Imaginal Journal
Imagination is Medicine
Animal Totem
Our relationship to animals is indelible. Our instincts correlate to symbolic and literal animal figures. They become symbols of the soul and can communicate aspects of our psyches, shepherding our paths.
We have related to animals in various capacities. We eat, feed, adopt, herd, hunt, train, breed, nurture, play, use, think, and grow with them. And they can also link us intimately with purpose, meaning and identity as individuals and as a collective.
My college mascot was a lion and I too am astrologically a leo. This regal creature as appeared in dreams and holds a big symbolic component of my paternity. The bear, likewise, is the emblem of my home state and has also appeared in dreams as a soul totem connecting me to the maternal. My relationship to these mammals connects me to my instinctual nature, loyal, protective, and relational.
How do you link to the wisdom of animals, both literal and figurative, in your life?
Encuentro con Uke
Inspired by dear old friends, UKE, a beautiful couple from Spain making sparse melodic music.
Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. El Ingenioso Don Quixote de la Mancha.
I want to honor the indelable Don Quixote de la Mancha. Who inspires me to dream the impossible dream. Let the locura de amor, lunacy of love, have us live life passionately, knowing our crazy, as we fight our “dragons” for the honor of our beloved.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the perfect pairing.
(illustrated by Jules David, 1922. Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University.)
De La Cruz
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. 17th Century Poet. Defender of woman’s right to education. Her hermetic devotion to her mind, body and soul is an inspiration.
“I believed, when I entered this convent, I was escaping from myself, but alas, poor me, I brought myself with me!”
Poniatowska
Elena Poniatowska. Journalist, Novelist. A voice for the voiceless.
“Todos estamos tan llenos de retratos interiores, tan llenos de paisajes no vividos (We are all so filled with interior images, so filled with journeys not taken)”