Masks for the Numinous

"Ocean"

"O fountain mouth, giver, you, mouth, which
speaks inexhaustibly of that one, pure thing,—
you, mask of marble placed before
the water's flowing face..."

from Sonnets to Orpheus
by Rainer Maria Rilke 

In our proposal  Macha wants  masks that are elemental, allowing "voice" to goddesses that have their origins in places...the land, the waters, the forests -  the true wellsprings of myth.    To our ancestors, as to  indigenous cultures today that have been able to preserve their traditions like the Aborigines of Australia, or the Hopi in Arizona, the entire world was alive and conversant.  One way the "mythic conversation" occurred was by personifying the spirits of place.  As Macha  (and I) believe, the experience of communing with the elemental powers is grounded and woven into myth, but the experience is  real. The Pythoness or Oracle drew her visions from the heightened energies, the "mind" of sacred Delphi.   Hawaiians tell traditional stories about Pele, the Goddess of Kilauea - but many modern people, visiting the great volcano, have come away with personal stories of transformation, wonder, and mystery.  

"Volcano Spirit"

We feel the numinous power of special places, the  "anima", be it a life giving spring, a cave with oracular potency, or the generous "devas" that infuse an orchard with fruitfulness.  How many rivers bear the names of Goddesses, for example the river Avon in England, derived from the Celtic goddess Abnoba?  How many mountains are called a Goddess, or a God?

How, in other words, do we "talk with the Earth", and what might the many voices of Gaia have to say, voices garnered from sacred places throughout his/herstory?

'The River Face"

Myths (and masks) are portals that can open possibilities of  "communion with the invisible realms", because myths (like masks) open windows into the country of the mythic imagination.  In other words, giving a "face", a "voice", and personae to the elemental powers isn't  just about creating  fairy tales.  It's about finding a human face for the ineffable,  so the conversation, generations long,  can be more readily translated into human language.  Does that make sense?
  
"Numen ("an influence perceptible by mind but not by senses", pl. numina) is a Latin term for a potential, guiding the course of events in a particular place or in the whole world, used in Roman philosophical and religious thought. The many names for Italic gods may obscure this sense of a numinous presence in all the seemingly mundane actions of the natural world." (Wikipedia)

"Fey"

I've always loved the notion of "numina", the local deities of early Rome.  Pomona is one such Roman goddess who derived from simple shrines placed near orchards, revered as the lady who helped the apples and grapes to grow.



When I made my pilgrimage to Glastonbury this past summer I visited again and again the sacred springs -  the White Spring (which is in an underground chamber, and they wouldn't let me publish the photos I took), and the Red Spring (the Chalice Well).

The Red Spring (Chalice Well), Glastonbury, England

I profoundly felt the power of these holy springs, as well as the Tor, which is (I believe) the source of the two springs.  People have been coming to Glastonbury for millenia on pilgrimage, the site of Avalon, and Arthurian lore, and the famous Glastonbury Abbey.  One of the first things I encountered in "Avalon" were many works of art devoted to the "Lady of the Lake", and everywhere, violet, amethyst, and purple.  Here's a photo I took inside the Tor - notice the "purple haze" that the camera consistently recorded in my photos there.

"That two springs, one red and one white, should rise together and flow out from one of the most remarkable hills in the British Isles strikes a profound chord in the imagination.  In esoteric tradition, the Tor as world centre and axis mundi provides the means of passage between the mundane world and the spiritual realms.  In such a place, the veils separating ordinary reality from spiritual planes can thin or dissolve, allowing those who are receptive to receive the guidance and blessings of the otherworld.  The guardian spirits of the Avalonian soul-portal invite all those who are drawn here to pass through the symbolic gateway that is the Tor.  The interplay between the subtle energies of the Red and White Springs is a vital key to understanding the impact of this experience upon the individual soul-body."

 THE RED AND WHITE SPRINGS OF AVALON , Nicholas R Mann and Philippa Glasson

52 fully illustrated pages available from  http://www.thetemplepublications.com/

The monastery in Glastonbury gradually drained the lake and swamplands around the Tor with a system of irrigation channels to create farmland, but in earlier times the Tor must have been visible as a mysterious island in the mists, the "isle of Avalon".  Today the deep springs still pour from the slopes of that island - the iron-rich red waters of Chalice Well which arise from beneath Chalice Hill and flow out through the Chalice Well gardens; and the waters of the adjacent White Spring, arising from beneath Glastonbury Tor. 

