Some inspirations for the upcoming "Language of the Birds"

After running late with February's image in the Magical Calendar project, it's been hard to catch up.  As I work to finish the image, I'd like to share some of the things that have been inspiring me.

A brief primer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds



"The “language of birds” has many names; some call it the “Language of the Gods”, others the “Green language”. Michael Sells has referred to this “sacred language” as the “language of unsaying”, whereby the core of what needs to be said, is actually not said, though everyone understands what is being said.
The “language of birds” is therefore the mystical language, by default an unpopular subject amongst scholars, specifically because of the apparent lack of “clarity”: a clear and distinct sense. The sense is inferred."

"The origin of the “bird language” may go back to primitive societies. When shamans enter a trance, they attempt to speak the language of nature; they are said to speak “the language of birds”. Historians of religion have documented this phenomenon around the entire world and depictions of shamans with wings or as a bird are common. "
http://www.philipcoppens.com/birdlanguage.html


Essentially, there is this idea in all different mythologies, cultures and magical traditions that there is a magical / secret language of birds through which knowledge can be passed.  Sometimes the Language of the Birds is literally considered a coded language.  I looked at the representation of birds and bird-headed figures in relation to the passing of knowledge and the evolution of spirit.





There is a connection between serpent knowledge and language of the birds in Amazonian "shaman" culture, as evidenced in
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
Jeremy Narby

Dark Light Consciousness: Melanin, Serpent Power, and the Luminous Matrix of Reality

Edward Bruce Bynum

Bird gods / goddesses and symbolism are of course huge in ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) beliefs. 



Thoth the scribe was an ibis.  A scribe = magician. 


If most people are not literate and you need a written spell or talisman, you consult a scribe.  Thoth invented language, and Thoth invented Alchemy.  The Greeks decide that Thoth is their own Hermes, who becomes the godfather of Alchemy.

There are female aspects of this as well, namely Ma'at, goddess of order, who basically keeps the universe from falling apart.  She is represented as an ostrich feather.



From an Egyptian tomb now in Vienna:





The Kemetic notions of Ba, Ka and Akh

Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory) on Odin's shoulders.



Chimera:

Bird / Serpent connection:
ABRAXAS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraxas

SIRENS
Compelling, powerful, terrifying women.  Women monsters.  This ties in, I suppose, with some of the things I've been dealing with in Earth Magic.
"In art, Sirens appeared first as birds with the heads of women, later as women, sometimes winged, with bird legs. Sirens were placed as guards on tombs of the sixth century BCE. Greek Sirens may have evolved from Egypt. In Egyptian religion, the ba is a portion of the soul which is generally represented as a bird with a human head." http://www.grisel.net/athens_museum.htm

These ladies are all over Vienna:


First published image of witches in flight.  "De Lamiis et Phitonicis Mulieribus."
Ulrich Molitor (1489)


Bird's Head Haggadah - http://jhom.com/topics/birds/haggadah.htm



Max Ernst:  Robing of the Bride

BABALON information and inspiration

If it isn't obvious, I'm running a couple of days behind in releasing BABALON, the February image for the Magical Calendar project.  The main reason for this is that I feel it is an image with a great deal of history, and I've been fussing over a multitude of tests to ensure that I feel I've conveyed this in the finished image.

Detail images of two tests:

This are both fairly quick and loose, mainly acrylic paint applied over photo collage. 

I will be releasing more information in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, here are some of my references and inspiration for this image.

Babylon, as described in the Book of Revelation
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=NIV

Which in turn Aleister Crowley adapted as BABALON
http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Babalon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon

"Lust" card from Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck, as illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris

Which in turn Jack Parsons further adapted, invoking her as a goddess in his Babalon Working
http://hermetic.com/wisdom/lib49.html
http://feralhouse.com/sex-and-rockets/


Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, starring (Marjorie) Cameron Parsons, Jack Parson's widow, as Babalon

 Similar imagery was used in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis:

William Blake

It's been said that Jack Parsons's Babalon Working symbolically opened the floodgates for modern witchcraft.  Whether you agree with this or not, the figure of Babalon as a powerful goddess certainly brings to mind certain images of witches and witchcraft throughout the ages.  I couldn't help but draw parallels between images of Babalon riding the Great Beast to some of my favorite images of witches riding to the sabbath.  

