Without a Word, an excerpt

Word

If only I could get into their minds, get to their words, since I cannot leave this chair to accept their offering.  If only I could understand, could know exactly how they color me, color themselves, then maybe…

Light

If only I could crawl behind their eyes and see what it is they select for their minds, select for the feelings that flow from their senses beneath their soft white skins.  The feelings that build and subside like ocean waves.  Together we could ride those waves.  And in this togetherness we could create a life for the ocean, a level for its motion.

Word

We would ride those waves as I do now, alone, in dream…Imagine – floating on top of the surf that rises, in rhythmic, undulating changes.  Rises to meet the white sky.  And as it descends, the sky is cast with the color of a prismatic sunset.  But now, in this space, my thoughts sink through coherent light, falling lower and lower into my darkness, searching for a semblance of time.  And as it sinks, my mind tells me that there is no connection.  That my thoughts cannot be theirs, even in word, in knowing, in screaming…for my scream is silent.

Dream

Space sinks in mink like a semblance of screaming connection, like a silent thought that falls to meet a final word, the word that sinks in sunset

Their my sinks in thought like darkness, searching the silent light for connection, for semblance like a scream searching for space

My mind sinks, searching for connection, searching for the light of thought in space, lowering the scream into a final, knowing heart

The connection sinks in word, a final, even darkness as in my heart a sunset screams for light, searching for a silent knowing

Shadow

During dream, shadow moves across the stage using her/his arms, in almost a swimming motion, reaches the door, and claws it with his/her hands like a dog paddling. 

Mirror

The door opens, mirror appears with a mask painted with the colors of a sunset.  Mirror rocks head back and forth a few times, then slams the door.

Shadow

 Shadow rolls back to the rug.

Word

Oh, that door…

Dream

That door that door that door that door that door that door that door that door

Word

Thoughts and visions

Dream

Thoughts and visions thoughts and visions thoughts and visions thoughts and visions

Light

Thoughts come in vision. 

Word

That’s it!  What is known is know through vision.  I take it from me, and give it to their words, so that they may have it.  But how do they take it?

Dream

Take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it

Word

Take this silent offering that screams in word.  How can this window be?  When what I see within, they see without.  Without me, but with me.

Shadow

Shadow stands and begins to shuffle in circles.

Dream

Within without within without within without within without within without

Word

I am within, I am without.  Here in this space, now looking to see the vision welling up inside in waves

Light

I see it, I feel it, I understand it, I know it, I take it, I give it, they see it, they feel it, they take it, they give it…

Word

Yes, I dreamt it last night.

Light

I dreamt myself sitting above a massive white sphere, with color revolving, the color mine, evolving around it.

Word

And in the dream I reached for the color and as I reached and touched, the color entered me, entered my body and rushed through my veins like a surging stream.  And as the color took shape in my mind, the shape of a million faces, color poured out of my eyes and returned to its orbit around the sphere.

Shadow

Shadow approaches the door in circular steps as dream:

Dream

I you he she it we you they I you he she it we you they I you he she it we you they

Mirror

The door opens, Mirror appears wearing a white, circular mask painted with orbital colors.  Shadow and Mirror meet in motion.

Dream

Me you him her it us you them me you him her it us you them me you him her it us you them

Mirror

Mirror recedes, the door slams.

Shadow

Shadow returns to rug in circular steps and stands while dream:

Dream

I me you you he him she her it it we us you you they them I me you you he him she her it it we us you you they them

Word

But what if…loathsome chair, I am not a child again.

Dream

Am am not am am not am am not am am not am am not am am not am am not

Word

But what if…

Artwork Robert Parker    Many thanks.

Excerpted from Without a Word by Molly Brogan

Imagination is THE Key

AWAKENED IMAGINATION IS OUR CREATIVE AWARENESS AND ACTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

Our imagination is our biggest asset and tool for creating our lives and daily experience.  If we limit our imagination, we limit our lives.  Although our imaginations are unlimited, there are different stages of imagination, from the more mechanical memory and fantasy, to the more creative awakened imagination.  All play an integral part in our lives, but the awakened imagination really holds the key to our quality of life.  We use it when we are experiencing vivid dreaming or creative dreaming.  It ramps up the quality and functionality of our dreams.  We use it when we are in the witness, seeing ourselves doing, thinking, feeling and living.  We use it when we are praying, unifying the one and the many within us.  We use it when we move our subtle energies through our chakras in meditation.  In other words, when we step out of our mechanical functions and move into our creative functions, we do so by using our awakened imagination.

