Diving Deeper

A creative journey in water (aquatic bodywork)

An account of the creative potential of aquatic bodywork for inspiring the artist in each of us.

Water has been associated with the creative unconscious.  In the form of aquatic bodywork I practice (based on Watsu), I've found it possible to travel beyond consensual reality and back again: between these two places is the warm-water womb, the sacred pool, a portal to dreamtime.  

I use gentle massage and motion while suspending a person in warm water to open the body  to the messages of the unconscious.   When the body is permitted its expression and intelligence, creative insights or solutions  may arise of their own accord.  There is opportunity for  profound shifts in awareness.  

As a practitioner of aquatic bodywork, I seek out the creative in myself and the responsive in others so as to participate in  natural or spontaneous form.  Describing my work as art rather  than therapy  reminds me that we are involved in a dance of life and can neither control nor anticipate outcome.  

The artist-shamanist* who takes a  mysterious and imaginative view of human experience, allowing for chaos, for unpredictability, and the inexplicable, is my role model.  Sometimes it seems that an ancient birthing ritual or baptism into life is being enacted.  The water is the facilitator of it all.

Originating in the primal soup, nurtured in the watery womb, made mostly of liquid substance ourselves, the aquatic experience can be a  homecoming. In water, more primitive brain functions begin to surface - archetypes, feelings, sensate awareness, somatic memories - allowing access to our deeper selves.

Often the experiences a person has during water sessions are preverbal and  must be elaborated in much the same manner as dreams.  The best way to reflect such images and fantasies  is through artistic expression and my hope is that this work will be recognized as a valuable tool for creativity.

The experience extends beyond the physical, integrating mind and spirit in ways that will be unique to each person.  The receiver usually has their eyes closed throughout and because their ears are immersed below the water's surface, they drop most easily into their inner being. 

Experiencing aquatic bodywork

  In the early days of my training in aquatic bodywork (Watsu and more), much of my learning came from receiving.  Since I find writing a valuable way of uncovering and expressing experiences, I often recorded those sessions.  Later, I encouraged clients to do this, whether in writing or artwork (whatever right-brain method was best for them).

Here are two accounts illustrating contrasting experiences for the same receiver, in this case myself.  I hope they will provide insight into the power of this work and into the creative potential there is in recording the process and following up in whatever ways seem appropriate and helpful.

The first account, written immediately after a session, records a process that repeated itself through many subsequent sessions until it finally resolved, and along with it the body memories it was releasing in me. 

Our bodies are repositories of our experiences and they benefit from free-flowing expression of that.

Snakes (two poems by Sulis)

Growing up in tropical countries and now living in the Ozarks (southern Missouri), snakes have a certain presence in my life.  They also occur in my dreams.  The first poem below was inspired by one such dream along with a discussion with someone who feared snakes and the discovery of two snake skins in the same week (one in water, one on land) back in 2006.

The second is a healing poem written to express some anger and sadness I was feeling (2008).  Both, in fact, describe the repression and expression of emotions which in many of us (and certainly in me) are often stored in the abdominal area. 

When these feelings are held down over long periods of time, years perhaps, they can have physical and health consequences.  A recent series on the website describing my aquatic bodywork practice considers this from a personal and professional standpoint.

Here is some of the symbolism of snakes and serpents which can also be found in my personal references:

• umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth
• Earth mysteries of renewal, rebirth, regeneration
• immortality as depicted by circles and spirals
• guardians of underworld or messengers between the worlds
• guardians of temples and other sacred spaces
• associated with water especially the primordial ocean
• connected with deceitfulness and vengefulness
• poison and medicine - expanded consciousness, divine intoxication
• wisdom, healing and creation

Snakes

I dreamt
that snakes covered
my lower body
or were they
moving out?
I knew they would
not bite me
if I remained still
in perfect calmness

A brave woman
I know fears
snakes
but draws them
to her
These snakes
were inside me
She would have
been terrified

Awake I found
a snake’s skin
floating
in water
Rippling life
though translucent
flawless
I kept it
between glass

But I yearn
to translate
the strong clutch
of my insides
into seething chaos
into undulating pulse
To see diamonds
in my dreams

To be fearless

Hysteria

I know how
the black snake felt
when she fell
from the steamy rafters
of the homemade sauna
on to the slippery shoulders
of an oblivious man.

Her heavy looped length
like a witch's tresses
broke his certainty.

The cup of water hissed
and evaporated.

His heart flailed
while she flashed
dark lightening.

Interior her hysteria
like hot vapor
escaped into the crack
of a violent night.

Direct perception of nature: a book review

My perceptions of the natural world and the power of non-verbal communication between its elements (from rock to plant to animal) have been stimulated by living in the diverse bioregion of the Missouri Ozarks and working with water as a therapeutic medium.

Several books by Stephen Harrod Buhner have shown me what is possible, in terms of understanding life and one's place in it, if you are willing to step out of the everyday linear paradigm and into the all-pervading non-linear (oscillating) vibration that is life.

This month, in a workshop on developing intuitive skills for aquatic physical therapists, I'll be sharing his approach to direct perception in an adapted exercise from Ch. 12 'Depth Diagnosis and the Healing of Human Disease' of the book I have reviewed below.

Direct perception is a way of truly knowing, not thinking, what is going on inside a person that some people call intuition. The intention is to know the person's problem, and what it needs, by perceiving them directly, without any judgment.

How often does any of us do that?