The Veil

How does one see through the thin veil that separates us from the ‘other’ ?

What is that other’ the poets, artists, mystics and saints speak of?

What does one do with the mysteries witnessed?

How does one express them in words and image?

I do not know the answer to any of these questions. But I know the more rationality my consciousness applies, the less accessible that veil becomes, and the further my soul retreats from its counterpart.

Rational and irrational, sense and senseless must be balanced proportionately.

I believe the vocation of an artist is to bear the tension of remaining on the cusp of the veil. not permitted to retreat to the safety and comforts of a less lived life nor allowed to fully cross over into the ‘other’

Momentary glimpses of mystery with all its euphoric ecstasy and suffocating depression must be fully assimilated internally and then expressed externally.

I do not like it. its punishing to my mind and body, often as destructive as it is restorative.

I sometimes long to go back.

Turn me into that pillar of salt

Drown me in that flood

Swallow me in that whale

Hang me in that tree.

But I have chosen to participate. To bear witness to the other. Because its both, the greatest gift and the greatest curse..

#siriussimon #blackandwhite #mythformodernman