Although I am an angry woman, and I am obviously angry with the patriarchy, I don’t see men as the enemy. It is counter-productive and to be honest, I really just like them too much. So I want to introduce you to someone I don’t really know, but who I have been very happy to trip over on the internet. One of his blog entries popped up when I put ‘unconscious sea’ into the search engine. When I clicked on the link this great digitally produced image entitled 'kayaking the unconscious' came next. After a quick look at his blog, I just had to talk to this man.
This info is from his own blog so I am sure he won’t mind me sharing it. Steve is a mature gentleman who lives and works as a part-time clinical psychologist in
Steve isn’t or at least wasn’t an artist but as part of his recovery he began to record images and the thoughts that came to him spontaneously over a period of forty days (I suspect this has something to do with the 40 days and nights in the wilderness). I admire his courage in having a go and getting these images out there, which in actual fact, are quite evocative. But my main reason for sharing this is, that although he is a male of the species, there were so many similarities between our journeys that it was just extraordinary.
It sounds as though he had a much more difficult time physically than I did, but imaginally and psychically we shared the same frustrations, confusion, loss of faith, all manifesting in many of the same motifs and symbols. What it says to me is that although we inhabit different gendered bodies, it is possible to experience similar things psychically. I have always felt that I was part male and we know that we are both male and female, ultimately gender doesn’t matter at all.
I was so excited to discover someone who had had an almost identical psychic experience to my own that I contacted him, and since then we have exchanged a few e-mails and compared notes on our journeys into the underworld. He is trying to get his blog published and I think it would be a worthwhile book to have if you were going through what he went through, or even what I did, or knew someone who was.
But this is not a promotional post. I really just wanted to make it clear that I am not suggesting we should simply substitute male chauvanism and ignorance for its female equivalent. One of my biggest frustrations is that my own gender is just as hell-bent on disempowering women as men are. It’s too simplistic to assume that the enemy is ‘over there’, and while any schism prevails none of us are truly free.
Images: from Steve Parker’s blog. Kayaking the Unconscious and Shark
