I felt that this is a perfect photo in which to engage in a bit of active imagination – looking at another possible universe through an opening that somehow emerges from our limited level of consciousness. It’s easy to imagine a paradise, a utopia of colour and shape that blends nature and man when we look outside of our daily worldview. Most of us take on a self-definition that sets limits on who we are and what we can do. With that box built, we become beleaguered by anything and everything that is different.
We shape ourselves as victims of the otherness, even when we dominate the otherness. Now, how does this make sense? Think of the abuser who batters his or her children, his or her spouse – their common complaint “you made me do it” is repeated over and over again suggesting that the abuser believes that they are the victims, not the perpetrators. On a less extreme scale, but infinitely worse are the collectives who operate as mobs, as collectives with one voice and one worldview, collectives such as religions and political groups. Our nastiest atrocities on each other has been through these collectives. The evidence of partisanship bent on destruction is seen in America, Europe, and Canada, as well as the major religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Accepting self identification with a group traps a person and blinds a person to other possibilities. The world ceases to be a colourful place and takes on a black and white aspect where each side is white with the other side being black – each side believes that God is on their side. And in the process of claiming these collective identities, one claims being a victim.
It is only through active imagination that we find an opportunity to see other plausibilities in a non-destructive, non-threatening manner. One steps aside from being victim and sees what one could be, what the world could be. What is rarely realised is the fact that these utopic worlds are not places of imagination, they are real places. Of course, one can also get there via a different route, that through reducing all to ashes and building anew out of the ashes. Personally, I would try the route of active imagination rather than pursue a path of denial and destruction.