One of my favorites, Falero's Departure of the Witches:

 

Effective immediately, all Magical Calendar prints will sell for the price of $125 (versus the previous price of $200).

While $200 is a wonderful price for such a limited edition museum quality print, I wanted to consider the length of the project as a whole.  After discussing the matter with several collectors of my work, I realized that many might be reluctant to enter in to such a long-term project while knowing so little about it.

This is a project that I believe in very much, and want other to have an opportunity to follow this journey. 

There is still an opportunity to purchase the Lilith print for January at this new price.

http://rikgarrett.com/store/shop/january-lilith/

A more revealing view of LILITH

The full image now available as a limited edition print:  http://rikgarrett.com/store/shop/january-lilith/

LILITH prints now available for order!

First test prints coming out of the printer.

I'm happy to announce that the first print in my Magical Calendar series is now available for purchase!

http://www.rikgarrett.com/store


This single print printed as an archival pigment print on a heavy weight (310 gm) museum quality 100% cotton rag paper with no optical brighteners (for archival purposes), signed and numbered in a limited edition of only 13.  Numbered prints will be sold in order.

In order to assist those who wish to collect the entire year’s worth of prints, those who purchase any print will have early access to purchase others throughout the year.  For example, if you purchase the January print, you will have the ability to purchase the February print one day before the general public.

As an additional bonus, anyone collecting the entire year’s calendar will also receive for free an additional 13th print not available for purchase otherwise.

Orders in the the United States will be shipped flat, orders outside of the United States will be shipped in mailing tubes in order to easy the burden of International shipping.  If you would prefer your print to be shipped flat, please contact me to calculate additional shipping rates.

Please note:  this sale is for the January image only.  As this is a year-long project, there is no way to purchase the entire calendar at once.

Website update

Please visit my website to see what's new.

http://www.rikgarrett.com

LILITH preview

A detail of the first image from the Magical Calendar project.  The full image will be revealed first to those who purchase the print, available this coming Friday.

The image is a silver print, hand colored and painted.  Other details for the calendar are rendered in india ink and paint.

To be notified as soon as this print, limited to an edition of only 13, is available, please email rikgarrett@gmail.com with the subject "magical calendar."

The inspiration for this image comes from a long history of portraying the figure of Lilith as a serpent figure, bearing knowledge. 

Possibly the most famous representation of this is Michelangelo's Temptation and Fall from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.

For more images of this throughout history, visit here.

I'd been fixating on this subject while on our honeymoon in Vienna.  While there, we visited a museum of Medieval armor and chanced upon this:

It was at this point that I decided that it made perfect sense for Lilith to be the first month of this year in magic. 

Magical Calendar update

Besides working on other projects, I've been pushing forward with the Magical Calendar project - finishing up the little details on the original piece for January, as well as planning the rest of the year.

Over the course of the year, I intend on tying together themes, imagery, symbols and beliefs from a variety of magical, mythological and religious belief systems from around the world.  I'll be drawing connections (many already well established, some less so) between traditions including Alchemy, ceremonical magic, Thelema, Paganism, Gnosticism, classical mythology and more.  This isn't cafeteria-style pick-and-choose syncretism, but rather my personal way to visually draw connections between different paths and traditions.  Rather than being a form of proselytization for any certain belief system, the result will be an open-ended exploration.  

Whether you are well-versed on subjects mentioned or have no interest in them at all, if you enjoy my other artwork I believe that you'll love this project.

