Drain Cover to the Centre of the Earth

Innocently went out searching for drains and manholes today and

became totally captivated. Didn't expect to, because things don't

always work out as you think they will, so off I went. I found a

great many and started thinking of the journey and everything

that relates to the drain as metaphor. I have also been enmeshed in

listening to Mozart's "Zauberflote" (literally "Magic Flute") because it is

his 250th anniversary this year and everyone is talking about him and playing

his work. When the hero Tamino gets lost in the forest while hunting and passes out,

(down the drain to the underworld) one of the first things that happens to him

when he wakes is that he had no concept of where he is, and says "Wo Bin Ich?"

(Where am I?) -- the million dollar question that starts his quest for his grail

feminine, Pamina. This is also getting me back in touch with German folklore,

part of my heritage. So - Heather, as always, has laid out another unexpected

adventure for us all. I used this theme of disorientation so common

with the call to adventure, and have laid out a collage, the feminine

being Persephone of the Underworld, and the masculine bottom right,

is the masculine sun on a quest through the darkness to the light. Amazingly,

Heather and Megan both sent me boomerang and collage things that

literally made pictures by themselves, I kid you not. The drain looks

fiery now, the one I found, indicating a soujourn to the centre of the

earth and sometimes Persephone looks fiery too, but we all know

she is truly a fair maiden, skilled in the arts of nature; a Queen in her

own right, and is eventually admired for her smarts by the hero. (Swoon!)

copyright Monika Roleff 2006.