So, today I'm working on a mask dedicated to "the Lady of the Springs of Avalon".  Although there is so much lore and mythological legacy connected with this ancient place of pilgrimage, I'm going to just go with my own intuitive vision, and hope I produce a mask that will, like the ever-flowing waters of Avalon, be used to dance new stories about this sacred place into the world.

Barbara Ehrenreich on the darker side of positive thinking

Artwork by Catherine Nash

It's got nothing to do with masks or my Goddess project (although a trickster mask, black and white, seems to be evolving on the worktable.  Wonder what she has to say?) but I felt like sharing this fascinating animated video in which acclaimed journalist, author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich explores the "darker side of positive thinking", with an emphasis upon the corporate world.

At the movies recently Coca Cola announced some kind of program whereby they're going to save the polar bears, and we saw some happy, singing polar bears leaning against an iceberg drinking Coca Cola.  Was I the only one  stunned by the hypocrisy?  Coca Cola addiction has produced millions of diabetics.............and is it really so easy to forget that the reason polar bears are becoming extinct is because our civilization, including the factories that produce Coca Cola, is changing our climate?  Wouldn't it be better for children (and adults) to at least experience the truth, rather than soothing images of dancing polar bears?

I am not really a "positive" person by nature, and often have to work very hard to shift my consciousness away from habitual dark tracks. Sometimes, I don't want to. A good depression can inform one of authentic needs, a tantrum releases blocked or stagnant energy, getting pissed off is sometimes not only appropriate but absolutely necessary.  Don't get me wrong..........I absolutely agree with the necessity for positive thinking and affirmation......but not at the expense of empathy and reality.

Sometimes the soul needs a wailing wall,  sometimes  spirit needs to ferment and incubate in its depressions, and sometimes the heart needs to tell its dark story in order to heal.  Sometimes we need to face the truth, which gives us the power to be present.

The Global Art Project

 Katherine Josten,  for almost 20 years now,  has been creating peace through the cultural exchange of art.  In 2004, the "Masks of the Goddess" were used in a performance that were part of the Global Art Project (Katherine also danced the title role) and an exchange was made with a wonderful dance group in Cameroon, Africa.  Katherine is, truly, a local Heroine.

10th Biennial International Art Exchange for Peace 

http://www.globalartproject.org

Registration Deadline... February 29th

Anyone can participate - adults and children, individuals and groups.
In March/April 2012, participants will create, exhibit and exchange art expressing their ideas of a peaceful global community - resulting in thousands of messages of peace and goodwill simultaneously encircling the Earth during the week of April 23-30.

2012 Global Art Project for Peace Time-Line

February 29: Registration deadline.
March: Create your art expressing global peace (any medium - visual, literary, performance, etc.)
April 1-22: Exhibit/perform your art locally.
April 23-30: Exchange your art with your Global Art Project partner in the worldwide exchange.
Ongoing after April: Community exhibitions of art received.
 
Since its beginning in 1993, the Global Art Project for Peace has linked 100,000 participants on seven continents! Nominated for a UNESCO Peace Prize, the Project connects people of diverse cultural backgrounds, providing exposure to new ideas and connection to the Whole. 200 Regional Coordinators are helping to organize Global Art Project activities in their area of the world. Participating groups include artist cooperatives, performance groups, churches, corporations, community groups, hospitals, women's clubs, youth and senior programs, and YMCAs. Schools in locations around the world are participating and involving thousands of students from kindergarten through graduate programs.

The purpose of the Global Art Project is to joyously create a culture of peace through art. The Project gives participants in local communities an opportunity to join together to create a cooperative global community. It's an opportunity for you to join your energy with others to seed the future with visions of peace.

The Global Art Project for Peace is a 501(c)3 non-profit, grass-roots organization. For additional information about the Global Art Project for Peace and how to get involved by participating, volunteering and/or funding the Project, visit www.globalartproject.org, or email us at peace@globalartproject.org.

