Are They Upwards in self or an Uzumaki?

When you think of a spiral which way do you initially think of the flow of direction? We mostly see it as a downward spiral, like we are spinning down the drain like from the sink or shower. This form of thinking is inspired by the Uzumaki, a manga or live action film that shows the pull of the universe downwards through a curse of the downward spiral. I’ve noticed a trend online about snails through artistic movement or silly content creation. This connects to the story of Uzumaki as some of the cursed town turned into snails, while others were captivated by them. One costume I saw on Instagram stood out to me; it looked like a performance piece which links back to The Allegory of the Cave.

The artist created a frame and utilized a paper shell and a light source to cast a puppet show through the shell. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes the most tormented and chained couldn’t see the fire (the sun) only a dim glow that allowed them to see more shadows dancing around the cave walls. We could relate this to psychology and the use of shadow work of the self to free the self from its internal sand trap. Those who free themselves from their chains within liberations, utilizing a Jungian practice of shadow work helps them see a clearer picture of the world and navigation of their own minds. Sometimes this shadow work can exist within dream interpretation. I’ve gone back on my dream records highlighting parts that stand out to me, so I can find more synchronicity.

The original wanderers didn’t dance with the community around the fire, because those closed within the mind are truly trapped thinking the fire is their apollo or is it apollo 11 to some? As this fire was considered the sun and burned too bright for those who were already metaphorically on fire within the mind.  For me, this wanderer who took to shadow work to find their liberation saw the moon reflecting the true suns energy. You could say those cave dwellers in the Allegory who are looking at a fire as the sun are content with their needs not truly finding liberation through freedom of the cave or the mind but finding the comfort around the fire with their community. Some would consider them fools, but being trapped in a comfort zone shelters one from seeing the bigger picture, which to me is the earthly garden and finding the ikagai of life and knowing of what could be for the future of society.

Though self-liberation there are ways to spiral up, through self-discovery, finding connections with a higher frequency within community, and through connections to a spiritual path. I have found a school within my thought process of storytelling my life through the earth mind. One found through philosophical, psychological, myth and legend and connection to nature through synchronicity. This has become my reality, of connection to oneness within the theory of quantum entanglement on how we exist on different dimensions, frequencies, or helixes that balance the bridges of birth to self to connection to others. If we look at family connections our immediate family is our first pillar of connection. It’s how we learned to adapt, communicate, and learn. Family is a blend of generations, sharing or forcing us to be like them? For me it seems like a path is available through guided or pushed like an agenda. Honestly, it is only pushed as they want me to thrive and live within a similar realm of existence for them. As we can always adapt to our environments through the separation of work and play. Exploration, knowledge gathering, and experimentation is a form of play. Though our experience of life, we get to choose our family through our friendships and new connections as we experience life in our own ways.

My family helped me survive, but my new pillar or spiral upwards has been a connection to spirit through the universe and closer-knit family of those who see and synchronize within spirit. You could also look at this upwards spiral as a form of science or DNA which connects or disconnects between 2 helixes.  Metaphorically, it could be the concept of blending or creating a new universe through creation and the genetic code of procreation or survival of all living beings. My immediate family has worked for me and gifted so much wealth in order guide me towards a place to thrive. Now I spiral myself through the 9 layers of hell of not knowing or for me the Inferno. Playing the roles of both Dante (mankind) and Virgil (Human Reason) on how to survive without my families help. This new adaption has shown me radical self-reliance and how my morality doesn’t bend or stray too far in times of strife. Though needs rooted through addiction or emotional upheaval pushes us to exist outside of our moral understanding of ourselves and our true guiding morals or connections to spirit of religions.

 This makes me think of community on a grander scale of the one that we exist within our neighborhoods. How we all connect as we exist within different frequencies of reality? This is looking at community within the lens of the disability spectrum and how could inquisitive minds reach those who communicate through body language? How could we all learn more about each other though this form of play in a grey area within societal structures.  All of us exist within the overarching plane of purgatory (greed) of capitalism. This switch of humanity to a product of environment or product to be bought and sold or advertised via social media has led us astray within community today. It highlights the individualist culture as one of narcissism and protection of self through ego development. I keep mine balanced by not looking too far over one shoulder as it leads to overthinking the past too much. I keep my conscious mind thinking straight ahead, sometimes getting lost in speculative futures. These futures are only paths and forks in the road, sometimes they are crossroads. I only trust true content as stone only withers through erosion. If preserved our morality and ego can exist within the realm of meeting in the middle or finding balance as we have no control of others’ psyche’s. This is what feeds the white wolf in me.  I have found original thought and flow within the universe, but how do I market that?

