Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: In Norway

Elise Fageras, from Oslo, Norway, completed the Dressage in the Fourth Dimension Introductory training this week at ShasTao in Mount Shasta, CA. It was a terrific four days of affirming that dressage really IS an international language! The training approached all four "bodies" that a rider brings to the horse: the physical, mental, psychological (emotional) and spiritual. By working holistically, we shared visible and measurable progress each day with the dressage. These Introductory Fourth Dimension clinics really pack alot of punch!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: In Portugal

We are putting together a dressage training trip to Portugal for January 2010. It is going to be a small group of only 10 riders,
from Tuesday, January 5th to Tuesday, January 12th. If you are interested in this trip, contact me at ( ackerman@siskiyous.edu ) so that I can get the preliminary information out to you pronto. The trip will be $1,950.00 which includes everything (lodging, all meals, 2 lessons per day, ground transport to/from Lisbon airport) except your airfare. Deposits (non-refundable) of $500.00 will be due August 15th with the remainder due by December 15th.

January is a nice time of year in Portugal and this trip makes a great mid-Winter getaway! Not to mention how great it is to ride those delicious Lusitano stallions! Wanna come?

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: In Quebec

We have just completed a really fabulous Dressage in the Fourth Dimension Introductory mounted certification clinic in Quebec, at Ecurie Royale. Everything was perfect....we did yoga and meditation outside in the sunshine, held our lectures under a canopy of shade trees and rode in the lovely indoor arenas. Everyone came away with new things to work on and a much deeper understanding of how their bodies, minds, emotions and spirits all work together to ride dressage. These clinics are really sensational! Here are some comments from the clinic:

• "I found the element that was missing for me - i.e. the spiritual body."
• "Another aspect I have noticed is how well balanced you are."
• "I can't express to you how deep the understanding of the triangles and the core open-ness and toning has been for me. "
• "I experienced that is really is the rider's Seat and Position that put the horse on the bit."
  
• "Viewing dressage holistically helped me break through my blocks. I have never ridden better!"
  

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Horses for Life

Horses for Life magazine has featured a very nice interview with Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman and her ideas about Dressage in the Fourth Dimension. This is a super ezine that has many interesting and pertinent articles for curious, conscious equestrians. Enjoy!

Dressage Contacts Worldwide

Have you visited Dressage Contacts Worldwide yet? It's a great way to meet like-minded equestrians around the world. Check 'em out!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: In Sacramento

Beautiful Penryn Oaks Stables, in Penryn, California, is hosting an Introductory Dressage in the Fourth Dimension Certification clinic on Thursday, July 30th through Sunday, August 2nd. This promises to be a popular clinic and Dr. Ackerman looks forward to seeing many of her Sacramento and Bay area students gathered together in synergistic equestrian community. For more information and/or registration materials, contact Jennifer Wiezel at jwiezel@mindsync.com and/or 916-652-8544. Mark your calendars, as you won't want to miss this opportunity to get in on the groundfloor of the Certification process!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: The Bliss Task Force

Dr. Ackerman is pleased to announce that she will be working as a part of The Bliss Task Force in Ananda Ranch's Summer 2009 "Find Your Bliss" Program. If you desire to truly live life, not merely survive, then you must reconnect to the spirit of the untamed, pursue the scent of freedom and awaken within you the true essence that life has to offer. Mythic scholar Joseph Campbell often said, “I do not believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” The horse stirs our deepest and most moving ancestral memories because we are one. In a time when people are desperately searching for the experience of being alive, yet feel as if a great dragon is sitting upon their chest, now is when we need the horse the most to reconnect our heartbeats with the beat of four hooves and to match our nature with nature’s most gracious gift, the horse.©

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Zazen

How boring to sit idly on the floor,
Not meditating, not breaking through.

Look at the horses racing along
The Kamo River!
That's zazen!

- Daito (1282-1334)

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: In the Lone Star State

We will be offering a Dressage in the Fourth Dimension Introductory mounted certification clinic in Texas, October 9-12th. For more information and registration materials, contact organizer Martha Faith at Marthafaith1@aol.com early-on. This is a beautiful time of year to ride in Texas, in the cooler Autumn weather. We hope to see alot of you there!

