What They Said. (About Flying, Risk & Beginnings.)

Flight. It's time.

"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." 

~ Douglas Adams

"But it is a thousand times better to make every kind of mistake than to slide into the habit of hesitation, of uncertainty, of indecision." 

~ Aleister Crowley

Stop the words now.
Open the window
in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly
in and out! 

~ Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī 

The cumulative effect of 10 minutes of even mediocre effort each day is greater than all the epic imaginations of perfection & awesomeness which never leave the machinations of the creative mind. Forty five years into the deal I am seeing how that actually works. 

When I look at it from a mystical standpoint -- that is, if things are more deeply interlaced than they might superficially seem (a mindset to which I subscribe) -- I must recognize the disservice I am committing to the Muses, the Magick, the Work (let alone mySelf). Thoughtforms, beasts of creativity forever imprisoned... by me.

Art imprisoned... by me. What?!?

"Khallas!" she would say to me, or to anyone who spends their time bursting at the seams with ideas, dreams, visions & held back by an obsessive desire not to make any errors. 

Khallas!
Open the window.

On Seeing. (Microcosm/Macrocosm. Self/Universe.)

"I’ve never loved myself the way I do now." 

-- Joana Saahirah, The Alchemist's Stone: Gratitude for the Wisdom of a Changing Body.

She said to me (& I paraphrase), 'We need to be in our bodies as they are, right now. Not the way they once were, or the way we imagine them to be in some uncertain future, because that is not what we have to work with as dancers/humans. Our envisioned "ideal" does not exist. We only have our bodies as they are right now -- they will not be the same in a day, a week or even an hour. Work with what you have in this very moment, not a projection of something that does not exist. Know your creative tool as it is -- its strengths & limitations & use them.' 

There was an enormous turning point the first time I actually saw myself dancing. One might say, 'Moma, this is not rocket science...' but the truth of the matter is that it took over two years of study before I was able to see this. Prior to that, I always pictured my teachers or someone else executing my choreography assignments (even as I did them); floating the veil, traveling the steps, rotating the hips, using the propulsive power of the arms... 

Unawares, I always followed the image of another, so when I saw myself for the very first time, it was an overwhelming epiphany. 

But the trick is, we have to keep looking, because we change constantly. Every time I watch the critter that is me, I experience a strange & overwhelming sense of horror & wonder -- in part because I never see the same person. 

As I examine & reexamine myself in this manner (as I now must), I realize how vitally important it is to the entire human spiritual ecosystem. It is not just about dancing & assessing the damage or progress. It is about Everything. 

 "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing." 

-- Hermes Trismegistus (Dennis W. Hauck, trans.), The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

"When I am an (not so) old woman I shall wear (a) purple (Faerie costume... in a public park)." Or, don't wait to surrender your ego.

“The key to truly relishing a moment is not to concern one’s Ego with how you may appear to the casual observer…” 

Skeptical Faerie, or something.

Especially if you are dressed like a Sugar Plum Fairy. 

One of my cherished like-mindeds had reminded me that I said that once. Today I would like to add a clarification. 

And don't wait until a new, more comfortable or convenient moment arrives. Do it now.

Dance seems to be my Great Teacher in this.

Dance. Don't Think. Especially about other folks -- human or otherwise -- who may be watching (or not, because it IS a bit narcissistic to assume folks are watching you all the time). 

"A chaotic mind in a body that has been forced into some extreme arrangement is pointless. So though I know I'm never going to be very physically adept at shaping my body into beautiful and graceful asana, I enjoy the mind-body work and seeing its benefits manifesting elsewhere in my life." --AB

When we are preoccupied with trying to be something impressive to the external eye, we are chaotic. When we are busy berating ourselves for our imperfections, obsessing over shortcomings that others may or may not perceive or doubting our likability we are chaotic. When we are fraught with shyness & self-conscious thoughts, we are chaotic. 

There is no doorway to ecstasy, no tapping the spirit world, no Tarab to be found in this ego-driven, self-limiting chaos of the mind. This is not the road to "seeing (your practice's) benefits manifesting elsewhere in (your) life." The key to growth, to freedom lies elsewhere.

I am a chaos-rider. I admit it. But I must emphasize: choose your chaos wisely & make sure you're the rider, not the horse. 

The maenads were expert chaos riders. Do you think that in their ecstasis, even for a single moment, they considered what other folks thought about how they looked?

Dance, my teacher. Maenad as well, perhaps.
A moment of Tarab courtesy Joana Saahirah Facebook page.