field are echoes of
possible life paths that are not true representations of your natural core
self, but still through contrast reveal some mystery about your natural self
you have yet to tap into.
6 The abandoned house represents where you last left off
when you veered from your original purpose. How the house changes in response
to the light hints at what caused you to veer from your original purpose.
7 The hybrid represents your approach to making predictions.
8 The people that used to dwell in this land represent the
first people you encountered, not in reality but through your imagination and
dreams, that set examples for behavior that strongly influenced who you are
now. Whether or not they are projected to return pertains to just that, the
possibility of you literally tapping into that energy again.
9 The map, its odd symbol, and the items for your journey
represent your early imagination; the imagination of your child self.
11 The airship and its occupants represent the nature of the
support you receive on your journey within this lifetime.
1 Imagine that you are a chameleon in a terrarium that has
been left in a deserted outdoor area at night. As the chameleon, you are
waiting for something. Describe the terrarium and the location surrounding it.
What are you waiting for?
2 At some point, people in stilt costumes approach from the
darkness. How do they enter the scene? Who are they and what is their
background?
3 These people reach down into the terrarium and place their
hands on you, turning off each of your five senses one by one. As you are
plunged into the blackness of sensory deprivation, how do you handle this?
Describe this experience.
4 After you have been submerged in blackness, you begin to
see light that is not of the senses. Attempt to describe this paradoxical
light.
5 Once you have grasped a concept of this light, you can
restore your vision by painting over the blackness in these new liminal shades.
Imagine that you are painting on a black wall with luminous paint, depicting
images of the world as you remember it when you still had your senses.
6 As you continue painting across a broader expanse of these
dark walls, expanding further and further down unknown corridors, you begin to
encounter other painters doing the same thing. They are people who lost their
senses and are now repainting their own environments. Eventually the edges of
their paintings and yours touch and bleed over into one another. If you want,
you can choose to work together on a combined mural.
7 After you have covered most of the surfaces in luminous
paintings, allow the interior space of these corridors and chambers to be
filled with an explosion of tiny stars. How do you create these individual
points of luminance? Now that the space is filled with stars, walk around with
the other painters you have met here and admire what you have created.
8 Lastly, you unexpectedly encounter toy blocks that you did
not see before. Describe these blocks, how they are arranged, and what you do
next.
Interpretations for Making Stars:
1 Your chameleon self and what you are waiting for embodies the
thing that is your light in the dark.
2 The people in stilt costumes embodies your readiness to
accept the finality of igniting this light, knowing that once you choose light,
the decision is irrevocable, you can never go back.
3 How you handle sensory deprivation embodies your
willingness to shift onto alternate life paths.
4 How you conceptualize the light that is not of the senses
embodies how you feel about miracles.
5 How you repaint your world embodies the becoming reality
that is nearly about to manifest. It is so close as to be only a heartbeat
away, and at same time it is infinitely far away, absolute in its
impossibility.
6 Your encounters with the other painters in the dark
embodies your beliefs about vulnerability.
7 How you create the points of luminance embodies the source
your creativity originates from.
8 The toy blocks embody your ideas about life that are not
fully formed and never will be and don’t need to be.