Spring Brook in the Fourth Dimension

Spring Brook Farm, in Finksburg, Maryland, is hosting an Introductory Fourth Dimension Certification Clinic with Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman, August 13-16th, 2009. Spring Brook farm is the perfect venue for one of our Introductory Fourth Dimension clinics, with its beautiful light and airy arena, pleasing stabling and glassed observatory/classroom. This clinic, while open to all interested participants, will be held in conjunction with JJ Tate's Team Tate dressage program, as well. More information about this opportunity is available through Tiffany Moritz at bookings@dressageinthefourth.com and we hope to see many old friends there, as well as meet some new ones!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Unleashed!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: The Archetype of the Horse

"One of Plato's critics once stated, 'I see particular horses, but not horseness'. Plato answered, 'That is because you have eyes, but no intelligence'. The archetypal Horse, which gives form to all horses, is to Plato a more fundamental reality than the particular horses, which are merely specific instances of the Horse, embodiments of that Form. As such, the archetype is apparent not so much to the limited physical senses, though these can suggest and lead the way, as to the more penetrating eye of the soul, the illuminated intellect. Archetypes reveal themselves more to the inner perception than to the outer."

--Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind

Epona in the Fourth Dimension

Epona Equestrian Center is hosting an Introductory Fourth Dimension Certification Clinic with Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman, December 1-4, 2009. Epona's state-of-the-art covered arena, main barn and conference center provide the perfect Southwestern venue for riders interested in learning dressage within an integrated, wholistic context. More information about this opportunity is available through Epona Equestrian Services. Booking information can be obtained from booking@theeponacenter.com or by calling 520-455-5908.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Podcasts Available

Podcasts are now available to deepen your understanding of Dressage in the Fourth Dimension through audio files of meditations, exercises, practices, dialogues, interviews and visualizations that you can listen to in order to help you access the Fourth Dimension. Stay tuned as we will be continuously adding new files for you. Your horse will thank you for listening!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Book Review

The following review was written by Dr. Candice Quinn of Southern Pines, North Carolina:

No one who has anxiously awaited the re-issue of Sherry Ackerman's Dressage in the Fourth Dimension has been disappointed. To be able to add this small gem, now with the extra premium of Linda Kohanov's Foreward, to one's library is a privilege as well as being provided with a constant source of profound insights. This volume, then and now, is at once a welcome addition to the body of exploratory interpretations of dressage artistry; and a unique and singular vision of contemplative philosophic reflections set within a poetic discourse. The philosophic tenets presented, however, are not abstractions or disinterested conceptualizations. In an act of great courage Ackerman shares with the reader a strongly subjective exegesis which carries and conveys her own deeply felt, experientially validated, convictions. In her articulation not of the 'techne' of dressage, but of its 'ousia', its substantive essence, Ackerman invites what will be for many a radical revisioning of standard approaches to dressage orthodoxy. The author's mastery of particular philosophic traditions and her willingness to breach the conventions of discipline-specific boundaries lends the work breadth and profound originality. The book's conceptual approach embodies authorial integrity as well. As an advocate of the ultimate unity and universality of knowledge Ackerman's work expresses an affinity of the feel and appreciation of the artistry of dressage with the sense of harmonic, cyclical (ascent-descent-ascent) unity sought by many of the greatest philosophic/spiritual traditions. The suggestion that the aesthetic dimension of dressage, entered into with a true heart, an 'eros,' contains within it the potential for an ascent to a higher level of consciousness invites the rider to journey beyond a narrow focus on technological methods to a place where individual members of vastly different species may meet and dance together in perfect harmony. Fourth Dimension is a wholly engaging work because the author is so wholly engaged in her subject; and it is an inspirational work because the author remains inspired by the creative energy of parts seeking to be whole, and of spirit seeking to manifest as beauty. My first reading of this work, many years ago now, informed, enlightened and liberated my own approach to riding and granted me permission to express a felt intuitive awareness of the transformative potential of riding well, that is, in a spirit of love and appreciation. Year after year I had received technical instruction in the craft of dressage but I knew there was more. Ackerman's integrative approach and symbolic idiom allowed me to enter fully into my own convictions concerning the true nature of the horse-rider alliance and provided a high voltage articulation for my own deeply felt impressions. I recommend this book to any rider who, perhaps secretly, harbors uncertain or enigmatic notions touching on the essentials of riding dressage; or who desires to ride from within the unfolding process; or who yearns to unite their own appreciation of harmony and symmetry with their horse's joy of rhythm in movement - read and be inspired.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Fourth Dimension! Whip Jane Piereth and passenger Jec Ballou (author, 101 Dressage Exercises for Horse and Rider) are enjoying a morning sleigh ride here in Mount Shasta...sitting behind a Morgan horse, of course!



