By Anna Schroeder

The way I’m called to do my art is one way my heart is opened by God. As a young person of 18, I had declared myself an atheist. Soon after, I spent a night in my studio painting a self-portrait. By morning it was finished, though I didn’t remember much of doing it. I came to the conclusion a higher being must have done the work, not me. Then, I opened my heart to believing in God.

Throughout the years, I found that doing art allows me to order my mind. It gives me the lightness to face grueling tasks and big decisions. It unwinds my fears and anxiety. After my husband’s death, I found myself in the void of life as my identity of wife, mother, and daughter shifted radically and abruptly. My dad died in July of 2022, followed 6 months later by my husband. My eldest left for South Korea a day later.

It seemed like the big bang and I was primordial ooze. I kept wanting direction, but instead I repeatedly received to paint, sing, and dance. I suppose primordial ooze is perfect for creating. Those three practices carried me out of dark, heavy, catatonia- inducing feelings, and into the silliness of play, and willingness to make messy mistakes.

I still receive to paint, sing, and dance. These times of economic and political turmoil threaten to curl me up into a ball. Art brings me out of that fog and inaction, illuminating that the real silliness is in all that posturing and puffing of chests. The facade is thin. The danger lies in letting it divert us from the grounded work of love. Art helps me get back to that real work.

By Alexandra Boyer

The most striking thing about SICA art in Subud is, of course, that it touches the inner feeling. Many times, I have seen, heard (even tasted!) and in some way, witnessed this. I hesitate to mention specific artists’ names because of the many wonderful creators that I would inadvertently leave out. So, I will write about just one anonymous encounter that stays with me.

At the Subud World Congress in Christ Church, New Zealand, Dahlan Foah put together a musical production with Subud singers and the Christchurch symphony orchestra. Dahlan welcomed any Subud member who wished to join the chorus. I had loved singing in my high school chorus, so I signed up. There were parts of the performance when smaller groups of people sang. Someone I couldn’t see was standing behind me, someone who sang with only a few other voices while I was silent. Every time she began to sing my inner being vibrated. I do not know who this person, was or even what country she was from – all I know is that she was a soprano whose voice was so full of Grace, that I wished she would never stop singing. I hope whoever and wherever she is, that she uses her voice in a public way. This is how Subud artists can change the world.

By Jim O’Halloran

I remember hearing Miles Davis playing live about 1990 and witnessing periods where I felt God was speaking through him. The same experience happened about the same time, while hearing Keith Jarrett with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. This was about four years before I was opened. What I heard and what I felt in those moments was something absolutely true and real, something that already lived within me. How could I not want to live there all the time, not only witnessing it, but existing in that state?

It seems to me that the Subud Latihan is a way to draw closer to this state more often and for longer periods of time. It also now seems easier to feel when that state exists for me, or when it’s weak or absent. I can play the same notes with entirely different results in or out of the state of the receiving being present in the music. It sounds different, feels different, and makes the room feel different.

This obviously doesn’t only happen with music, that’s just where it primarily lives for me. Often, I have the same feeling immersed in a really great book, seeing a crow, watching a spring bud, smelling plants, feeling the wind, or watching the clouds, sun, moon, or water. At those moments it may be my calling to interpret what I witness within my idiom. There are also those times when all that is bypassed, and a melody or structure is just handed to me during Latihan!

My experience has been that these gifts are always there and it is our level of awareness that enables us to grasp these ubiquitous blessings. I am truly grateful for having a consistent practice which allows me to increase this awareness.

By Fayra Teeters

In the 1990’s when I was trudging through the very painful pastime of performing as a real estate agent in Seattle, I asked during one fine Latihan to be installed with a Flake Alarm, so I would always know when I was in the presence of someone who would be wasting my time. Be careful what you ask for! This Flake Alarm has stayed with me every day of my life, and applies to all my endeavors, not just real estate.

In the early 2000’s I established my theater, Masque Alfresco, dedicated to the revival of the Commedia dell’Arte form of theater, with its inherent stock-character archetypes. I began exploring (using my Latihan as guide) those tropes as extensions of the Flake Alarm. I discovered whole systems or patterns of behavior based around single kernels of deceit. For example, The Damsel in Distress, who exudes enormous amount of energy to siren a hero-rescuer to her aid, when she can easily clean up her mess by herself, using half the energy. Damsels in Distress grow up to be Martyr Moms, who rail against their family and the world for abandoning them: “He doesn’t call; he doesn’t write!” In truth, they could easily perform for themselves whatever the menial task might be.

Then at a Menucha gathering in November 2022, I initiated an Archetype Workshop, exploring with my fellow Subud-seekers what it means to see the world through the eyes of each of these theatrical archetypes: Benevolent Ruler, Tyrant, Petty Bureaucrat, Merlin and Cassandra (both seers who weren’t heeded), Clever Servant, Plodding Servant, and Child of Wonder (everyone’s favorite).

So, the kernel of a Flake Alarm kept morphing into broader and broader cultural applications, using the Latihan as guidance throughout its evolution. My hope is to have yet another transformation this coming National Congress/Gathering over the 4th of July weekend in Portland. Stay tuned to this channel.