Katherine Josten Founder/Director

Global Art Project
PO Box 40445
Tucson, Arizona 85717

Corn Mother and Collaboration

"Cornmother" mask worn by Kathy Huhtahluta in "Restoring the Balance", 2004

"Indigenous people have always known corn metaphorically in two or more of the four senses, mother, enabler, transformer, healer; that I use throughout this weaving. Although early European settlers took the grain only, there is evidence in America today that the Corn-Mother has taken barriers of culture and language in stride and intimated her spirit to those who will listen, even if they don't know her story or call her by name."

Marilou Awiakta, "The Corn-Mother Incognito. Or Is She?"
from SELU - Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom

 A friend of mine is writing her dissertation on art and shamanism, and wanted to use my story about Corn Mother's Mask.  Since I'm now working with my proposal to create a new collection of Masks of the Goddess, I wanted to share again this story, although I know I published it before a few years ago.  I think it's a story worth re-telling.

**************

I remember a documentary about a famous Hopi potter, who said that she saw patterns and motifs when she went walking in the morning, and they just wouldn't leave her alone until she "wrote" them into her pots. I wondered what it meant to be an artist whose work was attuned to a long tradition of transmission - a purposeful thread woven into the fabric of daily life, not just for one's assertion of individuality, but in service to the tribe, the ancestors, the goddesses and gods..........perhaps not unlike the Icon painters I learned about at Wesley, or the traditional mask makers of Bali, the work is a meditation, a prayer,  a devotional activity. 

This morning I thought about "the greater collaboration", not just among colleagues, but also with what Bill Moyers called "invisible support", the synchronicities that engage others in the creative process.  This story happened when I was working with the Masks of the Goddess collection in 2002.

"Myth comes alive as it enters the cauldron of evolution, 

itself drawing energy from the storytellers who shape it." 

Elizabeth Fuller, The Independent Eye Theatre

"Corn Mother" has many names throughout the Americas - She is the ubiquitious and generous sustainer, the "Demeter" of this continent. The Cherokee Corn Mother is called Selu, and her story is one of sacrifice and renewal, with compassion for her children, who through fear and ignorance  attempt to  destroy the very source that sustains them. It is a myth with significance for our time.

In 2002, I had given the collection of masks to choreographer Mana Youngbear, who was directing a performance in Oakland. I had no idea of what she was creating,  but planned to attend the show. About a month before her event, I attended an unrelated event at the University of Creation Spirituality (now the Naropa Institute) in Oakland.  Organized by Evelie Posche, and supported by theologian Matthew Fox, the ritual event was dedicated to the Divine Feminine, and included a long and  moving meditation about the wounding of the Feminine in Western religions, led by a woman minister. She spoke of the tragedy of the Inquisition, the Burning Times. I sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded in the darkness by people.

Yet when I closed my eyes, I vividly saw something that had nothing to do with the ceremony I was participating in. I saw a Native American woman, wearing a deerskin costume, dancing with an ear of corn in each hand. I opened my eyes - and there were 300 people, most of them weeping.  Closed my eyes, and there was the corn dancer.  This continued throughout the meditation, and was so strange and vivid to me that I decided to make a mask about her. I placed ears of corn on each side of the face, and as I worked, it occurred to me to paint a rainbow on the mask's forehead, a hopeful symbol of  the "Rainbow Tribe" our world was becoming.

A week before the performance, Mana told me there was one dancer in her cast, Christy Salo, who had no mask. Christy had wanted to create a dance to honor the Cherokee legend of Selu.   Now, it seemed,  she had her mask! And when Christy danced at Mana's performance,  she blessed the audience with corn meal, completing the circle for all of us.***

Here's the interview I taped with Christy after the performance.

Christy as "Selu", (2002)

"I made a bouquet of corn for Mana and Stephen's wedding, with a necklace of rainbow beads on it I bought at a garage sale, the same bouquet I used later to dance Green Corn Woman at our performance. The wedding was at a retreat in California, and after the ceremony, I met a woman walking about the property. She told me she really didn't know why she was there! She had been heading to Oakland, and felt an urge to turn off the road. When she drove by the sign for the center, she impulsively pulled in. And there she was, in a lovely place with a wedding in progress. As we talked, I realized she was the woman I bought the rainbow beads from, the same beads that were decorating Manna's bouquet, even as we spoke! I like to think she was a touchstone on my journey to Cornmother.