"Even that old horse
is something to see this
snow-covered morning"
--Basho (1644 –1694)

May this deep-winter period of quiet darkness replenish and sustain you all. Go joyfully into the silence of the long nights and reconnect with the ancient wisdom. Let Spirit speak! Listen closely and find what gifts this new year has to offer you. Limitless potential...abundant opportunity and, of course, gratitude!!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: The Beginning

I entered the Fourth Dimension, literally, one blustery afternoon in 1993. Let me explain…..as a small child, I had a mystical consciousness. I experienced Oneness as a matter of course. My parents, though, thought that this awareness was immature and childish and, subsequently, thought that ‘good parenting’ involved guiding me away from these ideas. My parents, mainstream community, schools, colleges and graduate institutes all did their part; well intentioned, albeit mistaken, to condition my thinking toward materialistic, dualistic values and beliefs. By 1993, I was a fully conditioned person. In looking back, I can see that I was ego-identified, exteriorized and enculturated. I, though, was clueless, thinking that everything was right on target. In retrospect, however, I can see that I was sadly derailed! One Wintery late afternoon in 1993, I was riding a particularly difficult young horse in my quiet indoor arena through the figures of the manege, when, out of nowhere, I was struck, as if with a lightening bolt, with Pure Awareness. I felt Love pulsating throughout me and I felt as if I was a whole new being. I fused completely with the horse and we were One. There was nothing left of me, and equally nothing left of him. We just Were. Pure Presence. Consciousness. There was only The Moment. I remember, though, wondering what would happen when I dismounted….but what happened was that I continued to see the whole world this way. The boundaries were gone, duality resolved. There was no right and wrong, no male and female, no night and day. I remember, again, wondering what would happen when I had dinner with my family that night. But, I was visibly transformed. My children asked me why I was “glowing”. Love. Finally, I remember wondering if I would feel like this forever….and, for the past 15 years, I have. Sometimes the Light glows softly and sometimes it bursts into full flame, but it is always there. Nothing about my human existence has ever been the same….and all this, thanks to a difficult horse on a late Winter afternoon. Right Here, Right Now!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Ecology and Spirituality

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Walkin' the Talk

Fourth Dimension rider, Barb Sanford, is shown here working with her new three year old, Paloma. Barb is a long-time, extremely accomplished dressage rider who has recently decided to start her own young prospect, so that she can emphasize trust and relationship. Barb's focus has been on developing a deep bond with Paloma and, as the photos illustrate, they are well on their way to meeting that goal! Barb is really walkin' the talk and the results speak for themselves.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: The Book

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Sojourner Morrell

One of our own Fourth Dimension dressage riders has made history by becoming one of the first two women to be accepted into one of the world's most prestigious riding schools.

Sojourner Morrell, 17, has been selected by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna to ride in their program. She is one of the first two women to be accepted into the academy which has only taken men since it was founded over 400 years ago. Sojourner and I spent July 2007 riding together in Holland and I can honestly say that she truly represents everything that Fourth Dimension espouses...wholistic: body, mind, psyche and spirit!! She is a classical, conscious equestrian.

I talk with Sojourner via Skype and will pass along well wishes from fellow travelers in the Fourth Dimension for her continued success. Follow this link where more information is available, including some wonderful photos.

For those wishing to send greetings to Sojourner, her land address is:

Sojourner Morrell
2, Reitschulegasse, nr. 106D
1010, Vienna
Austria

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: 2009 Area Mounted Clinics

The 2009 Clinics and Workshops have been uploaded to the Dressage in the Fourth Website where there is alot of new information. The Site is four pages deep, so keep clicking your way through it! We hope to see you at some of these great events!

