More Glitch Tests

I wanted to play around with a larger, more complex image to apply the various glitch processing upon. I chose a Jewel Tree image as the base with the following results:

This is the original unmodified image:

Forest Goddess Redux

Some more plays on the Forest Goddess / Forest Spirit theme - the hidden, sensed, almost seen:

Bill Tavis has performed his fractal halftone mapping on my Tara / Dakini diptych resulting in a wonderful GIF animation. Thanks again!

You can read about the source artwork here: Tara Variations.

See more of Bill Tavis's stuff on his Tumblr.

Trippy Tara

Bill Tavis has performed his fractal halftone mapping on my COSM Tara piece resulting in a wonderful GIF animation. Thanks!

See more of Bill Tavis's stuff on his Tumblr.

Consciousness, Indeterminacy, Reality Models, Shamanism, Psychedelic Medicines - oh my!

Terence McKenna at his best? Episode 426 ("Alien Footprints") of the Psychedelic Salon podcast is one of the most succinct raps by Terence McKenna on his favorite topic of hyper-dimensional reality and our highly evolved monkey mind.

“The truth about reality is that nowhere is it writ large that monkeys should be able to elicit the final understanding of it.”

Forest Goddess Variations

My recent Pachamama series got me interested in playing around more with the emergence of a figure from (within) the positive space of a veil of leaves. Here is a selection of Forest Goddess image variations including some calling upon her guise as animal spirit totem.

But a few of the Goddess variations I played with stand out in terms of 'hidden mystery' and embodied forest spirit energy. Check these out:

Offering Mandala for Pachamama

I've been thinking for quite awhile about Navaho healing sand paintings. As part of the ceremonial process, real objects such as stones, herbs, flowers and meaningful "trinkets" are incorporated into the visual symbology of the mandala. These temporary mandalas can often be built-up via layers, reminding me of a Peruvian shaman's medicine bundle offering (despacho).

Cut flowers are as transient as any ceremonial sand mandala when it comes to making "art", so I decided that I'd construct a digital version of a floral offering... using photos of actual blooms from my garden - in this case, Mexican Sage, Rose and Datura.

This is one of the images I came up with based upon what I had been making for the Pachamama series (showing her hidden spirit face emerging through forest leaves.

Pachamama Offering Mandala

Dakini Redux

Early in December I had my 60th birthday. One thought that bothered me concerned what would happen to my artwork when I'm dead and gone? Would anyone really be able to trundle through endless directories of work on my computer to discover everything? True, a lot of stuff is posted on my various websites, but... So, over the holidays I printed out a bunch of my images and organized them into presentation binders.

Well, some older images bothered me greatly and I decided to go back in to rework them. Below is an example of the before and after state of one of my Dakini images. By removing a lot of the background (photo of a golden geometric pattern from a ornamental door) and remixing the figure's layers, I think the newest version is much more dynamic and allows the Dakini figure to be read better.

Dakini "before"

Dakini "after"

Visionaries Group Show at Blue Door Gallery

Several of  my Plant Spirit pieces are in the current show at Blue Door Gallery in Yonkers.

Sept. 6 thru Oct 11, 2014

Blue Door Gallery

13 Riverdale Ave, Yonkers, NY

914.375.5100

www.BlueDoorArtsCenter.org

New Work: Plant Spirits

I've been working on-and-off on my series of Plant Spirit images for several years, posting some earlier versions previously on this blog. Ultimately, once I have enough "inventory," I plan to produce a set of divination cards from these based upon journey work to commune with each particular plant spirit.

Below is a sampling from the current batch / current versions of images. The latest versions will also get posted to my Shaman Dreaming site under the "Plant Spirit Medicine" viewer link.

Black and Blue Sage

Honeysuckle

Peony

Redwood grove

Salvia Divinorum

Reworking Stuff

Even with digital work sitting around the studio (actually, filed on the computer), there comes a point when one just has to "face the music" and rework images that have grown to be bothersome - not quite what was envisioned, somehow awkward & improperly resolved. The digital equivalent to taking out the palette knife and scrapping away part of a painting...

With that in mind, I thought I would offer up two examples from the Plant Spirit series which show how the earlier work was modified into a better result. Or at least I think so. Mostly this consisted of simplifying the primary colored energy fields. I still haven't decided which version of Mugwort will be the "official" one. (You can add a comment below as to which version you prefer and why, if you'd like. I'd be interested in hearing your opinions!)

Mugwort - current version (?)

