Eclipse Road Trippin’ at the Abandoned Rock-A-Hula Waterpark

Life is so grand. Day one of the Great American Eclipse road trip to Trinity Hot Springs started off with a bang. Headed out at 5am to beat the Mojave Desert heat and spent the morning  #Luciagraffiti stickering and photographing the abandoned porn Rock-A-Hula waterpark between Barstow and Las Vegas, NV. 1980s theme park covered in modern graffiti. How does it get any better than that? And a few images from spots further up the way. In Twin Falls, ID now and I will be at Trinity Hot Springs with some of the oldest, deepest, and purest hot springs on the planet soon for the eclipse gathering where I will share the rainbows in the dark of my Oracle of Initiation deck.

Chicano Park, San Diego CA

Circa 1984 Parisian Graffiti in Costa Rica

 

OK, work with me here. I can´t find a way to call the US for under multiple dollars per minute, I am butchering the language and inserting my latent Italian at every turn, and saving the day in this magical verdant valley I have found a stencil graffiti artist that is extraordinary. I wish I could show you  pictures, but I have blissfully left my laptop at home, and so you can see an image from when I was 15 in Paris and the level of detail the aerosol artist possess. The local ones here have that 1980´s punk feel to them with raw powerful women commanding their space and some erotic poses as well. WE LOVE IT as Alee and I would say. {Back in the USA..images added!!!}

I am here studying Spanish in the Orosi Valley in Central Costa Rica. The village is pokey and delightful,  filled with vibrant tropical flowers, huge frogs in my hostel, and beautiful people. Costa Rica is the Switzerland of Central America with no standing army, a 95 percent literacy rate and a standard of living uncommon to their neighboring countries.

A plug for my school. I found Montana Linda in The Lonley Planet, and it is terrific. For $760. I get my own private dorm room for a month, a shared bath, kitchen privileges, and sixty hours of one’on’one Spanish classes. I am very happy with my teacher, and the entire staff is great. Montana Linda is said to be the most affordable school in the country, where costs can be double some of the other Central American countries. I also feel really safe here, and its pretty calm. You even get 2 dog guardians, magical white horses and cats on the roof. I won´t mention the big cockroaches.  http://www.montanalinda.com/

 

I came here after going to Antigua, Guatemala for Semana Santa, their psychedelic Easter festivities. When I was researching this trip before my Oracle of Initiation book overtook every bit of my bandwidth, I read the name of this valley and a potent energetic YES swelled in my heart.

I actually have no idea why I am truly here. I have carried an intuitive knowing for about five years that I need to speak Spanish, and immersion was going to be the only way. My ego self has quite a long list of places I would choose to go before here, but here I am. I have been around the block enough to see a sneaker attack when it’s on its way.

Let me explain. After my husband died in 2002 I went on a seven-year vision quest reclaiming my true self. Horses were the sneaky instigators in that round of my expansion. I fell head over hooves in love with them, and what they actually ended up doing was bringing me back to tha land. They were the carrot that drew me into union with the earth and my creative receptivity. Somehow my lack of interest in Central America will turn out to be some form of life path epiphany.

I am in my first week of being in Orosi, and it is slowly revealing itself to me. I am vacillating between wishing I had a traveling partner and thanking my lucky stars for being alone. Last weekend a group of young missionaries were in the  hostel, and when I went on an adventure with them I noticed how closed the locals were to a rag-tag bunch of backpackers. When I am alone there is a much warmer reception. For me that is the great struggle in my life, my love of the synergistic magic that can occur between us, and my MASSIVE  desire to be alone. So, I sit with one of my many dualities. What a fascinating incarnation this one is.

I got early training for this when I lived in Italy at 20, and those skills and confidence are serving me well. It is such a different experience to be more aware, awake and intuitively plugged in this time. I was a pretty lost young lassy, and this is really a gift to see how I deal with the language and cultural discomforts.

