The last two posts have been a discussion of mythology and symbol, and how we can employ them in crisis management and problem solving.
This is an excellent jumping off point for the real power house of esoteric thought and practice, ritual.
We are all familiar with rituals. Weddings, funerals, Baptisms, Proms, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and the Forth of July are all cultural rituals that we are literally so accustom to that most people might not even realize that they represent the firmament that our lives revolve around. These events are where families connect, unions are cemented, news shared, achievements celebrated, traditions established and memories created.
If advertising has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that these rituals represent an opportunity to express the ideal. The perfect dress, or costume, or dish, or song will transform an event into the living embodiment of that ideal. While this is an exploitation of the drive to create a life that reflects our inner values (and the marketing of that drive for financial gain) these impulses exist to be exploited, and we can learn some effective means of doing so.
All that advertising is accurate in so far as the trappings of ritual have the ability to promote it’s efficacy. This is because the attention to detail we put into those trappings taps into the real driving force, the thing that the trappings represent: Intention.
Intention – Framing the Mythic Narrative
The intention behind a ritual act is the story that provides context for that action. It is what transforms the idea of blowing shit up for fun into a celebration of Liberty on the Forth of July! It is perhaps more difficult to convince your friends and family that it is a good day, in the middle of the driest part of the year, to blow shit up. But present the narrative that you are doing so in commemoration of an act of rebellion against tyranny, and it is suddenly a picnic with explosions, and everyone wants to be there!
That’s fine, you say, but that is hardly magick!
Except it is. It is an action undertaken to inculcate a specific type of consciousness, under specific circumstances, during a particular time of day at a particular time of the year. There is nothing more or less magickal in the history of mankind than that, as it is the same technology at work during a Christian Communion, a Wedding, or the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
A set of actions undertaken in a specific context in order to create a specific state of awareness, that is ritual.
So, the question becomes, how can you use this to your advantage? Great question! First you need to learn to control it!
Banishing
Once you start to work with symbols, you are going to awaken certain motives or complexes within your conscious mind that have been resting in your unconscious, where they have likely been wreaking havoc. This is a perfectly natural part of the process, that is nevertheless problematic, as they can rear their heads at inopportune moments. If only there were a way to shut them off!
Enter the banishing.
Simply speaking, a banishing is a ritual that creates a space or circle in which to work. It is a barrier against outside influence. And it is the cornerstone of any beginning practice.
You can employ it in daily practice to set up a sacred space for meditation. You can employ it before a job interview to quiet your racing mind. You can learn to do it in your sleep and literally confront nightmares with it. It is a simple, powerful and effective tool.
Rather than recreate a full course of study here, I am going to recommend several books that will be useful for a beginner if this is something you would like to explore. After all, this blog is little more than an overview tinged with personal observations, not a fully fleshed out course of study.
The first would be “Magick in Theory and Practice” by Aleister Crowley. Like the names says, it is a comprehensive guide to the Art. It also contains a few intentional blinds that a careful reading of the footnotes should clarify, but it can be difficult to interpret for beginners, especially if you are working without the benefit of guidance.
With that in mind, I find The Magick of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo DuQuette much more approachable, containing many practical instructions for doing the work on your own.
Lastly, because this is still a theater blog, how about we premiere a clip of the Ritual of the Pentagram from The Rite of Saturn? The video clip was edited by Bob Jones, the audio provided by Christian Ballard, while the scene features Ryan Holsather, Melissa Holm, Josh Kibbey, Daniel Christensen and Richard Cardone. The group adaptation was conceived by director Melissa Holm and developed by the ensemble.
The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram is a standard Banishing, although this version employs Invoking Earth Pentagrams. (If you want to know what that means, maybe pick up one or both of the books I suggested.)
In our previous post we discussed mythology with it’s requisite symbols and correspondences, and how those work in relationship with what we understand about human brain function to inform our relationship with reality.
In this post, we are going to be review the unique problem solving abilities that are afforded us by mythology and symbolism, and explore one way we can use these innate human traits to our advantage. I understand that this doesn’t strictly relate to theater in any traditional sense, but since iconography is one of the tools we employ in theatrical performance, we are going to allow ourselves this indulgence. It also continues to address the questions I get from people outside of the esoteric community regarding what I personally believe and how I practice.
When we talk about a symbol set, there is none quite so universally recognized as the Tarot. The 78 cards of the Tarot represent an entire universe of meaning and attribution through an intricate system of correspondences related to alchemy, astrology, Qabalah, mythology, and dozens of other related systems.
That is not to say that the Tarot is a substitute for a comprehensive study and understanding any of these other systems, but it is a framework around which the study of related systems can be shaped, and ultimately better understood. But that is getting ahead of ourselves.