Do I need to sell my face or create a new identity that will keep me on an even plane in purgatory or do I find more spirals upwards in creating new characters for myself like an actor would. don’t want to, I feel as though content and information and ideas should be read like a book. It’s not something that should be marketed in my opinion. Communities have libraries, on the streets and in community spaces. This should be a spiral up in creation and design of the world. Though I am not responsible for its misdeeds or judgements. Though I feel blamed for everything, that my raging fire within myself is not able to be managed or is seen by reality even though I mask and show good intentions. Intelligence does not matter to the greater whole of society.

Alleys of the Mind: The Modern Divine Comedy

Waking up one morning after the night of my birthday, I felt as though I began my trek of busting out of the simulation of modern-day life. I experienced a hallucinatory mania that felt connected to all aspects of religion and the Power of Myth, written by Joseph Campbell. Taking my own personal Hero’s Journey of creation, I began to connect to the Hero with 1000 Faces as a spiritual mentor and guide to those spirits lost within their unconscious, subconscious and conscious minds. Spiraling up and down and every which way around, in our modern-day Inferno: anxiety, depression, and manic episodes. I denounced it as mental illness for myself, due to my own experiences of it. I tend to isolate and self-destruct instead of taking my mania out on people. The true connection point here is human connection, being seen within reality. As the mindsets are similar and we can balance, learn skills, and grow from the seeds of knowledge we spread. The Inferno within our own alleys of the mind, which we project onto others, is within our own mental states, a metaphor for how we see and hear within reality. Typical Human Nature is trying to control self and others, thinking negatively, telling people who they are, or pushing doubt into their current internal environments. To be an effective leader all must be seen and heard connecting to the bigger picture of a close-knit community.

I began to look back through history and look at it through the perspective of reality and the parody of the Divine Comedy. This age-old collection of books and Renaissance paintings showcase the reality of the mind in Hell, the body and mind in Purgatory, and Paradiso.

What is truly needed within society in order to heal and connect truly with everyone’s reality of the mind and the actions that do or do not follow the screams for help. Apparently for some, asking for things online is not an answer, we need to be problem solving on our own frequently and rapidly in order to keep the mind focused and present in order to continue to thrive within an urban or suburban hellscape of lack of community.

This hallucinatory (…?) or metaphysical space of physical entities from the dead, for me I see the shadow people stuck within their own personal hells within their mental inferno. I tend to call these people the lost, even though they are visible to everyone in society, just ignored and the stigma of disability or inability to work is placed upon them. In this travel from hell to purgatory, I realized there are many living souls here, untethered to their physical bodies. Is it astral projection? Or is it the spirit of voyeur? Watching people suffer or enjoying the thrill of suffering. In the past the only human condition was considered suffering as we are all aware of our mortality. Though hope of the better future and personal victory to find comfort within ourselves and through larger communities.

Within myself I felt the connection to time and space as I traversed my memories and past artwork, from kindergarten to a modern woman in America.  At first it seemed like a Modern Renaissance of rebirth within me on the precipice of a divine creative story. Which this is based off of. Though now after spiraling through the self and a projection of others. I found my self-destructive nature turned into something completely othering from a tribe of people once chosen to connect with. Realizing that the community within is filled with holes and the black and white thinking of human nature, not really listening to their human reason or being guided by a wise mind. We cannot force people to exist within purgatory, as we all are finding what we need to reach our own Ikagai. I thought I was on the way, until I apparently misspoke and was rejected from a community reality. My only connection became one of the internet which is where human connection goes to die.

I attached meaning from myth and lore to everything I saw and experienced within the synchronicity of nature. I began to look at them as a side quest to find my own internal peace, self, and reconnection to the self within the expanse of the universe. Within my thought process I’ve chosen not to label people and let them exist how they please. Within The Original Divine Comedy, purgatory is seven layers deep, connected to the Seven Deadly Sins. I was able to face my own, though, others would argue that smoking nicotine is Gluttony. I look at it through a medical lens of willpower and dependance on a substance to find moments of Paradosio within myself. Through this spiritual journey of connection within self and my own power of creation, I realized we can reduce our own stigmas within ourselves by maintaining the good; positive thinking and choosing to continue on our chosen paths, until we find true connections with those who want to commit to face to face communication.  The general pessimistic outlook on reality and world is what clouds our judgement. The true solution is finding happiness within the positive or good wolf within the higher self. Within existence we are seeking solace, solutions, and work that stirs our souls to achieve higher planes of knowing and confidence within a body of work. I lost myself unable to speak clearly with the community all around. I felt as though I was living as a mute, yet I felt the vibrations pour out of me as I thought and hummed with my throat. Sending a secret language and energy to ancient civilizations of peace and understanding of previous traditions and how we can look to the old to generate new knowledge and inspiration for the play of life.