I was reminded last night of how potent music can be to bridge worlds. When I lived in Italy there was an international station that played such a wild mix of music you never knew what was coming. The local pool is next to the Hostel here, and someone was having a birthday shindig. The playlist was steadily Latin dance music until a descent Beatles medley kicked in, and then Double Dutch,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7QvpHsJBg

Funky Town [the crowd roared], Hurts so Good, a Gary Glitter remake, Credence Clearwater Revival, and then into a long set of Reggaetone. wow. I was sure Peaches and Herb, the Pina Colada song, The Whiz, Bette Davis Eyes, Electric Avenue or Captain and Tenniel were going to be blasting at any moment.

Spanish classes are going well, four of my initial twenty have occurred. As I said above, I can butcher the language well. So, greetings from paradise, where I am slowing down, not driving, cooking in an open air kitchen on a crumbling hot plate, eating hotdogs and other mystery meats, and enjoying the mist covered mountains. Mellissae Lucia

Faux Banksy as Master Manifestation in Oceanside, California

Lets talk about manifestation, magic and graffiti. Now that’s a good set of topics! When I was staying in Oceanside, California I was woven into a really illuminating story of how grand and mysterious the universe is when it comes to manifestation. Through hearing the background of what was wished for two days before the faux Banksy graffiti appeared,  I wove together this amazing story of the power of intention to manifest blessings beyond what our human minds can have conceived of.

I am not using specific names to respect the privacy of the people involved, but the message still comes across.

Two days before the faux Banksy graffiti materialized, one of the owners of the shop Quiver Board Works and Bull Taco in Oceanside was speaking to a confidant about wanting to energize the business in a new way. On the day of the graffiti tagging the owner received a call that the building had been vandalized. The caller said they would be painting over the offense quickly. Just as this was all transpiring the owner saw on his i-phone a TMZ TV show report saying the artwork was done by British graffiti artist Banksy.

This is a BIG DEAL.

Background on Banksy. He is one of the best known graffiti artists in the world, and his real identity is a mystery. Last year a “documentary” on him was nominated for an academy award called Exit Through the Gift Shop. His work is so clever, intelligent, skillful and subversive that it carries a very distinct and recognizable signature. He has managed to achieve a level of fame while still retaining his street credibility and the world not knowing his true identity. I have added some of his images below.

As for master manifestation, for such a respected international icon to be associated with any business is a marketing coup. This is the sort of press that can’t be bought. And it was on a hip surf shop, the water’s equivalent of skateboarding/punk/hip hop/self-defined creative cool culture.

The owner of Quiver Board Works could not have orchestrated a more appropriate or cool marketing idea. The power of this story, even if it turns out that the image was not actually done by Banksy is THAT IT DOESN’T MATTER. They still got the press, and it energized the business and the local arts community. It blasted open Oceanside to the entire network of creative mavericks across the world. This is master manifestation at its best, putting out there what you want, and allowing the universe to deliver it in magical and mysterious ways BEYOND WHAT YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE!

So remember this next time you are holding space for a dream, the blessings may come in wildly fabulous ways you could never have imagined.

Below are some images of the graffiti with my beloved Lisa and Alee.

a "real" Banksy

Banksy

Banksy

Identity. The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Who are we? Who TRULY are we? Are we our package, our culture, our gender, our species, our multidimensionality?

I ponder this question, a lot. It has been the driving force in my own process of  theredefinition and reclamation of my expanded self.

My Oracle of Initiation divination deck is really a tour de force of reclaiming our multifaceted existence. The Oracle deck has fifty-six Painted Body images of one person. This one person happens to be me, but if you were called to do the deck, it might have been you. The process was the opposite of narcissism; it is a study in shape-shifting and moving between the worlds. If one person can get out of the way and become so many different personas and Spirits, who are the rest of us? How many being are co-existing within YOU right now?

{ To be really transparent, ALL of the images in this post are me…}

Early on in the recovery of my psychic skills I was hiking on Mt. Rainier in Washington State. I scrambled over a large logjam and two feet below me a little pine marten emerged. Now this was before I had truly reclaimed my intuitive knowing, so this experience was quite unique at that time. As I looked down at the pine marten, into its eyes, I knew I was that animal, Now, simultaneously with the earthly Melissa Weiss Steele dimension as well. I somehow knew we could exist in multiple realties, concurrently; and it seemed really normal.

