i love how even in times of us not being in contact we're somehow treading the same lines-- had my head in the gospel of thomas and the other nag hammadi scriptures this week, these past very days. falling asleep over and inside them, so called to them and in focus. and cynthia, cynthia, cynthia, cynthia. i admit that i didn't fully drop into this post because it's 2:37am. but/and, This* is what i'm currently thinking about and called to-- the imagination in christianity, et cetera. add to the imaginal pinboard to talk about, someday, sometime, lol. <3 (also, fuck yeah to your citation 1. i feel this way about my certain-times capitalization And my lower-case all's. :))
It's my intention that Cynthia will be the focus of a future post in this series. Still very much digesting her work for now, and the idea seems intimidating... but necessary.
!! up for a collab on it, not that you're asking LOL .. yeah my whole last year was digesting her; i want to (.. attempt to) synthesize her wisdom jesus/meaning of mary magdalene ..
Thank you for this post, whichever side of your brain inspired it! You ask what the imagination means to your readers. To this one, imagination is what he was told at age 10 (by an otherwise wonderful teacher) it was a pity he did not possess...
Now I am grappling with several of the questions your post takes up. I am gradually making my way through Lewis Hynde's book The Gift, which was recommended by Adam Wilson (of The Peasantry School). Yesterday I read this:
"Willpower has a tendency to usurp the functions of imagination, particularly in a man in a patriarchy. Yeats's shopworn formula — that ‘rhetoric is the will doing the work of the imagination’ — refers to such a state, for when the will works in isolation it turns of necessity to dictionary studies, syntactical tricks, intellectual formulae, memory, history and convention — any source of material that is which can imitate the fruits of imagination without actually allowing them to emerge." (pp 232-3 of my edition)
It added another dimension to my own dilemma, which is how to give the imagination free rein when in the midst of a world full of deadlines. I have not read the Iris Murdoch you quote, and the differentiation between fantasy and imagination is helpful. It's taking me time to get to grips with Blake — but there is one session left!
Thanks for this, Mark. A shame that an otherwise wonderful teacher could slide such an insidious lie into your young heart. A wound in which, surely, a powerful gift must live!
One of the gifts of my own chronic illness is that it has mostly liberated me from the world of deadlines into something more expansive. A serious limitation that has given much freedom, albeit via much suffering.
My hunch is that, like the left and right sides of the brain, the Imagination and willpower ought to be in balance. But also that, as with the brain's hemispheres, it is the right (Imagination) which ought to be in charge, seeing as it does the whole and the patterns, and the left (willpower) which ought to be in service to this - cf Iain McGilchrist's book, "The Master [right hemisphere] and His Emissary"
Here's to the fully liberated Imagination, in all its shapes!
I'm grateful you've had such good access to your Imagination, Eva. And I'm grateful to be finding better routes to mine.
And thank you for asking. My heart is bruised and battered, but beating strong! It knows it still has a great deal to give and receive 💚🐾✨
Also, the last few days of sunshine and warmth here are beautiful signs to my body that a little more energy is on the way in the summer months, which is very welcome indeed.
Not too bad, just a bummer it was in the middle of those beautiful sunny days. But then I realised I had my ‘spring’ moment before the sun even came out, which is also a win! Thank you for keeping me in your Pomona prayers, I really love that! 🥰❤️🩹
I associate left brained with linear which is not at all helpful to say cos I use linear as a catch all for what is probably left brained thinking 🤣 but one of the ways I use it is as reference to the shape/structure of thoughts. If thoughts are shapes and all the shapes are keys inevitably some people are gonna need a very lefty linear key to unlock the door to imagination. And I think that's beautiful. I think the shapes are beautiful, I think the care and attention to detail is beautiful.
Anyway this be a beautiful shape of a key, for a linear path to a door to the imagination.
Thoughts are shapes and shapes are keys to the door of imagination.
I like that a great deal, thank you 🙏🏼✨
The person to go to for a full understanding of left/right brain is Iain McGilchrist. His book "the master and his emissary" is apparently brilliant. I find him quite hard going though - it's easier to listen to him in conversation, or to other people talking about his work! 🙃
oh and Also- Danny.***************
<3
i love how even in times of us not being in contact we're somehow treading the same lines-- had my head in the gospel of thomas and the other nag hammadi scriptures this week, these past very days. falling asleep over and inside them, so called to them and in focus. and cynthia, cynthia, cynthia, cynthia. i admit that i didn't fully drop into this post because it's 2:37am. but/and, This* is what i'm currently thinking about and called to-- the imagination in christianity, et cetera. add to the imaginal pinboard to talk about, someday, sometime, lol. <3 (also, fuck yeah to your citation 1. i feel this way about my certain-times capitalization And my lower-case all's. :))
It's my intention that Cynthia will be the focus of a future post in this series. Still very much digesting her work for now, and the idea seems intimidating... but necessary.
