Crossing the Threshold

Once we begin to move out of this private inner peace and the excitement generated from an illuminated imagination, we must then go through the many various trials which will allow us to sit down and access these stored memories. We must make arrangements with our time, all manner of commerce and behind any available concentration to clear the space to get down to the chore of actually writing.

This can be a laborious period, with more than a chance we will lose the thread of what it is we desire to share through carefully chosen words. Yet if we persist, and with luck and the consequence of circumstance which will afford the luxury of time and space to get to writing, we stand at a threshold ready to undergo a momentous transformation.

In the opening hours, we work to finely tune our minds so that we are able to manage the depth of concentration which will be required for the task which lies ahead. We isolate ourselves away from all distraction and begin to listen and recall; ahead lies silence and solitude. We understand we shall need hours alone to mine the raw material of an activated imagination. Then more quiet and toil as we endeavour to translate glorious, sometimes exhilarating scenes played out in the expanse of memory, into lucid language which will communicate to a reader.

As writers, we are required to invest energy to ensure us a space of both solitude and productivity. We require a deeper and more subtle form of communication with our thoughts. Distraction is an occupational hazard for those who require a workplace where the contents existing in the interior regions of the mind can be coaxed forward in order to bring them to the page.

It is in silence where our intuition finds the opportunity to finally operate. It reaches inside the imagination to pull up the barest of awareness or the nearly understood, then spins this notional gossamer back and towards through the conscious mind, escaping on the hint of a whisper.

It is the voice that suspects; it is wisdom which anticipates.

{Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir}

Amplification

By releasing latent contents from the creative imagination, can we expect to arrive at a more clear understanding of what we are capable of as separate individuals? Can this evolve into a path to revealing our authentic selves? Is there a germ of truth in the phasmagorical?

Within the recesses of a mind lurk dark lessons. All of us possess the residue of our own suffering and that of which we have empathized with. Pain and fear is absorbed and whether consciously or below the level of actual awareness, our imagination re-invents these potent feelings. What fear is not amplified by imagining the worst of any given situation? Is it possible to fall into dread or anxiety without the encouragement of an unchecked imagination?

Knowing just a little can make us fear a great deal more as our imagination spins hypothetical scenarios of shame, loss and cruelty. Is the remedy for this imaginary terror to be found in resolving dark fantasy in the same potential of the mind’s theatre or can we expect to overcome absorbed worries and pain by releasing them through the channel of writing?

Feelings, and feelings and feelings. Let me try thinking instead.
                       
                            - C.S Lewis

 When the power of our imagination is running it’s dark scripts, can we expect to be prepared for the hardships which life occasionally sends us? Is the imaginary merely notional, at best?

Inside the incubation period which is required to bring forth our creative ideas, the expanse of imagination serves promise with an endless viewing of it’s fantastic contents. We catch glimpses of what could be and the conscious part of our writer’s mind records what they might of those moments, to store them for when we are sitting down to actually work. But in this place of witnessing, the expansions we experience are part of what compels; we are driven to share the beauty of what we have been shown.

{Paintings by William Blake}

The Sophisticated Collage

As a forum for various components which create emotional shadows—suppressed feeling & unresolved aspects we have either rejected or disowned—imagination might be a source of illumination in any quest to better understand the artist's personal identity. Each of us strives to determine singular purpose from the world around yet there are so many disparaging aspects to factor. Oftentimes, in efforts to balance the pain of living, we chose as focus events & experiences described as ego-enhancing.

Recorded impressions are so often reviewed to amplify a sense of self-esteem; memory is utilized as morale booster. Yet in the expanse of imagination, there is opportunity to synthesize darker & lighter aspects of what we contain. In the safety of the theoretical, that which is feared can be given opportunity for exploration & this increase in familiarity may begin to break down what terrifies—it is reflection in the quest for de-sensitization.

By trying to focus only on the things we deem “positive” & ignoring or repressing the rest, we are simply perpetrating the polarization of light & dark forces.
                            ~ Shakti Gawain

In order to open wide the curtains which reveal subjective screens of specific imagination, it is necessary to pass beyond notional concepts of what we typically perceive as good & evil. If we are in the midst of creating a story where a character operates beyond subjective moral perimeters, in fairness to the purity of the narrative, we cannot stop writing simply because we are different.

Is there some vital measure which can be taken to contain our own impulses when engaged in the act of creating? Can we suspend personal ethics & allow our characters the range of options they would be afforded based on the sum of distinct personality traits? The answers to these questions I would respond a hesitant “yes .” Works of fiction are, by design, imagined events which might easily find the writer in a position to suffer consequence if they were based on actual experience.

Still.

The issue sustains, for how can writers be certain we are not simply acting upon some latent permutation of our own darkness? Given an opportunity, would we chose to behave as we make characters do? Is there some transference in allowing fiction the license to behave badly?


