The Secret Life of Things

Long may you run
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining
in the sun

 Long may you run

.....Neil Young

First, of course, hooray!  We don't have Romney for president, and there is still hope that America may become a more humane, sane country.  If he had won, I'd be writing about my immanent move to New Zealand or Panama..............

So, a domestic matter that I felt deserved a bit of Dia de los Muertos honor as well.  It's time for me to let go of my "$3,500.00 Home", Lucy.  I can't afford to maintain her as a "second home", so it's time for her to hopefully find a new owner who will enjoy her as I have.  Housing may be going up, but Lucy cost me $3,500.00, was and is low-energy (at least, when standing), recycled,  remodeled (by me), had no mortgage, no property taxes, and if I didn't like the neighborhood, I moved her.  I realize motor home housing is not that good for people living in cold climates, but for people in the Southwest, and particularly seniors on a low budget, it's a solution to low cost housing.

I've had some happy times in Lucy, and although she isn't much up to long road trips anymore, she can still be settled somewhere and be a nice home for someone.  And what I think about as I sadly prepare to place ads is how I hope I can find someone who will appreciate my old home, take care of her.  Be friends.

We are such a disposible society, hardly  anyone understands my thinking in this way.  And yet, "things" have a kind of life as well, and deserve honor and gratitude for the service they've given.   Whether a house, or a car, or a teapot, things are infused with the energy of those who have owned and used them.  A fortunately enjoyed item can emanate peace, or comfort, or pleasure.........you want to touch it, sit in it, sleep in it, eat off of it, look at it.  It just feels good and you don't know why, and that "mana" one feels goes beyond design.
The disposibility of our culture has not only caused environmental destruction, but it's also caused us to lose this sensibility, a kind of "6th sense" that tuned us to the "secret life of things".

For example, people used to inherit collections of precious china, cups and saucers that were proudly brought out to serve tea to guests.  Those teacups (and I have a few of my own) are infused with the ancient aroma of ancestral tea leaves, and the hands and lips of people long gone.  Imagine people sitting to tea, eating their cakes and enjoying the lovely patterns of flowers on the cup in their hand, colors emerging from the amber liquid of the tea?  As a child I used to play with those fragile little cups and imagine their use and history.  How can a disposible Starbucks cup of coffee even begin to compare? Or how about my 75 year old sewing machine, which still works?  Think of the women who cherished this precious machine, kept it oiled and replaced the belts over the years, the changing fashions that were constructed for parties and work under that needle?  

So, my old mobile home, my friend.  Thank you for years of shelter and good dreams, for meals cooked and roads wandered.  Long may you run.

Dia de los Muertos Procession and....Orbs!

 My friend Ginny Moss is not only an amazing tile artist, and photographer, but she is also a "friend of Orbs".  She has taken some amazing photos with orbs appearing in them, and her photos of the "Dia de los Muertos Procession" this past Sunday in downtown Tucson were spectacular.

Over the years the Procession has grown to something attended by thousands of people, all commemorating and celebrating the Day of the Dead.   The parade ended this year with a Fire Performance by Flam Chen.

And look at all the Orbs that attended!

The New Atlantis: Gaia Casts Her Vote

 On the brink of a presidential election (and the end of the world at the Winter Solstice, according to the 2012 prophecy enthusiasts), as our not-so-visionary leaders argue about economics,  war, whether health care should be only available to the rich and privileged, and other domestic issues, everyone seems  to be ignoring the very large elephant in the middle of the room.

That's right, CLIMATE CHANGE.  An Inconvenient Truth.  What one of the climatologists  in a recent interview with Amy Goodman***  called the "Voldemort of our time".  Only we don't have a Harry Potter, or a Frodo Baggins, to fight the Dark Lord.  We're all in this together, and the "Dark Lord" is the dark side of humanity that denies the almost inconceivable, that sacrifices the future of all children for greed and an insatiable lust for power, that trivializes the tragedy of the 6th Extinction into dancing Polar Bears that sell Coca Cola.  

Earth scientist James Lovelock (Interesting name, if you think about it, considering the situation) originated the now highly accepted premise that the Earth is a complex, interdependent,  self-regulating bio-system, a living being -  "Gaia Theory".   

As New York and the East Coast try to recover from the unprecedented "Frankenstorm" Sandy, it looks like GAIA cast her vote.  PACHAMAMA  made a political comment.