Mugwort - current version (alternate)

Mugwort - earlier version

Brugmansia - current version

Brugmansia - earlier version

New Work: Pachamama

While working on new Plant Spirit imagery, I've been listening to some podcasts by Dr. Bruce Damer recounting his new myth about the 'Great Mother' and the evolution of our Earth's biosphere - a hyper-conscious intelligence embodied within and emerging from the neuronal net of plants (root brains), bacteria, and mycelia fungi. (His podcast is called Dr. Bruce's Levity Zone - or you can subscribe via iTunes. Look for episodes from 2013, esp. those recorded at Symbiois festival or at Burning Man.)

Out of this, I began playing with a few elements imaging Pachamama (Great Mother). A couple of examples below.

CIrcle of Spirits

I just completed a new piece based upon journey imagery that I received a week ago. The work combines three sources of guidance from three different realms - the sky world, the tree world, and the ocean world.

CIrcle of the Spirits

In the nighttime sky, the Pleiades star cluster is overlaid with a constellation of an owl carrying a rattlesnake in its beak. (The rattle is the Mayan symbol of the Pleiades). The ocean quadrant is populated by whale and dolphins singing song lines of the deep (deep ocean, deep time). The forest quadrant presents a cathedral of redwood trees, the spirits of which are gathering in a ritual circle (called forth by Lady One Death, the great dark spirit of nature).

King of Mushrooms

From the lovely site Kingdom of Fungi by photographer TAYLOR LOCKWOOD.

Newest Medicine Buddha Thangka

Medicine Thangka of Medicine Buddha

Fall Equinox - Conjunction of Moon, Jupiter, Uranus

With the Full Moon falling next to the Fall Equinox, I participated in an Ecstatic Body Posture journey circle. As part of the posture enactment, we held up a snake effigy in our left hand and a woven ring of Mugwort in our right. During the journey, a large Owl came to guide and protect me. For others in the circle, Kundalini snakes and oscillating energy played a prominent role.

Fall Equinox Dreams

I came across a photo of the Equinox midnight conjunction showing the moon rays and a brilliant Jupiter below. Reflecting upon this image, I felt the tug of the changing energies of the season working their way from Dreamtime into our time and place. A slow shifting from active summer growth to fulfillment and winter rest / hibernation. I decided to make an image to celebrate this moment.

The image (above) shows the conjunction with moon light radiating brilliantly. A lunar rainbow effect. The spirit owl circles overhead as the spirit snake reaches towards Jupiter. Owl is both wisdom and clarity of vision. Snake is the power of transformation. Just the traits each of us need now in these difficult times...

On either side of Snake are Mugwort offerings, their incense burning skyward. Throughout the world in many different cultures, Mugwort is (has been) recognized as a powerful dream medicine, bringing forth strong, lucid dreams. Mugwort stands as guardian of the gateway to Dreamtime, to our ancestors and spirit guides. Through its smoke or by drinking of Mugwort tea, that door can be opened wide. Collecting the leaves and flowers into a simple sachet for under the pillow provides a powerful effect on dreaming, as well.

Even though it is late in the year and not the prime time to harvest Mugwort, I selected a number of plants to process into tea leaves and smudge sticks (dream wands). Everything is drying right now...

Plant Spirit Healing

This highly recommended book on plant spirit medicine is by Pam Montgomery. I read it last year and it changed my life.

A quote from her website:

The cover photo by Linda E. Law is of Lady’s Mantle. I sat with this image for the longest time wondering about the alien being that is so prominent. This being has a masculine quality to it and I was surprised to not see a more feminine being. Then in a flash I saw it wasn’t an alien after all but, instead, a wise old alchemist. I’ve started to call him Arturo and, of course, Alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle’s latin name) would reveal such a being. You will find that each plant reveals different beings, some are sweet and others are almost disturbing, just like life. These most amazing photos give you a rare opportunity to delve into the essence of the plant.

- Pam Montgomery

Recommended Reading: Singing to the Plants

Singing to the Plants is a fascinating blog by Stephan Beyer covering aspects of Amazonian shamanism  and related plant medicine topics.

Tree Protector

Mahakala Tree Guardian

While journeying to meet with my guides, part of the discussion turned to the need for me to create a Tree Protector thangka, honoring and celebrating my deep connection with the tree spirits. I was shown the basic "layout"as a mandala and understood that Mahakala (The Great Dark One) would be the central deity. This did not particularly surprise me as Mahakala is my Heart Chakra protector, as well.

His powerful mantra is: OM SHRI MA HAKALA HUNG PHAT

I create several images to date using this basic theme - one belonging to the Jewel Tree series.

Jewel Tree of Mahakala

The Jewel Tree image also contains the Hummingbird - symbolic messenger between the our world and the spirit worlds of the Ancestors and Illuminated Ones. The flowers shown are Datura, a beautiful, yet dangerous visionary plant used by Native American shamen in the Southwest and in California.

Mahakala Mantra Chant

By Lama Karta

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...