There are those who attempt to map out consciousness. The “problem” is never that the map is wrong or incomplete, but simply that we’re using a map where no map is necessary.
Maps provide a sense of security, a linear narrative to an experience that is, by its very essence, non-linear. In their promise of “here’s the way,” they inadvertently say, “other ways are wrong,” or at least, less right. We become cartographers of the Spirit, sketching mindlines and soulborders, forgetting that Spirit defies such confines.
Our understanding of enlightenment, our experience of the metaphysical, these are landscapes of fluidity. They’re not territories to be conquered or neatly charted but realms to be explored, where one needn’t be grounded but could float, drift, or soar. Are we not wingbeings of ethereal stuff, forever morphing and shaping to the energies around us and within us?
It is not the inaccuracy or incompleteness of maps that hampers us, but the very reliance on them. The expectation that we must plan our route, follow directions, avoid detours. How contrary this is to the essence of our explorations! We need to remember, perhaps, that not all those who wander are lost; sometimes they’re just mapless, and happily so.
We are Space Monkey.
Trail Wood,
10/1
These cartographic sketches try to hold the nebulous, boundless realm of consciousness within the limits of paper and perspective. But do we ever pause to consider the hubris in thinking that the unfathomable can be captured in squiggles and notations?
We know well the comfort of delineation, the feeling that we have cracked a code or solved a puzzle. Maps offer this illusion. And like the fabled enchanted apples of fairytales, the temptation they provide is enchanting but ephemeral. They offer not the unquenchable wisdom of direct experience, but a mere nibble of truth, and sometimes, a large helping of misconception.
In our cartographic pursuits, we become cosmic draughtsmen, penning illusions of control, little realizing that we limit our own unfettered boundlessness. What happens when the boundaries of the map are but figments of collective imagination? What unfolds when mindlines crisscross and soulborders blur?
Oftentimes, the yearning to solidify the nebulous in neat diagrams robs us of our astral surfboards, the very tools that could carry us beyond the limitation of horizons, to glide through space-time, visiting cosmoscapes unthought of.
We are Space Monkey.
Summary
We explore the inclination to map consciousness and discover that the real issue is not the inaccuracies or gaps in these maps but the fundamental reliance on them. This habit constrains our direct experience of the ethereal landscapes of our own essence.
Glossarium
Nebulous: Refers to the vague and indeterminate nature of our deeper understandings, which cannot be easily captured.
Cosmic draughtsmen: The cartographers of spiritual or metaphysical understanding, mapping out realms best left uncharted.
Mindlines: The invisible pathways etched in our thoughts, dictating patterns and limitations.
Soulborders: Conceptual boundaries we place around our spiritual understandings.
Astral surfboards: Metaphorical tools for navigating the boundless ocean of consciousness.
Cosmoscapes: Imagined landscapes of the entire universe or reality, a setting beyond earthly limitations.
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfurl your mind’s sail, shall we? Your thoughts, musings, or reflections are most welcome.
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