Hi, I am Liesl, an educational psychologist, a workshop facilitator, a Tarot card reader, a dreamer interpreter, a symbol seeker and a whole bunch of other things...
I am happiest when on my way somewhere, exploring the human psyche and the unconscious and when I am allowed to inspire and empower people.
Assessments and training keep me busy during the day but I have a consuming secret that fills my nights. I am totally besotted with words, symbols and dreams. Being a storyteller by heart, I have been writing my whole life. But only for myself. This year, I have submitted a radio drama, Vondeling, and to my greatest surprise it is going to be aired on RSG on December 22, 2022! I have also learned that the first story in this blog will be published in Kopergids, a community newspaper, in Centurion. The editor saw the story on the Skryfgeheime Web page (I did a creative writing course through them).
Now I have this overwhelming need to share everything in my soul with the rest of the world. Writing and teaching give my life meaning. I use stories in all my workshops because to me, stories have healing and teaching power. The first story addresses Gender Based Violence - the topic on which I recently presented ten workshops to social workers from The Department of Social Development.
Some of my stories and thoughts are inspirational, some funny, others scary or sad but they all reflect my personal view on life, the human psyche (and some slightly disturbed family members... shush).
As a child I always had my ears glued to a story on radio. Some of you might still remember how we used to have “Liewe Heksie” and “Jakkals en Wolf” on those big vinyl records. Those were the days before television and computer games where Siembamba on radio and the ring of the ice cream bicycle outside were the highlights of your day. Gardens were huge and streets were mostly safe and children had to play outside.
When not listening to stories, I was either climbing onto the roof (unsupervised, helicopter moms did not exist those days) to touch the clouds or catching fairies in the then still open plot behind our house. There I could poke sticks at stuff, peek under slimy rocks to discover new species and watch ants for hours while my younger brother leisurely ate soil and rocks beside me - “Trues Bob”, like my stepfather loved to say- my brother had a culinary thing for mud (surprisingly enough, he actually turned out to be the sane one). My most prized possession those days was a small brown cardboard suitcase (you don't get them anymore) and my torch, received on my 4th birthday.
On garden days (which were most days unless Ermelo had one of its typical arctic temperatures and my mother feared the welfare might pay her a visit for allowing her two adopted children to die of hypothermia) I would be outside with said torch and suitcase to collect leaves, rocks and mushrooms. They would decorate the suitcase together with struggling butterflies, flies and various other creepy crawlies to provide a cosy and luxurious home for all the fairies caught.
These fairies and their fortunate elves were kept hostage under my vigilant surveillance and they had the privilege to live in that much sought after, albeit dark and maybe a tad smelly, home I created for them. At night I told them stories and they told me their secrets and we all lived in a magical world no one else could see. Unfortunately my mother had a thing for Doom and she killed off most of my exotic friends. I still have the (empty) suitcase, in case the fairies decide to return.
Today, instead of rocks, I am turning over thoughts and images to find symbolic meaning hiding beneath our common and visible reality. I love symbolism because it is everywhere. Symbolic meaning can be found in all things. It is a universal language with which we are all familiar, it is the language of our ancestors and of our dreams.
I need to communicate, teach and maybe heal through stories and so Aljander has been born. Aljander is a well-known Afrikaans rhyme and riddle from my childhood. I translated it to All yonder in English and I have created this poem as it reflects what my blog is about - the human mind, the human soul, our journey through life to find healing, meaning and experiences.
I use both Afrikaans and English as a medium of expression and post stories, poems and images that I create to reflect my thoughts on the unconscious, dream work and other symbols that I find meaningful. Everything here is personal but maybe the reader can find some healing and meaning in them too.