Mana is part Cherokee, so perhaps that was why she asked me if I wanted to dance Cornmother when she cast her show. We didn't have a mask for the Corn Goddess, but I was inspired to create a dance anyway. I knew very little about Her, and meant to do some research at the library, but a friend turned up with a wonderful book called BROTHER CROW, SISTER CORN full of indigenous corn legends. I also stopped at a used bookstore, and opening a rather esoteric book at random, discovered I was looking at an article about the Corn Maiden. I was stunned to learn it was illustrated by Vera Louise Drysdale, the first woman I met, years ago, when I lived in Sedona. With that, I sensed I was ready to begin.


I felt I was following an invisible, mythic thread - and the feeling of familiarity continued as I created a costume. I looked for materials associated with Corn Mother, and within a few days, Manna had left me a message. "Christy" she said, "There's a Hopi woman at Isis Oasis you need to meet! She gave me some 300 year old corn meal to give to you!" I felt the spirit of Corn Woman encouraging me indeed!


Corn Mother's story represents the wealth that comes from the hard work of forgiveness. How can we be fed, how can we create peace, if we cannot learn the lessons of forgiveness, if we cannot learn tolerance for our differences? That is the beginning place we will need in order to evolve into a peaceful Rainbow Nation. To me, the Rainbow as actually a circle. Half the rainbow disappears into the ground, into an underworld realm, where it exists beneath the Earth, hidden, but at the foundation never the less. Like the Corn Mother. We're all Her children, especially in America, with our mixed bloodlines. We have "rainbow blood".


We received the new mask at the time of the lunar eclipse, in May of 2002, and decided at that auspicious time to consecrate it with some dried corn. As we did, a flash of light went off in the room! At first we thought it was a light bulb, but looking around, realized there were no electric lights on in that room. We looked at each other amazed, and we felt the presence of Corn Mother."

** Elizabeth Fuller, Conrad Bishop, "The Independent Eye" Theatre

*** There's a funny postscript - in the summer of 2010 I went to Willits to visit Mana, who was having a big yard sale with Christy.  As I walked up to visit, Christy was behind her table selling a tray to someone that was decorated throughout with a corn motif. I guess that's the weaving of our connection to each other!

Seeking Advice from Leonard

MY TIME
from The Book of Longing

My time is running out
and still I have not sung
the true song
the great song

I admit
that I seem
to have lost my courage

a glance at the mirror
a glimpse into my heart
makes me want
to shut up forever

so why do you lean me here
Lord of my life
lean me at this table
in the middle of the night
wondering
how to be beautiful?

Lauren:

What else is there to do?

 

Synchronicity and "kickstarter"

Today I launch my fundraising on Kickstarter for creating a new collection of "Masks of the Goddess"*** Here's the link (more information later) to the Project:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/166451574/the-masks-of-the-goddess-mythic-masks-and-theatre.

What I wanted to share is a funny synchronicity that happened yesterday I can't help but feel is most encouraging.

I was frustrated with all the online paperwork involved in setting it up, so I walked to the corner cafe for a bagel.  While waiting, I grabbed a magazine, and had to laugh when I looked at the cover!  For me it kind of said it all - including an article about "many masks", and, on a personal note, something about Nebraska as well (I wrote an article about spirit contact and synchronicity I called "Angels in Nebraska" in 2005).

I like to think, no, I am certain, that the Goddess has quite a sense of humor.  Here's something similar (photo below) that happened to me as I stopped to visit the Roman Baths en route to the Goddess Conference in England last summer.

***The money I raise will also provide funding for the "inaugural performance" of the new collection at the 2012 Women and Mythology Conference in San Francisco, produced and directed by author and ritualist  M. Macha NightMare.  As she describes it, 

"Around the world 'spirits of place' have revealed themselves to us, encounters that generated stories told over the ages. With masks especially created for this event, we propose a ritual performance that offers all celebrants encounters with these goddesses as they have been known in the past,  and as they exist today."

 

At "The Spiral Dance" (2006) (Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle

Invoking, Beginning, Procrastinating.....

