Journey of the Wounded Healer
Do you ever feel like your life isn’t what you planned for it to be? I found a book called Life After God by Douglas Coupland and upon reading it, I found a quote that resounds in my head.
“I think I am a broken person. I seriously question the road my life has taken and I endlessly rehash the compromises I have made in my life. This is not to say my life is bad. I know it isn’t… but my life is not what I expected it might have been when I was younger. Maybe you yourself deal with this issue better than me. Maybe you have been lucky enough to never have inner voices question you about your own path; or maybe you answered the questioning and came out on the other side. I don’t feel sorry for myself in any way. I am merely coming to grips with what I know the world is truly like.”
The years have already gone by so quickly. As young as I am, I feel so old. And I feel like I am broken. I want to put myself back together. And I want to do it on my own. I don’t need family, friends or a significant other to recreate my being. I need to metamorphosize on my own, with due time.
Alex Grey’s piece titled Journey of the Wounded Healer speaks to me in ways that other pieces of art never have before. I will always remember the first time I was privileged to see this beautiful piece of artwork in person. I was completely taken aback. Standing in Alex Grey’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (which was located in New York City and has since then closed down), I gawked at all of the amazingly detailed and intricate paintings. I felt something inside of me spark to life. I think this was the closest I have come to a spiritual awakening. When I reached the Journey of the Wounded Healer piece, I had to sit down from being so overwhelmed. Something about it really hit me. I sat in awe, just absorbing every bit of what I could.
To me, the picture shows growth. Man is born into world that he doesn’t fit into. There are psychic bonds of materialistic entrapment that he is bound by. Finally, he explodes. He breaks free from all of it. He is reborn, into his own. The final panel shows his strength through his heart and mind. He appears above the middle world. He is on a whole new plateau. “He wields a crystalline hermetic caduceus with the balanced serpent powers of the unconscious and winged vision of the super conscious.”
Months later, I returned to the gallery for the third time. My favorite set of paintings had been removed. I wish I could have experienced it again, but I am grateful to have been able to see it in person twice. It inspired me in ways that I didn’t think were possible. It switched something in my mind. And I want to get back to that. I need to venture, to journey. I’m broken and I’m wounded. I’m vulnerable, I’m human. I am growth. I am change.
What inspires you?
