“Make Your Own Bible”
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
What happens when you make a book, on purpose, dedicated only to those guideposts that touch you or move you like “the blast of a trumpet”?
This idea works so well with the notion that this life is not only about accepting things as they are, but also imagining ourselves becoming — and shaping — what is to come.
Going all the way back to cave paintings, thousands and thousands of years ago, it is the power of imagination tied to a physical act, a ritual, a making note of, that gives artists the mandate to hold vision for the culture, to help imagine what does not seem possible. In those clear moments of apprehension we know that this thing called the world, and the process called creation, is a collaborative affair.
© Stephanie Danforth
Begin now by collecting phrases from newspapers, poems, stories, dreams or songs. Wherever you go, carry an “old-school” pocket size notebook and pen, just in case you want to make a note of something you see, or discover, or hear someone say. Keep a box for these notes, and to gather images and words from magazines and newspapers that can add collage to your chosen text. This exercise is meant to be tactile, physical and enjoyable.
The process of creating a book like this is interactive on several levels: you and your book, you and what you hold dear, you and your vision. You make and re-make what you are given. When you put these phrases all in one book you create a place to return to, a place that deepens with each visit.
We will make a “woven binding.”
This class is reserved for those adventurers who are free and willing to leave phones, watches and any other electronics or time pieces outside the classroom. (This is a revolutionary idea in these times, but it is wonderful to re-connect with the part of ourselves that emerges in this sacred space, and it does make a difference to have them absent, not just off. No exceptions.)
Registration is open it to CBAS members on March 1 at 8 a.m. Non-member registration starts on March 8 also at 8 a.m. Interested folks must email cbasprograms@gmail.com to register. You will receive an email confirmation.
Registrants will not need to be CBAS members. Non-members will pay a higher fee when they register, entitling them to a one-year CBAS membership.