What is Chapel Perilous?
If you’d like to listen as you read or instead of reading the post, here’s an audio recording for you:
Have you ever had an experience that left you questioning life as you knew it until that point? If so, you’ve been in chapel perilous before. Based on a location from the myth of the Holy Grail, this state of mind is where you’ll find yourself any time you’re confronted with new information that rings with truth, but conflicts with what you’ve always believed about yourself or the world around you.
When you’re in this space, you have a crucial choice in front of you—deny or evolve. You can dismiss that anything noteworthy has happened and stay just as you were, getting stuck in the chapel. Or, you can integrate your new perspective. Meet the challenge to grow into all the corners of your new worldview, and exit chapel perilous evolved. If you’ve seen The Matrix, it’s basically like the idea of choosing to take the blue pill and remain in blissful ignorance or take the red pill and face the truth and all that comes with it.
The Chapel Perilous art installation was lit, designed, and led by Robert Leifheit of Abraca Lab.
The Chapel Perilous art installation illustrates Timothy Leary’s eight circuit model of consciousness, which offers a blueprint to eight types of intelligence that help us weave in and out of the state of chapel perilous with grace.
The first four circuits represent the skills we need to survive as human beings. They form the foundation for our explorations into the four consciousness-expanding intelligences above. If we pursue these intelligences for their own sake without the context and meaning offered by these post-survival circuits, we suffer a loss of purpose. But, breakthroughs into the expansive circuits can be intoxicating, and each awakening is a return to chapel perilous, destabilizing our perspective of life as we knew it. Exploring from a well-resourced and grounded perspective is essential.
The bottom four reliefs representing the survival circuits were designed by Jeddin White of Abraca Lab. The 5th circuit window on the top left was designed by Shelby Stong. It was a pleasure and a delight to collaborate with so many in our art collective to make this come to life!
If you want to avoid getting stuck in denial, remember this: root to rise. Weather the temptation to bypass the real work of tending to your foundation in the four survival circuits, and grow gracefully each time you find yourself in the chaos and challenge of Chapel Perilous.
On a personal note—after years of working with and reframing the eight circuit model for myself and the rest of the crew working on the Chapel Perilous art installation, I’m really excited to start writing about it more publicly. You can look forward to deeper dives into the four survival circuits, the four consciousness-expanding post-survival circuits, parallels between these concepts and tarot archetypes, and what the reciprocal root to rise relationship is like for each of the four columns of survival circuits and their corresponding expansive circuits.
For now, check out the 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness 101 post for a primer on each of the eight circuits, or intelligences, in the model.
If there’s anything specific you want to explore about this model, please drop me a line and ask! Or, if you’re looking for a more personalized approach to working with these concepts, check out my offerings for a peer 1:1 session or interactive workshop for a team or event.
