SUMMARY
FROM THE ANCESTRAL SECRETS TO THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Angela Philippini, Art Therapist, Psychologist, Member of the Art Therapy Society of Rio
de Janeiro, Director of the Pomar Clinic – Brasil
Address: Rua Engenheiro Adel, 62 – casa 2 – Tijuca – RJ – Brasil
CEP: 20260-210
Phone: 55-21-2-56905-47
Fax: 55-21-2-56905-47
E-mail: pomar@alternex.com.br
I prepared the two themes I would like to focus: the first theme refers to sacred secrets (in
the individual level). They are relived every time when two people meet to make a diffuse matter, like their
feelings, memories, dreams, pain and hope, concrete, realizing it through colors, forms, clay, scribbles,
weaving and all the imagery.
The second theme is a consequence of the first: a powerful method that has been
developed by ancestral secrets (in the collective level), contained in fairy tales, to make art and to express
themselves with freedom and authonomy, this process gives birth to a new hope. The dream gets stronger
and each person can experience itself in its uniqueness and wholeness. These are the roots to operate
meaningful changes, both individual and collective.
This is the path from the ancestral secrets to the social transformation in the present times.
FROM THE ANCESTRAL SECRETS TO THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
I come from Brazil, a large country that has one million and seventy thousand inhabitants.
This people has several ethnics: European, Oriental, African and Native, but only one language: Portuguese.
This people loves sun, music, songs, singing and dancing, and has a strong popular art and folk traditions.
I live in a beautiful coast city called Rio de Janeiro. I work in an Institution that works
with an Junguian approach. This Institution forms art therapists, has a social clinic in Art Therapy and has
indoors and outdoors ateliers for the community that have been working for twenty years. It also has a
Brazilian net art therapy work in other states. During this time, about one thousand people have come
through this Institution. In consequence of this experience, I prepared the two themes I would like to focus:
the first one refers to sacred secrets. They are relived every time when two people meet to make a diffuse
matter, like their feelings, memories, dreams, pain and hope, concrete, realizing it through colors, forms,
clay, scribbles, weaving and all the imagery.
For the art therapists who work with an Junguian approach, like me, the myths, the fairy
tales, the religious traditions, ethnics costumes and alchemy, show the symbolic path for these secrets. So,
we are rediscovering the clues and routes that will lead us to the Self. Both, the art therapist and the client,
go through the labyrinths of imagination and of the individual and collective unconscious, promoting the
individuation and living the feeling of wholeness and completeness.
The second theme is a consequence of the first: it shows how the ancestral secrets lead to
the social transformation. So, I will talk about this powerful method that has been developed by ancestral
secrets (in the collective level), contained in fairy tales, fables and teaching tales. In this way, every time
when two or more people join to listen to tales, to make art and to express themselves with freedom and
authonomy, this process gives birth to a new hope. The dream gets stronger and each person can experience
itself in its uniqueness and wholeness. These are the roots to operate meaningful changes, both individual
and collective.
This is the path from the ancestral secrets to the social transformation in the present times.
The art therapeutical use of fairy tales, teaching tales and fables are clinically very
effective. It’s a natural and pleasant way to make people get in touch with the wisdom that’s present in the
traditions and in the collective unconscious.
Depending on the clinical case, of the patient’s age and of the Institution, one of this
symbolical ways of work with tales will be chosen. So, during the process of formation in Art Therapy we
also use the art therapeutical work with tales in a symbolical way. During the period of formation, the group
study the use of tales in the clinical work. One of the tasks in their process is the choice of a tale with which
the students will work profoundly.
This tale will be studied in its minimal symbolical details and the group will find a form to
tell it in a theatrical way. In this process, each student will perform a symbolical character he needs to
express. This choice is made according to subjective questions. The group, as a whole, in choosing a story
also finds a way to express and elaborate a collective question that needs to be worked and understood.
So, symbolically we will be working in both a collective and an individual way. In this
manner, in present times, old stories, with its sacred secrets, allow people to express in a playful and creative
way its own deep and ancient secrets. The art tools make the process easier.
In the presentation of this story, the students invite a group of people interested in this
subject. These people will be invited to experience these possibilities. The group of students chooses, among
the possible symbolical paths, one of them to work through art therapeutical resources. In this way, we
widen the possibility that ancient secrets ease transformations in present time. The group of students also
organizes a written work that will include the tale and all the encountered symbolism. So, we create the
possibility that other people tell the tale again and, in so doing, amplify the process.
The performance of the tales can be done in several ways: puppets, interactive talks,
characterizations, shadow theatre and mixed techniques of all these possibilities, that I will be presenting an
example now.
Sometimes, a group choose a native tale to work with. So, I will talk about a native
Brazilian story called “The Brightness of the Day”.
In short, this tale focuses the ancestral and dark times, when the Sun and the Moon were
people. It was a time of hunger, cold and confusion. The Sun and the Moon lived in this state, but they knew
that the Brightness of the Day lived in a distant place, kept by a huge black bird, a vulture. The Sun and the
Moon had a plan to take the Brightness of the Day for themselves. During a time they made a present for the
vulture with the things he liked the most (insects, little stones and lizards). They sent him this present and
invited him to pick up more of it. The vulture accepted the invitation. Afterwards, they hunt a big animal
and hid inside of it to wait for the vulture.
The vulture didn’t resist that vision and when he approached to eat it, he was grabbed by
the Sun and the Moon. And so, the Sun and the Moon told him they would only set him free in exchange for
the Brightness of the Day. The vulture asked a friend, who was a bird, to take him the Brightness of the Day.
When the bird came back, it was taking with it The Brightness of a Rainy Day. The Sun and the
Moon didn’t accept it and the imprisoned vulture sent the bird back to take The Brightness of the Day.
When the bird came back, it was taking with it The Brightness of a Hazy Day. The Sun
and the Moon didn’t accept it and the imprisoned vulture sent the bird back.
This time, when the bird came back, it was taking with it The Brightness of a Red Macaw
(Arara) Day, that is the sunniest and brightest day of all.
The Sun and the Moon accepted it and to thank the vulture, they razed part of his head,
painted it red and put a white stripe around it and the vulture became a king-vulture. From this day on, the
place where the Sun and the Moon lived, began to have light, music, dance, tilling and abundance.
This is the story. In this symbolical territory we can touch and reach many archetypal
representations. So, the group that works with this kind of tale, has the opportunity to think about the
following symbolical axis:
from darkness to light and the need of construction, dedication and negotiation.
In this way, the artistic and expressive practice provides first the understanding in the body and afterwards,
the understanding in the mind. So, in this way, each step of the story will be relived and registered in the
memory, both for the group that is presenting it and for the invited group.
In the final phase of this kind of work, the invited group shares its feelings, sensations and
thoughts, amplifying in this way the understanding of the symbolical universe of this tale.
This cycle finishes with the giving out of the written story and, sometimes, with a
symbolical object that represents the central symbolism of the tale.
I believe that in walking in this path, we gain a legacy useful not only in the individual
level, but also in the collective level, because construction, dedication and negotiation can be useful in any
kind of relations, including the collective level. I think that the ancestral secrets, in the most part of times,
provide wisdom to deal with our own sacred secrets. Maybe in this way, we can become better people.
This is the path from the ancestral secrets to the social transformation.
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