I reached a point in my life where I understood unity consciousness, meaning that I am connected to everything in life, and everything in my experience is of me. After this, I developed a greater awareness of my role in creating this experience, and what it reflects to me in each moment.  Imagination is the key to this creative process.  As feelings arise that tell me I am limited or separate from everything and everyone, I have learned to habitually evoke my awakened imagination to create feelings like joy or rapture.  These feelings allow me to realize that I am part of the infinite wonders of creation and completely connected.  If I find myself with negative thoughts about another, I can recognize them and then evoke my awakened imagination, to think of something wonderful for myself and another.  Using this tool of imagination to corral thoughts and feelings allows me to create an internal environment according to my highest potential by maintaining a resonance of creative good, thus bringing what is good into my experience.

Exercising my awakened imagination has become a daily routine for me.  I think that the most efficacious times are right before sleep and upon waking.  Before sleep, if I can imagine the qualities and experiences that I desire in my life with awakened imagination, the quality of my sleep and dreaming is dramatically improved.  I engage more in vivid and creative dreaming and feel better rested during the day.  I truly believe that in this way, what I imagine my life to be, will become my experience.

 Excerpted from All About Living by Molly Brogan

A Brilliant Moment of Inspiration

Mia said...

I like this post. How do you think of the things you write? Where do you get your inspiration?

Thanks for the questions, Mia. My inspiration comes during quiet times, and feels like the purest parts of me coming together. It can happen while waking from a dream, reading a book, meditating, watching birds in a tree, speaking to a friend - any time really. Something within me is triggered, and my ideas come together in a way that formulates an original statement and the desire to express it. I carry these statements around with me throughout my life, creating my life's work from them - like our symbols create our dreams.

I'm not sure I can explain it any better than Goethe did when he said, "It is not the material the artist takes from nature that makes a work of art, but what the artist puts into it from within. The most elevated work of art causes us to forget that it is based on a content from nature and awakens our interest only through what the artist has made of it. The artist forms naturally but does not form as nature herself does."

Recognizing Emotions and Feelings

Morgan said...

I have given this some thought. I think I understand what you say about negative emotions that keep us from finding any happiness. But I don't quite get what you think about the difference between emotion and feeling. Please explain. Thanks.

Thanks for the thoughtful question, Morgan. I think the words feeling and emotion are often used interchangeably, but I am convinced that there is a distinct and profound difference. Gregg Braden tells us that prayer consists of thoughts, coming from the crown, brow and throat chakras - and feelings coming from the base, sacral and solar plexus chakras - into the heart. I think that this feeling that moves through us is the energy that moves through the matrix of our being that we can FEEL. By remembering the feeling, we can move energy through our system. If we are feeling low, we can imagine feeling joy, and our energy will rise to the feeling of joy. By understanding our feelings like this, we learn to command our energies and can heal our bodies and raise our consciousness.

Emotions, on the other hand, are like feelings because we feel them too. But they are responses of our emotional body to events in our experience. If we lack emotional body maturity, our emotions can be based on patterns of previous experience. We feel fear when our hand is near fire because our hand has been burned before. When we are young, our emotions occur naturally, like the physical body functions of breathing and digesting. As our emotional body matures, we understand that the emotions that occur naturally can be changed by the way we formulate our responses or even our perceptions. We can choose to feel caution instead of fear. We can perceive fire as a thing of beauty instead of danger, because we have learned to respond appropriately.

In my first novel, Remember Me, Mary Margaret comes close to understanding the nature of her emotions and feelings, but in the end, is overwhelmed with loss and grief. In my second novel, Chasing Twilight, Molly has the emotional body maturity to not only pace her emotions, but utilize her feelings for healing and consciousness raising. This character will go on to explore the possibilities that feelings allow in the third novel.

Thanks again for this great question, Morgan.

Life Begins With Awakened Imagination

Morgan said...