{Artwork by Lance Letscher}

The Trials of Faith

A writer's imaginations can be subjected to dark influences which, if persistent, will become intruding factors in the development of a story. Feelings of doubt or inadequacy, of anxiety or of being overwhelmed by the task at hand can settle into the mind & create a shadow. If unchecked, this shadow begins to permeate, with potential to develop into lingering states of emotional melancholia, persistent impressions of inadequacy or in the extreme, the morass of a suicidal depression.

Does addressing the imagination with doubt pertaining to what it is revealing have any direct impact on the visions it projects? Is it possible to impose previously held concepts of truth or of right & wrong on the contents of what the creative mind projects across the inner screen?

The question may bear some fruit. If we are to acknowledge consciously, then mindfully the disconnect we feel when the imaginary aspect tells us something we know to be false or inappropriate, the same creative function might then take those reservations into consideration & work to include what is known or acceptable. Through an attempt to connect with imagination consciously & rationally, might we bring the projections closer to what is considered a keener interpretation?

Conscious awareness of negative conditions may be difficult to attain. Many creatives work from a place of negative inspiration; that willful demonstration of value at any cost; a capability of mastering goals set forward, come what may. In these instances, inspiration grinds from desires to ward-off judgement; motivation finds genesis in negative external influence.

{Images by Bert Kupferman}

For Old Time's Sake

Once the old imagination starts to spin & I have made all required adjustments to environment in order to offer the freedom of lending this mysterious mechanism all attention necessary to instruct the visions yearned for capture into letters—why then & so often only then—the dissociation is sublime.

Under this rarefied influence, I forget embarrassing gratitude; wonder has silently taken the place of awe.

Where do we go when the mind opens potent avenues of creation? How is it that an organ inside the skull bewitches & transmogrifies the everyday into a vision creatively compelling?

Swimming amoungst conjured images, manufactured through privilege & fascination, the world I have struggled to comprehend crystallizes. It is here that the depth of feeling I read about becomes manifest; it is here where the potential I have reached for reveals the particulars of passage.

Through the act of creative writing, I begin to understand process.

The surface of imagination is invisible yet I envision an elastic thin skim—a seal across time & experience. Sometimes behind a poised intent or on other occasions lazily & for recreation, I break below that porous seal & all sense shoots full of wonder. Experience evolves; history waits to be embellished.

Over & over the mind dips into mysterious waters; time & again the same mind floods with scenes which I am only permitted to witness.

{Photography by Cecil Beaton}

The Power of Re-Invention

Imagination can be fired like a blast furnace. It can burn-off resentment or churn biter materials for a lingering grudge. Imagination settles injustice & privately plays the scenes where we all come out victorious. It manufactures a world where we are not required to adapt or mollify.

My imagination tries hard to teach moral lessons. I frequently rewind uncomfortable scenes, moments where I acted-out, only to later savour these displays of courage & audacity. Sometimes, I learn from hypothetical coaching; sometimes I take things too far as a result of ardent projection.

Sometimes imagination goes quiet. I search for an image & there is nothing, not even the snow which once indicated a scrambled television station. The inner mind is just inky blackness. I try to fire the screen by conscious projection, perhaps something sexual in the hope that this fantasy will re-ignite the interior regions. Imagination flickers but dissolves back into silence.

I feel flat without this refraction. I shall coax a closed mind back into action.

A few deep breaths & the setting is the maze of imagination. I wander it's tunnels under a light spell, permitting the screen to direct flow & sequence. Time suspends & is on the verge of spinning backward yet I am not in the vortex of memory. As I follow the stream of images, I anticipate a current of new awakening, expectant in needing to be re-adjusted.

I revel in the potentiality of a dawning vision; I ask for transformation.

{Paintings by Katrien De Blauwer }

Expansion

What happens in those rare instances when speculation is surpassed by events in everyday life? In the interior world, much is exaggerated for the purpose of equanimity. When reality exceeds those crafty expectation, there arises excitement—a thrill which strikes like Providence—magic has happened in the real world.

Have I been successful in educating imagination? Has conscious awareness trained the inner screen to anticipate only the plausible? Is this a factor of cache, of practical experience which defines the walls of maturity? Through initial frustration & disappointment, imaginative expectation can be taught to extrapolate only the feasible.

Put all of your eggs in one basket — & watch that basket

 

When unburdening disappointment, we vow never again. Does the unconscious mind eventually take  hard-knock lessons into account, no matter how long it took to forge the connection? Is it a particular style of self-defense, this corralling of expectation in hope against disappointment? We all know compromise can go too far. We might find ourselves expecting less than capable of. Perhaps an argument could be made defending the lack of initial confidence. This period of uncertainty is a mandatory component before activating latent potential.

So the bar is raised; a field of vision adjusts to somewhere further along the golden horizon.When we surprise ourselves, we learn of greater ability. Sustained through future trials, experience promises growth if manifested through the lens of practical wisdom.

{Photographs by Vassilis Tangoulis}