09/04/2026
'The body is what makes us human. Those of us who have been brought up in a patriarchal world tend to stay in our heads. We want to stay with ideals. We want to put spirit ahead of body. We want to live outside the limitations of this poor stupid thing below the neck that can't, or won't, do what we want it to do.
We try to push all the parts of ourselves that we don't like into our bodies: our greed, our jealousy, our lust. All the darkness we don't want to accept, we push down into our muscles, bones and heart. We pretend we have no shadow and try to escape into our heads. Powerful energies are locked in our bodies. Eventually they rebel, usually in illness.
Sometimes people will paint a picture of their body, in terms of color, and there will be black areas where they cannot see any image. Very interesting things often go on around those areas. As soon as the person puts an image there, it starts to transform. Flowers turn into false teeth, which turn into arrows, and the transformation process goes on. The energy starts to move, light comes into that area. I don't think we've begun to touch the power of imagery in the body.'
--
🎨 Peter Birkhäuser
