Re-enchanting the world

“Raised on the classic myths,
I see the drift nets of latitude
and longitude on the night sky
inhabited by beasts and gods.”
— from ‘Cities of Mind’, by Chase Twichell

In my living room, sandwiched between two other celestial bodies — the large oil painting ‘Celestial Kaleidoscope’ by Sally Horne and the smaller photographic artwork ‘Waratah I’ by Lucia Rossi — is another work of Rossi’s: her contemporary interpretation of the classic myth Daphne.

Daphne, the beautiful goddess so relentlessly pursued by Apollo that when she asks for help from her earth mother Gaia, the help comes through the transformation of her human mortal body into the eternal, ever flowering laurel tree.

I chose to place this art work in my home because I wanted to engage people, whenever they visit, in a conversation on the importance of taking the classical myths of Homer and the Greeks and looking to them to provide some sort of portal into re-enchanting our connection to and love of Earth; and in particular, the importance of understanding that to undertake this re-enchantment is to undertake the re-establishment of the feminine into our cultural mores of daily behavior.

I’m not arguing for a return to the metaphysical belief systems of the ancients in order to hold the world in constant wonder. Rather, we need to familiarize ourselves with the vast archetypal imagery that waits patiently in the storehouse of our collective psyches to help guide us to an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling life.

The power of any art work found inside the house is to move us to the outside of the house for a more phenomenological re-enchantment of the world.

And what better way than to get one’s hands dirty.

My shadowed figure, on the side of one of the six, slit like four foot tall raised garden beds, is engaged in an act of active prayer. With raised arms of gratitude they lift aloft, grasping like a chalice the earth’s dark breast of nourishment, and in so doing, propitiate and honour her secret mysteries.

Today, 100 garlic shoots are sprouting from the joint efforts of the earth’s fecund body, and, the fingering of my hand in the planting of these bulbs within her body.

To garden is to grow into an experiential awareness of the sacred eros of all life; of all beings; of all bodies.

Erotic Energy

Don’t tell me we’re not like plants
sending out a shoot when we need to,
or spikes, poisonous oils, or flowers.

Come to me but only when I say,
that’s how plants announce

the rules of propagation.
Even children know this. You can
see them imitating all the moves

with their bright plastic toys.
So that, years later, at the moment

the girl’s body finally says yes
to the end of childhood,
a green pail with an orange shovel

will appear in her mind like a tropical
blossom she has never seen before.

Chase Twichell