FALL SERIES, 2011
HERE WE ARE TYING UP A FEW LOOSE ENDS FROM THIS
FALL '11 BLOG SERIES
AND BY ITS CHARACTER, THE LONGER
NEPSIS FOUNDATION AND ORACLE OF XIBALBA
[Art #s in brackets are from the UCB site above.]
_____________________
FINISHING UP
First, these 9 paintings are earlier pieces unfinished until I moved to Chama Canyon, New Mexico, 2008- had time and space for them finally.
Second, a reminder: "Re-member, reader/viewer, remember the sensations you have viewing the images, reading the poems, and the more popular format of adventure/fantasy fiction this Fall Series blog, as well as the non-fiction narratives of the NEPSIS FOUNDATION. Then let your unconscious re-member it- Re-compose image, poem, history to tell its real story, to have its real effect on you! These elements are chosen for larger spiritual effect. But you are responsible for the quality of your composition"
Third,
LOOSE ENDS BELOW: 7 ITEMS (Nine Paintings)
New Mexico- Acrylic on Canvas (1989) 2009
Tying loose ends from DEADLY TRANSLATIONS, Mother Mary, The Beast, The Nepsis Foundation:
1. The timeless ground of our moment by moment existence is a familiar starting point in religious consideration-- but an experience of the 'other' reality is usually dismissed or forgotten immediately- certainly immediately translated into one's own religious vocabulary. (St. Bernadette is a perfect example...) The experience is familiar but also a surprise, always refreshing and subtle, so new that often it doesn't register- then later, one remembers!
159. CHAMA CANYON II
New Mexico, Acrylic on Canvas (1987) 2009
2. Evil is only understood by God. So leave it there. Everything else is in process and subject to redemption and enlightenment.
160. Oil on Canvas 36" x 30" (1974) 2009
3. A strange series of destructions: Primarily this phenomena is associated with the YEMEN EXPERIMENT of the Nepsis Foundation- in particular The "Montana Ritual" during which the artist's father and bishop died from catastrophic heart attacks coincident with that rain ritual. There were also many other coincidental disasters. The following are also associated with these potent years of casting and conjuring:
a. Father's house (family built over 20 years)-- one wall was 9' thick- was scraped from the face of the earth. Quite a surprise for us.
b. Artist studio in Venice, Ca., similarly scraped from the earth.
c. Oft-used hotel in Mazatlan gutted.
d. Circle K across the street from artist's Huchuca apartment burst into flames during a casting... See Paintings [139-145]
161. GOOD FRIDAY ‘11 <6’’ Oil On Board '86-‘11
161. GOOD FRIDAY ‘11 Detail-
Blessed Mother drew herself into the face of the crucified Christ.
4. Demonic activity these days is mostly described in terms of psychological states from neurosis to self-generated poltergeist phenomenon. And germ theory...
___________
These following three paintings were once one. See #[94] UCB Catalog. But in a moment of shamanistic angst and creativity, spring 2011, one became three. Now two, since one of the smaller ones was mysteriously lost. Oil on canvas, originally 12' x 6', 1996-1999.
5. A NEW INNOCENCE: The 'actionable' intention of the NEPSIS project is, most universally, to revive organs of the psyche until once again we might engage a fuller spectrum of the human capacity for visionary consciousness atrophied in contemporary mindset.
6. Visionary consciousness is postulated here as the source of both imaging making and ideas. See especially Buddhist 'Clear Light Realization', Christian 'Lamb Whose Light Casts No Shadow', Shamanic Flash of Brillant Light, etc.
7. One must observe the 'self' (Nepsis) while (until) one's common humanity is revealed and the doors of Heaven within open fully.
_______________________
APPENDIX
2011 Poems- Ground for Fall Series, this collection is also here to reinforce the comparison of ideas and images to better determine the qualities of 'the real' and 'really real.'
