Puppetry uses symbolic and aesthetic language, reducing reliance on verbal expression and inviting a new kind of knowing: imaginal, liminal, metaphorical, poetic, and non-linear. In puppetry, we experience a plurality of consciousness and identity, an interdependence of self and matter, a reimagining of the relationship between subject and object, and an opportunity to explore power dynamics within the context of a creative container. Play, pleasure, and the "friendship of created things" (René Char) are by nature anti-capitalist. Puppetry allows us to occupy opposing binaries and hold multiple truths at once.  Puppet animation confronts us with difficult questions around who and what is allowed to exist, who and what is abject both in society and within ourselves, and where is life, death, and the threshold between them. Puppetry incites empathy and works to decenter the self while holding first-person experience as not only valid but essential. The puppet naturally fluctuates and blurs the line between Self and Other, allowing us to do the same. 

To create and ensoul an object is to experience a kind of trans-embodiment wherein the object becomes a proxy location for our own mindful presence. When we can't breathe, the puppet can breathe. When we can't orient, the puppet can orient. When we can't find dual awareness or dare to respond to our environment, the puppet can. The puppet can feel and express that which is too difficult for us to face. Over time, puppetry can be a partner in transitioning out of survival physiology altogether.