The Sealed Vessel

by Richard Reeve on June 30, 2009

in @CCSeed

One of the lessons I learned from the artist Deane Keller first, and it clearly applies to any analytic undertaking as well, is the importance of the sealed vessel. In analysis the clear analogy is to the alchemical vessel, which if not properly sealed will result in the spirit escaping from the bottle.

I recall sharing with Deane one evening a vision of a poetic work I was formulating. My enthusiasm was electric. When he finally got a word in he questioned: should I be telling him?

As you might imagine, he was correct. The “work” never launched. Does this tale sound familiar? Can you point to the different approaches you took that resulted in either a successful completion, or a failed attempt? Does a strong hermetic seal have anything to do with it?

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  • What a great post! Thanks to Fred for tweeting me in your direction. I think you have discovered a hidden truth for all of us who deal in ideas and unknowns! Thanks.
  • Glad you found your way here as well...
  • Thanks for posting this. I KNEW about protecting the sealed vessel - I even illustrated that in Hexagram 2 - but I forgot and this was a wonderful reminder to respect that place. I am reading this just when I needed that reminder.
  • That's a wonderful image in the hexagram...
  • Too many of my great ideas end up sounding stupid (even to myself) if I don't let them ferment. Doesn't matter where I end up letting them leak, I end up being the critic and executioner. Nice to think there might be a reason for this other than a plethora of bad ideas.
  • It's interesting Fred, but I remember being totally caught off guard when Deane shared with me that I was dissipating my potential for success with my leaky enthusiasm. Learning to keep that in has made a huge difference in my results.
  • Sums up my not working as a writer. I'd much rather talk. It's only in sealed vessels (wombs) that projects come to fruition.
  • The analogy of the womb is clearly the most valuable.
  • This reminds me of a Bob Dylan Quote

    "Destiny is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you're about will come true. It's kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your self, because it's a fragile feeling, and you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It's best to keep that all inside."

    Anyway, I have this feeling all the time.. excitement about something and if I tell the wrong person.. the spirit escapes... at which point I ether have to work to recapture it or just move on, though sometimes you can just let it rest and it'll come back to you.

    What I find tough as hell is being an artist where you have this kind of feeling in your work, and what you gotta do is let the work out into the world... never mind just the part of asking for feed back!

    Sometimes the magic of it is sooo like inter twined with your own kinda personal whatever.. that its like.. I don't know if you can even experience the magic of it without that personal whatever providing the context for it.

    It has this strange relationship to consciousness.. the way you can only hold a certain amount in mind at anyone time.. and so much of what's making it resonate for you has its foundations outside of your conscious mind... so its like.. just standing there.. it's like the parts you'd need to sorta say why it resonates so.. you don't have access to.. which somehow makes it fragile..

    I think this is made particularly so by.. well I've been thinking about how the important things to say.. are somehow more difficult to say.. which is what makes them important.. and why people don't say them.. and a part of why people might not see the magic you do.. because its somehow hard to see in the same way its hard to say.

    I think the way to work this out is.. to have some kind of a faith in it.. a crazy deep faith.. I mean you can read most of the bible.. about folks and there relationship to God, as really being about your relationship to this magic.. the more you appreciate that the magic is like a personal gift for you.. and the more you can be like the fool tarot card.. or like not connected to the wheels of fortune in your commitment to the magic.. the more the magic grows in your life.

    I think this is really what its all about.
  • Hey Matt,
    I so love serving up a post for you to hit out of the park. Wow...you

    smoked it.
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