Arn Mountain & The Glass Globes

Containment and Categorization of Emotions & Memories

by Beau Jágr Sheldon, 2023

A greyscale digital illustration of mountains in a foggy sky with trees and fields around a winding road that leads to the mountain's base.

In the green and overgrown hills and valleys, there are a series of caverns beneath the ground. Many years ago, these caverns were carved out and made into a secure storage location. Inside, there are full size locations with marble stairwells and arches, document archives, even some legendary vaults with highly desired media within. In this ritual, you are now the owner of this colloquially-called Arn Mountain and within it, you can store all of your memories, emotions, and experiences in whatever form you deem appropriate.

You can traverse it in your golf cart, stopping at each location as you need, and take things out or put things inside the various safes, secure locations, or display shelves. When you’re done inside, you can exit the facility, locking the door behind you physically and electronically. The facility is huge, and even if you recorded every moment of your life, you would never run out of space for each record, and it is almost as if the space expands as you need it to hold what you must.

This location is one of the most seismically and natural-disaster secure locations in the entirety of North America. No outside force will interfere with what you put inside the mountain. It will not be shaken, broken, burned, or invaded, and is truly a safe place. No one else can enter it without your permission, and you can revoke access to it for anyone, at any time. Because of this, you have complete power over the mountain, and can go into it whenever you wish, or keep it locked and protected when you prefer.

For this ritual, you will either describe or conceptualize Arn Mountain, identify how you will store some of your memories and emotions within the mountain, and you will also identify some key items you keep in the Glass Globes protected inside the mountain.

The lines after each prompt can be used as pacing, with a breath in or out for each line, when read aloud. The headers are guidance for completing this as a written, nonverbal prompt, and do not need to be read aloud.

Ritual

To use Arn Mountain, you may imagine it to look however you wish, or describe it in text. If you want to describe it now, do so here.

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

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Storing Helpful Memories & Emotions

Within the mountain, there are many different storage spaces. The primary things you will be holding space for are emotions and memories. Describe or imagine how you will store your helpful memories and how you will store your helpful emotions. What special places do you have for these memories so you can easily recall and examine them?

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

Helpful Memories

Helpful Emotions

Storing Neutral Challenging Emotions & Memories

Now, consider your neutral or more challenging emotions and memories.

How would you store these? Do they have partitions to separate them from the others? What safety measures do their storage spaces have in the mountain to protect you and make them safe to examine? How do you keep the neutral memories & emotions from spilling over into the storage for those that are challenging, keeping them from being easily accessed and processed?

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

Neutral Memories

Challenging Memories

Neutral Emotions

Challenging Emotions

The Staff

Who helps you to keep track of these records, memories and emotions alike? Name at least one guard or clerk who is a resident in the mountain and has your permission to be a part of the retention and study of your emotions and memories. This can be representative of a real person, but should be given some characteristics or a more complete separate identity from any real person. An example would be a sphinx who guards the entrance, a friendly ghost who catalogs your records, or even a more abstract presence like a computer on a starship who helps you find records and monitor the mountain. (breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

Your Guard(s) and Clerk(s)

If using this as a written exercise, you may draw your Staff or a representative symbol as well.

A greyscale digital illustration of a shelf with a series of differently sized glass globes on each shelf.

The Glass Globes & Impactful Emotions and Memories

Finally, consider those memories and emotions that are the most intense or impactful, the ones that you feel a need to protect from loss or protect yourself from. These are ones stored in Glass Globes, something like a snowglobe or an equivalent fragile but observable item. How do you display these so you can safely monitor and engage with them? What procedures do you use (coping mechanisms, skills, etc.) to safely take them “off the shelf” and explore the impacts of them, and still be able to safely return them to the shelf?

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

Impactful Memories

Impactful Emotions

A greyscale digital illustration of a padlock with four strands of barbed wire behind it.

Recovery and Security

If one of these delicate impactful records were to be dropped or damaged by your attempts to process and understand them, or by unexpected events, how do you repair them? Do you ask for help? What coping mechanisms or skills help when a memory is suddenly broken open, or when a deep hurt or trauma becomes unsealed?

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

Repairing Records

A greyscale digital illustration of a lined sheet of paper labeled "Recovery & Security Plan" and a fountain style pen.

Locking Up

Now that you have everything inside the mountain, help to care for your trove, and a plan for the most delicate items, how do you lock the door when you leave? Do you bring anything with you? Do you leave anything new behind? Do you remember the layout of the mountain when you leave it? Where do you keep the code and key for the door?

(breathe in and out with the pace of each line, pacing to your comfort)

The Road Goes On

Once you have locked the Arn Mountain, you can follow the winding path through the hills until you reach a safe space to breathe.

Look at the landscape around you and take note of the trees, plants, animals, and the color of the sky and clouds. Breathe in the air, noting its temperature and the scents that come with the breath. Hold this breath for a moment.

Breathe out the air with all the tension of decision making, the weight of those things left back in the mountain. Breathe restfully and when you’re ready, return to your day.

Arn Mountain & The Glass Globes

Arn Mountain & The Glass Globes