NOTES ON CREATION
Stephen Frost
Chama Canyon, New Mexico, 01.’11
1. Be
L
i
v
e
i n g
2. Am, spark, spel
Grandmother Spider spoke to Changing Woman- Chama come to tell. Holy Mary- Mother of God- arrived and spoke the spell
they conceived.
Thus it was, great plains touching,
3. A Great Bang
4. A beautiful woman silent sang
radiant glory- Immaculate
light, comfort and sweet consolations.
5. Clear Light casts no shadow.
6. Raised a mountain
7. Grew the Tree
8. Scrabbled in the dirt and gravel
9. Ate the fennel growing along European highways--fasted, traveled, prayed.
10. Drew the fountain forth from Mountains of Fire--Pyrenees-- Sum of healing and salvation or from Himalayan caves
11. Pray for us, now and the hour come
12. Poof! Wake from the dream softly, respectfully
13. Who can tell 'all that is and all that seems'
what to do?
Stephen Frost
Chama Canyon, New Mexico, 01.’11
___________________________________
NOTES:
1. To Be= More than existence, rather, all that is. Live=life + ing = Being in process, Being + Consciousness, the Divine Spark. Belief is necessary for the "integration of knowledge." I.e., union of this material world and the Divine world- that the two belong together.
2. Am (Who Am). Spark in the sense of the Divine Sparks refers to the Hasidic theory of Divine Sparks and Person/Creation. Spel = Word of Intention.
Three female divinities from Pueblo, Navajo and Bo-Po (Tibetan) world views. Holy Mary joins the group, chosen, holy and thus divine- 'of the divine' if you prefer. Who can speak of such Mysteries with finality but that it indicates a union of mundane and sacred states. Time is of course brought to its fullness and disappears. So, who or what comes first or highest is moot. Though it is interesting to contemplate that the word "God" is a mere symbol for this same Mystery. One might playfully suggest that Divinity itself derives from the Feminine as in the THEOTOKOS, Mother of God. Though it’s safer, and maybe truer to say that all things proceed from and return to Divine Mystery.
February, 2006. After an unplanned drive from the Pacific Ocean to NE Arizona, I find myself, as I approach Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, to be in tears of mourning for the deaths of my mother and brother the previous fall. I’d had a worrisome dream Christmas morning about my mother in the afterlife. I’d made little offerings at this place in the past because Grandmother Spider, a creator deity, is reputed to live there. I’m a Roman Catholic Priest, but I’m still reverent of the old insights and symbols ad well. Many visits in the past wherein nothing happened… This time Grandmother Spider took over my consciousness, and indicated I should look up the right hand canyon (Canyon de Chelly splits just there at Spider Rock). I did so. And there, benevolent Changing Woman, a Navajo deity, appeared standing behind my mother. My mother was protected (saved) and holding a box with golden light inside. She was well. See below for Bernadette.
3. The grandeur and expanse of Spirit (and these Ladies) is referenced here by a "plains" image and jumps to the theory of "Branes" touching and thus evoking the moment of creation, the Great Bang in Astrophysics.
There is a ‘singularity’ about all real religious experience due to the ultimate nature of the experience.
4. Holy Bernadette 'scrabbled' in the dirt and chewed weeds before she dug out the Sacred Spring which became the Lourdes phenomenon. Clearly this is a shamanistic trance and ecstatic frenzy. As the first vision was of the feminine divine--a Beautiful Woman.” For some, the Great Goddess. Became a Roman Catholic vision afterwards. Some will be scandalized. What's the problem, except when the human heart needs to feel superior or unique or worse to despise others and vilify that which is not one's own. The Holy cannot be owned. Every person is unique. And the Immaculate Conception is also a beautiful doctrine. Is not a world-hating denial. Is affirmation of the union of Matter and Spirit, i.e., salvation. However, a distinction can be made between archetypes and supposedly historical humans… though only in a temporal vale.
5. The answer to everything: Or, the "Six Yogas of Naropa's" Clear Light Realization might be considered along side Christian Light That Casts No Shadow-i.e. the Light of the Lamb- the ineffable light of Holiness/Grace/Divine Energy. Visionary Consciousness, root of images and ideas.
