Chubasco! Monsoon! Waiting for the Rains...........

"Our Lady of the Desert Spring", performance from "The Awakening",
 a Play directed and produced by Annie Waters in Willits, Californis (2013)

In Southern Arizona, June is like January in, say, Minnesota - we just try to endure and survive it.  It's mind boggling hot in June, and dry, the month when fires start, when plants and people wilt, when kids fry eggs on the pavement a few times before becoming bored with it all.  Shimmering heat waves seem to rise from the asphalt pavement of parking lots, and people hurry from one air conditioned space to the next.  

We, and the parched and thirsty land, await Monsoon Season.  Chubasco, the great magnificent storms that, if all is well, begin in mid July and last sometimes into September.   The storms that seem to roll in the afternoons, announcing themselves with thunder and lightening, the delightfully scary and loud darkening of the sky, and then Boom!  A blessed wall of water descends (if the Thunder Gods are so inclined). 


Suddenly the streets fill with water, a river runs down Broadway, cars stop, and a few of us just stand in the rain getting drenched by the blessing of it all.  And then, just as quickly as they rolled in, the Katchinas, Chubasco, the Numina of the waters.........blow away, off to some other part of the desert.  Then you stand amazed at the river your street has become, the sound of emergency vehicles and car horns are heard (because there are always fools who try to drive in the midst of the downpour), magnificent rainbows are seen over Tucson, the pungent scent of chapparell is ubiquitous, and all are refreshed.  

Within two hours, the streets are dry, and seemingly overnight, the desert has greened and flowered.   Most of our water for the coming year comes from the Monsoons - if these patterns of rain should change, life here would cease.  Water is life.   Yes, we love our Monsoons!  

Our Lady of the Waters

The Monsoons have come at last, 3 blessed days of the Thunder Beings rushing in, the Katchinas dancing in the skies, and then the streets and the arroyos run with the blessing of water.  I remembered NUMINA - OUR CHANGING EARTH, the 2013 play by Ann Waters and her community in Willits, California, which I was privileged to create masks for.   Photos are courtesy Jerri Jo Idarius.

Lady of the Desert Spring

Our lady of the Arroyos, 

Come to us,

Come to us, 

O come to us.

Nuestra Señora de las Aguas  

Mother of the cottonwoods, 

the Palos Verdes

Snake and mallow

ocotillo and saguaro

night-blooming Cereus

night-roaming  coyote 

red tail hawk and la paloma

two-legged, four-legged, 

and those who fly

Hear our prayers 

O desert spring

Hear our prayers 

for those who suffer thirst, 

for the parched earth. 

Spread your mantle of green and turquoise, 

your bright artery of life, 

upon this empty riverbed,

upon this ancient aquifer, 

down the arroyos

of our dreams. 

Homeric Hymn to Mother Earth

from "Numina - Our Changing Earth", a play by Ann Waters

To Earth the Mother of All

I will sing of the well-founded Earth,

mother of all, eldest of all beings.

She feeds all creatures that are in the world,

all that go upon the goodly land,

all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly;

all these are fed of her store.

Through you, O Queen, we are blessed

In our children, and in our harvest

and to you we owe our lives.

Happy are we who you delight to honor!

We have all things abundantly:

our houses are filled with good things,

our cities are orderly,

our sons exult with feverish delight.

(May they take no delight in war)

Our daughters with flower-laden hands

play and skip merrily over the soft flowers of the field.

(May they seek peace for all peoples)

Thus it is for those whom you honor,

O holy Goddess, Bountiful spirit!

Hail Earth, mother of the gods,

freely bestow upon us for this our song

that cheers and soothes the heart!