The Lost: Ghost Within the Shell

I turned 32, 1000 years ago, it seems. I’ve been trapped in this past of knowing the stories told through generations and the mystery of the universe that connects us all. The start of our paths to devoted work. The stories we keep telling ourselves to write our own fabricated reality.

Do you hear the bells?

The story of the world. Composting, recycling and becoming. Some stuck in a landfill towering above the soil, reeking of pollution and trash.

We’ve become ghosts and shapeshifters as we only see and connect with people at parties, varying differently then how they appear online.

Are we viewed as a self or are we perceived as a character in the play of reality?

Is truly reality, to highlight our existence online to be seen? For people to change their shape and form when they make a new identity online? Or does the screen only showcase how we perceive within our own minds eye. Some living in the future, some living in the past.

I began to wander outside the foxhole, connecting with others who were lost. Not all those who wander are lost, though. I’ve learned that we lost all connection within our current society due to the ghosts in the screens so focused on appearance and vanity over the reality of others’ true lives. The mind plays games of illusions, but I think I see it very clearly. The darkness we all share within our true bodies, but our spirits shine bright, emitting the colors of the rainbow.

The true ghost stories live within technological screens, haunting, or seeking connection. Our outcries for help in finding connection is lost. Personas created, alter egos developed, and non-selves cut deep into the souls of the living. Our voices are read, but never quite heard or seen. The algorithm tricks us to believe we are all followers and friends when we really don’t know anyone at all this way. We’re all decaying the body desperately seeking things we will never find online.

Human Nature is lost and darkly exposed, as we flow through our very natural feelings. Caught up in the anxiety and rage of the modern day. I found solace and freedom in the raining sky, the babbling brookes, and the strong oak trees that connect us to nature. To the natural, to the materials, to the things that take time to wither and decay. Sitting in the grass watching the trees wave to me and watch me with it’s compassionate eyes. I found my safety from the mystery online.

My mind connected to the sun and moon screams like a Winnebago and my spirit howls like a wolf. Desperate, lonely, and looking for an authentic connection to a like-mind. Hungry for something more than the silence and stillness of the home.

The natural world is full of sound and frequency that can be heard when we wander within the trees. Yet, though there is unity within ourselves, the mycelium and the roots of the trees. There is no unity within humanity. Fleeting conversations and forgotten faces and names as we carry on with our busy lives.

Humanity is nothing compared to nature. Human nature is existence of suffering. The Natural world will continue beyond our human nature of destruction and hierarchy. A structure of society created within a concrete jungle of stepping on others to rise to the top.

The war wages on within this apothroscene. We are playing our roles, as we try to survive. What are we surviving for? Nothingness and silence, to those who do not see or hear the cries of others or the cries of our past selves. Does anyone actually listen to these screams or is it the inner voice screaming for us to move forward within our own creation?

How does it begin without the connections we truly need? The ones who think with the Earth in mind. The ones who think positively or wonder how people are doing as they continue to try and connect. What is the missing piece to this worldly puzzle. For me the answer lies within your dreams. 

Memoir of Spirit: The self vs the shadow

I appeared backward, showing my worst over my best. I’ve been living in shadows, hiding out like a snail only emerging in the rain. If we compare that to colors or shades, it would be more in black and white, depending on what we choose to feed ourselves about others. In this story, I refer to the parable of the Cherokee Natives about the one you feed. In society, it’s what we, as humans, feed to ourselves or about others. I lost myself in a Uzumaki, a downward spiral of self. Those who struggle with mental health issues know that we can spiral down or up. In my downward spiral, I faced my shadow self—seeing the version I never wanted to reveal. Yet, we are not always balanced within ourselves or our purpose. Healing and life are not linear. Still, we can choose to exist on perpendicular or parallel lines.

