Dipping Into the Newsletter Archives
V.07 \\ ES.02.05
Hello, friends!!
This week went completely sideways, in the way of this poor guy. 👇🏼👇🏼 Which means I haven’t had a spare moment to think, let alone catch my breath.
In lieu of new scribblings, I thought it’d be fun to dip into the archives and pull out some of my favorite essays.
Hope you enjoy, and I’ll see you soon.
So Lewis claims here that, not only do many of our physical experiences have resonance on a spiritual (or higher) level, but also, that some of those experience or manifestations are actually portals between this world and Deep Reality. We find that the higher reality floods the lower; the lower phenomena gain significance with their incorporation or participation in Deep Reality.
Books as conceptual doors to other worlds is nothing new, and I am one in a long lineage of those who discovered the ability to travel far afield through reading, and found themselves in some sense saved or sustained by it. But I want to say something stronger than that.
I want to say that books do not just carry signs (inert phenomena burdened by imposed meaning), but rather, that some books may actually be symbols: “phenomena [that] inherently carry meaning, because in it the thing signified is really in a certain mode present.”
In Piranesi, Susanna Clarke is wrestling with what it means to live, as a disenchanted modern, in a world in which other layers of Reality care nothing for our ignorance, and go on existing with heft and shape and concreteness.
I think Clarke’s wrestling with what it means to live in a world where those layers and its residents are in fact accessible to, and impinging on, our awareness and experiences.
I think she’s wrestling with what it means to interact with someone (or to BE someone) who has actually lived within “the House” of those other realities.
Because, as disenchanted moderns, we cannot go back to the past, either collectively or as individuals - we know too much, as it were. Neither can we access such older worlds as created the House, nor converse with our world as did Ancient Man. We have lost our ability to effortlessly believe in these other layers of reality.
Hey, y’know somethin’…?
The journey of growth and becoming can often feel difficult and lonely.
We live in a historical moment when we have more information at our fingertips than ever.
That can make it feel overwhelming to figure out who to listen to help you make sense of what you know and do in your life.
It helps to have a guide.
That’s why I started collecting resources that help me make sense of my own journey—from clarifying vision to setting intentions to changing actions.
Get your free guide with my favorite resources to support your personal formation.
Let’s be hopeful, creative, and wise—together.
Shalom,
Let’s work together!
I offer practice-based workshops, designed to empower participants to improve their mastery of the chosen topic and skill beyond our time together. My goal is to help individuals and groups cultivate priorities, practices, and structures that are purpose-focused, replicable, and sustainable over a lifetime.
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Megan J. Robinson / People Watching © 2024 by Megan J. Robinson is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0