The aforementioned system of correspondences makes the Tarot particularly useful as a system for divination. Divination being the fancy name for “fortune telling”.
Does this mean that the Tarot can tell you the future, accurately and precisely, 100% of the time? Not exactly. Even should the cards spell out the answers to all of your problems, the symbols and layers of meaning are so dense, you would only stand a very small chance of interpreting them accurately! Yet, that is exactly the point.
Given what we were previously considering in terms of brain chemistry and crisis management, the Tarot with it’s correspondences becomes exceptionally useful in the area of complex problem solving. The Tarot can literally kick start the problem solving faculty of the human mind.
The process is relatively simple. When a seeming insurmountable problem presents itself, a Tarot spread can be done to analyze that problem. As each card comes up in a spread, it can be analyzed against this host of symbols, and each reviewed as to it’s independent meaning, it’s meaning with regard to the question at hand, and in relation to other cards in the spread.
As this process continues, the analysis of the symbols requires the amygdala to route resources out of the autonomic crisis response and into the frontal lobe, as that is where the symbols and their relationships are analyzed. It can be plainly stated that the Tarot is a problem solving tool with a set of functions that is entirely in accord with what we understand about how the human mind works. Rather than telling your future, this tool provides you with resources to analyze a possible future without becoming overwhelmed.
Please note, when I give classes on the Tarot, I make a point of reminding people that they should frame their query in terms of: “What will be the probable outcome if I take the following action?” The Tarot is not useful for yes or no questions (flip a coin!) and the final decision about whether to proceed should always be made by the queriant. The cards, for all that they are wonderful, are painted cardboard. Those cards will suffer none of the repercussions of your choices. Never let them make decisions for you!
With that in mind, the Tarot is a tool that can be employed to look at any overwhelming problem, and the implementation of the tool, itself, automatically moves the querier into the part of the brain that interprets symbols, and solves problems.
The same circumstance can be true for I Ching, Astrology, or any other self contained system of relational correspondences. The art of employing them makes them effective tools, because the implementation of symbols facilitates problem solving.
It should be obvious that the better these correspondences are understood and internalized by someone employing any of these tools, the more effective they will be.
While the relationships been the cards can be daunting at first. a rigorous course of study will allow most students to learn the rudiments in a few weeks, and obtain a passable understanding within a year.
Rather than wait for a crisis, I recommend meditating over one Tarot card a day starting with the major Arcana. Read through the key synopsis in whatever accompanying material is provided with the deck. In under 3 months you will have reviewed each of the cards in the deck, and can start again, or begin a more intensive course of study.
There is a word of caution here, for those who are just starting out. There is nothing like studying arcane symbols to kick the hornets nest of sleeping personal issues. Paying attention to the way in which your mind and emotions work is a certain way to notice those areas where thoughts are disorganized, where emotions are unbalanced, and where errors have been accepted as guiding principals. Once you start to learn this skill, you will find that it cannot be unlearned, and more than you can unlearn how to read.
Every budding occultist should see a therapist. Find a good one. Shop around. People with a Jungian background are often sympathetic to arcane symbolism, and it will save you a great deal of explaining. But I digress.
As you continue to work with the Tarot you will begin to notice something we might call the spooky factor. These are the times when a series of symbols is so spot on that it seems more divinely inspired than happenstance. They will become increasingly frequent. And why not? Perhaps there are larger forces than you can comprehend at work? Perhaps there is just a portion of you that needs to believe that in order to move forward to your next adventure. Or perhaps as you begin to truly integrate and comprehend the symbol set, everything will take on a larger meaning.
The net result is the same. The introduction of mythology into problem solving can inspire the best in you, and awaken aspects of your mind that have long slept.
[Editor’s Note: This blog post was nearly completed, although not entirely satisfactory, and scheduled to be posted on the morning of March 15, 2019. Upon arising that morning to review the words I had drafted, I saw the news about a gunman who killed 49 people in a Mosque in New Zealand. This tragic and misguided event shed some light upon what I had to say, and has resulted in a substantial rewrite of the piece in order to include an import aspect of the message that I had missed in my original post.]
It may come as no surprise, but producing musicals based on planetary rituals written by an infamous occultists can lead to some questions about what I, personally, believe. So, allow me to state for the record that I believe in the transformative power of mysticism and magick, and that religion is a cultural framework for those practices.
And if that satisfies your curiosity, or provides you the opportunity to write me off as a harmless eccentric, that is perfectly acceptable to me. I am mostly harmless, and rather eccentric.
But, for those of you who might want to understand why someone who seems relatively rational might engage in this type of practice and study, well, I am happy to explain.