I understand this may be a really “out there” concept for some folks. And, it may also FREE YOU. It is possible to move beyond the narrow constricts of our limited human perceptions, and recognize our vast, limitless, expansive potentials within many dimensions. We can break out of the small ways we all see ourselves. I do not mean small in the humble, simple, pure way, but in the limiting and constricting ways we minimize ourselves. We can let go of the old stories and become whom we have blossomed into.

“Identity” is one of these ways we can blind ourselves to our true essence. Most of us have been reared in societies that have been off kilter for many hundreds or thousands of years. There are layers and layers of cultural and familial disassociation that we have all inherited. I believe this is the time, as we move into a new world paradigm, that we are unpacking all of this disharmony. We are transforming millennia of disempowerment, disrespect, and disconnection into our true birthright as divine human beings.

I have some perspectives from my own process and work with clients to consider in redefining who you truly are, NOW. Lets do this today, together. Lets hold a larger space for who we truly are, not who we were five years ago, or last week, or even five minutes ago. It is the time to surf the waves of change, and we need to be very adaptable and agile to navigate this swift and shifting terrain.

Have you caught up to who you are now? I suggest we stop retelling those old, outmoded stories about our perceived weaknesses, injuries and limitations, and look at how we are operating NOW. You may be surprised by how much you have grown. Look for the evidence in your life for where you reacted differently from the past, and savor it. Let your friends  mirror how much you have changed, giving concrete examples to support your new thesis…the way you respond to life NOW.

Have you caught up to who other people are now? We all have our own stories about the other people in our lives. Look at them today, they may be different, really different. Folks are waking up and transforming at rapid rates, and you cannot tell who may see the world from a larger perspective than previously possible. This leads us into number three…

Own your projections. Projections are those shadowed characteristic, drives and impulses within ourselves that at some point we decided, or were told were bad. They are the unintegrated parts of our psyche that irritate or draw us in when we feel it within another. We all have areas in our lives where we perceive we have not excelled or are not being met. Money, relationships, career, personal development, physicality; there’s a whole laundry list.  I suggest in the redefinition process of the whole NEW you that we recognize the places we are judging or comparing ourselves to others. We ALL do this. If you tell me you don’t, I won’t believe you. Look at who you think you should be, or not be, by how you project your own insecurities or yearnings onto others. Both the people who drive you nuts, and the people you idolize. All are parts of yourself. Period. This concept is one of the central pieces within The Oracle of Initiation, I call them your Rainbows in the Dark. Many of the Oracle’s images were taken in subterranean graffiti tunnels, with gloriously vibrant hidden rainbows. Our Rainbows in the Dark are the full, passionate, juicy parts of ourselves that we have shadowed and shamed. Our greatest gifts and power reside in those rich and dark places, and part of the Universe’s grand plan it to help our true essences remerge from that hidden and cloistered place.

Redefine Initiation. Initiation is another word for something that changed you. It may be both a challenging experience or an ecstatic experience, but you stepped {or were thrown}through some sort of threshold and moved to a different level. I have been initiated by love, illness, death, fear, bliss, religion, group-dynamics, disempowerment, shamanic journeys, dancing, ethnicity, animals, marriage, insects, travel, creativity, dreams, sexuality, education, driving, weather, rituals…it could go on and on. We tend to think of it as a deeply challenging experience, a place where you find what you are made of. This can be true. There is usually an intensity to it, but not always. You may also be initiated in gently and subtle ways, so subtle you do not realize the change until years later. I was initiated as a child into the ways of the woods. I cannot tell you exactly what happened, but as an adult when I returned to my childhood stomping grounds I KNEW that place. I belonged to them. And that knowing was quiet and tender, and true. Redefining initiation is a process of reviewing the experiences in your life that sent you in a new direction. The places where you expanded, or constricted; the places where you were touched by something new. Most of us tend to hang onto the difficult things, so those are the places we really get to work to reclaim the treasures and lessons. Life is one huge story. Your life is a series of connection, orbits and destinies that I believe do all have some level of divine order. So a perfect place to begin with redefining you initiations is to see how the lessons within the challenge may have opened you  to new skills, levels of compassion or opportunities. As I said with the Rainbows in the Dark, I believe our greatest struggles hold our greatest gifts. We were given these experiences on a soul level to temper us and create depth and wisdom. The rub is most of us have not figured out how to turn them around…so just consider, and this really is a longer post on its own, that what you saw as a violation or injury was actually the opening to your destines in this lifetime.

