Iconography, Day 6: Acceptance

There is a spectacle that happens when an iconography workshop is coming to a close and everyone stands back to look at their own icon or to walk around the room to look at others’ icons.  No one says, “Wow, I did a great job," or “Yours is better than mine.” Instead, the two phrases heard over and over again are: “Wow, how did this happen!” and “Wow, they all look so different!”

Iconography is not about taking control and creating something that is not there. It’s about letting go and seeing what is there. Even though we all write the same icon and follow the same steps, somehow each icon is very different.

“Every icon is a surprise,” our instructor (who has been writing icons for 23 years) said. There is no iconographer who can say they would not have done something differently if given the chance – but that is looking backward.  We accept what is, and by doing so we accept where we are in our individual spiritual journey.

If we struggled with one particular stage of the process, then that struggle helps us identify particular problems in our own spiritual journey. For example, trouble with drawing straight and trouble free lines could indicate a struggle with creating order in one’s life.  Conversely, if the lines are too harsh, perhaps it’s time to loosen up a bit in daily life.

From the first day I felt intrigued by the infant’s hand that clasped at its mother’s headdress. I felt intrigued because, as I said at the time, “that’s what babies really do.”  But I also know that ‘the pull’ doesn’t end with infancy.

Our instructor had a different take on that tiny hand: she said that the Divine is always trying to engage us, always drawing us into the realm, always tugging at us . . .

Many Iconographers of old did not sign their work, and those few who did, have done so on the backside of the panel.  We use a phrase, written in Greek letters, which means through the hands of . . .

When we inscribe through the hands of . . ., we are not saying, “I did this icon.”  We are saying, “I accept this icon.”