These events have been designed to raise consciousness in the mainstream equestrian community where, unfortunately, materialism, competition, consumerism and egoistic I-ness have been uninvited guests for far too long. The 2009 Fourth Dimension Clinics and Workshops have been structured to provide forums where conscious riders and interested horse men and women can come together to learn skills for co-creating a new paradigm where Love leads the Way.

The horse teaches us Love....the discipline of dressage teaches us the Way. Sherry has been teaching the discipline of dressage to riders from all over the world for three decades. By now, some of you have attained a level of mastery sufficient to "take the next step"...that is, to begin to integrate the inner elements of dressage with life-at-large. Unleashed!! Now that you know how to do a shoulder-in, what does it really mean? Who is that "you" that "does" shoulder-in? Or, maybe even more importantly, who is that "you" that is "struggling" to learn shoulder-in? Nobody leashes us. We leash ourselves...and we can unleash ourselves. In the words of Alan Watts, we can stop getting in our own Way.

In the Fourth Dimension, we will explore becoming more mindful of the ways that re-connecting with animals and nature, through an ancient system of horsepersonship called dressage, can contibute to unleashing ourselves from the unconsciousness that is destroying the Planet. "Mindfulness remains possible, provided our minds are capable of focus. In fact, and here's the paradox, the secret of spiritual practice is that our limits may become our strengths if we learn to work with them skillfully." (Ram Dass, Still Here, pg. 48). Similarly, as our bodies present us with challenges as we explore riding, we can use these roadblocks to increase our mindfulness.

Western philosophy is rooted in the Socratic Imperative to Know Thyself (to gignoskein auton heauton; gnothi seauton!). Dressage originated with Xenophon, who was, like Plato, a student of Socrates. Let the circle be unbroken. We're going back to the beginning. One Life, One Love!

Mounted Clinics will be held around the US and in Canada in 2009. You and your horse may attend as equal partners who work together in The Tao Dance. These Area Mounted Clinics will deliver a systematic, in-depth insight into what Sherry calls “her teaching method”. She is going to teach “how she sees what she sees” and “how she develops her instructional delivery vehicle" so that a diverse number of students all “get it”. If someone is interested in teaching, this will provide a solid teacher-training certification. If someone simply wants to train and ride, they will come away with a super system for doing just that! The program is geared to the WHOLE rider, not just the technical aspects. All dressage “truth” is preserved in the human soul. It is exposed as riders access their “inner knowing”. The current paradigm of lies and falsehoods cannot survive for any length of time. Misconceptions, as Dr. van Schaik called them, constantly need new disguises to survive. That is why contemporary “competitive” dressage is constantly changing it’s structure, trying to find the truth it has lost, yet only distancing itself from truth even more. We all know, within, what is “truth”…and the horses, likewise, show us “the right way”. The “truth” shows itself through our clarified feelings, our Emotional Guidance Systems…in the body, in the mind, in the psyche and in the spirit.

Suppose riders today were taught to ride in one certain way, that being only the contemporary model of “push and pull”. Over a matter of time, real dressage would be gone! For those of you who have experienced Sherry’s teaching, you know that she truly “drops the penny” of Classicism and Consciousness in each and every lesson…and now she is going to share the secrets of how she does it in an ordered system. Wow!

Let the circle be unbroken. Unleashed! We're going back to the beginning. One Life, One Love!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: 2009 Clinics and Workshops

The 2009 Clinics and Workshops have been uploaded to the Dressage in the Fourth Website where there is alot of new information. The Site is four pages deep, so keep clicking your way through it! We hope to see you at some of these great events!

We are pioneering a Certification Program with Four Dimensions (levels) in 2009. It's an integral horsepersonship...combining body, mind, psyche and spirit. The 2009/2010 Programs will offer both mounted and unmounted clinics and workshops. If you are serious about working in real harmony with your horse...and going deeper into the "inner dressage"...then these clinics and workshops have your name all over them! 'See you there!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: What IS the Fourth Dimension Anyways?

What IS the Fourth Dimension Anyways?

