Loucka Fiagan – Emotional transmute

Emotional Transmute is a package of ritual performances for those who want to get an insight on how to engage with their emotions in a playful way; past, present or future.

Entering different places where we are not merely passively subjected to our emotions by letting them dictate their reality on us, but rather engage actively in a sense of communicating with them.

Exercise 1
Trick your blues

Number of people: Alone or up to as many as you want.

Step 1.
Find a text that you wrote or that you like which you attach a strong personal and emotional value to. It works better if you choose a text that is old and relates to you in a very intimate way.

Step 2.
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed, write the text down if you do not know it by heart, and speak the text to yourself or to your partners if you feel comfortable doing so.

If emotions arise, let them come. What do they feel like? If you are alone you can note this down on a piece of paper. If you are in a group or with a partner, share them out loud.

Step 3.
If you haven’t written down your text, do it. With your text written down you are going to transmute the emotional charge. Here I propose two options. You can do one or the other, but you can also try doing both and observe the effects.

Option 1: In your initial text, switch any weighty and/or sad word with a word that has nothing to do with the original meaning. It will generally give an ironic or absurd twist. Ex: from “I will die…” to “I will fly…”

Option 2: Cut up your block of text into many different sections, to then play around with making a new order. Once you’re happy with one order, quickly rearrange a few words or lines and look at your new text.

Step 4.
Read out your new text. Observe how the emotional charge has changed. Note down how this feels.

Step 5. (optional)
Try reading the text in different ways. Here are some examples: dramatic, singing, out of breath, quiet, loud…

Exercise 2
A love letter deflected through time

Step 1.
Find a quiet place and sit or lie down. Take a few deep breaths and some time to feel your body.

Step 2.
Imagine an ideal version of yourself in twenty years from now. Imagine how he/she walks, talks, moves, stands, his/her facial expressions, his/her outfit etc. Try to be precise and go into as much detail as possible.

Step 3.
Begin to physically and mentally incarnate this person. You can stand up and walk like him/her if it helps.

Step 4.
Once you are in this person’s body and mind, try to think of all the lovely things you would like to say to your present self. Write them down on a paper, link a letter you would send to a friend, but do not mention your name; not on the envelope, nor in the letter. Put all your best intentions into writing the letter, all the words count.

Step 5.
Send this letter to a stranger, a friend, a family member, a lover.

Exercise 3
Talk wide

It is very important that emotions are communicated, but what happens if you have nobody to communicate them to? That’s impossible, we always have somebody to communicate our emotions to, we just have to widen our gaze.

Step 1.
Find a non-human being you would like to talk to and who you feel would listen. It could be a pet, a tree or a river.

Step 2.
Ask the being if you could make a confession to him/her, if it’s not a disturbance. They will always say yes, but do it by principle.

Step 3.
Find some memories from the past weeks, months, years, lives that have triggered strong emotions, or other things you have been blocking yourself from expressing to yourself or others. If you can’t find any, search harder. There is always something. Let these emotions come up and once they have, begin to communicate them to the non-human being. You choose whether it is verbally, sensitively, telepathically. Either ways, take the time to really feel the process of exchange occurring.

Step 4.
Once you feel you’ve taken all the time needed to express this emotion, take some time with the non-human being to thank him/her for listening.