6. The Holy Mountain. See Nepsis Foundation painting #14. +Egyptian Creation story in which God (Ra in this case) raises a mound (later results in Pyramids of Giza)” up out of the pre-creation morass- (Waters in Genesis);. Other sacred mountains: Sumeru, Kailash, Zion, Sinai...
7. Tree of Life. Central axis. Axis Pole around which reality turns. One's perception is always the center of the perceived universe. Many such references in history of religions. Even the most esoteric martial arts such as Pau Qua contain whispers of such a memory...
8./9. Bernadette again. The point being a universal excitement about the holy, the ineffable atemporal in it's ecstatic embrace. As well, once on a pilgrimage from California to a monastery in Greece, during which fasting was an important element, I was so hungry that I ate anise stalks growing along the road on which I was hitch-hiking. References ‘method’ in the Spiritual life- practice that evokes the spiritual encounter.
10. Pyrenees-- radiating divine energies, emoting sacred springs. Fire and water- such elements here refer the Divine. Home of my teacher, Raimundo Panikkar. ... In Sarnath, India I was once cured of a terrible migraine by smoke from a burning bit of holy cloth from clothes a Buddhist hermit who lived in a cave in the Himalayas...
11. Even in those years of deepest exile, (OKC), the concluding lines of the Hail Mary, rose spontaneously to my lips as I fell asleep each night, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the moment of our deaths" and encouraged me in isolation. Here 'hour come' seems a broader reference than 'death' and hints at a moments of truth in addition to death.
12. Indicates shifting states on consciousness. Secular consciousness, confined as it is, shifts uncomfortably in its chair in the face of prayer and many religious traditions. Waking from the state(s) of consciousness necessary to understand or experience the vast spectrums of meaning, i.e Spiritual traditions, in our past- waking to the day to day banality of consumer societies, I use the word 'poof.' This is to indicate the disappearance of these states, but also to suggest an inadequate homage to certain kinds of homo-erotic personalities that have been vehicles of the sacred in the past instead of the 'abominations' mentioned in the Old Testament. Poofters are necessary...
13. From the other end of my investigation, see SKYLIGHTS, 7 Poems, near the beginning of my religious query in 1975- '77, 7th poem:
VII.
Oh, Pluck the string,
Climate of my dreams,
sound your timbale,
that I may sing
of Elevations and river dreams
of all that is and all, all that seems.
Steve Frost
Venice Beach, CA. 1977
Night Song
in this late night moment I sang a song.
in this moment I woke my neighbor
in the past we've had too many differences
in this moment I woke my neighbor
and he told me his life...
Steve Frost
02.2011
Chama Canyon, CID, NM
The Imperium of the Empirical
When, occasionally,
we slip out of the realm entirely of physics,
It’s the same world,
But in a flash-
Time, bent or not, transformed in eternity
freed from any lash of lines or plasma
Quadrants of despair or struggle
lines
become
limpid
long hair in wind
or water- disappear.
Any impirium of views gives way
bows in its own vestments
and is transformed where it stands,
bowed
proud or indifferent,
where still kindness or mercy remain.
Steve Frost 02.2011
Who Ran WithThe Gods
When first 'we ran with the Gods'
and the powers of nature were the only real consideration...
indeed, there were the first inklings of technology
sticks and stones
Word was an inspiration expressed in grunts and groans
-and gestures... the nature of ritual
Image is still confined by the confines of the skull
Then,
Caves are adorned as Cathedrals.
Priests and technicians suck the brains of Pharaohs
The sacred Mountain and Tree have risen in awareness
The Center turns
'blades' protect ideas
images are challenged
Money!
Techno-all
bow down
Science, and Religion quavers
(savor the favor of Bosses and CEOs)
and Me
Consider that...
(Who's me?)
03.15.'11
3:45 A.M.
Por Raimon Panikkar: Sobre la Eglesia Moderna
I.