Horses are pure…unconditioned by consensual reality, the Maya. They are Present, in The Moment. They have not been conditioned by the strictly third-dimensional sphere of material existence and, consequently, they operate in a higher dimension of existence, a fourth dimension of spirit. This is the lesson that horses offer anyone who wishes to honestly communicate with them. When horse and rider work intimately in this fourth dimension, a creative-zero-point opens up in which consciousness and unconsciousness become momentarily unified. This provides the rider with an opportunity to merge with unitary reality, wherein there is no permanence, because all is transformation. In the fourth dimension, the rider escapes the prison of time and the limitations of ego-bound consciousness. S/he accepts that s/he is spirit, realizing his or her own immortality and, consequently, freedom.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Endorsement from Linda Benedik

"Dressage in the Fourth Dimension is invaluable for the modern equestrian who seeks to understand the essence of riding and pursue a classical education in the art of dressage. To experience a true manifestation of union or yoga with the horse, Sherry Ackerman’s work inspires dressage artists to cultivate a humble approach and take responsibility for integrating mind-body-spirit-horse. In so doing, she reemphasizes that a rider’s greatest life-lessons and source of fulfillment are found in the journey…not the end result."

Linda Benedik, author of Longeing the Rider for a Perfect Seat, Yoga for Equestrians, and the Yoga & Riding Techniques video series.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Administrative Assistant

I am extremely pleased to announce that Ms. Tiffany Mortiz has joined the organizational team at The Fourth Dimension as our
Administrative Assistant. Tiffany will be handling the developmental and organizational aspects of the 2009 clinic and workshop programs for the US. She also comes on board as Moderator to the Fourth Dimension yahoo egroup. Correspondence and inquiries should be directed to Tiffany via <bookings@dressageinthefourth.com>

Tiffany is a wonderfully conscious dressage rider, horsewoman and sensitive, aware human being. I am very proud to have her at my right hand as we begin our new venture. I suspect that she has no idea how much work she has signed on for!

Tiffany says: "I am so excited to be working with Sherry on this wonderful endeavor. Please keep checking in with the Fourth Dimension egroup and this Blog for updates and news. I can not tell you how much you are going to love what Sherry has "up her sleeve" for 2009!"

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Endorsement from Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling

"Dressage in the Fourth Dimension offers us an important piece in building a complete picture of the horse. Sherry Ackerman convincingly articulates the weighty main message of this book: horses have the ability to either liberate us or hurt us."

"Sherry offers the reader an abundance of valuable, coherant and considered thinking, inspiring and encouraging learning in how to distinguish one from the other. She also describes empathetically, on different levels, how we humans can approach the horse in an holistic way mindful of the cultural, natural and symbolic aspects the horse shows us."

--Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: 2009 Clinics and Workshops

I have launched a new clinic and workshop initiative for 2009 based on Dressage in the Fourth Dimension. This initiative will focus on animal spirituality and the transformational aspects of the horse-human relationship through the Way of Dressage. I am interested in raising consciousness about the potential of dressage for human transformation and evolution. This work will be much more holistic than the dressage teaching that I have done for the past several decades. It's time for me to be much more integrated about my horse-relatated interests than simply "teaching dressage". At this point in my life, seeing dressage as "just dressage" is too reductionistic and makes me feel, as Sartre (Critique of Practical Reason) might say, a bit "practico-inert". It is, quite simply, too third dimensional....Flatland. Seeing the horse-human relationship as a path to transformation and evolution breathes life into riding and is really where my head is at these days. I'm ready to ride...and live...in the fourth dimension. The primary emphasis will be on the real stuff of riding.....the inner work and the horse's contribution to facilitating our transformation. I don't want to just teach people how to weight their inside seatbone and keep their shoulders back anymore. I want to show people how horses and the art of dressage...each and every movement...can teach them to deal with their pain-body and/or shadow. Time is short and horses could save the Planet. Horses don't really care if riders keep their heels down and their sternums up. They want us to open our heart chakras.

In an era when America defines itself according to its gross national product, suburban sprawl and consensus ideology, I am, in existential fashion, inviting individuals to forge a new reality that would displace the old psychological reality of personal powerlessness and passivity—a reality untainted by conformity and complacency. 'See you there!!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Statement of Philosophy

We all need to stop talking about classical equestrian ideals….that just makes us dressage fundamentalists. Be Here, Now. We’re not stuck in the boxes created by previous century masters. This is not the Renaissance…it is This Moment. The art de vivre is alive…and so are our horses. Trying to ride dressage from your head kills it…and when dressage dies, so does the horse.