The first three months' themes will be:
January - Genesis (Lilith)
February - Language of the Birds
March - Babalon

As previously mentioned, each month's print will be made available on the second Friday of the previous month.  In order to account for the holidays, the January print is planned to be released one week early, on December 7th.

Each print will be 13x19 inches, printed as an archival inkjet print on rag photo paper with no optical brighteners, signed and numbered in very limited editions.  The price of each print is planned to be $200 USD.

January's Lilith print will be limited to a very small edition of only 13.  In order to assist those who wish to collect the entire year's worth of prints, those who purchase any print will have early access to purchase others throughout the year.  For example, if you purchase the January print, you will have the ability to purchase the February print one day before the general public.

As an additional bonus, anyone collecting the entire year's calendar will also receive for free an additional 13th print not available for purchase otherwise.  

If you wish to be notified of the release of the first print, please send an email to rikgarrett@gmail.com with the subject "calendar updates."  

working on more Earth Magic photographs

Photograph of myself preparing a glass plate by Ayse Idil Idil.

Kirlian devices, auras and exploration

I've had several people contact me recently regarding my work with Kirlian devices, so I thought I would write a bit about the subject.

After reading about Kirlian devices for several years, I finally found myself determined to own such a device.  While there are devices available for sale on the Internet, I wanted something that I could play with and modify.  I searched online and dug through old books and magazines for plans and historical information, then set to work.

To be honest, my skills with reading schematics are rudimentary at best.  I found myself on the phone with my brother Doug, harassing him to help me with my projects.

In the end, I was able to come up with a couple of devices which I am able to modify to suit my needs.

Early experiments were fairly basic - the standard leaf or hand on a sheet of photographic paper.  I then quickly moved on to more ambitious projects.

This is Jane's face.

 Here are both of our faces on one image.

 

This is a Kirlian portrait of both of our hands.  I have not seen anyone else take Kirlian photographs of two people touching.  If someone else has done this, I would love to see the results.  This is a bit more tricky as the electrical energy circulates through both of our bodies in order to create the circuit needed to make this image appear.  As such, the potential for a bit of a shock presents itself.


If I haven't said it before, I consider myself lucky to have a wife willing to go through such ordeals (i.e. - electrical shock) in order to help with my art projects. 

I decided that these images were a bit hard to read visually, so I wanted to try something a bit different.  I used Fuji instant film (similar to Polaroid pack film) to take a photograph of Jane, then apply the Kirlian device to the photograph before processing the image.  The result is my Aether Field Portrait series.

Aether Field Portrait, Figure 1-1 (December 18th, 2011)

I was then curious if I would be able to create a full-body Kirlian image of myself.  Armed with a roll of RA-4 color photographic paper, a darkroom, a color processor and a makeshift Kirlian device, I set to work

 This resulted in a number of full body Kirlian scrolls, approximately 7-8 feet in length.

This is a closeup of the facial region.

For scale, here is a photograph of myself with the image.

Believe it or not, this series actually stems from many of the same themes as the Symbiosis series.  I'm merging my interest in arcane photographic techniques and attempts to utilize the photographic process to capture the invisible with my quest to understand the new circumstances in my life.  I'm utilizing Kirlian photography, aura photography, Radionics and other approaches to investigate my personal life.

For more in this vein, see the Subtle Bodies series on my website.

Thoughts on the Magical Calendar

I mentioned briefly my Magical Calendar project for 2013. While I work on it, I thought that I'd give a bit more information on this project.

As I mentioned previously, I've been highly inspired by the Calendrier Magique of 1896.  While I am inspired by the aesthetics and approach of Austin De Croze and Manuel Orazi, I will be diverging a bit in some regards.  They illustrated different facets of magical history, and in some ways I will do the same.

I will be tying together visually information culled from a variety of sources, in an attempt to create a linear  "story."  I'm stockpiling information that could well become a book, but honestly I trust my ability to create images more than my ability to write words.