Gain a larger vision of your intuitive responses. Your body is a huge antenna. It will tell you the truth, if you learn how to listen. We have all created a long list of how we translate different energetic and intuitive reactions within our bodies. When our solar plexus seizes, we say that is fear or anxiety. When our throat constricts that is a negative blockage or resistance to our truth. When we become giddy it is love, or an attraction to something. I have been working on this one for quite a while. My solar plexus is the center of my inner processor. My energetic messages come mainly through my gut. When I carried a lot of dissociation and anxiety in the past I linked the variety of physical sensations in that area to dread or nervousness. As I have learned, that’s not always true. I have become so open and receptive to subtle energetic patterns that I may be picking up on a shift in the earth’s ley lines as I walk, or be transmitting another’s emotional reaction. We are all, on some level, carrying the changes the culture, earth, energy matrix, and each other are undergoing within our bodies. This is a lot of weather flowing through-all the time. So don’t get stuck on a single sensation and globalize it. As Annie Rafter said here in Santa Fe, “if you make a whole story up around your impression, you tie a lead balloon to that interpretation.” Instead, say to yourself, “ah..a new sensation..hmmmm…”and just be filled with curiosity and wonder. You will free yourself with this one exercise.  {A note, there is a difference between the variety of impression and reactions that float through, and that core, survival instinct that says “Get the hell out of here.” That is different. Listen to that one, it is a great gift; even if it means leaving a job, a relationship or living situations.}

These are some things to consider as we stumble towards an expanded sense of ourselves, our world and each other. Maybe you can tell yourself a new story today, living the potential of NOW.

Trespassing, Holy Dirt and Baby Jesus’ Shoes

I love to trespass. I have so few vices left that my punk rock soul needs something disobedient.  “You don’t drink, don’t smoke…what do you do?” {Had to get a little Adam Ant up in here}. I am actually a fairly modest person in everyday life, despite the wild and intense work I create. I need outlets for pushing the boundaries of my courage and fierceness. There is something about a forbidden place, a place that is imposing, boarded up, abandoned that peaks my interest. What will be in there, who might have passed that way, and what did they leave behind.

I have been exploring deserted places since I was a child. I grew up in a family of artist, adventurers, scavengers; young parents who brought their curious child along on their borderland journeys.  We would scale down beached barges, take photographs with graffiti strewn barns, crawl in the windows of decommissioned army housing to see what we might find. My father particularly loves to collect funky-old-cool things with character and personality. The addition he built onto his 30-year-old artists studio in Fremont used doors and windows salvaged from 40 years before.

Yesterday I drove to my beloved Chimayo, The Lourdes on North America. A cherished pilgrimage site and sanctuary to the Tierra Bendita, Sacred Soil, that is said to bring miraculous healing. This land is also sacred to the Tewa Indians.

I came to offer the first printing of my Oracle of Initiation deck, the divine work that has emerged on this New Mexico land, of this land, through dancing with the Holy Dirt. The Oracle deck really is devotional cards, born out of great reverence for the Earth, Ancestors, and the power of the unseen Guides and Guardians. They are dedicated to the mystery of our emerging expansion, the dream-time, the power of stepping between the veils to claim your true essence.

They are also an acknowledgment of the power of faith; of viewing your challenges and trials from a spiritual perspective. The belief that our struggles and complexities are actually the tempering process forming us into sacred vessels capable of carrying our true gifts. One of the core inspirations for the deck is the old religious cards of Mary, Jesus and the Saints. I did not grow up Catholic, but I have always been deeply drawn to the symbolism and iconography of that faith. I have died and gone to heaven living in a place where you constantly see the  homemade imagery and crafts of a very earthy and sincere love for the divine.

