The Only Way Out of This is Through.
The vision for “The Only Way Out of This is Through” first revealed itself to me this past July. A labyrinth of braids tied at the ends with delicate yellow ribbons, beckoning a lost soul home. Holding the grief and the fear that they may never return. Heavily influenced by Half Waif’s song “Service”.
“when you come home
wearing
ribbons on your chest”
But the vision was just a seed at the time. A bit elusive, I knew that it wasn’t yet fully formed. So it stayed within the pages of my notebook, never trying to spill out into the real world. Until November 5th.
The morning I woke up early to the results of the election. After vivid dreams of a blue win, so clear like it was my reality, the density and weight of my actual reality began to take hold. Like so many others, I spent the first hours of my morning steeped in grief and fear.
But as I was processing, I felt the call again. That braided labyrinth, except this time the vision was fully formed. Born out of grief, fear, and a shred of hope, the work was screaming to be seen and demanding to be born.
***
This time, it was Eartheater’s “Faith Consuming Hope” that swam endlessly in my head.
“the only way out of this is through”
That half-baked grief and fear from before felt full now, like a prophecy come true. Except the work now demanded a new kind of energy and attention. A somber resilience, surrender, and faith.
The yellow ribbons replaced by dark green ribbons. The background wanting to take on a hazy blue-ish lavender hue that moves slowly like settling smoke. A burning candle waiting at the base of the labyrinth, inviting a traveler to take a first step towards an end.
The message translated, the vision fully realized, sat waiting behind my eyes. But I felt myself hesitate.
How could I stand in the face of all the real hurt in the world and continue to receive visions, translate them, and make my art? My practice and my work feels trivial and silly in comparison.
***
Then in the silence, I began to understand. Continuing to make my art, especially now, is a form of anarchy. I stare into the face of fear that is constantly placed before me, and show that I still have hope. Show that I will not stop moving forward for as long as I am alive. That these visions mean something, even if I don’t understand it at first, or maybe even at all.
That you rise up out of your fear and use whatever tools you have at your disposal to create what you feel is important. Transmute and alchemize all your anger, fear, disappointment, hope, joy, love, any and all that lives within you into something magickal.
I hope that we continue to stare into the unknown with conviction, take the candle, and take one step after the other through the labyrinth.
The only way out of this is through.