Pachamama Mask (almost) finished

"Pachamama"

 I'm almost finished with this mask, "Pachamama".  Macha has gathered a great "Mask Council", with an online discussion group, and great minds are circulating ideas about how these masks might look, be performed, and their stories told even as I write.

Freya, who has explored South America has inspired me to make the mask with the bright colors of the indigenous peoples art and clothing.  We envision the performer in the handwoven garments to be found among peoples of Bolivia and Equador, and Freya suggests that she hold a spindle, because that is a common sight.  With her spindle, the performer might offer threads to the celebrants/audience, encouraging them to "assist in the spinning" of a new way of understanding our relationship to Mother Earth.

I wrote about Pachamama, and introduced the Pachamama Alliance, in a recent article:

http://threadsofspiderwoman.blogspot.com/2012/02/pachemama-and-rights-of-mother-earth-in.html

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.

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.