Journey School Stories

How to build a HeART Kaleidoscope

Materials:

1 Glass Circular Tube
1 Glass Triangular Tube to fit snugly inside circular tube
Pictures of your Self
All the pieces of your Heart

Step One: Make sure you've chosen a triangular tube that fits well inside the circular tube. You want one that will hold solidly in place but not so tightly that it will stress the integrity of the circular tube.

Step Two: Slide the triangular tube into place inside the circular tube. Make sure the ends are flush with each other. Seal one end of the tubes so that the spaces between the triangular tube and and the circular are closed but the triangular tube remains open.

Step Three: Stand tubes upright upon the closed end.

Step Four: Loosely fill the spaces between the circular tube and the triangular tube with the pieces of your Heart: that shiny-bell memory of your very first kiss, the jagged edge black obsidian flake of rejection, the seashells and bright copper pennies and laughter, the dead flowers and clogged pipes and loss. Tip them all right in.

Step Five: Seal the second end as the first, leaving the triangular tube open.

Step Six: A magic trick may be called for here unless you know the science required to lessen the gravity in the sealed segments between the circular and triangular tubes. Your goal is to allow the pieces of your Heart to move freely and without being distinguished as "heavy", "light", or "broken". Just let them be. Let them interact with each other without regard to chronological order, preference or classification.

Step Seven: On the outside of the circular tube, using a soft touch with a clear adhesive, attach the pictures of your Self. Images that reflect how you see Who and What you are. Leave space at the edges, don't crowd one image with another but let there be room for each to stand alone.

Step Eight: Let light flow through the triangular tube. Whether it be flame, bulb, sun or moon, flood the inner tube with light. It will stream through all the pieces of your Heart, catching the colors and shapes, bending and refracting on its way out through the channels and valleys left between the pictures of your Self on the outside of the circular tube.

Step Nine: As often as possible, gather with other HeART Kaleidoscopes and watch the incredible patterns made on blank walls and in dark corners.


More kaleidoscope stuff: Brewster Kaleidoscope Society and here's a link to make your own kaleidoscope

Wishing you wild, colorful dreams, Lisa