 | Walking Between the Worlds by Morwen Two Feathersposted by Susan Meeker-Lowry, Exclusive AccessThursday, September 24th 2009 @ 2:23 PM  (1 ratings) |
Since childhood, I have believed in multiple
realities, the existence of many worlds underneath and behind the surface level of reality that presents itself to my senses. These worlds were obviously real and accessible to me through daydreams and imagination, and later through experiences I came to understand as shamanic soul travel. Such experiences felt quite normal to me but as I came to adulthood I realized that most people didn’t have them (or if they did, they didn’t acknowledge it). In our society, only artists may regularly step outside of the generally accepted definition of reality without being judged insane. I think this was why I began to think of myself as an artist; even though I couldn’t draw or paint worth a damn, I knew I had an artist’s perspective on the world and this became part of my self-image.
At the same time, I developed strong practical and professional skills that were effective in the “real world” of employment and day-to-day life. Yet I never felt fully integrated into that world because I always had one foot in another world. Inhabiting the fringe of the mainstream modern world, becoming involved in the alternative world, and periodically traveling to worlds of nature, imagination, and spirit, I have become adept at walking between the worlds.
Yet in talking about this world or that and focusing on the experience of having a foot in each of two worlds, it is easy to miss the power of the space between. The phrase “between the worlds” invokes a duality of place and movement from one to the other. I’ve learned that the most interesting things happen not at the destination, but on the journey. It is in the open, formless place between the worlds that creativity bubbles up from the Depths, that resistance from ego dissolves, that magic happens. Changes in consciousness that happen between the worlds manifest as changes in reality through the application of intention. This definition of magic may also be a definition of art. And this perspective provides insight into how living a creative life may change the world.
In middle age I have become a boundary walker. Given any line of demarcation between two realities, I will most often be found straddling the line. My art, and my life, emanate from the space between. Yet it is easy to lose sight of this, to forget. All around me, my culture insists that I must define myself, must choose between This and That, must live in the real world, achieve and accomplish by the standards of the dominant political and economic reality. The space between the worlds is ever present, but the constant din of media, advertising, ringing cell phones, and the demands of daily life provide a ready distraction from this awareness. And a different sort of distraction may seduce those of us who are involved in Earth activism. We may become so focused on the conflict between the world we are trying to change and the world of our ideals that we forget the space between.
It’s a truism that synthesis, or synergy, is born in the tension between opposites. It might even be accurate to say that all human growth and progress arises from the courage to inhabit the space between the worlds of fixed positions. We can observe this dynamic in the public politics of groups, and also in our personal lives. As long as we allow reality to be defined by one world or another, we are bound by those definitions and rules and no change may happen unless it is limited by those boundaries. When we step into the formless space between, we open ourselves to something new.
This recalls a quote from Buckminster Fuller: “You can never change things by resisting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” In other words, true change must come from outside the world as defined by the powers that be, from the realm in which brand new ideas originate.
If we are called to speak and act on behalf of Gaia, if we are impassioned to work towards a new way of life that holds hope for peace and harmony with nature for human beings on this planet, then we must learn to cross the boundaries enforced by our dysfunctional culture and walk between the worlds of Modernism and Traditionalism, Science and Religion, Mind and Body, Liberal and Conservative, Political and Spiritual, Black and White, Fantasy and Reality. There in the space between lies the power of change.
In mythology, folklore, and legend, the “world between the worlds” is a magical place where thought and intention can change material reality. For many peoples this place was accessed through altered states of consciousness, achieved through shamanic techniques of drumming and repetitive movement or breath. The creative activity of art-making has also been shown to induce a light trance state. In light of this, I have decided that creating opportunities for community drumming as I do is a radical, world-changing act. So is working in a community art center (which I also do). I have the privilege of opening the door to the space between the worlds for many people. Of course, the reality they create when they get there is up to them.
Each one of us may tap into the space between at any time, as long as we remember that it is there. This could be as simple as a daily practice of turning our awareness to the unseen. But as that awareness grows and deepens, we soon find that we want to bring our actions into alignment with it, and to find others who similarly desire to travel in the space between the worlds. This awareness has been steadily growing in the underground of our culture for the last twenty years or more, and more and more of us are finding each other. Perhaps the most radical thing that any of us can do for change is to inspire each other to live an authentic and creative life. Walking between the worlds and living our creativity in each moment is a profound catalyst for positive change in ourselves and in the world we live in together.
From Volume 4, No. 1 & 2