Your character in Remember Me, Mary Margaret, has a lot of imagination. And yet, she is never happy. You say imagination is the key to how we create our reality. What does that mean?

Hello again Morgan and thanks very much for the question. The answer requires depth and is difficult to put into brief blog form, but I’ll try and would be glad to discuss further.

I understand that this is a mystical statement. The journey of my characters in my trilogy of novels is the journey of my spirit, written in a form meant to entertain. The characters are not me, but their journey reflects my own. In my own journey, I reached a point where I understood unity consciousness, meaning that I am connected to everything in life and everything in my experience is of me. After this, I developed a greater awareness of my role in creating this experience and what it reflects to me in each moment. This is where imagination is key.

Neville Goddard, the 20^th century mystic tells us, “Every moment of time you are imagining what you are conscious of, and if you do not forget what you are imagining and it comes to pass, you have found the creative cause of your world.”

I believe this to be true. More of his lectures on imagination can be found with this link:

http://www.nevillelecturehall.com/Lecture54.html

Molly Brogan

Artwork by Vivian George Many thanks.

There's a Blaze of Light In Every Word

Makram said...

In your book, Chasing Twilight, you begin to explore the role of the artist. Can you say what you consider the role of the artist in society to be, and why you write?

Thanks for the question, Makram. For as long as I can remember, I have written down words that allow me to feel the joy of living in one form or another. I was probably 10 when I put it into the form of a poem and thought about the experience of another reading my words. I have also pondered the divine for just as long. Between the ages of three and seven, my family lived near a large and beautiful church in the Midwest US. I would sit in that church for hours, fall asleep, and the nuns would chase me home.

I believe that the artist inspires our imagination with the works of art that they create. This inspiration can be anything from titillating interest to awakening imagination. We can be inspired in unity or separation but ultimately we are all one expression of the divine, as we are reminded by timeless works of art. It is here that the artist plays a role like no other because our awakened imagination is the key to how we create our reality. We are moved to include new possibility on the foundation of our current belief, and invited into our highest potential. The artist guides us through this movement with an inspiring work of art, transcending the separation between the artist, the work of art, and he who appreciates and allows the inspiration. In this unity process, we awaken. Molly Brogan

Discussion on words creating emotion in terms of Neville Goddard's "awakened imagination"

Shirley said...
Hi Molly, I have read A Blaze of Light and must say I could not read more then 4 or 5 poems at a time. They are so thought provoking for me and also bring up HUGE emotions. I need time to think about what you are really saying and must tell you I admire your honesty and your ability to put those thoughts into words. I will come back to your book many times I am sure--You make it OK to feel all of those different levels of life and have a great talent in putting the words to convey the story together .Shirley

Hi Shirley,
I'm VERY happy you like the poems. Thanks so much for your comments. I thought that your insights would be a good way to begin a new discussion, so I posted them here with my response. The notion that poetry invokes emotional response is an important one. If indeed, we create reality with thought delivered through spirit by feeling, emotion plays an important role. As a writer, it is a challenge to convey my experience of the most subtle levels of life. Some would say those levels are beyond words. I don't agree with that idea.

I think that if the words (through logos) can deliver an image and emotion to the reader, imagination can transport them to the realm of spirit. Once comfortable here, the imagination of the reader can awaken. This is the ultimate allure of art, to lead us to what Neville would call, our "awakened imagination," where we become the creators. We are inspired, after allowing ourselves to fully experience the beauty of a poem or story or work of art, to become more than who we are in the moment. We are inspired to create in our own lives. We are moved to create emotions and ideas and relationships and objects of beauty.

The poems in A Blaze of Light all speak to the nuances of relationship. Robert A. Johnson wrote a series of books in the 1980s to "provide an understanding of romantic love" called We, He and She. In his book We, he says, "we see with greater clarity how we have mixed our spiritual aspiration - our urge toward the divine - with our human relationships. This is the secret knowledge that is hidden behind the mystery of romantic love: how to live with and honor both of these powerful energies, which we have mixed together so deliciously and yet so dangerously in the wine of love."

Words of love are the quickest way to sweep us away in spirit and allow us to commune with creation. We all have experience in love, we can all relate on many levels of our being.

Thanks again for sharing, Molly Brogan.