The Alchemical Marriage of Word & Image - A talk by Judith Way


Friday, March 31st 2017 at 7:30pm
RESERVE A SEAT
It is a modern conceit that art is image-based and literature is word-based, and that these categories are maintained as if it were always the case.  In the imagination, a convergence of word and image takes place through which gnosis occurs.  The traditional and ancient view of the image that is born from the word, is a myth.  Far from the modern appropriation of this word, which relates it to fantasy; a myth is a code, narrating potential wisdom to inform reality.

In the West, where the traditions of old are eroding swiftly; there is a wisdom tradition, which does not take the obvious form of a direct lineage, but it can be traced and found in the art, literature and poetics which express an alchemical and esoteric wisdom, and transmit this gnosis through symbol and myth in image and word.

In this talk, there will be a rediscovery of this mythic legacy, through understanding the process by which modern culture has become blind to this heritage, and a realisation of how this inheritance can inspire and guide the contemporary visionary artist.



Judith Way is an artist, poet and writer from the United Kingdom. Co-initiator of Art Pilgrim, a teaching platform combining techne and psyche in the practice of visionary oil painting; she teaches painting and creative theory, as well as sacred dance. Having recently completed a Masters program in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, she is engaged in a quest to bring the image of Sophia; wisdom goddess and threshold of the imaginal, into contemporary vision for veneration and recognition within the contemporary imagination.