Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025
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This posting is an extension of the current and ongoing art project between Hermann Rorschach and myself – the link to the gallery of our images at the Risen Gallery of Dreams can be found HERE.
This gallery presentation is the first of what may be a 4-part series, as
guided by the 4 Seasons. Thus, this first one is called “Klex of the I Ching
– L’Été 2025”.
Other previous painting projects manifested with certain individuals,
including Boris Pasternak and William Hurt, can be found HERE. (Once there, scroll down a bit to locate their works called "Spirit Artifacts").
Originally I was only working alone, exploring the possibility of
expressing the Rune Stones in some kind of painterly manner. Somehow, in the
ways of mediumship and art that are and most likely will always be
inexplicable, Hermann was drawn to the energies I was projecting whilst
handling the Runes and various art materials to see what might be done. Of
course I was quite excited and opened up the gateway for his continued contact,
which has since become a more established and steady portal between us.
However, it soon became clear that in spite of having transitioned 103 years
ago, he was still essentially confused and scattered about his actual transition.
Later this lack of expected clarity was explained by the basic lack in his earthly
beliefs, understanding and experience of The Afterlife. It was also eventually
revealed that his sudden appearance in my art studio was not random, but part
of a sophisticated, ongoing campaign to awaken him to the spiritual clarity
that is the birthright of us all into the Realms of Spirit. Such campaigns are
usually known as “spirit rescues” and by my acknowledgement and willingness to
engage with him and his unfolding transmutation, was onboarded to the ”rescue
team.”
After I did a lot of research on his life, greatly aided by Damion Searls’
book “The Inkblots”, "Hermann Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics - Newly Translated & Annotated 100th Anniversary Edition: (Hogrefe Publishing Corp) and also several hard-to-find writings by his wife, began
to reach my own clarity as to his current state of mind and how to assist his
continued spiritual enlightenment. It took more than an earthly month of time
for him to finally come to an understanding that he was not in a dream state,
nor drugged in some way, nor in a medical coma of some kind. This same month
also gave me time to establish the fact that while on earth, he gave very
little thought or exploration into the possibility of life after death — not
that he wouldn’t have been able to do so with the well-known brilliance and
energy he was known to have brought to his psychiatric practice and for the immense
love for his wife and two children — but he was far too focused on and
satisfied with life in the present. Also, he was just at the beginning of the
career he chose over instead becoming an artist, and so was not prepared for
his sudden transition at the age of 37 from a burst appendix — the symptoms of
which he had purposely ignored, choosing instead to focus on the needs of his
patients, until it was too late.
[“Synchronistically” I was also able to locate and acquire an original
set of the 10 inkblots, which are supposedly not ever allowed to be obtained by
anyone other than certified specialists. I myself am certified and licensed in
the US as a trained psychotherapist of many years, but even that doesn’t qualify
me to own and use them. However, as it so often happens in the mediumistic,
spiritual matters that manifest in my life, and as part of the orchestration
that brought Hermann and I together, also brought an unexpected resource of a particular
collector/hoarder’s basement. And lo, they found their way into my hands for
study and a deepening understanding of our artistic collaboration. At the time
of my online searching, I wasn’t able to even find viable reproductions of them,
so at some possible blurry risk, I am including the images of the 10 original blots
here in this blog posting (see below).
The Reader is encouraged to study these and compare them with those Hermann and
I have manifested.]
At first I assumed that our work with the Runes would be part of his development, but as he achieved more and more clarity and his brilliant mind was able to grasp and accept the complex reality of what was happening between us, he began to resist the Runes, as they didn’t interest him. He had been aware of them while on earth, and had even explored them briefly when developing his “blots”. But he had actually and secretly been drawn to the I Ching system, which was hardly known or recognized in the West/Europe, and most certainly would not have been acceptable on a professional level of a doctor of Western Medicine. [See Note: 1 below] The translated text did not achieve broader cultural influence until after Richard Wilhelm’s German translation in 1923, (a year after Hermann transitioned) which coincided with increased Western interest through figures such as Carl Jung, who wrote the very excellent forward to Wilhelm’s translation — highly recommended!).
