RITUAL for kids: TAKE THE PATH

The next portion of the chapter on RITUAL from Lichtenbergianism for Kids: Taking the Path

In my back yard I have built a labyrinth.

This is a classic 7-circuit labyrinth: the path goes around the center seven times. Try tracing it with your finger.

Many people think a labyrinth is the same as a maze, [1] but we labyrinth fans say there is a difference: a maze is a puzzle that you have to solve, choices you have to make, choices that you can get wrong. Dead ends and failure are built into a maze.

A labyrinth, on the other hand, has only one path: once you start at the beginning, you cannot get lost—you just follow the path and you’ll reach the center.

Here’s my labyrinth:

See the fire pit on the left? That’s the “fire” we return to.

People use labyrinths for quiet meditation or thinking—remember that you don’t have to think about where you’re going—and so my buddies in the Lichtenbergian Society have a saying:

Take the Path

to explore

uncover

confront.

Return to the Fire

to confirm

affirm

retreat. [2]

So Taking the Path means doing the actual, scary work of exploring/uncovering/confronting all those ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS and GESTALTS and SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS. [3]

Just like the Hero, you have to get up and take that Path—you have to into the woods—because that’s the only way you’re going to slay the dragon/win the princess/create art.

—————

[1] Mostly because of the movie Labyrinth.

[2] Does that sound like the Hero’s Journey to you? Good, you’re catching on.

[3] You might think, now that you know about ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS—>GESTALT—>SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS, that the creative process is more like a maze than a labyrinth, with choices, dead ends, and failure written all over it. I will not disagree.