In the early 1980s, Jungian analyst Russell Lockhart wrote a book entitled “Words as Eggs.” The title phrase originated in one of Lockhart’s dreams, where a voice said, “Do you not know that words are eggs, that words carry life, that words give birth?” This is so very true. It has been said, “Words Make Worlds.” Depending on how the words are used, they can hurt or heal. Words can be literal or poetic. Words can fix meanings into “this, and only this,” or allow it to breathe: “this, and that, and maybe that too.”
Words, when taken too literally, become prisons. They give rise to all kinds of fundamentalism. This has happened so often with scripture - not because of a limitation of the material itself - but that of the mind confronting it.
Today, we will explore what it might mean to bring a poetic attention to words. To allow words to be translucent. To breathe. To hold within it not only many layers of meaning, but also what is beyond meaning-making. To the poetic eye (or the poetic ear) - the world of mystery shimmers through the veneer of meaning. A life lived from this vantage is always an adventure - into mystery, into freshness, into a magical way of being.