Sacred Imagination for Chapter Eleven

[pobble_reads]

We’ve worked our way back to the practice of Sacred Imagination, using our imagination to enter a passage from the text and find what we sense, think and feel. It’s probably something imaginative people have done since there were any kind of text but was particularly developed by Ignatius of Loyola - who was described during HPST as the “Patron Saint of Head Canon”
I’ve chosen this passage where Gobbolino first falls into the Princesses life

But what he had taken for a rainwater pipe was really a royal chimney.
Gobbolino did not know it, but he had popped down one of the chimneys in the king’s palace.
Down, down, down the dark and narrow chimney fell Gobbolino, like a round ball that became blacker and blacker as he swept away the soot.
Bump! He landed at the bottom, and shot out into the open room, in time to hear a little voice like silver bells saying:
“Oh! Oh! Oh! Whatever can be coming down the chimney?”
Gobbolino opened his beautiful blue eyes and looked about him. He was in the prettiest room he had ever seen, all white lace and pink ribbons.
Watching him from a white bed in the middle of the room was a little girl with golden curls upon which rested a tiny crown. Her pink quilt was littered with toys and dolls. There were games and books on her satin pillows, flowers in great clusters around her bed, but her little face was pale and sad, even when her blue eyes opened wide in surprise at seeing Gobbolino.
He knew in that moment that she must be a princess.

I’ll discuss what I imagined in the comments, please do join in with your own insights.

Comments

[pobble_reads]

I started out imagining that I was Gobbolino. The fall through the chimney was really scary - I had expected a short length of pipe that I could slide down but instead was falling uncontrollably. I realised I must have gotten into a muddle about how high up I was as I walked across the rooftops. After that there wasn’t really time for thought as I was spinning like a round ball in the narrow space. I could smell soot and knew that I must be getting filthy, which was distressing. But my biggest worry was where would I finally land - I didn’t think there would be a lit fire at the bottom, because I couldn’t smell it, but I was afraid there might me.
My spinning fall made me dizzy. All I could do was tuck in my legs and head to protect them from the sides of the chimney at wait. It felt like I was falling for a long time even though I knew it couldn’t actually be. I couldn’t see anything, even with my sensitive cat vision and the strong smell of soot blocked out any olfactory clues.
When I did finally land there was a complete contrast from the narrow, dark, dirty chimney and the bright, white and pink, huge room. I wasn’t injured on landing but it was a shock and it took me a while to get out of emergency mode and take everything in. The room was so big and full of lovely things that it took me even longer to notice the fragile little Princess in her bed. I wasn’t sure if I should go towards her and introduce myself or stay where I was to avoid startling her and tracking soot everywhere.
She had a pinched, unhealthy look and overly pale skin from being indoors all of the time. I felt concerned for her, even though she was surrounded by lovely things.

[pobble_reads]

Later I became the Princess, woken out of a half-sleep by the sound of something falling down my chimney. It was a certain amount of effort to raise myself up to look at the sooty shape that gradually uncurled into a little cat. I wasn’t sure if he actually had black fur or if his markings were just obscured by soot.. I just stared at him for a bit, numb of surprise (though glad it wasn’t anything really scary that had fallen into my room).
I couldn’t help myself calling out in surprise.
When he opened his eyes they were bright and blue. Even though I had all of my toys and some beautiful flowers it had been ages since I had seen a live animal (or another child, the grown ups around me were kind and caring but I didn’t have any peers). It felt exciting as well as shocking. I wanted him to come closer to me - I didn’t know if I had the strength to go to him. This was such an intriguing change form the boringness of being ill.
I wanted him to be my friend.