My wish was to offer some of the images from the deck in a holy and sacrificial way to this sacred site. I was on pilgrimage to honor the incredible work that had channeled through me. As I entered the grounds from the lower parking lot, I placed 4 of the cards onto the chain-link fence adorned with rustic little twig and rope crosses.  The most Mother Mary-like images chose to be represented:  36. Trust; 46. Reliance; 56. Dedication; and 64. Sanctified. I was so focused on placing the cards firmly on the fence that I had not noticed a companion nearby. The horse spirits brought me back to the land in a powerful and potent way. They are one of the main guardians of the Oracle deck, and honored guides on my earthwalk. As I was fussing with the cards I heard out of the corner of my consciousness a subtle, yet familiar whinny.  I looked up to see a large, furry, four-legged equine friend. I had never seen it there before, so I brought the cards over for an inspection. They obviously needed some sacred horse markings, because the animal grabbed them in its mouth and drug two of them over the fence. I was both surprised and thrilled. I felt the offering had been accepted; slimy grass-flecked horse saliva is a great honor. I retrieved them from under the fence and continued on. Quite an auspicious beginning; thank you beloved horse being for consecrating the Oracle.

As I placed the cards on different altars throughout the property, I was amazed at how naturally they blended in with all of the rosaries, crosses and devotional candles. I had accomplished my goal of making a deck that referenced the dedication and commitment of those traditions without being tied to the dogma of those beliefs.

I carried the cards around this beautiful old church and eventually brought them into El Pocito, The Well. The Myth is that around 1810 a devout Spanish Friar saw a light emerging from one of the surrounding hillsides by the Santa Cruz River. With his bare hands he dug down into the earth and found the crucifix that graces the main altar of the church now. The local parish in Santa Cruz tried 3 times to take the cross away from its original location to their church, and three times the cross disappeared and returned to the initial hole. So they left the cross in Chimayo, building a church around this crucifix and the well of sacred soil that is said to have miraculous healing properties.

In the room adjoining El Pocito, there are crutches left as signs of the sanctified soil’s power to transform infirmities. I had always noticed the lines of baby shoes, but had never read the story of Santo Nino de Atocha. Santo Nino represents Baby Jesus as he cared for persecuted Christians in Spain. He is said to watch over prisoners, bringing them bread and water to survive. He carries a basket filled with flowers and food, and a walking stick with a water gourd attached. The baby shoes are to replace the ones he wears out during his travels supporting those in need. I was really taken with this humble notion of the servant being so active that he needs a constant supply of new footwear. Santo Nino is also one of the Catholicized version of the African deity Eshu, guardian of the crossroads.

So, back to trespassing. There was an abandoned house I had always wanted to photograph and explore, and today was the day. I decided to circumnavigate the property, seeing if there were any interesting things in the back. Bingo-the side door was open. I always ask permission before entering vacant dwellings. They are so filled with disembodied Spirits that you must be sure you will be energetically safe.

When I was traveling around the American West visiting horse people, I had an amazing trespassing experience in the old mining town of Wallace, ID. I found an old Victorian home that looked as if it had not been occupied since the 1940’s or 50’s. The peeling wallpapers and layers of paint patinas were glorious. When I went upstairs, the back bedroom was completely intact. It was so eerie, I could feel the old woman who lived there. You have to be careful about what has taken up residence in these deserted places. You are entering a sacred temple, and the lives of the past occupants are still present. It serves you to be quiet, respectful and alert.

So I asked if I was safe, and got the go-ahead. The rooms were strewn with piles of little faded boxes and cartons from the1950’s. There were also cases of the left over religious candles from the altars in the church. The boxes were all from baby shoes. Hmmmm. I continued around the back and found a really interested tableau though an open window. I was initially not going to go in, there are houses directly behind this one and I didn’t want to be yelled at. As I walked away, I realized I needed to climb in. So off I went, and my curiosity was richly rewarded. Those gentle little intuitive voices will bring you some very interesting adventures.

Part of the reason I go into these deserted places is because they are portals. They are crossroads; liminal spaces where the divine and the mundane meet; truly alternate realities. There are potent forces that gather where the heavens and earth merge, and what might you create there? New Mexico itself is one big magical multi-cultural land of enchantment and mystery.  It has revealed itself to me on occasion.

