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Archive Number 968 | ||
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Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 13:16:36 EST
As the new year is traditionally a time for renewal and good resolves, I thought it might be interesting to consider what we mean when we talk "tranformation" in the context of story. How are we hoping to transform our own lives in 2002? What sorts of transformative goals do we have for those we work with? What do we mean anyway when we speak of "transformation" and how is this accomplished through story? Certainly this is more than a matter of say, giving up smoking or cleaning out one's messy drawers yet often such mundane goals can be a necessary first step in a more ambitious spiritual program. Re. all this, I find myself thinking about what transpersonal psychologist Ralph Metzner has written: "In prior periods, in the mystical and religious literature of East and West, and in the secret oral traditions of esoteric, spiritual schools, the teachers have resorted to myths, parables, similes and metaphors to allude to that strange process that changes, us, ourselves." He goes on to describe what he terms the "10 classical metaphors of self-transformation" which he lists as 1. The movement from dream-sleep to awakening. 2 The movement from illusion to realization. 3. The movement from darkness to enlightenment. 4. The movement from imprisonment to liberation. 5. The movement from fragmentation to wholeness. 6. The movement from separation to oneness. 7. The movement from being on a journey to arriving at the destination. 8. The movement from being in exile to coming home. 9. The movement from seed to flowering tree. 10. The movement from from death to rebirth. In all these there seems to be above all, an awakening of movement, the drawing forth of innate creativity. Perhaps the process involves a transition from one set of outmoded guiding images to other, more vital ones? So... what thoughts have others have on this list about this question? On a more personal note, last week I had a dream that I was carrying a great budding flower that suddenly burst open into a huge O'Keefe-like flower. It seemed like a good sign that a positive transformative energies were engaged! And now, moving from the sublime to the particular, I am now off to tackle one of those messy drawers... Cristy West Washington, DC | ||