Secrets in the Christmas Tree

I loved putting together this little slideshow based on some earlier writing. The words hold the vision, so I decided to share the pictures in the much more fluid medium of the mind’s eye (rather than on the screen.)

(Link here for a random post from my blog.)

Time and Transformation

Further to the whole idea of time that I was mentioning a few posts back, here’s a video with Daniel Pinchbeck:

(Download a free pdf excerpt from my book Documentary Print. Click here to receive the entire SRF Interim Report Document on Living in the Future.)

(Link here for a random post from my blog.)

Cave Paintings at Kootenay Gallery and More

James K-M’s Cave Paintings exhibition opened at the Kootenay Gallery last weekend, and we travelled there with Andrew Jordan for the show. Marilyn James, spokesperson of the Siniixt people opened the exhibition. Also opening that same evening was Joanne Circle’s show in the other room of the gallery.

James K-M, Marilyn James, Joanne Circle, Andrew Jordan

After the opening we went out for dinner but the only place open after 9 pm in Castlegar is Boston Pizza. It became the site of our great mind-blowing symposium discussion on art, with James, me, Andrew, Joanne, and her friend, Maggie.

Flamingo Motel in Castlegar

Andrew, James and I stayed at the Flamingo Motel in Castlegar, which featured handmade quilts, a funky gazebo wired for sound, and apple trees.

James shows covers of the 500 albums in the gazebo, as we listen to Midnight Cowboy. Note albums on the floor, speakers on the ceiling and turntable just behind James on the right.

 

Andrew picks an apple from the Flamingo’s trees.

It wasn’t far to go up to Nelson and over to Ainsworth Hot Springs. In Nelson we visited Margrith Schraner and Ernest Hekkanen, both writers and publishers of the well-regarded New Orphic Review. Their home is also the New Orphic Gallery, and their front lawn may be a site of the “controversial” bronze monument to Vietnam-era war resisters. After wonderful dinner, wide-ranging conversation (or is it wild-ranging conversation?) and a good night’s sleep, we left the next morning for Vancouver – laden with dusky plums and perfumed grapes from their trees and vines.

Margrith Schraner and Ernest Hekkanen talk with James in the gallery

(Link here for a random post from my blog.)

 

Remembering the Days of “Consciousness”

Yesterday I was recalling this rather extraordinary event in Red Deer, Alberta, when the Red Deer College opened its doors to a festival of consciousness for a weekend. These spiritual smorgasbord weekend events were popular back then, and this one featured Swami Radha from her Yashodhara Ashram in the Kootenays, and Geshe Lama Kaldan, the Tibetan teacher who lived in Edmonton (link here to his meditation society or watch for him as a first minister in Scorcese’s film, Kundun.) Now, sadly, both have passed away, but at the time they seemed they would be around forever (and as both are involved in reincarnational belief-structures, perhaps they are!) Stars from afar were also invited, and were the real “feature attractions” – I recall anthropologist Joan Halifax (now roshi, Buddhist centre Upaya) and physicist David Bohm (who passed away in 1994) were there, but memory fails and I can’t remember who else was a “headliner”. I went down there from Edmonton with a small posse of Sufis to lead Sufi dancing (Dances of Universal Peace) one afternoon. It was an intimate gathering, and somehow scattered as these events tended to be.

Two vignettes:

Sitting in the front of a classroom while David Bohm’s explanation of his theory of implicate and explicate order opened my mind’s eye.

Joan Halifax showing how shamans used the rattles on one side of the head and then on the other, in a beautiful format around the head, shifting auditory environment and therefore consciousness. (Until her talk, I was naively unaware that there were urban shamans taking peyote journeys in New York apartments. )
It’s been fun to create this blogpost, googling “where are they now?” and realizing that everything that was brought forward at that rather awkward and somewhat forced gathering in central Alberta is still being nurtured and evolved – not in the same way as it had been done then, but with deeper roots, greater understanding perhaps, and more balance. I remember these people, and those times of sincere exploration with gratitude.

And I recall that year or so before, in Edmonton, there was a festival of consciousness (or was it of awareness?) that featured a Zen teacher from Shasta Abbey and the new age teacher Patricia Sun, who intoned amazing sounds that seemed to transform everyone’s molecules into light. The event closed with a Universal Worship ceremony with representatives from various world religions all sharing the same altar. Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, Islam, and an acknowledgement of all those who hold the light of truth but weren’t mentioned.

(Surprise: Link here to see a random post from my blog.)

Collage911

Continuing my infatuation with slideshare, here’s another group of collages. This series was begun in late August of 2001, completed just before 9/11, so it has a certain metaphysical significance for me.

If you are viewing this from the feed, and can’t see the slides, please go here.

follow carolsill at http://twitter.com

(Surprise: Link here to see a random post from my blog.)

James K-M’s Recent Painting

James K-M’s new paintings are all posted on his wordpress site, along with his digital paintings and his earlier abstract work. These most recent paintings are acrylic and stain on plywood. Here’s a photo I took of James a few days ago, with a new painting beside him just after it was completed.

(Link here for a random post from my blog.)

Solstice Photo

Here's a photo my brother Mike took at Vicki's place on Vancouver Island. Seemed appropriate for today. (click on image to enlarge)

Declaration of War

Declaration of War, originally uploaded by Carol Sill.

This hot blood red image nearly completed the series. I had hesitated to commit to it, and did the others in the series. Then 9/11 happened, and I knew then that the imagery had been true. I finalized this image of war. Mars influences the blood-covered demonic celebrant as he emerges screaming from the cannon. Warlike peoples march on the earth carrying kings as the hand fate has dealt is enacted. Red tentacles enter the scene and a beam from the cosmos glows like an evil eye, while the red volcano erupts and lava flows.

Mysterious Stranger

Mysterious Stranger, originally uploaded by Carol Sill.

One of these things is not like the others. On the horizon, he sends his energy ball to glide along the path, while planetary storms brew behind. On the right, human remains lie folded in an ancient grave. Standing with him are the glittering saints. The stranger stands as one of them, but has he come from somewhere beyond, and far more primitive?

Goose Girl in the Stars

Goose Girl in the Stars, originally uploaded by Carol Sill.

Far from earth, a part of the great mother archetype looks after things. This young girl, tending geese with her starwand, is known for her “healing, performing miracles and teaching” while the magnetism of the earth remains in her view.