FIRE - Actualizing

As night falls on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, the glowing embers from a huge bonfire send sparks spiraling skyward from the center of the arena. Nearby, in the ceremonial Big Tipi, the Sunrise Girl is being instructed by her sponsor and the medicine men. The singer & the drummers line up at one end of the circle and, coming from all four directions, the Crown Dancers enter, circling the bonfire while the younger clowns entertain the audience. Women from the tribe, in their decorative shawls, join in a slow-moving dance around the circle. Later, the Sunrise Girl enters in the company of her sponsor & attendants, joining in the slow vertical motion of the Sunrise Ceremony dance. In a rhythm as slow and pulsing as the drum beats, the women move in unison around the flickering fire light. The energy of the moment seems to transport Sunrise Girl and her white ceremonial blanket into the glowing skies, to merge her forever with the golden power of Changing Woman and a long bountiful life…
Inspiration: "Secret Native American Pathways" Thomas E. Mails.
Musical Inspiration: Reverence & Spirit Walk (David & Steve Gordon, Drum Medicine)

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Truly “seeing” the inner flame of our being usually involves the peeling away of many layers to reveal the true vision deep within. Though we rest – lotus-style – upon our worldly home, an eternal stream of consciousness flows steadily through each day if we are aware enough to take time to wade into the waters. “Satori” or “Baptism” – sudden or learned enlightenment – immerses us into this eternal river which is available to all simply for the asking. Outer dark crimson petals turn to bright orange, pale into golden light and then glow a luminescent blue teardrop.
Musical Inspiration: "Om Namah Shivaya" Robert Gass On Wings of Song

Withdrawing deeply into these sacred flames, we may dialogue with our higher power and discover answers that we have been futilely seeking in the outer world. In my personal vision, Christ-consciousness and Buddha-nature, sitting in discourse and harmony, are found within this holy blue flame.
Original Painting property of Orgyen Chöling Tibetan Buddhist Center, Tularosa, NM
Inspiration: Orgyen Choling Center & Ernest Holmes “Science of Mind” Global Heart

Most of us have experienced “crashing & burning” at least once in our lives and, I suspect, we find it as painful as the self-immolation of the mythical Phoenix Bird. This depiction of a slightly singed Phoenix Bird emerging from underground ashes into the light represents my own 10-yr. journey back from cancer & treatments, with the help of family, friends & physicians, especially Dr. Gladys McGarey, Scottsdale Arizona, where the original painting may be found. In researching the different Phoenix legends, many birds emerged rather fierce-looking, deliberately facing either East or West. Desiring a gentler approach to my new life, my feathered wings are encircling my illness as I face forward. When we return to life as a renewed creation, we’re hopefully looking straight ahead…embracing wholeheartedly all that is to come!
Musical Inspiration: “In the Arms of the Angels” (Sarah McLaughlin) & “Wind Beneath My Wings” (Bette Midler)

Returning from a Feb. 14, 2007 Earth Healing Ceremony at Unity Church of El Paso, my friend Lu & I witness an unusual sight along the desolate stretch of Route 54 between El Paso & Alamogordo. Rising from the sparse scrub desert, a rainbow pillar of light stands illuminated in a steady glow against the hazy blue horizon. Low-lying voluminous dusty red-orange tinted clouds billow above this beacon and stretch ahead of us.

We study it intently for miles, seeking to determine if it is part of a "rainbow" or perhaps caused by a gas or oil flare. The rainbow pillar stays constant along the right side of the highway ahead of us, well into New Mexico, and others, as well as ourselves, stop to photograph it. Just when it seems that the "source" will be revealed over the horizon, the pillar disappears as quickly as it materialized. Lu & I are left with the feeling that Mother Earth has given us a privileged and heart-felt pulsing "Gaia Thank You" for the healing "oms" generated on Her behalf at the Unity Service…
Musical Inspiration: "Thunder Across the Plains" (AIRO/Brule, TRIBAL RHYTHM) & "Keepers of the Earth" (Chuck Pyle, ENDLESS SKY)

The sunlight, colors & textures of Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ, form the basis of this painting, inspired by images of an under-ground river of molten lava connecting the divine feminine & the sacred masculine in an eternal embrace. The beam of light (yin) melds with the earthen rocks (yang) as the warm golds & reds from the canyon flow downward into Earth’s liquid core in loving harmony.

This painting honors the influence of earth, wind, fire, and water on our human emotions and lives; for only the molten liquid core of the planet could begin to match the molten inner core of deep human love...
Musical inspiration: “Keepin’ Time by the River” (Chuck Pyle)