As I clamored in, more graffiti, abandoned chairs, and the torn white sailcloth ceiling cover dangling from the rafters. The torn white fabric revealed a pristine wooden viga ceiling. The ceiling looked brand new. I found this juxtaposition interesting. The seafoam green adobe structure was disintegrating, graffiti tags and lewd saying were everywhere, and here was this perfectly preserved ceiling. Might the illusion of this decaying edifice be shrouding a holy shrine?

I rounded the corner into another room, and what I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

The entire room was completely covered in hundreds of pairs of baby shoes, infants clothing and faded statues of saints.   This is one of those acid-trip moments; Am I really here, did I dream this, is it real? Am I real? How in the world did these little offerings get into this abandoned building? The divine can be hidden in the most interesting places, reveling itself on its own terms.

As I surveyed the room I could not believe what I was seeing. There were boxes and baskets filled with hundreds of little time-warped children’s shoe packaging.  To the left was a built-in wooden cabinet styled as if it was the most precious layette awaiting the newborn’s arrival.

A beckoning stairwell dominated the room, light streaming down from the broken out windows. I was literally astonished by this secret shrine. At the top of the stairs was a glorious statue of the grace-filled servant Santo Nino joyfully watching over this sacred space. Santo Nino, Eshu, guardians of travelers, the crossroads, they were holding court over this hallowed ground.

These are the same mysteries and devotions I am searching for by creating The Oracle of Initiation deck; myth, magical & allegory; the hidden treasures of the unknown; entering the temple of your fears and finding glowing Saints and Guardians; exploring new vistas and navigating unrecognized worlds. You will need dedication and courage to investigate your own neglected places, to open those locked doors, to decipher the unconscious graffiti of your psyche.  What great beauty, joy and magic awaits if you step through the threshold into the unknown? And how will you trust that your worn out shoes will be always be reverently replaced?

And remember…only 3 more days of the amazing pricing on the 88 limited Edition Oracle of Initiation decks…only $88 bucks-wow….

https://melissaweisssteele.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/88-decks-8-days-88-bucks-order-the-limited-edition-oracle-of-initiation-deck-now/

Meeting Your Muse as you train for your Olympic moment

These are some of the images from the first photo shoot within the Painted Body series for my Oracle of Initiation divination deck. I woke up before dawn a year and a half ago and headed down into a graffiti strewn tunnel. It was initially the color palette and vibration of the artwork that attracted me, as well as the classic rough-hewn bricks they had been painted on; it was a lovely mix of classical and modern design. I headed out so early because this location is right off a popular hiking trail and I didn’t want to be disturbed.

I was nervous about taking the work to the next level. I had already become very comfortable being alone and nude on the land through my Earthen Body series, but somehow painting myself added another layer of vulnerability. In reality if someone came upon me down in these dark tunnels they would probably be more afraid of me than any safety or decorum issues I am might be faced with.

I carried paints and props with me, not sure how it was all going to go. I had learned a few nights before about a new setting on my camera that allowed me to take moody & evocative dream-like images in darker locations. I had no idea that over time the play of colors, lights and movement could cause the effects that have emerged in the work. But we are at the first time out here, and I truly had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into.

I am not overtly intellectual or calculating about the process. The work begins when I am attracted to certain earthly locations. It’s like meeting a potential lover-do we resonate, shall we play? When the actual painting and photography process begins there is no consistent ritual to it.  Loving and honoring that piece of land was the gateway into the work. I let the playful physicality and joyful freedom take me out of my “mind” and into what I am to meet through the dance. And it is a dance, I am moving and shifting through time, and space, and levels of awareness.

It is really a return to a pure and innocent way of just tossing yourself into what you are attracted to. I worked with children for years, and they do not premeditate their next week and a half. They meet what is before them, fling all of their little energy and might into it, and then move on. It really is being in the moment, which is so hard for many of we big ones.

Returning home from the shoot there is really no way for me to impart how amazed I was by what had transpired. The colors, shape shifting qualities, and the power that was resonating off of these images was beyond anything I had ever imagined I could do. I could do this in watercolors and collages, but to take it to the next level and embody the energies myself was incredible.