!! up for a collab on it, not that you're asking LOL .. yeah my whole last year was digesting her; i want to (.. attempt to) synthesize her wisdom jesus/meaning of mary magdalene ..
Thank you for this post, whichever side of your brain inspired it! You ask what the imagination means to your readers. To this one, imagination is what he was told at age 10 (by an otherwise wonderful teacher) it was a pity he did not possess...
Now I am grappling with several of the questions your post takes up. I am gradually making my way through Lewis Hynde's book The Gift, which was recommended by Adam Wilson (of The Peasantry School). Yesterday I read this:
"Willpower has a tendency to usurp the functions of imagination, particularly in a man in a patriarchy. Yeats's shopworn formula — that ‘rhetoric is the will doing the work of the imagination’ — refers to such a state, for when the will works in isolation it turns of necessity to dictionary studies, syntactical tricks, intellectual formulae, memory, history and convention — any source of material that is which can imitate the fruits of imagination without actually allowing them to emerge." (pp 232-3 of my edition)
It added another dimension to my own dilemma, which is how to give the imagination free rein when in the midst of a world full of deadlines. I have not read the Iris Murdoch you quote, and the differentiation between fantasy and imagination is helpful. It's taking me time to get to grips with Blake — but there is one session left!
Thanks for this, Mark. A shame that an otherwise wonderful teacher could slide such an insidious lie into your young heart. A wound in which, surely, a powerful gift must live!
One of the gifts of my own chronic illness is that it has mostly liberated me from the world of deadlines into something more expansive. A serious limitation that has given much freedom, albeit via much suffering.
My hunch is that, like the left and right sides of the brain, the Imagination and willpower ought to be in balance. But also that, as with the brain's hemispheres, it is the right (Imagination) which ought to be in charge, seeing as it does the whole and the patterns, and the left (willpower) which ought to be in service to this - cf Iain McGilchrist's book, "The Master [right hemisphere] and His Emissary"
Here's to the fully liberated Imagination, in all its shapes!
Jezus was right :)
✨ imagination has been my biggest ally in my life, the last decade I’m pretty sure it saved my soul and sanity ✨
How’s your heart Jez?
I'm grateful you've had such good access to your Imagination, Eva. And I'm grateful to be finding better routes to mine.
And thank you for asking. My heart is bruised and battered, but beating strong! It knows it still has a great deal to give and receive 💚🐾✨
Also, the last few days of sunshine and warmth here are beautiful signs to my body that a little more energy is on the way in the summer months, which is very welcome indeed.
What shape are you in today?
The painting has finally got me. Thought I dodged the bullet. Nope 😂
May your heart be healed more and more by sunlight every day! ✨❤️🩹✨
Oh no! Bugger. Hope it's not too bad a flare 😕 I'm keeping you and a few others in prayer each time I'm at Pomona. You're in good company! 💚
And thank you. Less sunshine today, and it's going to get cold again, but getting a taste of it was enough to wake some things up! 🌞
Not too bad, just a bummer it was in the middle of those beautiful sunny days. But then I realised I had my ‘spring’ moment before the sun even came out, which is also a win! Thank you for keeping me in your Pomona prayers, I really love that! 🥰❤️🩹
I associate left brained with linear which is not at all helpful to say cos I use linear as a catch all for what is probably left brained thinking 🤣 but one of the ways I use it is as reference to the shape/structure of thoughts. If thoughts are shapes and all the shapes are keys inevitably some people are gonna need a very lefty linear key to unlock the door to imagination. And I think that's beautiful. I think the shapes are beautiful, I think the care and attention to detail is beautiful.
Anyway this be a beautiful shape of a key, for a linear path to a door to the imagination.
Thoughts are shapes and shapes are keys to the door of imagination.
I like that a great deal, thank you 🙏🏼✨
The person to go to for a full understanding of left/right brain is Iain McGilchrist. His book "the master and his emissary" is apparently brilliant. I find him quite hard going though - it's easier to listen to him in conversation, or to other people talking about his work! 🙃