VIDEO Debut : Unbinding Spell ⛓️‍💥

A Very Human Poem Visualized by AI ~ A Collaboration between Me and Ari Kuschnir

Dear Friends,

Last week, out of the blue, I received a text from

Ari Kuschnir

that said, “Do you have the contract breaking poem audio handy? Just had an idea.”

This is how my beloved’s mind works. It’s thrilling. When I got home a couple of hours later he had made the first draft of this beautiful AI-assisted video using an abridged version of the poem, Unbinding Spell, I published here on Substack. That poem also inspired a virtual gathering I hosted—a kind of collective unbinding spell where a group of us came together to work some magic on the contracts that are binding us—a divorce, outdated belief-systems, a stressful professional dilemma…

Ari is a director/creator/editor. He’s also an early adopter :) He’s been playing with AI video tools since they emerged. If you haven’t seen the charming cat videos he made with his daughter, you must.

That night, he explained that he was inspired while reading a post on X by Cristóbal Valenzuela, Cofounder and CEO of Runway. He got the idea to use my poems to prompt the latest generation (Gen-3) of their tool. It was this invitation that got him thinking: “It's a form of ‘generative daydreaming.’ The boundaries between your initial concept and the model's output blur into one stream of continual discovery. You're not crafting a singular, static piece of media, but rather exploring possibilities. And it's joyful and fun.”

We re-recorded the poem and sat together to prompt the AI and select imagery—it was truly joyful and fun.

The original poem was inspired by the total eclipse, which surfaced many hidden things for many people—including me. I began to see many of the “shadow agreements” I had entered into professionally, personally, parentally, relationally…it was a revelation to really look at how so many of the contracts we make are made out of fear and unconscious drives. The message I got from the eclipse (a longer version of this post is on my Substack on May 14th’s post called “Meditation, Medication & Contracts, Oh My!”) was this: 

ALL the old contracts based in fear and paranoia and acquisitiveness and greed MUST be broken. These contracts are null and void in the New Earth. The patriarchy is built on contracts. Contracts replaced Love as the glue that bound society together and enabled productivity, industry and progress. Contracts replaced Trust. In many places, contracts replaced basic human goodness. I believe we made contracts “legal and binding” when our traumatized selves stopped feeling held by this world—by Mother (Earth) and by each other.

This little movie (3:25), the first public-artistic collaboration between

Ari Kuschnir

and me, is an offering to anyone who is feeling stuck, trapped, stifled or restrained by the contracts of this time or the contracts in your life. We hope it helps us all see and feel our way towards something more liberating and expansive…

Ari’s openness to AI has been an inspiration to me and frankly, allowed me to move into this aspect of our brave new world with more confidence and optimism. I hope it does the same for you.

Have you played with AI? Chat GPT? What are you making?

Unbinding Spell (Abridged)
Poem by Schuyler Brown


What is the sound of a contract breaking? 

Alarm bells ringing. 
Voices quarreling. 
Two sides going round-and-round. 
Silence where there should be sound.

What is the shape of a contract breaking?

Fake smiles and hard faces. 
Women's bodies no longer sacred. 
Centuries of oppression, 
everything hinges on the confession. 
Strip mines, and gold-lined pockets. 
What's next on the docket?

What is the sign of a contract breaking?
Suspicion where there once was trust. 
Injustice of a sucker punch. 
Confusion and procrastination. 
Dried up wetlands, deforestation. 
Clinging to what once was dear, 
operating out of fear.

These are contracts that we make 
to hide from the world, to avoid, to take 
advantage of others or correct the wrong 
of a system that's already far gone. 
Stunting, growth, or trapping others. 
We make these vows with friends and lovers 
and enemies and business partners. 
These contracts should be nonstarters. 
They serve for a while until they don't. 
Until I will becomes I won't 
until I do becomes I don’t.
 
These are the contracts we must break. 
These are the spells we must unmake.
Something new is waiting to come 
beyond the walls of this old kingdom. 
Unbinding life to live as One.
Stepping into the great unknown. 

Does a hawk have a contract with the air? 
Do the flowers have a contract with the sun? 
Does the sky have a contract with the ground 
or the other way around?
It seems ridiculous to say, 
But, I don’t think they see it that way.
 
There are promises we must keep 
and there are vows that run so deep, 
and there are laws inviolable 
that make this great world functional.
Commitments are a part of life
Respecting cycles is how we thrive.
In the heart it’s quiet. Nothing to defend. 
Everything everywhere must come to an end.

Recognizing when it’s time
is the beginning of the spell to unbind. 
Invoke divine support to hold
the parts of us the contract sold.
Apologize. Forgive. Release. 
Find your courage—Integrate, grieve. 
Agree it's time to tear it up. 
Moving on is not giving up.
 
Now you are free. Now you have choice. 
Now you have agency, a will, a voice.
Enter the liminal state of becoming…
Not-in-contract can be exciting
On new terms and with awareness:
what a relief to create from fairness.
Once you lose the fear to fall, 
you can be in contract or not at all.

Prompted w/ Run Gen-3 and Edited by Ari Kuschnir
Music by Julio Monterrey
Sound design - 11Labs & Artlist

AI-generated Summary: The "Unbinding Spell" poem emerges from a place of deep reflection on societal transitions and personal growth. It depicts the sensory experience of breaking outdated contracts in our lives, from subtle soul agreements to legal bindings. The poem encourages viewers to reassess commitments, break free from fear-based and patriarchal bonds, and embrace the transformative power of letting go. It invites us to step into a space of conscious choice and renewal in our relationships and society.