Imaginal Journal
Imagination is Medicine
Hieros Gamos
Alchemy holds deeply interesting metaphors for psychotherapy and personal transformation. Within this philosophy, the concept of Hieros Gamos represents the sacred marriage of masculine and feminine.
Below is the alchemical image of androgyne. This is not a marriage of two individuals becoming one, but rather of one individual integrating their masculine and feminine aspects, the yin and yang, the ida and pingala.
Forging your own path
“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Ninth-century Buddhist master Lin Chi.
Gratitude
Here I offer experiences and things I am grateful for, as a practice in gratitude and mindfulness:
Rancho Palos Verdes and insights offered a hotblooded artist.
Mediation on offering more joy to someone who already fortunate ( little counter-intuitive but a rich experience).
A nice grounding lunch with my husband and the courage to say I’m sorry and I was wrong after a disagreement. Rewarding myself with cookies and coffee.
Time with my family, my mom’s homemade candies, introducing my dad to ideas about alchemy, and my niece finding a new love for drawing and poetry. Noting that all artist start off by copying and it leads us to finding our own voice and style. Visiting my aunt and uncle on their mutual birthday. Admiring my aunt’s narcissus flowers and her Aquarius and St. Judas rings.
Walking around galleries at the Hammer.
Tibetan Goddess of Protection
Tibetan goddess, Palden Lhamo. Protectress of the Dalai Lama lineage.
She doesn’t mess around.
Happy Stumbling
PBS series This Emotional Life
“This 3-part series represents what television does best. It opens a window into real lives, exploring ways to improve our social relationships, cope with emotional issues, and become more positive, resilient individuals. Hosted by Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness.”
A great one on honing that inner resilience, seeing that subjective reality from a birds eye view and working to modify behaviors for a more authentically happy state of being.
This photo makes me happy.
This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.