If we narrow our focus to society, we can look at major issues in communities like exclusivity. This is the black, which is linked to other controversial topics such as centralism, similar to fascism or dystopian thinking. Think back to 1984, by George Orwell; does it start with the thought police, or is it the beginning of the globalization of our economy and the fall into late-stage capitalism and modern times? Our current government seems quite centralist as they focus on connecting and projecting a predominantly white audience. Looking at it backward, this race of white is associated with black—the color linked to centralism, symbolizing the darkness of human nature. The desire for power and control, often tied to whiteness, is an old story of domination, leading to the whitewashing of natives, African Americans, and their rich heritage and cultures.

Refocusing back to the self, and my journey, the legend of the red dwarf, the Nain Rouge, and the start of spring symbolize native efforts to chase out the white devil from their land. Yet, with weapons like guns, knives, or modernly words, we can choose to rage battle or burn these influences out of our lives and seek goodness for ourselves and others. Social media functions as a propaganda machine recycling much on the black of society. Reading these kinds of posts of the 2-dimensional thinking of politics today. Has really taken hold and done a number on the grey, or the millennials. It has radicalized us and we aren’t seeing everything with clarity.

What could true goodness, connected to the spirit of self and a higher bond with Mother Earth, bring? I often think about iridescence or transcendence—energy and wavelengths unique to each person. To me, people are like colors, some carry invisible wavelengths—radioactive, ultraviolet, infrared—visible to the eye. When considering mental health and symptoms of psychosis—where DMT, serotonin, and electrical activity spike—auditory hallucinations might be seen as superpowers for highly sensitive individuals, even if society deems otherwise. We all exist on this scale. What’s typically looked down upon doesn’t define us. How we choose to see ourselves defines our authenticity and the goodness of the self.

My mother always says, “Make good choices.” reminding me to live within my iridescence—my highest self—in a balanced life. While the color white might seem pure and opaque, in spiritual terms, it can be offensive. My spirit’s colors are a deep, rich blue-violet—the color of nebulas and the universe’s vastness a combination of indigo and violet flowers. To me, God is the universe and nature combined: the eyes of God are within the bark of trees, the seeds and spores we plant and spread, through our wisdom, understanding, and compassion.

Reflecting on my shadow and society’s, I see myself in a mirror—my reflection, light, and colors. If we look universally, my spectrum is a rainbow—a whole range of light and variation, symbolizing transcendence and iridescence. To me, goodness is clarity—seeing people, situations, and time clearly over purity. My ancestors and spirit guides are reflected in the animals of nature, especially the wolf, reminding me that though my skin is white, we’ve all lived in different colors through past lives. This history stretches back to ancient times, leaning more toward a Pythagorean worldview than Plato’s—both brilliant thinkers, but one more connected to magic and metaphysics, which I consciously embrace.

After my healing journey, I’ve identified key archetypes based on Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey: the caregiver, the magician, and the explorer. I’ve taken a hero’s path of self-discovery through a personal renaissance—a kind of deus ex machina in my artistic expression and language. The question “Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?” drives me. I plan to craft my own story as a wandering kitsune—someone who picks up thoughts and ideas, swirling them in the cauldron of consciousness—linking frequency, energy, vibration, and wavelength.

Thanks for wandering with me,

Nyx

What is the Fabric of Reality?

A metaphorical split in the seams of 1’s and 0’s, a glitch in the matrix? A connection to dot and lines, early symbols, scriptures of the past. Viewed more modernly a period of illusion and delusion within the psyche, a neurosis within conscious thoughts.

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My consciousness of being, contains a spiral of the elements and compass of direction in which we understand self and journeying the planes of our existence within the mind and with the planet. The rhythm of the earth sways us with the energy of life flowing past or knocking yourself out to bring notice to something that plagues our personal bodies and minds. Like a blockage within one of our chakras. Our ancient connection to the ancestors of this land and our guides and mentors, along the journey of life. The self incarnating and metamorphosizing like a moth emerging from silk, caught in a silly war with themselves. There are many folklore and metaphor about the tapestries we all weave as we navigate our ever-changing environments.  We all have a story to tell. Mine resides within my ikagai, knitting my tapestry of life and connections through the concept of close-knit communities.

