I went on a tour of The House on The Rocks in Wisconsin.
At a distance it looks like a needle jutting outwards towards a rock formation, and the view from the garden seem architecturally intriguing, the surrounding landscape held trees of various sizes and types all growing on a hilly terrain… right in the middle of nature.
We spent time in the gardens, taking pictures of the flowers and the fishes that swam in the lily ponds. If this was the outside, we couldn’t imagine what the inside would be!
Our first entry was narrow and tight with low ceilings, dark and airless, carpeting lined the walls and floors and small windows let in a bit of light.
As we exited into a transitional hallway, where we were able to walk out on the needle we had seen in the distance, we did then see we were above the trees or in the trees and nature surrounded us. Once again we could see the sunshine and trees.
And then the tour led us back inside, into dark mazelike rooms and hallways, were we couldn’t turn back and couldn’t get out. We had no choice but go forward following the signs, “Tour continues”.
The walls and interiors were lined with a collection of odd things, mismatched and yet similar in feeling. From masks, to old dolls…their eye staring wildly…stuck behind the glass with lights shining upon them, the rest of the room dark.
And placed in even darker corners imitation tiffany lamps. It was said he kept the house dark to show off their colorful light. Interesting he honored them more than the brilliant nature right outside.
The windows coverings were a dark blue, so we never glimpsed the light of outside.
And then came the windowless rooms, and in this darkened maze we walked, trying to neutralize the overwhelming heaviness of insanity…a carousel played its circus music, which added to the crazy energy, spinning around and around.
We went downward into a huge room that held a wale its innards exposed an octopus draped over it; one huge eye bore down on us. Even in this huge cavernous room you felt stuck. A narrow sidewalk kept us walking single file forward.
Lining the walls was a collection of old toys, like forgotten memories neglected and hidden from children or remnants and artifacts of children.
In the darkness and cave like atmosphere all things took on a sinister glow…perhaps each cried out from their prison.
I have seen old things reverently kept in museums, and these treasures were locked away in the darken bowels of this man’s creation, taking on his energy by how he displayed them.
Our next stop the ‘house’ café, where fumes of cooking overwhelmed our already churning insides. Amazingly there were folks dining, we walked by their tables, anxious to be set free.
As we exited the dining room we met two young workers and asked how much longer the tour was. To which they replied 25 more minutes. I asked if they could lead us back to the Zen gardens, and one replied he could, and we followed.
My brother said that the inside of this structure was like taking a physical tour into his abused mind…
In the years he and I have talked together, we have been trying to get him free from that confused maze like mind.
He has a picture of himself prior to the abuse, and in it stands a little boy with a red sweater. So we always speak of his inner voice, his creative voice, his Spirit as the little boy in the red sweater.
It was so incredible that it was a young lad in a red tee shirt that led us out and back to the Zen Garden…just like in my brother’s life.
I was able to see and feel the energies of a mind gone insane, and see how there appears to be no way out and nowhere to sit down and be at peace, no way to find Light and freedom inside the mind.
The tour was worth so much more than they charged, for it showed us a walking tour on how it feels to be lost in the abused mind and to see it sitting in reality surrounded by nature.
It is encapsulated in the midst of splendid reality, shut out to itself, like a huge pocket in the land of sunlight, air and splendor, it is secluded and dark, narrow and airless…it again is like the mind…without the access to the right side.
And the juxtaposition, Zen Garden – Dark airless rooms, maze like hallways, dead-end corridors…even the fake tiffany lamps could be seen as a false sense of hope or false prophets…just steps away are flowers, waterfalls, lily ponds and peace.
A young woman we shared our experience with said it sounded like the religion she just exited. On the outside it has a Zen Garden like look, but once you get in you are lost and in the darkness.
What was so amazing and telling to me, were the reactions of others, some were doing jigs to the carousel music not feeling the energies there, for it they matched their own levels. Others were like us anxious and feeling suffocating and needing to get out.
It was a great gift to see the overall picture of the abused mind, a mind caught up in the crazy making of a dark religion lying in the middle of a Zen Garden.
For it is literally true, that nature is our own natural state unless your sense of self gets caught up in the left side of your mind…
We were able to see the insides of the man who created The House on The Rocks. How scary to build this monstrosity in the midst of nature’s grandness, totally blocking it out.
Just seeing the close proximity of the wide-open expanse of nature, the brightness, the airy breezes, the smells and sounds of nature, just outside of the darkened maze was profound.
How like the human experience of either being in reality or lost in the confused mind. Reality is always here; we just have to find our pathway.
The road that leads us back to being our self, to self expression, self awareness, to being the self we were meant to be, our unique expression of who we are…is found outside of the mind.
“In order to experience the Ultimate Reality you have to be out of your mind.” Neale Donald Walsh
Nature's brilliance!!!
I M Perfect lady 