By Jessica Dacey / Photo by Carly Valentine “I think it comes from your spirit, maybe your heart. Is your heart your spirit?” It’s dusk, and Victoria Williams is walking her dogs. As we weave through the desert bush, she is explaining how to sing in tongues. “I wasn’t raised in a church that people sang in tongues, but I would unconsciously sing in tongues at night before I went to sleep. Then when I moved to Los Angeles, I…
by Damien Echols Ceremonial magick is the Western path to Enlightenment, the counterpart to Eastern traditions such as Buddhism or Taoism. Magick, however seeks to liberate the individual from the cycle of uncontrolled incarnation in a single lifetime, as opposed to many. It’s a tradition suited to those who have a psyche more inclined to the stresses of rapid transformation over a more gentle, gradual approach. The core of a magickal practice is a process of internal alchemy that traces…
Eva Soltes has, over the course of her decades-long career, produced, directed and/or written nearly one thousand music, dance, theater and media works for national and international audiences. She currently lives in Joshua Tree, California where as a burgeoning permaculturist she is the Founder/Director of Harrison House Music, Arts & Ecology, an artist residency/performance program for gifted artists and environmental activists based at the straw bale retreat built by late American composer Lou Harrison. Jill Giegerich is an artist and a…
Words by Rohini Walker Illustration by Martín Mancha There is a lake in a desert, under which bubbles a hot spring. Mature desert willows overhang the water from the sandy bank. There is so much lush vegetation here that the spot could easily be mistaken for a watery clearing in the jungle. Bullfrogs abound, their sporadic, guttural croaks echoing in the silence, reverberating off the stillness of the water. Under a full moon, recently replete after being eclipsed by Earth,…
I am the color of the sun in light and shadow, dreaming you into being; each grain of sand, each cell and atom. Shifting light makes butterflies of eyelashes, cocooned in dark slumber moments ago. In the stillness of innocent morning, you can see me in all my glory as I turn from night to day. My cosmic dance never ends, as slowly, through lifetimes, you arrive at surrender, having passed through the gates of fear and doubt and shame.…
By Chris Clarke There is a new gold rush in the Mojave Desert, a new ore being mined from the landscape. The mines are everywhere, but they concentrate here in the Morongo Basin. Unlike the first Gold Rush, this “gold rush” isn’t chasing gold. The New Miners aren’t after silver or uranium or borax. Unlike their predecessors in recent decades, they’re not even after the desert’s scant water or ubiquitous solar energy. Some of them are after enlightenment on demand,…
