Introduction to the process, the assignment

Between 2014 and 2016, I completed a two-year course in art phyletics and art therapy. Until then, I knew the theory and practiced these on myself, but without a certificate.
Below is an example from one of my self-experiential processes during that course.

This process began with an assignment on the course and it was the creation of the picture “Spring”.
We should use watercolors - that was all, no other instructions.
Each of the twelve course participants interpreted this topic in a completely different way. Each of us experienced a different process.

This is what makes art therapy unique to me... images, symbols emerge from each of us, completely spontaneously. None of us tried to present the most beautiful creation of spring so that the lecturer would be satisfied with the result. No, art therapy and art phyletics is about the process, about the internal process, about what happens inside, about our experience, and each of us is the original. There is therefore no performance or product that needs to be evaluated, as we know from art and other education. There is no fear if I will be good enough, if the final product will be well evaluated. And if that fear appears, because yes, we have it rooted in us from childhood, from school, then art therapy and art phyletics is a way to heal our creativity. Not just how to connect with ourselves, but really how to heal yourself, if you are willing to surrender to the process. There is a saying that also applies to the healing process: "The more you put into it, the more you get". I have to say that in art therapy the validity of this statement was confirmed for me.

The Process

Instinctively, without thinking about it, I started to paint myself as the Goddess Kali (the Hindu goddess of death, destruction, the ruler of time and change).
I was going through a very intense period of transformation back then, which was rather just the beginning of a deep change.
The picture is very dark because it is night and the moon is shining.
The woman in the painting - the "I" has several hands like the Goddess Kali, however, she does not have the weapons with which the Goddess is usually depicted. He has pieces of clothing in them, which he gradually takes off and throws away. During the process, I realized that each piece represents one of my illusions, attitudes, attachments, psychological or physical addictions, which I then named. The figure remains almost naked in the end.

Understanding the message

After the process, in this case the painting, in art therapy we talk about what we experienced, we write down our observations. The art therapist is a guide who communicates with us so that we can pick up the message that was delivered to us during the process. Some things can come to us during creation, some after it, and some gradually over the course of days, weeks, or years.

The process of death and rebirth

Spring is a symbol of rebirth. We can see how nature is literally re-born. But before something can be re-born, death must come first. In nature in the form of winter. So nature regularly shows us perfectly natural cycles of life and death, over and over again, round and round, in a cycle.

A Sufi proverb says "Die before you die."

We die and are born symbolically repeatedly in one lifetime. Sometimes less and sometimes many small deaths, losses must come in our lives so that the old life "the past" can be buried and a completely new life can begin. It is often a very demanding and painful process. We thus learn humility, we learn that everything physical is temporary. We learn not to cling to anything that would betray us. We let go of what no longer benefits us and hinders further development, even though we liked it. We leave what is no longer healthy or even toxic for us, to see what survives. We learn values that have a solid foundation.

The reason why I chose this painting painted on 11 April 2015 as the first sample here on my newly created website is that it resonates with the text I wrote a few days ago on 5 May 2024... that is, 9 years after I created the painting. Yes, it was a long process full of symbolic and real deaths and losses. Sometimes I helped it - released what was already dying - sometimes it was a shock, unexpected, as it usually is with death.

It is also no coincidence that my last power animal image is the Space Serpent coiling around a hatching egg (see totem animals). And the image waiting to be realized is the Butterfly, which is a symbol of the soul and mystical rebirth. All the animals that come to be painted come at the right time. This process is also spontaneous and synchronous with my experience and development.

A poem

The text I am attaching was born in the same way as the image, spontaneously, but without any previous instructions on the topic. There are texts that I think about, for example, comments on paintings, on the work here on the pages. However, this is a completely different kind of text... I write the words as they come to me, as if someone dictated them, they are messages for me. Just as messages come spontaneously through images, symbols in them, so messages come to me from within me through words and writing.
We can call it whatever we want, for me the content is important.

Energy resides within
everything is in your center
hidden in the depths
hidden in the deepest darkness.
This light needs to be cared for,
stay true to yourself.
The greatest gift to others is,
when you yourself are the light within yourself.
From this comes all calmness, peace and untouchability.
The storm is over.
You can look at it from a vantage point, from a distance,
from all sides
and open new doors.
What awaits you there is unspeakable. Don't be afraid to dream.

What you thought you were or should be
is no longer valid.
It no longer hurts to die in the lives of the people who created your story
about you, without you
and spread it further
without knowing what they are doing.
To die in a world that does not belong to you is liberation.
This gift is the greatest gift of freedom you can give yourself right now.
It's a gift of liberation from the past,
which thereby lost its power.

You are naked, completely naked.