Entering the Veil between Ordinary and Non-ordinary Reality

Saturday, October 6th, 2012

“What we need to do is allow magic to get hold of us is to banish doubts from our minds. One our doubts are banished anything is possible.” (C. Castaneda, “The power of Silence” in The Wheel of Time. 1998, p.276).

A number of years ago when I was studying painting and learning about composition, my favorite professor told me that to create interest in a painting you must create tension. He said that one way of creating tension is to give the viewer a hint of something they cannot see. A face with eyes subdued in shadow holds a viewer’s attention longer than a face where everything is obvious. It is even more interesting when the viewer’s eyes have to travel around the canvas to get to the point of interest. He said that it is an inherent human trait to want what we cannot have because we are curious, and this is what creates interest in a painting. At the time, I realized his statement contained a universal truth that was relevant to life in general. As I think back to our conversation, I realize that he was talking about the phenomenon of being drawn to the veil of the unknown.

Entering the veil between ordinary and non-ordinary reality is an engagement with the unconscious. It is something mysterious, always beyond our control, and slightly beyond our reach. It can be permeable at times and impenetrable at others. The veil is illusive; it is there once, and then, in the next minute, we are searching for it, reminding ourselves that it exists and trying to remember what it feels like. Being in the veil can feel strangely comfortable and familiar, like a long lost home one has found again in a dream. Other times the veil is confusing, disorienting, and perhaps even seductive as it takes the form of a web of illusion. These fluctuations occur because the veil is energy. It is alive and, like the unconscious, it is vast, intelligent, and alien.

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