The spiral formed by the Bishop Nickolas’s crosier is reflected diagonally as the very pronounced tongue of the homunculus he holds.  Two forces are inferred: The pull of external taboo and the pull of personal appetites.    Krampus holds his birch-switches in such a way that they are a continuation of the motion of the tongue. It is as if the Devil (Atu 15) from the Tarot, and the Hierophant (Atu 5) were conjoined in a portrait of the conditioning of humanity’s internal motivations. 

     What did this mysterious bishop, Nickolas have to repress in order to become recognized as a Saint?  His  shadow sprang forth as Krampus.  Together they rule the darkness of winter.

     I feel deeply honored to have been invited to share my most developed work yet,   the PanGenitor shrine at Beloved Festival this year.  I aspired to express things usually seen with the eyes closed in a form that was visible to other beings. Not just any other beings, but those who really appreciate such an offering, each in their own way. The process of creating the shrine was a synchronicity-enhanced delight as was the response to its presence.

     The fabrics were created over a span of time, some during the spring, some shortly before the festival itself.  I was assisted in putting them together as an installation by Jake Theisen, a friend with whom I had not had a chance to talk at length for quite some time.  This made the construction phase a relatively effortless joy, with two minds worth of ideas as to how to make it happen. 

     Once the moss and fern-bedecked enclosure of fabrics suspended from a hexagon of posts was complete, we felt that the thing that it was meant to contain was yet to arrive.  We wanted an altar-piece of  antlers, bones and skulls.  I knew that Treigh Love would have these because she is awesome that way.  I called her Wednesday night to see if she could bring something like that and she did not get the call because she was at that moment working on putting together the perfect answer.  She arrived the next day with a sculpture/artifact composed of three sets of antlers and various bones forming a prehistoric demi-god type icon.  It looked exactly as if created specifically for the PanGenitor Shrine even thought Treigh had never seen it.  Emergent blessing of spontaneous synergy.

     Once people arrived, i delighted in seeing their interactions with the space.   Although I gave multiple concept-tours of the shrine, i mostly tried to stay out of the way of each person having their own experience of it.  A wide range of moments thus ensued.  Some sat alone inside while others lead energy practices or had focused personal exchanges. 

      My own solitary time there involved dancing in circles while staring into the designs of the fabrics, listening to the thought streams thus released in my skull. 

I wrote some of these down with the intention of leaving them as little scroll-notes around the shrine to stimulate people’s contemplation of the images.  However, i eventually decided that I did not want to put words on a sanctuary that was created to be open to the forces that it represents…sunlight, plant-life, animal life, the breath of the planet.  I shared the ideas when guiding people on mind-tours of it, upon request.

     The most striking story that I  have heard thus far came from a lady who had grown up on the land that hosted the event.  As a girl, she had been standing of the very spot where the shrine placed and when from the forest there came bounding an elk that stood there magnificently for a moment and then wondered away, leaving her awestruck.  When this lady saw the  antlered constellation erected at the very spot, she was strongly moved to tell the story to Elliot and it was then told to  me.  What a confirmation of the sense of something inspiring these cooperative creations that is beyond any individual ego.

     If you spent some time with the PanGenitor Shrine and would like to share your experience with it, feel encouraged to comment.  Thank You All.

The Pangenitor Shrine:

     As Summer Solstice approaches, I am preparing the fabrics that will compose the Pangenitor Shrine at Beloved Festival this year.  This is the largest installation that I have yet created.  It is such a blessing and honor to be able to share the materialization of this vision with so many of the beings who are open enough to really experience it.  

     The name “Pangenitor” means “All-Creative Source” and the Shrine will be an animistic celebration of the Vital Force as it is revealed through all living beings.  The fabrics themselves will be dark green and burgundy, representing the body of the Earth and the Flora and Fauna thereof.  These  will be printed with configurations of glyphs in solar gold and lunar silver.  They will be shaped into flowing tendrils, petals and wings to form a sanctuary within the Grove of Pan.

     The Iconography with which they are printed was inspired by the energetic currents within the  body.  The ancient sentience of the Animal Soul is perpetually renewed as it flows through our veins and nerves.  Through high motion or deep stillness we may contact and perceive this essence from which we are woven.  Sacred dances, Asanas and Qi Gong forms are often named after animals for more than one reason.  The Wisdom of the Body as it reveals and heals itself is often inspired by our fellow fauna.  As the Great Serpent of our  DNA has passed through the millennia, it becomes every species of creature  along the way.  The memories of all of these lives infuse the substance from which new beings evolve.  The purpose of this Shrine is to open a circle wherein the full Vitality of the human body is invoked while the divinity of the world beyond the anthrocentric human storyline is honored and affirmed.

     The three images whose combinations form the patterns of the banners each represent an aspect of the inner self and an energy-phase of the outer world.  They are emblems of the Solar Force, the Earthly Flora and the Lunar Fauna.  The interconnection and relationships between these forces forms the Passion-Play of this cosmology.

     The image here referred to as the Solar Force was originally called the “All Father”.  It appears as a Face evocative of a Leonine Sun God, of the Green Man, and of the Horned One.  These are  three animistic expressions of the forces that propel the cycles of nature.  They are recurring dream images that have found their way into many cultures, inherited from eras before the domestication of man.  The energy whereby we all live originates in the burning body of Sol.  

       The rays of this vital light radiate to our  planet  where they are absorbed by plants and catalyze photosynthesis.  By the organic devotion of the Earthly Flora, the rays of the sun are translated into flesh.  The emblem representing this is  a six-petaled blossom.  Chlorophyl-blooded beings are the earthly recipients of the solar benediction and the priestly intermediaries between the  animal realm and the God-Flame.

     The energy of the sun is absorbed by the plants and then  embodied in the animals who feed upon them.  The Lunar Stag is the glyph of the kingdom of all those  creatures that walk, crawl, fly, swim, slither, gallop and hop.  The Force that  animates them began in the Sun, then was passed to them through the Green Queendom.  In the Kingdom of Fauna, this Force moves in new ways, senses through many different organs.  It reveals consciousness to itself through the unique qualities of each body like the moon reflecting the light of its closest star but in its own hue.  

     The Perpetual  Sacrament is the pulse  of life itself.  The luminous blood of the sun is shed passionately into the void.  On this planet, it is  received and transmuted into the basis of a web of sacrificial giving of creature to creature fueling birth life  and death.  The cycles of the Earth, Sun and Moon are rhythms within the body of the Living Cosmos in which we are participants.  To remember that  we are, in each moment, standing on Holy Ground in the presence of the All-Creative Force is to transform the mundane into the sacred.  The attitude with which we approach the world determines which world we enter.  This shrine is devoted to the adoration of That which is within each of us, as us, and yet which reaches beyond the anthrocentric autobiography of most human scripture.  The Forces here celebrated are common to us all but are most active in those who appreciate incarnation on this planet to be the true initiation into the  Divine Mystery.

  These energies, when we are aware of them, flow with information and vitality.  They are normally buried under layers of tension, thought and obstruction.  Through rites of high motion and deep stillness, whether these occur while dancing, standing, sitting or conjoining, we open ourselves so that we may truly imbibe the currents that animate us.  The presence of these banners it intended to empower all sacred arts of motion and stillness, all embodied practices.  May they invite you into communion with the Mystery of which you are the vehicle.