the connections (of which we are a part) hinges on our ability to bring imagination to the seeing.
We might choose to describe a territory as 'a certain volume of water, located at a certain elevation, which in turn is located at certain geographical coordinates. 'The description is without meaning. It is hardly a description at all. It is without a … Soul and therefore it is lifeless.
Now turn imagination loose, now draw a map showing the lake and the family cottage, the dock where the kids used to swim, the barbeque pit and the place where you proposed to your wife. Pencil in where you first saw a moose and where you later learned to fish for trout. Add to the map the path where you and your father used to take walks and suddenly the territory comes alive.
Now that piece of land becomes, 'imaginal' it breathes with life and I can see. Like all imaginal views it expands and systematically connects with other realities. 'The family cottage' invites a host of people to come and be present, each with their distinctive personalities and richness. Now I become wrapped in a group where the business of loving and relating comes to the fore. 'The dock where the kids used to swim' summons my dreams and hopes and anxieties for those kids now become adults. All of a sudden their children come to stand before me and make their way into my prayers.
So the map of the territory brings the territory to life.
All images are like this. They demand a map drawn by the imagination which makes possible a conversation with the Soul.
Even such images as the highly theoretical study of sub-atomic particles, have led scientists to realize that particles are not merely accidental chunks of matter that come our way and which operate independently of anything else. Particles “seem” to have a mind and their behavior is influenced by the presence of observers. 33 Yet the only way we can speak about these minute particles is by framing what we can understand of their behavior in an, admittedly inadequate, map. Hence physicists write and speak about
string theory
and
m theory
which nudges the old Newtonian paradigms to the side and replaces them with Einstein’s four dimensional continuum of space-time.
All images demand to be framed in an appropriate map in order that they may address us.
In fact we are all map-makers. Every day of our lives we draw maps so that we might understand and engage and guided by the Soul we start conversations that lead to life.
Lovers, poets and artists know this. A familiar name and face, a piece of land, a view of the ocean and then one day there’s a change of light or shadow and you see what you’ve seen a thousand times, only now a map has been drawn and you see it for the first time.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. 34
The images have worked their magic!
Maps help us to know and forge a link between the image and our experience.
For example; we understand how our bodies work and we have vast libraries to describe the processes, even if most of the books use obscure Latin terms to describe even simple functions. However when it comes to engaging the mysterious invisible experiences, with which we are all intimately familiar, we soon find ourselves in strange territory and grasping for words.
When I view the intricate descriptions of a hand I am left keenly aware that, however profound the science of biology might be, and however skillful the art of the illustrator, they tell little of my hand’s secrets:
There is no evidence of the first time I took a girl’s hand in mine and the giddy wonder of falling in love. There is no record of holding hands while I made promises before a group of friends and then the exchange of rings, of which a finger of the hand was to be the custodian, so that the whole world would understand that I had made certain commitments, and from that day on we would
We might choose to describe a territory as 'a certain volume of water, located at a certain elevation, which in turn is located at certain geographical coordinates. 'The description is without meaning. It is hardly a description at all. It is without a … Soul and therefore it is lifeless.
Now turn imagination loose, now draw a map showing the lake and the family cottage, the dock where the kids used to swim, the barbeque pit and the place where you proposed to your wife. Pencil in where you first saw a moose and where you later learned to fish for trout. Add to the map the path where you and your father used to take walks and suddenly the territory comes alive.
Now that piece of land becomes, 'imaginal' it breathes with life and I can see. Like all imaginal views it expands and systematically connects with other realities. 'The family cottage' invites a host of people to come and be present, each with their distinctive personalities and richness. Now I become wrapped in a group where the business of loving and relating comes to the fore. 'The dock where the kids used to swim' summons my dreams and hopes and anxieties for those kids now become adults. All of a sudden their children come to stand before me and make their way into my prayers.
So the map of the territory brings the territory to life.
All images are like this. They demand a map drawn by the imagination which makes possible a conversation with the Soul.
Even such images as the highly theoretical study of sub-atomic particles, have led scientists to realize that particles are not merely accidental chunks of matter that come our way and which operate independently of anything else. Particles “seem” to have a mind and their behavior is influenced by the presence of observers. 33 Yet the only way we can speak about these minute particles is by framing what we can understand of their behavior in an, admittedly inadequate, map. Hence physicists write and speak about
string theory
and
m theory
which nudges the old Newtonian paradigms to the side and replaces them with Einstein’s four dimensional continuum of space-time.
All images demand to be framed in an appropriate map in order that they may address us.
In fact we are all map-makers. Every day of our lives we draw maps so that we might understand and engage and guided by the Soul we start conversations that lead to life.
Lovers, poets and artists know this. A familiar name and face, a piece of land, a view of the ocean and then one day there’s a change of light or shadow and you see what you’ve seen a thousand times, only now a map has been drawn and you see it for the first time.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. 34
The images have worked their magic!
Maps help us to know and forge a link between the image and our experience.
For example; we understand how our bodies work and we have vast libraries to describe the processes, even if most of the books use obscure Latin terms to describe even simple functions. However when it comes to engaging the mysterious invisible experiences, with which we are all intimately familiar, we soon find ourselves in strange territory and grasping for words.
When I view the intricate descriptions of a hand I am left keenly aware that, however profound the science of biology might be, and however skillful the art of the illustrator, they tell little of my hand’s secrets:
There is no evidence of the first time I took a girl’s hand in mine and the giddy wonder of falling in love. There is no record of holding hands while I made promises before a group of friends and then the exchange of rings, of which a finger of the hand was to be the custodian, so that the whole world would understand that I had made certain commitments, and from that day on we would
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