There’s a black dark form in my garden's night
a moonless sight
its the difference between universal rules to rule an empire
and actual lights...
there's a black dark form, darker than the shadows in my garden
terrible loss, little gain
There a black dark shadow in my garden's night,
Hell,
it's only a free range, wilderness cow,
Damn cow, its eating the tulips!
Steve Frost 03.19.11
…
II.
There’s a black dark form in my garden's night
a moonless sight
it’s the difference between universal rules to rule an empire
factory educations
and actual lights...
there's a black dark form, darker than the shadows in my garden
terrible loss, little gain, a total sack?
There a black dark shadow in my garden's night,
Hell,
it's a free range cow- black, reddish tips
What to do now.
Damn cow,
owning my green patch like that, stomping the verge
plans, hopes, prized and long nurtured tulips!
Steve Frost 03.21.’11
III.
There’s a dark form in my garden’s light
...the black cow, on a moonless night, defending its hungry black calf.
Steve Frost 03.23.’11
IV. And then there were three,
3 black cows now,
threaten our garden,
Saw them as I stepped out the door this morning
And went chasing after them in my T-shirt and boxers.
They topped our rise, looked-
then turned and ran
at the sight!
Its daylight now and those night shadows have given way, again-
The dangerous grandeur of our surrounding cliffs warmed
in the game of radiant beauty and the dark mysteries of Intention.
It’s just somebody's else's stray cattle.
but in the morning's light, I've named them:
Quiet Peace, Kindness and Tranquility! Tradition is the bull waiting down the canyon…
The tulips however still might quiver
as the herd creeps back in,
as it always does.
Steve Frost
03.31.'11
Bambi and the Golden Eagle
I watched a golden eagle gliding across
the confluence of the Gallina and Chama rivers this morning
easy command of his medium
I was commanding a bowl of rice and stew
As I thought of his breakfast
rodents and such, fish...
Then remembered that dark cartoon
"Bambi Meets Godzilla," I believe
Its always like that
peaceful pursuit of riparian entertainments
beavers and voles
Popes and Poles
butterflies and Bambi
then a predator's command!
Everything changes in blood, and butterflies-
Clueless creatures who always know when to head for Mexico
and when to procreate.
But I've read of states in which such need might never arise:
Beatific states, bliss
outside endless lines of time
branes and temporal tines of mysterious origin.
I've read of Eucharistic resolutions of all there is
and that 'All will be well,'
I heard of such, then 'I' disappeared.
Steve Frost
Chama Canyon, New Mexico
04.02.’11
Let's Canonize a Newly Dead Pope
Sports figures large
still.
Beauty runs round
round the rosie
surfer's pose
nearly nude on warm beaches universal media
“Dying Gaul[s]”
living statues
Raven's food, one and all- Bodies arching and stretching atop
translucent waves
Tsunamis of the numb and the brave
(Starless night, dark, mare and foal)
Tribal wits
Like Rock and Roll
and monied souls,
lost.
Pure Monastic West, Victorians et al—even now,
still watering fence posts.
Thin, fat
Let’s run to Rome at the drop of a hat—
Red, or otherwise
let's canonize
-after some fine Pasta Carbonnara-
Big business.
Our lovely Lotus Lord and the Rose of Sharon gone these two thousand, 2500 years.
It's as if they had never, they'd never come or been...
Rhymes with Sin.
Thus we call the wind
Whirling, come the storm.
Lord of Storms,
Bring the spin that will save the world.
cleanse the planet-
and give us clean hearts...
4.28.’11
Apnea and Pearls Beyond Price
Riding,
Sliding,
Gliding,
Suck
ing
air
Gasping
volumes
air
at last
a perfect pearl
Steve Frost
05.01.’11
Out in the Country North of L.A., 1949
We started in a 15' trailer, out in the country north of L.A., 1949-
under a giant wild cherry tree
with Jimson Weed threatening fierce geisha beauty through earthbound gourd vines spread on the hot
sand
but I learned my first five years bare foot in the gravel and stickers, wild fragrance summer and spring-
what not to step on.... What to avoid- what to jump down the hill. I knew not to fall into the yuccas- just a knack I guess. To avoid Rattlesnakes and Black Widows like the Holy Terrors they are… couldn’t.