In our expansive generational divide, our black and white thinking, technology and mental health trends, everyone speaks a different language intertwined within the urban habitat. The connection to spiritual self is often lost within general society and yet aspects of it are everywhere in health and wellness trends, such as yoga. If we look at the new disability epidemics such as mental health and autism spectrum disorder. Wellness is essential though it is possible we can find new ways to communicate and play. As much folklore tells the story of the tapestries of our lives, like that one of the red string or the story of weaving our own tapestries within our individualized strings of wants needs and desires. I feel as though knit has become the modern fabric in terms of fashion in a post-pandemic world. Such things as athleisure has become our most modern day trend for those working from home or generally looking for more stretch and comfort within their clothing. How could we bridge knit and communication. Looking at it through the lens of color and texture, and craft counter movements. We could find throughout history craft and communication has been aligned. Previously as a form of women’s work through things like the Civil and World Wars. Craft has always been a means of undercover communication between women in craft circles. If we look at current trends and the ease of movement within knitting over weaving we can find most crafters are knitters and crocheters in our current day.

Whether we are completely subscribing to capitalist ideals or in the interworking of doing our part to help save the planet. We all know how important community is to recovery of addiction and mental health issues. There is one aspect of reality that many people seem to forget which is play. We are caught up in the everyday of purgatory of living our lives as we seem fit. How could we redirect, come together, and find new ways of play in our lives today. Many rely on having children to help us unlock the lost pieces of ourselves that inspires play and creativity.

Within this project I’m looking at the current state of our planet in Apothroscene. An era that began in 1980’s due to globalization of America’s economy. How can we make this purgatory of our bodies shift from this hierarchy of power over other humans and nature move into more of a Renaissance of life within sustainability and utopian design thinking strategies.

The Wandering Kitsune

During times of visionary based emotional healing we connect more with nature. Looking for the dots, lines, and patterns as they knit new meaning in ourselves and new identities. This is the story of how this new understanding of life came to me…

A few years ago, I went out to play at an off community gathering where I unknowingly met my spirit for the first time. I first met a woman who told me my spirit was a fairy and as the night progressed a siren, as my eyes began to glow under the colored lights. I connected with families who were creating new spaces for community to gather and to share new ideas.  I met a lifelong friend who asked if I wanted to paint with fluorescent color on a spin art bike he had made for gifting. Realizing my inner child began its healing journey through wonder and motion as the paint dripped and splattered, blending with colors I had never seen before. I listened to stories of lives lived around a community fire living free within a divine comedy. A major attack on innocence on this evening, shook our collective to the roots. It turned the comedic energy of our collective space into a divine tragedy. With time frozen for a lot of us, my friend and I continued our banter, teaching me about positive distraction. Finding light in the dark realities of our world and seeking new energies as the negativity and anxiety of the gather began to vibrate around the space.

My new friend was a wanderer, putting his spin art on a mobile cart to welcome new people into our community to eventually lighting the fire of flow within himself. Gifting small packages of creativity and wonder, as he walked around the world. Being fresh blood in this divine space, I didn’t realize my potential of creating more inspiration for those who play. The more I connected with people within the community and met more of those who were guiding and inspiring further bridges to link us all together. Many of us are lost, but those we interact with help us seek hidden truths within us all if we take more time to see our places outside of society.

Through years of experiences like these and the experience of lighting my first solstice fire on my birthday. I found my glittering magic that guides me through the webs of societal judgement and disconnection within our modern communities. I spent many years not seeing the kitsune I collected in the forest that fateful night. I had kept his freedom of movement locked in a cage of my own anxieties. I stood frozen left in a mess of pandemic stress, propaganda, and rage. Losing the joyful, fiery spirit that was the child inside of me. I became the fox that I had trapped, looking to design to find healing and wellness from my eternal stress.  Though the kitsune only grew more rage, as I lost my identity to fit inside an even smaller cage.

I had to find inspiration from the internet for products and consumerism that kept me lost, seeking more and more knowledge to fill the void. I was slowly filling my holes with online personas, new authorities, and mindless media. Becoming a voyeur of judgements, consumer ads and trends, and holding all those woeful stories and negativities underneath my skin. All those cozy knits I wore to protect me from the sins of society were deteriorating. All I had was one strand of red yarn left. So, I grabbed my yarn needle and I started to fill the holes within my rainbow socks. Trying to stitch all of us back together in my soul with joy, laughter, and movement towards building for something greater. Howling at the full moon as I was filled with so much excitement for the futures that could be created.

Though these inner spirits are guiding our bodies to connect through the metaphysical airwaves, guiding us to find the ritualistic performance and rhythms of the universe, we have lost to the concrete and iron of cities. Music and dance still unify us in these spaces, many now looking to events that connect and inspire us to higher states of being. These synergistic energies show us something greater within the construct of time, understanding reality, and our safe places within nature. This inspired me to create new profound identities, new solutions to urban problems, and new ways of seeing through the divine mother.

