A photographic atlas
of the missions of Alta and Baja California
Opuntia (Nopal), Mission Dolores, San Francisco, California.
An invitation
to the exploration of the mind as a blueprint for our lives
A new configuration of what was: re-integrated, transformed, enriched, on its way to a greater identification with the intangible, and less with its materiality.
This project initiated as an exploration into the relationship between the missionaries, and Native American groups in early California.
I believe everyone –descendants of the Original Peoples, of European ancestry, and therefore, of the multicultural weave that occurred– share notions and values because we are all human, and that this legacy could be investigated through a visual approach; looking for overlaps of what is common to everyone.
My intention is to explore this web.
I quickly realized that my thesis of exploring the overlap between these original groups and the missionary world, was not what I thought, and that my interest honed in exploring the change of thought forms as a vehicle for transformation.
My introductory research of the Franciscan and Native American cosmologies –the painful history of the original California tribes and Spanish and American colonizers– has led me to consider, with a sense of deep concern, the ways in which society perpetuates
My introductory research of the Franciscan and Native American cosmologies –the painful history of the original California tribes and Spanish and American colonizers– has led me to consider, with a sense of deep concern, the ways in which society perpetuates
these dynamics, projected into the future through our own thoughts, which lead us to believe we are different from each other.
The trivialization of violence has taken an alarming degree, particulary through the media, movies and news that sourround us, making us increasingly tolerant to it; regretably, they are manifestations of what lies behind, the tip of an iceberg. There is much to be changed. Genocide has been part of the recorded history of humanity. The missions contributed, in an effort to eradicate indigenous culture, a process that has only accentuated with time.
The noble Christic principles that gave birth to the gargantuan institution founded upon them, were hijacked by powerful interests within, and external to it. These values, instilled and professed by avatars and sages through history (also present in Franciscan beliefs), were effaced, giving way to dominance and subjugation, trademarks of colonial expansion.
The Course in Miracles says: "What is not love, is always fear..."[1]
This initiative of contact with "the other" opened a Pandora's box for me, the idea of honoring the First Nations descent, the Native American community, of “asking for permission” on an energetic level, became imperative; leading me to contact a dear friend and teacher, John Malloy, who guided me to proceed in the right order.
"He who controls the past controls the future, he who controls the present, controls the past." [2]
George Orwell
The idea that our mental environment creates our physical experience, is a proposition long held by mystics and spiritual schools of thought. To bring attention to the act of thinking and the use of language as a creative force is at the core of my project. In other words, to explore the contents of the mind as the blueprint for our lives.
How can we do this?
Where do I place my attention? This is the creative use of language and thought. What I think about and observe, expands and propagates. To read the news and what I feel associated with them will multiply one of these two emotions: love or fear. Think for a moment... Constantly, throughout our day, we choose between one of the two, be it consciously or unconsciously, a Yes or a No. When you pick what to eat, a color, listening to someone talk, or even a look from someone on the street.
To pay attention to this process when choosing what we want, is the first step towards the formulation of the future we want, and how we feel is our guide: the idea is to throw light over this exact moment throughout our day; the moment in which we say Yes or No.
The process will demonstrate, that the web that emerges as a result of (taking) each one of these decisions, conforms us. When these decisions are shaped by a succession of relatively unconscious choices, the final result (the future) will be determined by the past because this is what our mind offers us in an automatic form, the 'known'. There's people that say we "only see the past".
In other words when we allow past memories to replay,
My proposal is about reviewing this, normally un-questioned, turn of events as as it unfolds in our mind.
The real challenge is, first, to consider that we are capable of offering ourselves an alternate history, different from the one that has conformed our identity, and, second, to put this idea of changing what we no longer want, before identifying with these contents, and the feelings that are triggered through memory: to go beyond the act of being yourself.
Our relationship with others is similar; what I mean is that transforming it, requires the desire of something different and the effort of slowing the process down. Once we become aware of that which we no longer want, we can start exploring how to change the programs that rule us. It is worth mentioning that social interactions make evident which thought forms are shared by the majority, not infrequently ruled by selfprotection and survival.
It is possible to invoke a future different from the past, as long as we remain aware and comitted to make a change.
There are practices that emerged through mystics and wise beings of our history, which inherently guide us towards inner peace, amongst them forgiveness, respect for all forms of life or no judgement.
This is an invitation to the public to discern and accept our own sliver of responsibility in the destruction of our world and the creation of a new one.
[2] Orwell, George, 1984, Part 1 Chapter 2
.:.
Transmigration of Ruin is being developed with the generous help of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA), an organism for the promotion of culture of the Government of Mexico.