2013 is the perfect year for this project, immediately following the "apocalypse" that has been the topic of much debate.  As "apocalypse" means "the lifting of the veil," I look forward to depicting a post-apocalyptic world of mystery and secret knowledge passed down through the ages.

Images will be composed of photographs that I have taken, retouched via photocollage and other mixed media approaches.  Prints will be museum quality archival inkjet reproductions, signed and numbered in very small editions.

I will be releasing information regarding each monthly image on the third Friday of each month, at which point the limited number of prints will be immediately available.  Those who have purchased prints in the series previously will have access the the purchase information one day early, in order to assist those attempting to collect the entire year's worth of images.

January's image will be entitled "Genesis," focusing on the figure Lilith.

A new project...

I've been secretly planning a new project for six months now, and Halloween seems like the best time to announce it.

For the past few years I've been fixating on the Calendrier Magique - a magical calendar by Austin de Croze and Manuel Orazi made to document the year in magic for 1896. 

This is the image for January 1896.  We have a large-scale reproduction of this hanging in our living room.  The entire calendar can be viewed online at the website of the Fantastic in Art and Fiction archives, a department of Cornell University's library.

I've been planning my own version for the year 2013.  I've been reading, taking notes, sketching, taking photographs and making tests.  I should probably not be mentioning this until the release is a bit nearer, but honestly I've been keeping it quiet for so long that I can't hold back any longer.

The images will be created via photographs, photo collage and mixed media. 

Rather than rush to release my "calendar" as a bound piece at the beginning of the year, I've decided to release a very limited number of prints of each month as it arrives.  People will be able to collect a single month, or the entire year's worth of images.

I'm still sorting out some of the logistics, and am very open to suggestions.

I'll have more to say (and show) about this project soon.  If this is of interest to you, please let me know!

Returning

I've decided to return to Blogspot.  Wordpress just didn't work out.

I've been more quiet than usual for a lot of reasons.  A list of things that I've been up to lately:

1.  Getting married.  Jane and I got married on August 12th.  The whole thing was incredible.

2.  Honeymoon in Vienna.  Also amazing.  We spent ten days eating tortes, drinking coffee, wandering through art museums and marveling at the magnificent city.  Having been obsessed with serpent symbolism lately, I told Jane that I was going to document snakes on our honeymoon.  Every time we turned the corner, we found more snakes:  statues, paintings, mosaics, etc. 

I also said that I wanted to find this Sethian altar that I'd heard rumors about.  We found it in the first wing of the first museum we visited in the city.

3.  Working on my red book, the last handmade book in my long-running alchemical book cycle.  While this video is mainly about the white book, Albedo, there is information about the in-progress red book at the end.

 4.  Venturing out into the woods to take more Earth Magic photographs before the harsh Chicago winter sets in.

5.  Along with Jane, planning, building, launching and maintaining the new website Occult Guide.  Occult Guide is a website dedicated to building a worldwide map of user-submitted locations of occult interest.  The site has been online for two months now, with some amazing locations having been added already.

6.  Research, development and tests for other future art projects.

I can't say much more right now, but I can say with confidence that 2013 is going to be an amazing year.

Chicago - Earth Magic

Tomorrow!  June 21st, one night solo exhibition.

Postcard designed by Chris Elmore of Hammer Smashed Sound.

Facebook invitation for the event.

t-shirt as relic

I saw something recently that made me think of the relevance of certain clothing items and thought that I might share something of my own.

This is the SUNN t-shirt that I wore while photographing the entire "Earth Magic" series.  I bought it at their concert in 2005 in Seattle (with Boris and Earth).  I wanted a black shirt originally, but there weren't any.  I got this instead and ended up loving it.  It's very soft.  The next night I saw Sunn again in Olympia (with Boris and Thrones).  They had black shirts then.  I didn't get one.

