Light & Shadow

 

I am so interested in the relationship that is developing, the rhythm that is being revealed in my psyche between light and dark, between illumination and shadow, between the angels of light and the voice of the "demon" (denser more unconscious presences) and how this becomes a dialogue, to look at one is to look at the other, they each reveal the other.  I am learning or finding not to dread the "shadow" figures, rather they are showing me something... they often turn up after illuminating experiences, where it seems light and shadow are both revealed (angel and demon realms).  

Demon for me represents the part of the personal and the collective unconscious that take us into cycles of suffering, whereas the angelic and dakini presences are those that awaken us, liberate us, reveal the awakened mind.  That said, I have had two dark shadow dreams recently, or at least dreams in which the shadow played a strong protagonic role, for which I have made images... 

This is the most recent image, and it come after so many ah-ha luminous moments that in fact now I celebrate its appearence, actually it is entitled "Light and shadow, though the dream ended on the shadow note.    

I am also attaching the previous one because they are related.  They are both speaking to the pressure to conform.  This you could say is my current demon, meaning that it is what is becoming conscious.  What are the ways in which I have interalized the pressure to conform (the older image from March), and some of the societal, collective pressures to conform (more of today's image)... The pressure is subtle and it feels so linked to survival tactics/circuitry... I will spend some more time later in contempation of these images... but this is just first flush sort of ah-ha... so interesting... the pressure to conform and how that encumbers our life force... there seems to be something in here about patriarchy too... as there are prominent male figures (see the poor guy forced to sew on a new face, trying to look casual, with the tie/leash around his neck, societal agents breathing down his neck ensuring he conforms)... the ones that need to go out into the world and survive (at least on a developmental archetypal level...).  

The new image is called at least for now "Light & Shadow"... (It is also interesting that I have been actively preparing for a trip to the States after an absence of quite a while. I am also fascinated by how the meaning of both transcendent experiences of lightness and dreams perhaps with heavier emotions, can become so transparent to themselves in the process. of art making... meaning making, making sense of things literally in the "making", in the "poeisis"...)