"Gaia's Hand" (2012)

I had a dream the other night (it was rather graphic) about getting together with an unknown man with the aim of becoming pregnant.  He was quite obliging.  Weird......but I suppose, in symbolic terms, it's a good sign..........

The day  before I went into surgery in November, I received an email from Prema Dasara, who wanted to knowif  I was still interested in creating the 21 masks of Tara we had discussed in previous years - they were to be made in Bali, a collaboration with Balinese artists.  I felt very much encouraged by this synchronicity (I often  pray to Tara for healing), and said (to Prema and to Tara) that I would be most glad to do it if the results of my surgery were positive.  And so they were!


But Prema has had to cancel the project for this year.  I reflected on how many women have requested the use of the "Masks of the Goddess" Collection, which was sold at a benefit auction for the Independent Eye's production of The Descent of Inanna in 2008 (I'll write about this powerful play in the future).

Elizabeth Fuller in "The Descent of Inanna" (2008)

 So I decided, since Prema's project fell through, that I would make a new collection of 21 masks of Goddesses, which I would hold in trust for all those who wish to use them in the future.  To get the funding I'd need to buy the time and materials to make the masks a friend suggested I use Kickstarter. 

Mana Young  and Cast, Black Box Theatre, Oakland (2002)

But I seem to be having the hardest time getting myself to post and start the 7-week fundraising process. I have to feed the cat, or take a nap, or watch Poirot......my video is good, my writeup is good, my "rewards" items (what people will receive as gifts for donating to the Project) are excellent (among them, the ceramic "Gaia's Hand" Icon above.)  I guess it's like turning on the ignition and beginning a trip that will take you across the country.  Or taking that first step toward the airline check-in desk.  This might be a long trip......

The Road goes ever on and on

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

J.R.R. Tolkien

At "The Spiral Dance" (2006) (Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle)

I guess I just have to close my eyes and take the plunge.  Synchronicities have clustered around the idea almost before I began.   Almost simultaneously, my friend Macha NightMare (Have Broom Will Travel), who I've collaborated with in the past,  proposed a first "inaugeral" performance at the Women and Mythology Conference in May.  Something very close to my heart, ideas I've been wondering and wandering about ever since I walked among the Stones in Avebury, and felt the living presence of the Springs in Avalon last summer - the Spirits of Place.   Here's Macha's Abstract:

"Ritual studies scholar Ronald Grimes suggests that relearning of ritual ways can help us re-attune to the environment at a time when the ability of our Earth to sustain our lives is imperiled.  “The surge of popular interest in the ecological possibilities of ritual is fed by a rich, publicly consumed ethnographic literature, some of which depicts rites as a primary means of being attuned to the environment.”  Artists, ecological restorationists, and composers are exploring the use of ritual to enhance our understanding of our interdependence and our responsibilities as a species to attend to maintaining of a healthy Web of Life.

  

Around the world natural phenomena and spirits of place have revealed themselves to us in anthropomorphic forms.  These encounters generated stories that were told over the ages.  Employing the use of sacred masks especially created for this event by Lauren Raine, using rhythm and chant, narrative and movement, and current scientific knowledge (physics, geology, biology, ecology, climatology, et al.), we propose a ritual performance that offers all celebrants encounters with these goddesses, as they have been known in the past and as they exist today."

She invites story/voice and ideas from others in the evolution of this piece.  I touch the violet amethyst pendant I found in an apple tree in Glastonbury, which I wear around my neck feeling very much that it was a gift from the Lady of Avalon, and try to imagine how I might tell that story..........and what voice the Desert Goddess might have as well.............Well.  Time to take the plunge, pull out the threads and start weaving, re-weaving, and spinning.

 I'll begin my journey with the only Goddess mask I still have, Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, and originator of May Day celebrations (at least in Rome). Florence is also my mother's name, and Flora was the name of my great grandmother.  The mask spent the past 6 months with a woman who lost her son, and wanted the mask for healing.  I'm sure she has infused the mask with the beginnings of story..........Flowers are a good place to begin, they represent beauty, and the invitation to new life.

Fertility it is, insemination, all that. As far as that dream goes.......at 62, I'm way beyond May Queen.  Sometimes I feel more akin to Miss Marple.  But Symbolic it is.