Book of the Labyrinth: Within

(We’re looking at excerpts from my Book of the Labyrinth, a blank book into which I have written inspirational stuff, divided into the sections of RITUAL in Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy.)

Listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door;
Let’s go.
— e.e. cummings

WITHIN

Within is a section in my Book of the Labyrinth, but I did not include it in the structure of RITUAL in Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy. I have no memory of that decision-making process (although I imagine I blogged about it at the time), but as we look at the quotations in each section in relation to our Captivity I think it’s probably important to include it now.

The labyrinth, 10/03/20 | full report with photos here

Within is part of the RITUAL we deal with while we’re Taking the Path. Numen was our search for the Eternal; Within is the second thing we pay attention to. (Connection will be the third.)

Within is pretty simple, as hippie-woo goes: What have you brought to the path? What do you hope to get from the path? What is, literally, within you?

These days, in Captivity, what is Within is even more important. The very creative people I follow on Twitter — authors, musicians, computer programmers — are not complainers, but most of them have quietly posted about their lack of productivity or even lack of creativity during this time. They feel empty.

Who can blame them? In the best of times, MAKING THE THING THAT IS NOT is not easy. During the pandemic, so much of our energy and attention must be so outward-directed that we don’t have a lot of Within to examine. Or if we do, we find little burned, trashed scraps of despair or anger or frustration.

What’s an artist to do? The Book of the Labyrinth has some suggestions.

When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop singing?
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?
—Angeles Arrien

It may be you cannot thread the needle
Because it already has thread in it.
— Rumi

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am.
— Whitman

Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.
— Allen Ginsberg

Drunk and sober must respect the rights of each other.
— Ibn Arabi

We continue to speak,
if only in whispers,
to something inside us
that longs to be named.
—Dorianne Laux

I sloughed off my self as a snake sloughs off its skin.
Then I looked into myself and saw that I am Eternal.
—Abu Yazid Al-Bistani

If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you don’t bring forth what is inside you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.
— Gospel of Thomas

And finally,

Dance,
when you’re broken open.
Dance,
when you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance
in the middle of the fighting.
Dance
in your blood.
Dance
when you’re perfectly free.
— Rumi

The point is that if you look Within and find nothing, then that’s what you find. It’s not a failing — you are not a bad artist — you are permitted to be empty. It’s merely your state of being for now. Sometimes recognizing the darkness is the way to see where light is coming from. And, if you can, dance.