"Lilith" Performance

Here is the second performance  I participated in at a  Performance Showcase at the Carport Theatre, the wonderful community theatre created by multi media artist Kathy Keler here in Tucson.   It was my pleasure to offer two pieces (which were  created and  pre-recorded with the great help of Kathy) and  performed by Diane Warren.    

This is the second, the voice of Lilith.   In Judeo/Christian traditions, Lilith was the first wife of Adam.  Because she would not submit to him, she left Eden, and was forbidden to return, and she made a dwelling in the deserts, with the fallen angel Sammael. 

My story looks at it from a different point of view, perhaps, that of Lilith.

https://soundcloud.com/user-972033003/lilith-by-lauren-raine-2017

"Spider Woman Speaks" Performance

Yesterday I participated in a Performance Showcase at the Carport Theatre, the wonderful community theatre created by multi media artist Kathy Keler here in Tucson.   It was my pleasure to see two pieces (which were  created and  pre-recorded with the great help of Kathy) and  performed by Diane Warren.     The first performance was  Spider Woman,  who is found, sometimes, in the deserts of the wide South West.   Because you came there with empty hands.

https://soundcloud.com/user-972033003/spiderwomanwithmusic3-2

The Curse of the Morrigan

 

I wrote this for a performance 15 or 20 years ago, and I still think it may be the finest poem I ever wrote, because I sometimes think She Herself was there with me when I wrote it.  It honestly was a moment when I felt like I was a channel for a voice greater than my own.  I never told anyone that before, but feel I should now.  It was a gift.

I love it because the Morrigan, Celtic  Goddess of Justice, and honorable Battle, and honorable Lamentation,  speaks in the poem with the circular and expanded  wisdom of a Goddess, the one who  speaks far from the limited view of  "revenge" and "consequences", but speaks rather from the wide spiral  perspective of the evolution of the soul.  

I also love the poem  because I think it's so important now to open a way for the Warrior Goddesses, for the Morrigan, to come into our hearts and into our world, before too much, far, far too much, is lost.  The next human evolution, I truly believe, is one of empathy, which to me means living within the Circle of life, feeling and sensing our connections on every level.   We see the cycles, we see the ripples, we see, and gain the  capacity to Circle, and Circle, and Circle, until, at last, we 

"find our faces before we were born,

and drink from deep, deep waters."

 

The CURSE OF THE MORRIGAN

 
You who bring suffering to children: 

May you look into the sweetest, most open eyes, and howl the loss of your own innocence.

You who ridicule the poor, the grieving, the lost, the fallen, the inarticulate, the wounded children in grown-up bodies:  

 May you look into each face, and see a mirror.  May all your cleverness fall into the abyss of your speechless grief, your secret hunger,  may you look into that black hole with no name, and find....the most tender touch in the darkest night, the hand that reaches out.  May you take that hand.  May you walk all your circles home at last, and coming home, know where you are.

You tree-killers, you  wasters:

 May you breathe the bitter dust, may you thirst, may you walk hungry in the wastelands,  the barren places you have made.  And when you cannot walk one step further,  may you see at your foot a single blade of grass, green, defiantly green.  And may you be remade by it's generosity.

And those who are greedy in a time of famine: 

 May you be emptied out, may your hearts break not in half, but wide open in a thousand places,  and may the waters of the world pour from each crevice, washing you clean.

Those who mistake power for love: 

 May you know true loneliness.  And when you think your loneliness will drive you mad, when you know you cannot bear it one more hour,  may a line be cast to you,  one shining, light woven strand of the Great Web glistening in the dark.  And may you hold on for dear life.

Those passive ones, those ones who force others to shape them, and then complain
if it's not to your liking: 

May you find yourself in the hard place with your back against the wall.  And may you rage, rage until you find your will.  And may you learn to shape yourself.

And you who delight in exploiting others, imagining that you are better than they are:

May you wake up in a strange land as naked as the day you were born and thrice as raw.  May you look into the eyes of any other soul, in your radiant need and terrible vulnerability. 

May you know your Self.  And may you be blessed by that communion.

And may you love well, thrice and thrice and thrice, 

and again and again and again, 

may you find your face before you were born.  

And may you drink from deep, deep waters.

Masks! And the Spirit of the Mask!

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 saw, or never saw, the energy of the masks going on beyond me.  THANK YOU!  BLESSED BE!

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

Here is a story to tell that has come true:

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.  This put us each into an altered state of consciousness.

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 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.......................

First and Foremost, THE MASKS OF THE GODDESS PROJECT.  Begun very magically when I lived in Berkeley, California in the late '90's, and had my Rites of Passage Gallery.  My first Collection I made for the 20th Annual Spiral Dance by the Reclaiming Community, held at Fort Mason Center.  Truly, I was blessed to be given that work, and the work continues.  No artist could ask for more.  

 

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 Artist's Enclave in 2005 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 story I read by, of course, Ursula K. Leguin in which the author described a person with eyes that were full of stars.  I think Mercedes Lackey was also inspired by her vision when she wrote about the Goddess of one of her worlds, called "the Starry Eyed One".

 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. 

Both were sold long ago.

One of many Gaia masks.  This one I made for the Mask Symposium I participated in in Carbondale, Illinois at the University of Southern Illinois in 2005.  A wonderful event and exhibit, and a fun trip to Carbondale and the area.  

 

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 the human multiplicity of being as well.  I like having the open eye holes, because they invite (hopefully)  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.  Open.  

 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...........

Me in one of my Renfair booths, probably back in 1996.  I did Renaissance Faires for many years.   I don't know what's next, to be honest..........the "Numina" masks project bubbles and perks in my imagination, unformed as yet, and await those who will give them life and story with my collaborator in California, Annie Waters and her amazing community. 

Sometimes I have to wait for the story to turn up.  

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

A Thousand Hands of Quan Yin - Stunning Performance by Deaf & Blind Performers

Thousand Hand Guan Yin-"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva is an astonishing performance in celebration of the Goddess of Compassion, Quan Yin.  It is even more astonishing when one learns that this Chinese production was performed by deaf  and blind performers.  Quan Yin, like Tara, is the embodiment of infinite mercy and assistance to all who call on her.  She is "She who hears the cries of the world".   Avalokitesvara means  "Lord/Lady who looks down", a  Bodhisattva who embodies compassion. Kuan Yin has a thousand arms with which to scatter blessings, a thousand arms with which to bring help to those in need. What an amazing invocation these performers make!

 http://youtu.be/xgHmSdpjEIk



http://youtu.be/Ov_iJQGq6DI