The wandering Kitsune spirit within me lead me to move again. Awakening my high priestess of knowing looking at the signs all around us and connecting the dots, and lines within nature, stirring me from the simulation. Breathing me into rebirth for a new reality for me to see with a head held high out of the matrix. To share this message of going back into the body to guide us back to our roots, rhythms, and fiery breaths.

This spirit became a guide for my own emotional healing and divine inspiration through concepts of the collective unconscious, and those I hold dear to mentor and guide through my experiences within life. Looking to magic and knowledge to spread seeds of internal healing to open my mind’s eye. Growing and gifting our own radiant energies that feed our eternal earthly gardens. Looking to each element to find grounding, with the desire that we could all play together again and nurture more compassion.

I once felt like a tiny fly littered with disgust, big dreams, and no movement on my path. Has now cocooned through the lines created within my internal mind map. This process has been as metamorphic as a butterfly fluttering its wings with spectral colors.

Is it purple? Is it blue? No… it’s periwinkle? Though, it is any color you choose to see.

With the knowledge of science, its wings are just light refracted in scales refracting different wavelengths of light, visible to all who see color. This butterfly’s true beauty resides in the eyes of those who really see past human judgements and all the stereotypes ingrained in our society.

It’s time for my Kitsune to reignite its chaotic fiery spirit for something good. On my new wanders I gather the easter eggs the universe places for me alongside the toxicity of our littered planet. Holding them in my pockets till they can find a new home. Growing the tendrils of mycelium within my mind to spread a new network to the relationships I keep, the new spirits I meet, and for the healing of our divine mothers. Wishing to inspire new forms of building materials, interactive art, and designing with nature in mind. Hoping to spread the joy of playing the Kitsune has brought to me, for new generations of thinkers, designers, and creatives who want to build better communities.

Why go to mars and start over without our ancestral spirits? We could look to the sun for warmth and connect with our moon, which ignites new paths for us in times of uncertainty and darkness.

Thanks for taking a walk with me,

I wish to tell the story of the spirits who guide us into becoming more enlightened beings through the work we do in the everyday matrix of society. I want to inspire and connect networks all around Detroit. Utilizing design thinking in finding new solutions to major urban problems. My hope is to inspire new generations to create their own webs based off of the stories told through my experience in gathering, gifting, and play.

Community in the 4th Dimension

What do you think of when you think about community? Your neighbors, co-workers, friends, and maybe even people you interact with on social media. For me, a community is built through compassion, inspiration, and skill-sharing. Nature provides us with the landscape, which serves as our guide to finding safe places where we feel welcome.

I wanted to think about the term "community" broadly and narrow it down to the pieces in which it could grow. I’ve always had this feeling of being out of place within the overall constructs of society, so I found niches in which I found a sense of belonging. For me, it started with me, the individual (a dot), mapping the lines that connect us.

I first joined my community 4 years ago, looking for a greater sense of freedom. Through my initial interactions, I found new freedom in skill-sharing with others, embracing child-like play, and small tokens of art created together. From the confidence built within these experiences, I began to wander further, meeting new faces that saw me in the newer version I was. My network expanded further, always finding people who shared moments and experiences of healing and embraced my artwork. This expanded into a version of me that had an overall sense of freedom. Within my work, within my identity, and within the overall community.

Within my thesis proposal, I outlined the term ‘close-knit community.’ It is defined in the dictionary as “bound together by intimate social or cultural ties”. For me, close-knit or tight-knit refers to communities and human relationships that are strongly linked, with intimate bonds of compassion, interests, and skill-sharing. When I think of close-knit, I think of a tightly knitted sweater with no poor tension gaps or holes, which relates to a community that sticks together, leaving no opportunities for someone to "fall through the cracks."