There were 5 of us. My older brothers slept outside in an Army Surplus bunk bed.
It doubled as a playpen for me by enclosing the bottom bunk in chicken wire.
Coyotes couldn't drag me off, like they did the ‘free range’ chickens and turkeys.
There was a redwood water tank about 5 feet tall and ten feet in diameter filled to black, green and shards of sky.
It smelled of wet verdant ecology in that brittle, spare, sage, sand and chaparral place, where we almost ‘made it’... Nothing grew in the refreshment of that upright pond, ‘cause of the tannins in the redwood- I know now. Ecologies are so complicated!
Dad played ball- and chain for our sake. Mother wore those full summer dresses,
and was too beautiful.
Her heart almost like that place, and she walked her own way..
Sunsets pure and clean before smog, an heroic stage for our small dramas...
I was with her when she died 50 years later in a similar place. The others all gone before-
Now that I’ve sucked in the wind that whipped our iris garden down
year after year
Steve Frost
05.10.11
Cottonwoods do sacred things,
this afternoon they glimmer in the late light
they have branches that shake and shimmer in the wind
with that they inspire-
(What do you do? Clever know-it-all that you are!)
They whisper, sometimes gossip, leaves clattering, but mostly glory in having roots that found water... leaves/sun
Most play it safe and stick to riverbeds,
But sometimes one will be found that struck out on its own- a fluff bobbing in that breeze
roots where it’s determined it will grow alone
Spreading
it grows thick and vast around
marked with rings.
But still its glory glimmers and shimmers in light and wind
alone of its kind
but in fine
company
otherwise
Steve Frost
Albuquerque, NM, 05.19.’11
Sweet Veils
Ahhh, the sweet veil of forgetfulness,
velum dulce obliviositas.
Ah, the sweet tea of repose,
NO, wait,
AaaHA!
T's War Memorial
5 years and butterball cute.
Kinder-garden- my favorite year,
Until teacher told me I'd play a 'Brownie,' a kind of fairy, in the Christmas play.
I refused.
...a wilderness of unacknowledged reactions. ...a fog of silent reactions.
Confrontation-Non-confrontation?
Why did I refuse? Certainly not over issues of sexual identityat that age. Too young for sexuality.
But, identity? That’s everything...
I knew what my older brothers and father might say-- don't know, to this day,
what they might have thought.
But I knew it could never be.
I still enjoy our winter festival of lights. But I gave in. I was 5. Teacher was big. Brothers were big. Father was big. Big, opposing powers ...
I gave in, but was transferred to a different Kinder-garden class after the Christmas break.
Did I resist too long?
Too strong—for a 5 year old
Wrong?
Was that a beginning of anything? Another wonder for the season...
But it was evident early-on that there is a free issue.
An issue of enormous clout. Universally-
Available for desires bigger than the flesh.
Steve Frost
Palm Springs, California- 10.25.2011
EMPTINESS, 11/’11
For Alan Mootnick,
To the Bosom of Abraham November 4, 2011
Hard to impossible-
Emptiness,
-to imagine
Can’t really.
Even deep empty space, apparently,
hides ‘dark energy’
Hardly empty.
Even when we are feeling empty
It means we are full of what we don’t want.
Feelings, images, ideas, sensations
Who is empty.
We get metaphor and paradox:
The Great Fecund Void
I can paint an abundance of ‘nothing’
Then frame it with preferences, culture and references
Glass it over with power and politics
Psychology,
Devotion, ...ologies of every stripe
Then,
Wrap it and
Send it with the
Features of
God...
Beautiful Things, but
Silence is best
Snow flakes falling on snow
No big wind
No horizon
A flock of garnering quail explode-
Wings awhirrrrr,
From wet ground.
Fr. Steve Frost, 2011
Chama Canyon, New Mexico
