[jamesn.]

Marianne; thank you so very much for beautifully articulating what I was trying to get at. And combined with Stephen’s point:

“Marianne,
The quote you share from A Joseph Campbell Companion on writer’s block (re “cutting off one’s head”) is key. Though I know Joe is talking about writing in general here, this really speaks to my experience when journaling.
At it’s best, journaling is more than just keeping a diary. It’s a dialog with the deeper Self – and “I” have to get out of the way for the words to flow . . .”

–within this engagement with the deeper self what type of form or medium can have a great deal to do with how this is accomplished for it is the connection point of how the deeper self can express itself that is often the key that helps to unlock the doorway for this to happen.

For instance it may find it’s voice through another pathway such as the visual or musical to express what it’s trying to communicate and can inform you in that way instead of through words. (On the other hand); the internal process of putting something into words may be a cathartic mechanism or means by which the deeper self can better make itself heard. All of these forms are windows or doorways into this vast and potent realm of inner experience; and like a cocoon in which the deeper self has been enclosed through the alchemy of these processes may be able to emerge as the: “butterfly or moth from the larva” which it has been struggling to accomplish this task; (i.e. the “chrysalis” process is a term often used by therapists to describe the individual’s struggle toward wholeness).

Indeed many of the artworks over the centuries have been the intimate conduits that awaken these dimensions and aspects in others. As a matter of fact Joseph talks about Marianne’s referral in the part in: “The Power of Myth” where he specifically describes finding a room and setting aside time each day to perform this exercise to evoke this aspect of the deeper self and emphasizes it is: “holy time” critical to having an inward life. (I think it is interesting to note that this aspect of the individual experience is often referred to as “self-expression”.) But the important point I think Joseph is making is we all need to develop some form of this aspect of ourselves in the living of our lives because it informs and expresses deeper dimensions of ourselves that long to be heard; and if this is not addressed we are going to have problems that will only get worse. The line in the Gnostic Gospels Joseph quoted at one point in the series seems to come to mind: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” (The point being if you are not listening to what this deeper part of you is trying to say you are in trouble.)