You don’t ride a theory…a method…or a style. You ride the horse…and it is you that does the riding. It is not “your body”. You are more than just your body….and, when you ride the the horse, s/he is extremely affected by you. No-one can teach you how to ride. No-one can tell you what to do. All a good teacher can do is be a finger pointing at the Moon.

Dressage is the Moon. I can point you toward it, but that is all. You have to find it on your own. We each own our individual experiences. Until we stop insisting that a teacher do it for us…and begin to find it on our own….we are like caged rats. I see students run from teacher to teacher…book to book….video to video….in a search for dressage. What they don’t do is feel, experience, gestalt. Until the student really rides….from within…s/he will remain the caged rat. Ride, ride, ride until your sense of feel wakes up. Get out of your head and into YOU. Deconstruct everything that you have ever been taught and reconstruct it as you experience it. Own it.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Egroup Available

If you enjoy the book...and the Blog...and want to be involved in the sister e-list, your subscription is welcomed to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dressageinthefourth/
It's free, open to all and puts you in touch with alot of other Fellow Travelers of the Fourth Dimension!

Email to and from the aforementioned list, once you have subscribed, is dressageinthefourth@yahoogroups.com

I look forward to seeing you in The Fourth Dimension!

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Book Announcement

The book you see to the upper left represents an incredible act of courage and vision. In 1997, when Dressage in the Fourth Dimension was originally published, bestsellers like Susan Chernak McElroy’s Animals as Teachers and Healers and Monty Roberts’ The Man Who Listens to Horses were a couple of years away from becoming bestsellers.

At that time, those of us who did, in fact, see horses as sentient beings, and even as teachers and healers, kept quiet about it for the most part. To say that you were riding for any reason other than sport or recreation was suspect. The phrase “horse lover” was applied with disdain. And anyone who admitted to having a spiritual experience in the presence of one of these amazing creatures was considered eccentric at best and more than likely delusional.

Along came Sherry Ackerman, an accomplished equestrian and philosopher who not only suggested that riding could be used as a path of transformation but also all but guaranteed that anyone who learns to ride well can’t help but be transformed.

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension was a pioneer work in awakening consciousness, a finger pointing at the moon. Now in its second edition, its message is right on time. It requires readers to deconstruct every assumption they have ever held, to ask “Why?” and become okay with not-knowing. Humanity’s alienation from nature can no longer be ignored. The enormity and immediacy of the crisis is evident.

--From the Foreword, by Linda Kohanov, author of Tao of Equus and Riding Between the Worlds

Dressage in the Fourth Dimension: Welcome

This thread is dedicated to discussing issues of eco-spirituality, nature mysticism and the possibilities...or not...for an environmental renaissance. The role of horses and the art of dressage in facilitating human transformation will be explored. The book, Dressage in the Fourth Dimension, will provide a jumping-off point for the discussion. Author Sherry L. Ackerman wrote:

“A decade ago, Dressage in the Fourth Dimension acknowledged my particular point of view. I wrote what I needed to know, at that time, for my particular level of maturity. Ten years have deepened those insights, amplified my understanding, and crystallized my vision. And still, though, what I have written there is what I need to know. In the same way that the archetype of the horse is not autonomous, neither am I. In fully honoring my collaboration with the horses, the geometry, the motion, and the ideas, I find that the fourth dimension has become a space that I can more naturally, and authentically, inhabit. “

Behind the Looking Glass: Welcome

This thread is dedicated to a discussion of the Neoplatonic Revival in nineteenth century Great Britain, especially as it pertained to the work of Lewis Carroll and other writers and authors during that period. The discussion will, naturally, widen into an exploration of Neoplatonism in all of its forms, as well as the writings of Plotinus.

The forum will draw on the book, Behind the Looking Glass, which offers a fresh perspective in the ongoing, contemporary deconstruction of the Carroll Myth. In this book, Ackerman exposes a Carroll who, having lost belief in the theological and mythological master plots of earlier eras, turned toward the imaginative fiction of wonderlands rife with philosophical content in response to his instinctive hunger for cosmic coherence and existential order. The image of Carroll as a dreary Victorian conservative gives way to that of a man with wide intellectual parameters, an inquiring mind and bold, far-sighted vision.