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ASCENT

Recurrent dreams, spring 1997; by Chris Wayan

All this spring, I dreamed of climbing, fatigue, cold, risk, and fear. But other visionaries' writings told me I wasn't alone... in fact, dreams of ascent are common in shamanic initiation, and it's not always flight. Sometimes you need to struggle up out of your body, culture, gender, and species to the spiritual heights. And you need toughening to handle the scary truths you find there.

This comix panorama reads generally left to right, but you choose your own path up the mountain (and down the far side! Too many visionaries forget that half of the hike!) This is just an overview to orient you; click for a big readable/wanderable version.

A mountain panorama; a girl appears repeatedly, climbing a steep crag. Quotes on hiking/climbing from Emily Dickinson, Carlos Castaneda, Martin Luther King, Black Elk, Sandra Miesel, Kate Millett, Eliza & Darien, Igjugarjuk and Leonard Cohen. Drawing by Chris Wayan.

I made two pencil drawings--ascent and descent. Scanned them, deepened the contrast digitally, fused them and tinted the resulting grayscale panorama. The two drawings' horizon lines differ intentionally, as in some East Asian brush paintings.

If I were drawing it today, I'd make my outfit maroon or blood red or mustard... I LIKE shocking pink, but it's too girly for most viewers. Eh. I like contrast.

And girls CAN climb. That quote from the Unicorn Peak logbook is real (true, they wrote it in Elvish; this was 1975); and I climbed that 3300-meter spire barefoot. You don't need heavy guy-gear. Just perseverance.

Barefoot ropeless girl climbs a cliff. Dream sketch by Wayan. Click to enlarge



LISTS AND LINKS: landscapes - mountains - ascent - fear - perseverance - I'm Just Not Myself Today! - gender-bent dreams - recurring dreams - picture-poems - comix - perspective & viewpoint - pencil dream-art - years earlier, a climb through fear spurs transformation: Manta Moths

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