I wore this shirt regularly over the following years, until the print started to fade.  In 2010 I was taking my second wet plate collodion workshop, which would eventually lead toward "Earth Magic."  I'd somehow avoided ruining any clothes up until this point, but when I started using the 8x10 camera (and officially beginning the new series) I somehow got some silver nitrate on my clothes.  Silver nitrate is what makes the coated glass plate sensitive to light - consequently it stains all organic matter black.  At this point I decided to make this my official wet plate uniform.

I wore this shirt every time I took photographs for the series.  I rolled around in dirt and mixed chemicals such as ether and alcohol in this shirt.  It has a very particular smell that I don't expect will ever disappear.  It's kind of gross, really.  It's still amazingly comfortable, and maybe I feel that it's lucky in some way. 

The bottom edge of the shirt is full of small holes, as at some point I decided against bringing rags with me into the forest, opting to polish the plates with my shirt.

The back is bleached out, though I'm not sure if it's from the sun or from something else.  I'm not sure how that stain got there.

Here is a snapshot of me from last August, before a majority of the shirt abuse took place.  This was taken to demonstrate the ridiculous way that I ended up setting up my camera to get a specific photograph. 

And to be nice, the photograph in question, previously unreleased.

summer reading

I had a lot of books that I wanted to read this summer. While summer isn't over yet and I'm bound to finish more soon, here is how I've done so far:
 
Books finished
Alchemy - An Introduction to the Symbolism and Psychology - Marie-Louise von Franz (I'd already read most of this, but finally finished it)
Magia Sexualis - Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism - Hugh B. Urban
The Magic Circle - Its Successful Organization and Leadership - Yaj Nomolos (Do not read this book - it is one of the worst things I've ever read)
Earth Honoring - The New Male Sexuality - Robert Lawlor (Some good food for thought here, though I am skeptical of some of the author's claims)
Witchcraft for Tomorrow - Doreen Valiente
Orgone, Reich and Eros - Wilhelm Reich's Theory of Life Energy - Edward Mann

Books that I have started but not finished yet
The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage - Dion Fortune
Psychic City Chicago - Doorway to Another Dimension - Brad Steiger
Women Who Run With the Wolves - Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype - Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

In other news, the end of my Kickstarter campaign is fast approaching.  While I've already exceeded the goal (thank you so much, everyone!), you can still get the rewards and help fund my solo exhibition.

solo exhibit progress!

Kickstarter - putting together a solo exhibit in London!

It's online! I'm now offering a TON of great rewards to those of you interested in helping to fund an upcoming solo exhibition in London. Reproduction prints, darkroom prints - even custom wet plate photographs. Take a look and spread the word!

http://www.kickstarter.com/pro​jects/rikgarrett/rik-garretts-​solo-photography-exhibit-in-lo​ndon

Chicago occult map

A little project I've been working on. Collecting locations of occult organizations and business from Chicago's history. Here is a screenshot of the work in progress, mainly places from around 1910 to the mid-1970s.

Some praise for "Symbiosis"

Here are a few of the responses from people who've ordered their copy of my handmade book, Symbiosis. I've removed names to protect the innocent. I hope that nobody minds!

"Truly intimate and quite delicate feeling too, it really conveys your intentions! I love the glyph on the front , quite beautiful.
I'll stop though, in fear of sounding too sycophantic, however I will treasure it always!"

"Hey, just want to say the book is awesome. I love the wax seal and the cover binding."

"The images and book are so beautiful! I am so glad to have a piece of your art.
I'm taking it to Japan with me to show all my artist friends:)"

"Thank you Mr Rik Garrett for the copy of your handmade book. It's too beautiful to be in this building site I call a home, the quality of the paper is amazing and quite frankly, I'm too scared to touch it with my grubby builder's hands."

"It's beautiful, Rik! Thank you very much(...) I hope you're getting a lot of great feedback, it is deserved."




visit the Symbiosis page to find out more