Shaman Dreamtime

While collecting forest canopy images showing inherent "crown shyness" (the observation of trees' branches not interfering with each other - rather leaving open space between each tree in the high canopy) for use in my Forest Spirits pieces, I decided to expand upon the previous playful images of myself with antlers. This time inter-connecting / contrasting the free floating leaf camouflage pattern with highly abstract, yet uniquely organic, "crown shyness" clumping of the upper forest canopy.

Planetary Mandala

I recently started work on a new series the I have been thinking of as planetary Goddess mandalas. I suppose this might seem astrologically influenced, but not exactly. More shamanically attuned / intended.

The original notion was to work with a double exposure technique using the Goddess bodies overlaid by sacred flowers, tree branches and leaf textures. In the heart of each mandala appears the particular astronomical body. The Goddesses hold court in each image - 4 in the Solar mandala, 3 in the Gaian mandala, 2 in the Lunar mandala, and 1 in the Venusian mandala. Additionally, various associated birds and power animals appear (Earth -> owl, Moon -> hummingbird, Sun -> hawk, Venus -> bat and rattlesnake).

Gaian Goddess Mandala

Lunar Goddess Mandala

Solar Goddess Mandala

Venusian Goddess Mandala

These pieces are current on view in the "Double Exposure" exhibit at the Blue Door Gallery in Yonkers thru April 27th. www.bluedoorgallery.org

Nirvana in climate chaos and peak oil

February 28, 2011 By Andrew Durling

http://transitionvoice.com/2011/02/nirvana-in-climate-chaos-and-peak-oil/

Medicine Wheel

How can Buddhism help us deal with fear and anxiety as we face of the converging issues of peak oil and climate change?

One way is to understand that the reality of climate change is inseparable from the actual, specific experiences of living beings here and now.

Climate change is not some external, impersonal phenomenon that exists separately from all other phenomena, and especially from people. It’s actually a dimension of our daily experience, an aspect of the suffering that is an inexorable part of our lives.

In recognizing that climate change is suffering, and that climate change is a pervasive and an increasingly pressing part of our lives, then we have to face up to it in the same way that we have to face up to that ultimate dimension of our suffering: our own death and the loss of all we are and have.

Death be not proud

Facing up to our own death is a good analogy for how we have to learn to face up to climate chaos.

Recognizing the reality of global warming and the horror and fear that it induces offers a moment of clarity. We can then use that clear-eyed recognition to strip away what is meaningless and trivial from our lives and re-focus on what will help us to move with a renewed sense of purpose, beyond the fear, to meaningful action.

So many people who find out that they have a terminal illness go on to fill what time they have left doing what they always really wanted but never got around to. Ironically, overcoming the often overly suppressed (but often mentally disruptive) fear of death can be the prelude to a more joyful and fulfilling life, as philosophers, psychologists and religious teachers have told us through the ages.

In the same way, helping ourselves and others to overcome the denial or suppression of the reality of climate change can help to create the motivation to engage in ways of living that are more fulfilling and creative than before.

Read more ->

Bird Omens

I felt in need of reassurances. Guidance... "What about giving me some unmistakable signs?" So I asked the other day during my meditation...

I subsequently received these signs on two separate days - each occurred on "opposite sides" of the Spring Equinox:

1) Looking out across the Hudson River to the Palisades and I see a huge white owl (with white and black checked marking on wings) fly right past me and into the woods - I duck instinctively from the flash of white in my peripheral vision... What was a normally nocturnal owl doing in mid-morning flying like that? Then, a few moments later, overhead I caught sight of 2 circling Red Tail Hawks high above the trees. Did these hawks flush out the owl - trying to protect its nest form predators? Or was it simply "coincidence"?

2) At a client's property, looking at all of his downed trees - Spruce and Pine - down from the wind storms of a week previous...

Overhead I catch sight of a huge hawk circling high in the thermals. As it sinks closer I see two other smaller birds flying around it. At first I think these are birds trying to "scare off" or "fight off" the hawk. Then, I realize that as the large hawk slowly drifts eastward towards the reservoir on the thermals, the other 2 birds are circling with it, playing along in the currents. These must be yearlings following the mother hawk in her sky drifting lessons!

--

A few nights later I had a dream with a Red Tail Hawk which took up residence (unexpectedly) under the eaves at the front of my dream house. Now, to figure out what this all means...