(May we seek peace for all peoples of the well-founded earth)

Homeric Hymn XXX,

adapted by Elizabeth Roberts

Numina - New Power Point Presentation

Testing out a new power point presentation of  last year's work - the "Numina" series of masks and The Awakening in Willits.  Great job, Annie and Mana!

http://www.slideshare.net/laurenraine/numina-masks-for-the-elemental-powers-2014

Numina - "Masks for the Elemental Powers" 2014 from laurenraine

The Oracles - from "The Awakening" (Post #2)

Corizone Elliott as "The Pythoness - Oracle"

THE PYTHONESS:

Pilgrim and Kings, alike, answers sought, spoke of their hopes and dreams,

 journeyed to holy Delphi,  a crevice, deep in the earth,

 journeyed to the Oracle, the Sibyl, the Pythoness

 In trance, she spoke

 offered visions, offered hope:

Behold I draw a spiral for You - 

Step In I implore You

You are vessels of  

Finely Woven well pitched baskets

Ancient Urns, Carved boxes

and Medicine Bundles

Fashioned From Your Perfect Heart

They are Still Safe Inside HER Holy Womb

Ancient Prayers Stir the Air,

Stirring Breath and Bone 

Inspiration, Invocation, 

Your hope is yours alone.

To touch what was a memory brings no fruit, 

Your silent longing is the proof

As the Years move to months, 

Months move to days

Numina witness you this Night,

Numina witness you this Night,

Floating plastic, Trash, decay, 

Fill our planet and oceans today

Young and Old cry out to be free,

Grieving  loss from each killing spree

Earth Mother Gaia raped 

of soil and honor brings famine

Extinction threatens sockeye salmon

Elders sit alone in Hunger waiting; 

Chorus:  Man’s compassion dissipating.

Time to listen, Take note, Stand strong

Mark My Words - It won’t be long

When no water will be safe to drink, 

And Men will lose their right to think

Because their judgment is impaired 

with residue of regret and mind despaired.

Desolation’s Darkened Dance

Stomps out the last of free will’s chance

False pride clothed in glamour’s fashion -

a deceptive weaving of wasteful action

Chorus:  Grinding you down ...Back Down to dust.

A woman weeps - A baby cries, a seed refuses to grow

Where now there is open sea there once was gentle snow.

Fruitless trees that do not bear, drought pursues you everywhere.

But Listen within - Your Soul Still Knows.

Ageless Grace resounds around.

Chorus : A Prophecy is about to unfold

Thallia Bird as "The Weaver"

THE WEAVER:

Listen. Things are unraveling.   

Let me tell you about the fabric of your life. 

Your soul is the tightened yarn of the weft; your spirit is the weave. 

Your spirit is woven into the mat on which you kneel, 

into the cloak that wraps around the shoulders of your everyday lives.

 

Allow the distressed threads of your life to unravel. 

I have an old yarn. I have a new yarn.

Chorus: Take this yarn from me.

Form a weft that makes you strong

Take this yarn from me

Weave the threads so life goes on

 Take this yarn from me.

           

Stories are woven into the land. Stories wrap themselves

around old bones and compost, vine and curl and leaf in the night,

stories written in the rocks about Deer and Raven,

sung by a Tree Nesting Warbler, stories found

in the cold hearts of sleeping mountains.

Walk out into the orchard. Sit beneath a fruiting tree. 

Notice the shapes of things. The shape of the sky,

the shapes of the shadows, the shape of your own shadow.

There are cracks in the land like a spider web,

full of light, full of fire. Once,

you could see the Web as plain as day. 

Song lines, leylines, threads, the pattern. 

Each shining, woven thread.

It’ s time to weave a new story now.

See yourself as Spiderwoman, 

sitting in the center of your   web.

All of its snaking rivers and twining roots are inside of you! 

All those threads come right out of your hands and out of your hearts

All those threads just go on forever

Chorus:  

Into the Earth, and into each other: 

into all your stories, into everyone you'll ever know,   

Into all those who came before you, 

and all those who will come after you.

 

Script excerpts by Ann Waters, Mana Youngbear, Lauren Raine

All photographs are copyright Jerri Jo Idarius, and used with her permission.

My gratitude to the fabulous performers of Willits who danced the masks to life!