I believe this work was actually the culmination of years of study and focus and creative passion that was ready to bloom. We never actually know when, or where, or how our investments in our spiritual growth and creative juices will emerge, but if we keep following our muses and pushing beyond our fears and perceived constrictions we may be awe-struck. I read somewhere an analogy about training for the Olympics. You train, and train, and train for years and years to become the movements and the skills. You do not actually know when and where those skills may be called forth, but you still keep investing in your craft, your excellence. And then one day, you may be called out. And all of that preparation comes into practice, and you soar. So what are you thrilled about in your life that may still be in the training process? Do you put your head down and practice, continuing to hone your skills because you know you just have to do it?

I wish you great wonder and awe in some form today-be it a smile or an insect or a creative inspiration that opens you to your divine potential. It’s all there, but can we slow down and refocus enough to embrace it??

PS- all of these Notes on Facebook are actually from my blog. It would be lovely if you would post comments directly at the blog too, I believe its good for search engine positioning…many thanks and blessings

www.MelissaWeissSteele.Wordpress.com

The Series aspect of the work: Sami Graffiti in The Valley of the Moon

The series aspect of the work is some of the most interesting parts of the process.  The photos above are from my Earthen Body series taken in 2007 and 2008. These particular images were taken during a break from a fantastic Sami/ Norwegian/ Norse  Shamanism workshop by Ailo Gaup through Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies. We were in the achingly beautiful Valley of The Moon in Sonoma, CA.  I am such an Earth Baby, and I had reached my limit of  being separated from those honey-colored rolling hills in the  September sunlight. I skipped an afternoon session and went to frolic on the land. I had a blast and got some great shots-a lovely mix of process and product. The photo below is from an algae covered stream  called “Sami Vacant.”.

I do not actually consider myself a photographer. I cannot tell you the ASA of a shot or make Gelatin Silver Prints in the darkroom. I see the camera as simply a tool to document a ritualistic process. The main goal of the work is to create communion with the Land and Spirits and get the hell out of the way. All of The Earthen Body work was done with a very small digital camera, and The Painted Body series used only a slightly bigger one; God Bless the Canon G9.

Because it really is documentation of ceremony, I take hundreds to thousands of images during each photo shoot. It actually ranges from about 300 to 4000 pictures, with extended groups of different angles and locations. It’s really interesting to look at the progressions during the process-it becomes a range of moods and reactions, a montage of human expression and engagement.

The four Sami Graffiti photos above represent the first graffiti images within the work. While exploring the Sonoma landscape I found a handful of large feather. I initially thought they were from a Turkey Vulture, but was later corrected by Maria Yraceburu;  They were Eagle feathers. I found the tunnel with the aerosol art  just after collecting the feathers. I took off my glasses and top, descending into the darkened tunnel, dancing with the sacred eagle gift. The final photo of the 4 is a miracle of composition and proportion. I do not see well without my glasses, and all of the images are taken VERY quickly and spontaneously.  So to have the background, feathers and my eye line up like that was only possible through Divine Intervention. That was when it really really hit me that I had somehow slipped into a co-creation with The Universe. It was so exciting and humbling at the same time. I had been kissed by the Angels.

So the series aspect of the work is really the true representation of creativity in its wild and undulating complexity. It’s not all beautiful or perfect, but if we show up we can meet the entire range of expressions that want to spill forth. And we may occasional reach excellence, with a little help from our friends…

The Locations-how in the world did I get there?

I can’t talk about the Painted Body series locations without bringing in the Earthen Body series first. Over time I will revisit certain pivotal shoots from the Earthen Body series, but for now we shall just share their profound impact on my sense of power, trust and joy.

The Earthen Body series began in Texas after a particularly successful 5 day retreat  Kate Vigneron and I taught at her ranch with women and horses. I had found an incredible bone mask, and took some shots that blew me away-so much so that I hid them for 4 months. My sense of trust in my artistic process and the Universe at large was a little  shaky at that time so I was not sure if the energy that came through the photos was a fluke.