Gaia by Esther Johnson

She reminds us "Hello,  this is another wake-up call. " 

We're not the first unsustainable civilization, as Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond pointed out in his book Collapse, but we are (to the best of our knowledge)  the first global civilization,  the most environmentally lethal, and with the greatest consequences.  Even in the face of massive overpopulation, and some pretty clear evolutionary indicators that women should have equal rights with the other half of the human race, Biblical patriarchs living in the 21st century, but making conclusions from books written sometime around the 2nd century,  continue to insist that they shouldn't even have birth control. And although it's been 6 years former Vice President Al Gore released his definitive movie "An Inconvenient Truth", nothing much has changed.  How about "Fracking", and genetically modifying the food sources ("Frankenfoods")?  "Geoengineering"? HAARP and chem trails? Nuclear waste? Deforestation?.......... 
 

Are we the New Atlantis?

What is the myth?  According to Edger Cayce, Atlantis was a great civilization with wonderful inventions, including flying machines and the ability to move great stones to build their temples and their great pyramids.    But as they grew in power, their magicians became too proud, too arrogant.  Cayce's readings say they had great  crystals (so do we, Silicone, the stuff that makes computers work) that could do miraculous things, but they were so powerful that they could break the very fabric of nature and the veils between the worlds.  Atlanteans became divided, and at the end, warring Atlanteans broke the balance of the world, and the great continent sank below the ocean.  This tale is also one of the sources for Tolkien's "Silmarillion", the mythos from which he created the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  

 Can we change the story? 

http://youtu.be/SAHqsmHY0cU





***Democracy Now:   http://youtu.be/YPfAvgJLDyA

Some New Masks.......

"AURORA (Dawn)"

 My friend Ann Waters is organizing a ritual event for the Winter Solstice, and as we have worked together with masks in the past, I'm delighted that she and her group are doing so again.  So these PERSONAE for the dawning of a  New Age arose from my imagination.

Dawn, of course.

"OUR LADY OF CHAOS AND ORDER"

 And these two Personae that speak, to me at least, about the cycling of all dualities, their ultimate union.  Things are ordered, things fall apart.  I think this will be the first study I'll do on "Shadow" masks, because I believe that integration of the shadow is so vital to our time, integrating balance.***

'PERSEPHONE"

Persephone, Greek Goddess of the underworld and wife of Hades, the God of Death, is also the maiden daughter of Demeter, the bringer of Spring.  In the natural world spring becomes summer, becomes fall, and becomes the darkness of winter.  And from that ending comes new life again in the Spring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 ***From "Myths and Dreams"( http://mythsdreamssymbols.com/majorarchetypes.html)

Painting by Christina Carbone

"Jung's formulation of the concept of the archetype he called the `Archetype of Wholeness', or the Self, is fundamental to Jungian or analytical psychology. The self has to be distinguished from the ego. The ego is the conscious mind. The self is the total, fully integrated psyche, in which all opposing or conflicting elements are united and co-ordinated. Bear in mind what Jung says about the relationship between the conscious and unconscious, the unconscious contains the opposite characteristics or capabilities to those that are evident at the conscious level of the personality (e.g. if you are the extrovert type your unconscious will be introvert). At this final stage of individuation conscious and unconscious become so thoroughly integrated into one harmonious whole that those things that were previously opposites and therefore - potentially, at least - in conflict are transformed.  Jung described this state of self-realization as follows:
"This widened consciousness is no longer that touchy, egotistical bundle of personal wishes, fears, hopes and ambitions which has always to be compensated or corrected by unconscious counter-tendencies; instead, it is a .... relationship to the world of objects, bringing the individual into absolute, binding and indissoluble communion with the world at large."

Van Kedisi Cats

Lately I've been having lots of synchronicities around Turkey, which is strange, since I've never been there and have no plans to go.  But the best is to learn recently that my feline friends, Lulu and Lucy, are actually scions of an ancient line of cats from the great Turkish Lake Van. Van Kedisi cats are white, and very often have one gold eye and one sky blue, which legend has it is because they reflect the sun setting on the blue waters of the lake.   So valued are these cats in Turkey that they are not allowed to be taken out of the country , particulary if they have two colored eyes. Lucy and Lulu, the famous Van Cats!

Lucy meditating on ancient days when she was a goddess

VAN KEDISI CATS

The city of Van is situated  on the eastern bank of Lake Van. The largest lake in Turkey is an inner sea that covers 1,433 sq miles.  In the region, there is a  rare and ancient breed of cat called “ Turkish Van Cat ” (Van kedisi). All over the world the "Van cat" is recognized as a white cat with auburn patterns on the top of the head and a faintly ringed auburn tail - however, this is a breed that was created about 150 years ago from the original Van Kedisi stock.  In Turkey they breed  the real  " Van cat" which has a pure white coat. It can have both blue, both amber or one blue and the other amber eyes, but is especially famous for their mysterious two-colored eyes. This strong cat is beautiful, friendly, intelligent, faithful and lively. A surprising, and documented,  fact about these cats is that the Van Cat likes to swim in the lake, and is the only known cat that will willingly enter water.

http://vancats.com/Home.html

 

The Feast of Samhain

 We just celebrated "The Feast of  Samhain' ( a table of 12, with the 13th seat, the Guest of Honor, reserved for the Beloved Dead)....... candlelit night of sharing stories of those who have passed away but are in our hearts.