Large community networks have fallen apart due to digitization, leaving more holes than lines to travel through. Leading to depression, loneliness, and isolation as we try to throw our ropes to the other side, hoping someone will catch it and help us across. Digitization makes us forget the one thing that unites us all on this planet: nature. We forget we are nature living within our concrete jungles and private housing. We’ve constructed a future in which we never have to go outside. Technology isolates us from people, as we look to our phones instead of at each other. Our profiles have become our masks, hiding our true selves from the rich wonders nature provides every day. We now look at it through a screen, not seeing the webs of connection that unify all things. Our connection to nature and each other is our human power. It’s finding the flow in all things, from the grass in the breeze, how mycelium helps the trees, and how water flows through all of us and our constructed societies. Products that connect things, like yarn and cables, are made of threads, which make thin lines larger. This relates to the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese term meaning “reason to live”. You become the yarn or cable bulked up by the threads that hold you together. I found that the togetherness of all things, from what I love to what I’m good at, and finding a solution for what the world needs, is my reason for living.

How could we, as a society, mend this relationship with technology? To remind us that we all breathe the same air. I want to look at it as a tool to reconnect ourselves physically within time and space. Making technology more useful than screaming our opinions, comments, and lifestyles for all to see. I want to look at technology through a new lens. Seeing how it could create community spaces that embrace our pasts, heal our present emotions, and create safer spaces for new generations to gather and make new connections. Helping people find their inner child and feed it what it needs: healing, play, and opportunity. Through this project, I hope to rebuild the confidence lost to social media and the new ways we treat and see everyone around us based on what is fed to us online. Rebuild the network of nature and nurture unified to give people higher paths within their thinking and minds by tapping into the flow and movement of growth instead of feeling stuck where we are.

I hope to inspire more movement in work and play that could unify more communities today.

Thanks for wandering with me,

Nyx

Synchronicity Within the Universe

When you’re opening the gates of your mind, whether it be through tunnels, spirals, or caves, you can come across synchronicity within your everyday life. Those feelings of Déjà vu, repeating numbers or thoughts, and nature aligning and finding animals that tell stories when time is taken to honor them. Maybe you’ll see the magic in things not normally seen. Choosing to find meaning within it or not. Maybe we should look to synchronicity in nature as a movement. As we learn more about it, we can find more commitments to ourselves, to each other, and to our families. Not just the things we are saying to ourselves, to feel more real in isolation. Isolation is okay sometimes; it can help us feel more connected to ourselves and heal from generational and life traumas. Trauma lives in the body, you see, and sometimes all it takes is a little hug from your family to heal in the right places.

Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit lost, thinking it’s Christmas in July, but only because I’ve been fluctuating so much through doorways of my mind. What is it really? An optical illusion or a reality? If we go back to the allegory of the cave, we can find an uncharted system that could lead to a search for a new ecosystem and a new life, because for some reason, things are just a little funny when things seem off. I’ve been reading books differently recently, jumping around like a little jumping spider, finding new ways to tell my story. Having conversations with myself through the pages. It makes me ponder Valhalla and the ancestral heavens, and how, when we read through runes, we could find ways to write a new language to people through metaphysical spaces.

Though one thing always bothered me, why are some families only interested in money or gluttony, when we have care, kindness, compassion, and joy that brings us more wealth than cash itself. Though we can spend time with people, we are so caught up in the pleasures that we lose sight of going for a wander. To chat and connect again with each other. Maybe we just get caught up blaming our mothers, to see how much we all need each other, because everything we attach to our identities becomes our healing through self. But is healing Jungian or Freudian? That is up to you, because spirals go both ways, helping some people find ways to think and grow rich within themselves, not the current system. Though through this patriarchal society, we will always find spinners, weavers, and looms who create the fabric of our realities. It all starts as a line tracing the threads of what we desire most in life, where yarn and cables unite, in ikigai, a togetherness in all things. Looking at what you love, what you’re good at, and what the world needs.

 Connection is power in all the synchronicity and flow of the universe through our cities, through the grass we sit on in parks together, to the water of our lakes and rivers, to the gentle breeze that breathes new life into us, but what could be next? Maybe it’s Martians who grow from looking at our own disgust at things, even when it's just a gentle fly or a mosquito trying to heal a disease. In simulations, we are humans with brains like computers, mind-mapping our lives through our connections. It could be a best friend, a mentor, a partner, a family system, or even a spiritual belief. The world seems so much brighter when looking at smaller communities instead of all the big issues plaguing our planet. Maybe we start at home base and see the connections we have through nature sounds and musicals, Detroit city, and earthly delights to find upward movements through spirals to places like Nirvana, or is it Valhalla actually?

The Mind is a Mirror or is it a Cave?

Ask yourself this question: Is your mind a mirror or a cave? In a philosophical way or an allegory of a cave?