Four months later, on my birthday, I decided to revisit the process at my father’s cabin on The Olympic Peninsula. It is an incredible place, one of 6 cabins grandfathered into the National Forest there. It is perched above the coastal beach, and can only be reached through locked logging roads. I set out barefoot for Seafield Creek, not knowing what I might encounter. As I climbed down a fern covered embankment my Spirits told me, “this is your work.” That second series at the creek also blew me away, and spent the next year taking the photos whenever I could.

Part of why this process was so life-changing was that I uses to carry a lot of fear and anxiety. For me to be naked, alone on the land was HUGE. The other transformational part of the journey was how I was lead to locations. It really was a form of enchantment. I love the Earth; I am a happy pagan- just let me loose  in nature and watch me glow. So I would come upon places that were so beautiful or interesting that I just HAD TO play. And play I did. It got to the point where I would just get in my car and be lead to amazing locations. I learned to trust in my safety, and the wisdom of this guiding force that knew when and where to co-create this incredible ritualistic process.

I took the Earthen Body photos throughout the Pacific coast, The Southwest, and magical magical New Zealand. I never encountered another person during a shoot until New Zealand. I feel like a container, a “field,” was created around the process so I would be left in peace.

So the Painted Body series came directly out of this trust and confidence in the journey and my relationship to the Earth and Unseen Guidance that I was able to step into.

There have been five main locations here in New Mexico where The Painted Body work has been done. Some are graffiti covered tunnels, some arroyos, some mesas and caves. I have taken the photos 27 times myself, once with another. Other than the collaborative shoot I am always alone {earth-plane beings at least}. There are almost 30,ooo photos in this series alone.  As you see in the photos above, I have even stood in rushing water to get my images.

So I continue to be open to delightful and sacred places that draw me to this work, and the emergence of The Oracle of Initiation deck- boy have I manifested well!!

Roger Ballen’s Startling and Unsettling Visions

Roger Ballen’s work is one of my great inspirations.  He has created a fascinating & shadowy universe through photographing the impoverished whites in their rural South African villages. Since the 1980’s American expatriate and former geologist Ballen turned his camera lens onto the insular world of these Shadow Land people. The images feel like walking into a 1920’s mental ward and becoming a part of their reality. The subjects look like they left this world long ago, or never actually landed, retreating into their own childlike reality.  His palette is a gritty range of grays and blacks punctuated by fascinating arrangements between the models and their surreal world. The rooms feel barren, but may contain naive graffiti scrawled across the cold cement walls, or puzzling still-lives within this irrational world of make-believe and artifice. His shadowy vignettes are the visual equivalent of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy-tale, where everything is not always pretty & bright, and strange things happens in veiled places.

This challenging work has mesmerized me because Ballen has captured some of the central hues of my childhood. My German grandparents were very old-school and clannish. They lived in town, but it felt like the old-country because they only had a wood stove until the late 1980’s. They would send me to school with warmed stones from the firebox wrapped in greasy rags-now tell me that’s not a fairy-tale!! Having survived two world wars, and the period of wild inflation in Germany when you could buy an apartment building for a ham, my Grandfather would save old nails, screws, and even craft new handles for broken hammers. Everything was patched, mended or reworked to extend its purpose.

We had the front of the house, which was brighter and more welcoming, and then the back of the home was more mysterious. It contained many secret thresholds. It was chilly and stagnant in those cloistered rooms, with enough blankets on each bed to smother a small child. I remember feeling both constricted and held in those weighty sleep chambers. Because of my Grandparent’s upbringing I can smell Ballen’s environments; the musty odors of old work clothes and hoarding; the boiled meat & potatoes these kinfolk eat.

A fabulous post on Ballen’s Portland, Oregon show

http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/04/roger_ballen_at_quality_pictur.html

considers the critics who say he is an “artistic mercenary, exploiting his poverty-stricken, post-apartheid white subjects by photographing them in peculiar, unsettling  tableaux that made bizarre theater out of their outsider status and appearance. They might as well have been the hillbillies from “Deliverance.”

Ballen addresses this by saying “ There was something that attracted me to these people, and it wasn’t political or social. It was something about myself.”

What do we see about ourselves in these gateways between vision and madness, the intricate shadows we each carry from our lineages?