 And of course I remember always the Spiral Dance, which I participated in a number of times in San Francisco, and brought to Tucson in 2000 with the help of Macha NightMare. I've copied a video of the Spiral Dance below from UTube) .  When one has danced the Spiral Dance with 2,000 people, and come face to face with each of them in the course of the dance, you leave changed.  

Death/Rebirth

This is the sacred origin and meaning of Hallowed Evening. Spirits, coming close to this world to join the feast, sometimes like to play tricks, hence, "trick or treat"..........it's not good, of course, to fail to leave a place at the table, and a little single malt,  for Uncle Angus on such a high holy day! And of course, the "Witch and her broom". The Broom is associated with many folk traditions of "sweeping away the old bad energies" - purification rituals for the home and Hearth (Heart). Traditionally this was the time to celebrate the "Witch's New Year", the last of three Celtic Harvest Festivals before going into the dark of Winter.   It is the closing of the old year,  a time to honor the ancestors, the harvest, and the gifts of the year past.  When I lay out the Feast, I always imagine ancient  communities laying out the last fresh apples, the treasured honey mead reserved only for special occasions, and toasts raised  to the invisible ones,  their plates heaped high as well. Inherent in this celebration was a profound respect for the Spiral wheel of the year,  cycling the natural cycles of death and re-birth.

Here is my gratitude to the year that is soon to pass away, and to all of those who have passed away from my life as well, people who have gifted me and created with me and loved me, and I them.  Blessed Be!

Sometimes we don't realize, because things manifest through time, the ways that our wishes have often been granted.  Thinking of the Spiral Dance, and Reclaiming, I remember another one of those stories of Grace and Magic, and want to tell it, although, as all true stories are, it's part of a much larger story that is woven into the fabric of my life, and lots of other lives.  I think when we tell  these stories we get a glimpse of how seamless "reality" really is.  And Magic is always afoot, although I don't believe it has anything to do with wands.  I think it's much more about Weaving and being Woven.

"Gaia" (1986)

When I was in graduate school, I began reading "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk.  It was such a revelation, the way she spoke about the Goddess, and a theology of Immanence.  It became the central inspiration for one of my shows while in Grad school.  When I graduated I went to live in New York, and married, and then in 1997 got divorced.  My ex and I were very involved with the Pagan community on the East Coast, and when we divorced I felt like I lost my community.  With the bitterness that often accompanies a divorce, I decided I was done with the pagans, and spiritual things in general, and I also decided I would leave the East Coast and live somewhere else.  In those days I was doing Renaissance Faires, so I just packed up my van and became a nomad.

I had a booth in the fall of that year at the Maryland Renaissance Faire, and I happened to hear of a holistic health practitioner who also did shamanic work and "soul retrievals" in the area.  I figured it couldn't hurt, so I made an appointment.  We lay down on the floor, he "journeyed" for me, and "blew my soul pieces" back into my chest.  I didn't know what to think, but as he described his impressions, among them he told me that there were two things that would show me that the struggles of my divorce, and my old life, were over.  One was a magenta flower, a Cosmos.  The other was a little terra cotta female figure, like an angel or something.

In November I packed up and went to Arizona to spend the winter in my trailer at the Renaissance Faire there.  By March I was really wondering where to go next.  I had recently discovered the Internet, so I looked up just about everything I was interested in - Goddess, ritual, mask theatre, transpersonal psychology, etc.  Every single time it came up Berkeley, Marin Country, or San Francisco!   The clincher was when I was looking for the email for something called the Center for Symbolic Studies near New Paltz, New York.  I knew Stephen and Robin Larsen, and wanted to get a recommendation from them. Up came the Center for Symbolic Studies in Berkeley, California!  And the Center was the creation of a Jungian psychologist named Robert H. Hopcke  who had just written a book called There Are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives!

Well, that was enough for me, so I packed up the van when the show ended, cat in the back, and headed west to California, back to the Berkeley I remembered so well but hadn't seen in over 20 years.  I decided I would sleep in my van if I had to, until I could find a place to stay (and fortunately for me, I had no idea of how hard it can be to find a place to stay in Berkeley now.....)