If we look at Plato's Allegory of the Cave, within its image, we can see 4 houses of cognitive activity of the spirit of consciousness. Within self and within cosmic connection to the liberator of self-connection to the stars, to nature. Nurturing a community, philosophy, and finding your flow within the ebbs and flows of everyday life. It is a connection to self and place within the oneness and expanse of the universe. Inspiring forward movement within self-development and growth.

Our thoughts and feelings reflect like a mirror on our faces, through our energies, and in the unnoticed tones and voices of our own minds. A reflection pool of our true selves and all the good and dark parts of it. As if becoming a character in a play of reality. The mirror can reflect us as different versions of self or archetypes we fall into, even as characters we play, night and day.  

The cave shows us there is a way out of the self's containment of darkness, filled with distractions, and of finding freedom in discomfort, through metaphors of fire, shadows, and puppets of different levels or pieces of the personal hero’s journey. Plato describes those with chains watching shadow puppets and light flickering on a wall in front of them. This makes me think of those who live a more sheltered life of repetition over exploration. How would you escape your chains?

is how you adapt in situations, as well as subconscious conditioning from past experiences, breaking free of cultural conditioning. In modern society, we have ancestral knowledge and generational learned behaviors that we are, at times, unconsciously aware of. These are some things we could dive deep into, creating more suffering by knowing the self in an characterized light.  Something that doesn’t reflect our initial character but is deeply ingrained in our DNA. Within a speculative technological future, a call for the liberation of consciousness is necessary for more utopian thinking. The human condition is suffering. (Highlight The Art of Being). Plato theorizes that the sun is the fire within the cave, the deep unconscious of liberating from trauma. The Metaphysical (add quantum entanglement and the creation and power of myth + Plato). The ominous shadows that speak of life, love, and war.  4-dimensional shapes and language to those suffering in confinement. However, some are so deep in darkness that they can only see shadows, this layer of our fractals, splitting, spreading traces and tendrils. The dark traumas within the human psyche, Traumas of life and suffering, to reach higher forms of imagination and connections within the neurological mind map. Spiraling up and down and every which way around, Plato mentions that those confined eventually find a way out of their internal darkness, a war of worlds. Did they go deeper within themselves, create an ego for protection, and become a new light for humanity? Or can we even make it out of the cave, as a new inferno of Anthropocene within our planet, seeing a new. The moon is another form of self-reflection as a mirror to the sun and a light source at night. How do we put this in modern terms?

If we look at nature, nurture, philosophy, and flow within movement, could we find our lost spirits, our ancestral powers that we collect by dancing around fires? To me, it seems that the majority of humanity has lost its internal spirit and is experiencing a loss of soul. What is sucking it away, becoming slaves to a system that doesn’t see them? Probably.  When we think about education like this, we initially think of colleges and higher education. In reality, we should look at cartoons, movies, and video games that are now raising our children, especially those raised on social media and YouTube.

According to the media, a high percentage of kids in Gen Y are unable to read. Public Schools, in general, have a shortage of teachers who care and are not paid enough to babysit kids who haven’t learned to respect people.  Have we lost education to corporations and the largest donors? The government gives out so many federal loans to students because of the rise in college tuition, but they raised those because the government would pay them, leaving young people in massive amounts of debt that the job market cannot handle paying living wages anymore. It’s the biggest crisis for Millennials and Gen X. Many Gen Z are becoming their own entrepreneurs because of this, and seeing what mistakes previous generations have made and learning from them. So why is there a giant “class” war when it’s a generational one? “ Ok, boomer,” we all say, because we are rejecting traditional values. Which religion has passed down through many different branches and interpretations of the Bible?  Maybe we are just looking at it in a completely different way due to rampant evangelical take-over, which is very Freudian in my opinion and destructive to young women and children everywhere.

Well, after reading all those facts of the world, I’ll go back to the philosophical aspect of this, which is whether we are mirrors or caves? I believe the cave is a metaphor for a downward spiral within the mind, unable to find the “sun” … Though I believe, since the sun was described as the fire that kept them warm, it actually is the moon reflecting the sun and becoming the Mirror as the upwards spiral of freedom of exploration and expression within an Earthly Garden. Some get lost in the cave, more tied up within their own experience and trauma that they cannot face due to fear.  The mirror is the freedom of emerging from the cave and seeing, hearing, and being wo[men]. For me, it’s finding freedom of expression and being your authentic self. It is a blend of both; some are trapped within their generational and personal traumas. We all have ancestors, and we should connect with them and build them up through ourselves and who we want to be.