And so after I finally understood what he was trying to convey to me, and
ceased trying to force him to concentrate on the Runes, he was able to break through
my resistance and the project which would become “Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025” began!
It took us about 2 months of exploring various materials — paper, paint, ink, specialized pencils, and wax — as well as techniques in folding the many and various kinds of paper — as well as producing hundreds of failures — that we turned away from all other already-established processes for making basic ink-blots (and there are many) and finally developed our own successful and reliable protocol. The Klex on view at the Risen Gallery of Dreams are all on only one or two particular kinds of watercolour paper, applying water-based inks (over 120 different kinds and colours so far) and manipulating those inks in certain ways onto paper that has been folded in certain ways. Many of the inks are complex formulae, instilled with all kind of metallic shimmering and sheening, as well as shading substances. The original “Rohrshach Blots” are 9 9/16ths X 6 5/8ths inches in size – a size that took Hermann and the publishers ages to arrive at for some unknown reason. Our images are mainly 7 X 10 inches, with a few at 6 X 9 inches.
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NOTES:
(1) Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
best known for creating the Rorschach inkblot test, a projective psychological
test designed to analyze personality and unconscious thoughts. Originally
interested in art, influenced by his painter father, Rorschach combined his
artistic background with medical science, graduating in medicine from the
University of Zurich in 1909. He began experimenting with inkblots as a
diagnostic tool while still a student, fascinated by how different people
interpreted ambiguous shapes. After working in Swiss psychiatric hospitals, he
published his foundational book, Psychodiagnostik, in 1921, detailing
the use of 10 inkblots to assess mental health. He died prematurely at 37, but
his inkblot test has remained widely used in psychology, psychiatry, and
related fields to understand personality and diagnose mental illness.
Hermann Rorschach created his inkblots by
combining his interest in art and psychology. Some scholars assume he was inspired
by a childhood game called Klecksography, where inkblots were made and
stories created about them, and that he refined this playful technique into a
scientific tool. Jung and even Thoreau, among many others had played with inkblots
in those days.
However, Damion Searls, in his book “The
Inkblots”, a very good biography of Rorschach, feels that “Klex” (the German
name for “inkblot” was the nickname given to Hermann when he was at the elite, 6-year
Gymnasium, an academic high school, by his fellow students. It was
standard for the young men to give each other a nickname, and in his case, “Klex”
did not mean “inkblot” but that he was known to be very good with pen and ink,
and who drew quickly and well. (There are archived examples of the charming but
very sophisticated drawings and paintings, as well as highly-sophisticated puppets
he made for his children.)
Later, on, in his psychiatric practice, rather
than simple random inkblots, Rorschach carefully crafted each blot with
symmetrical contours meant to evoke specific yet ambiguous images. Between 1917
and 1920, he experimented with over forty inkblots on psychiatric patients and
observed how those with different mental disorders, especially schizophrenia,
responded variably.
Rorschach selected fifteen blots for their
diagnostic potential and later reduced them to ten for publication due to
practical constraints. These ten cards include both black-and-white and colored
symmetrical inkblots designed to provoke a wide range of perceptions around
animals, humans, objects, or abstract shapes. The test works by encouraging
individuals to project their unconscious thoughts onto these ambiguous images,
revealing insights into their personality and cognitive functioning. The
process involves showing each blot to a subject and recording their spontaneous
interpretations, which are later analyzed to detect patterns associated with
different psychological conditions.
(2) The I Ching, also known as the "Book of Changes," is an ancient Chinese divination text dating back over 3,000 years. It functions both as a philosophical system and a tool for guidance, describing the fundamental principles of reality and the dynamics of change through the interaction of complementary forces called yin and yang. The core of the I Ching consists of 64 hexagrams—figures made of six stacked lines that are either broken (yin) or solid (yang)—each representing different states or processes of change. Traditionally, divination is performed by casting yarrow stalks or coins to generate a hexagram, which is then interpreted through the text's verses and commentaries to provide insight and advice on various life situations. The I Ching has had a profound influence on Chinese philosophy, including Taoism and Confucianism, serving as both an oracle and a deep ethical guide.
The Original "Rorschach Blots":
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posted by August Goforth @ 21:29
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