Arriving finally, I looked around for a familiar landmark, and found the Cafe Mediterranean.  I didn't know anyone anymore in Berkeley, but for old times sake I parked the van nearby and went in for my first Cappachino since the 70's.  As I stood in line, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "Are you Lauren Raine?"  It was my old friend Joji!  I couldn't believe it.  He bought me a cup of coffee, asked me where I was staying, I told him I had just arrived and planned on moving back to Berkeley, and he invited to stay at his house where he had an extra room. Voila - I didn't have to sleep in my car for even one night!

Judy Foster

And when I went to his house that evening, in his living room was a big, framed close-up photograph of a magenta Cosmos.

When, two months later, I found a room to rent with Judy Foster, the first thing I encountered when I walked into her house was an altar with a terra cotta angel.  And as it turned out, Judy was one of the founders of Reclaiming and the Spiral Dance, and a close friend of Starhawk.   The universe put me exactly where I needed to go.   Thank you Judy.........you are missed.

Masks!

Here's a Shaman mask I made from my friend Arjuna's face.

 Well, it is almost Halloween, and I've been doing some life review.  I've been making masks for 30 years, and I think it's about time I honor the "Spirit of the Mask" for blessing me, a lot of people who've worked for me over the years (or copied me)  and now have businesses of their own, and all the people who've used the masks, their dances that I never saw, the energy of the masks going on beyond me.  THANK YOU!  BLESSED BE!

Of course, the "Greenman" has been my most enduring!

Back in the early 90's, when I first began to make masks,  I belonged to a women's group, and a member of the group did something called "Re-Birthing".  We lay down on the floor, and with eyes closed did rapid breathing while she coached us.  The result was a visionary experience for most participants, and for myself, I had a vivid vision of myself looking at a kind of fissure in the earth from which emerged a mask (I remember it was red and pinkish, very elaborate).  As I "watched" the mask rapidly turned into another mask, and another, and another...............one after another, constantly changing into brilliantly colored masks!

When we gathered in a circle to discuss our journeys, I told everyone that I had just met the "Mask Deva".  And all these years later, I think I did, and perhaps I've been able to "uncover" a few of those masks that were revealed to me.  What a blessing!  So I felt like sharing a few along the way here.......................

Here's an early Samhain ritual mask, the Crone aspect of  three.

Crow Man and the Bone Goddess, two personal mythic figures that kept emerging in my dreams around the time of my divorce.  I think, in retrospect, they were guides, helping me to deal with the difficulties of that time.

 

 "Gaia" from a wonderful Solstice Residency at I Park in Connecticut, and the Goat Mask for Tragos, a film by the brilliant Antero Alli.

I never showed this mask of Kilahua giving birth to new lands, erupting into the future..........

A Butterfly Woman, one of my favorites and not so fierce as some.

This mask was the result of an  encounter in the summer of 2005 with a Luna Moth.  When I make these masks, there is always the hope that they won't only end up on someone's wall, but will be "activated", someone will find their own story for the mask.............how could anything as amazing as a Luna Moth not have a story that needs telling?

"La Mariposa", a rather ferocious Butterfly Woman. 
 As Clarissa Pinkola Estes said, to be a pollinator, one must have "los ovarios".
  It's not a job for sissies.

 I used to tell people, "Give me a story and I'll make you a mask for it", but in this cynical world, most people didn't believe me.  Yet stories, and the collective stories that are called Myths,  are what fueled my imagination.  Give me a story and perhaps we can find its Face.............

 One of many "Heyoka" masks.  You can't do ritual theatre without the Liminal Heyoka circling, reminding us of the chaos and humor at the borders of "reality".  And have you ever noticed that there are some people who are just born for the job?

 

Another "Spider Woman" mask.  I was inspired by a science fiction story I read (alas, I don't know by who) in which the author described a person with eyes that were full of stars.

 I love this mask, which was inspired by a creation of another mask artist I saw. 

 It's "The Deva of the Rose".

Two "Shields" I did with my former husband, artist Duncan Eagleson. 

One of many Gaia masks.

 

A recent Goddess mask.........."Oya", African Goddess of storms.

People have suggested that I put eyes in the masks so they are more sculptural, can be "hung on the wall".  But I'm always telling people that that's not really what they're for............they are in their very essence collaborative, and metaphorical of human multiplicity of being as well.  I like having the open eye holes, because they invite exactly that, collaboration with others.  The Artform is open, the eyes are open, and the mask always has the possibility of someone else putting it on, telling a new story, dancing a new dance.

 And the open eye holes suggest the mystery and eternally changing formlessness behind the face we see, or think we see, the face that is ever changing...........

In one of my Renfair booths.  I don't know what's next, to be honest..........the "Numina" masks bubble and perk in my imagination, unformed as yet, and await those who will give them life and story.  Sometimes I have to wait for the story to turn up.  But for now there's a lot to be grateful for.

World, give us a new story, a Good Story..............and let's find out what its face looks like.