Before I go any further, I present The Big Disclaimer. I speak for myself. My thoughts and ideas are informed by years of study and practical experience, shaped by the wisdom I have gleaned from those who were kind enough to share their understanding with me, and tried in the crucible of my own daily practice. While I have worked closely with people who have followed many paths, and while I follow many myself, I do not seek to claim authority over any tradition, but I will be making some rather sweeping and inclusive statements about all traditions. I understand that some of what I say might seem critical, and I hope that any criticism I offer is accepted gracefully.
Myth and History
Mythology and history are not the same thing. That seems like a pretty benign statement, but I will probably lose close to half of my audience right there.
We are a species that tells stories. Be it the trials we experience at the airport, or that time we met a famous musician at a dive bar, we have our narratives, and we tell them to each other and to ourselves. The dates and times may escape us, and the tales may go largely unremembered after the first or second telling, but we love to share. And those stories that resonate are retold, and embellished in the telling.
Unless we are scrupulously accounting for dates, times and locations in the record of our narratives, unless we are recording events carefully to avoid the encroachment of poetic embellishment, our tales will stray from the facts of a situation into the realm of personal fantasy in a matter of days, if not hours. And why not? In the majority of cases, it makes for a better story in our mind, especially because the new story supports our own narrative.
Most of what we are taught about history is actually mythology. Just lost another ten percent of my readers. But being frank: Columbus was basically a pirate who was bad at math. Washington never chopped down a cherry tree, much less told the truth about it. You could not fit every species of spider on an boat as small as the Ark is described in the Bible, much less two of every animal.
Yes, I said it. The Bible is mythology. Literally folk tales, told thousands of times and written down hundreds of years after they were first uttered around a camp fire. And the selection process regarding which of those tales was to be included in the book is a story unto itself, fraught with politics and the quest for personal power.
But don’t just take my word for it. Google “Council of Nicaea”. We’ll wait…
I often remark that there is a distinction between truth and fact that largely falls along the same lines as the divide between mythology and history. Fact is an event in space and time, something we can point to. Limited to the specific circumstances that govern that occurrence. Truth is our relationship to those facts, and is colored by our perception, illuminated in our recollection, and seasoned with our emotions.
In fact, there may have never existed a race between a tortoise and a hare, but the story contains a truth, or at least a childish truism. “Slow and steady wins the race.” That is the power of a myth, that it can capture an idea, and inspire further exploration. You may argue that a fable or parable differs from a myth, in that people never believed in the reality of a fable or parable, but interpreted myths as “facts” at one time.
Maybe some people did believe these stories were history. But, unless there were giant guys enacting these stories in front of the tiny folks who were originally telling them, those early artist were quite aware that they were crafting a narrative. I suspect many of the listeners were, too.
Please note that I have never said “just mythology”. I would never dream of employing the diminutive when discussing myth. Myth is a retelling of a tale that includes layers of meaning beyond the surface narrative. It inspires in a way that is entirely outside of the realm of reality, but in doing so it can improve reality.
To illustrate this point, I quote the inestimable Terry Pratchett from The Hogfather.
Symbols and Correspondences
At this point you are likely protesting about what all this has to do with magick, mysticism, and the religious experience. To address this, we are going to dive a bit into the realm of fact, and how our brains employ these various sensations into our personal narratives, and then explore how we can use this to our advantage.
The first step in understanding magick is understanding the idea of symbols.
A symbols is, by one definition: a thing or character that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. Think of the tortoise and the hare.
Symbols are the key to all language. They are the figures in our dreams. They are the sum of all our aspirations, and cornerstone of all human superstition. They are the mystery of the religious experience and the horrible scream of every nightmare.
And as they are representational of other things, they lend themselves to the concept of correspondence. Each discreet symbol may correspond to many things, and those correspondences can result in a symbols set having multiple complimentary and interrelated interpretations.
As symbols are employed by the human subconscious in dream architecture, it has been surmised that the symbols our minds employ in dream scenarios are expressed in such a manner that all possible interpretation are in some way relevant. A bucket of water may have several meanings to an individual, and each of those meanings is being actively explored by the dreamer simultaneously when that image appears in a dream. If the mind were avoiding some aspect of the symbol, or if it were superfluous, it would naturally selected a different symbol that doesn’t invoke that particular aspect. A cigar is never just a cigar.
This may all seem like a bit of an aside, until we start to look at the parts of the brain that analyze symbols.
The Brain – Where Symbols Live
The frontal lobe of the brain is where rational interpretation takes place. It receives input via a gatekeeper in the brain called the amygdala, which collects input from the various sensory receptors and interpolates them. The frontal lobe is where senses and memories then meet to interpret our reality. Everything you have every seen, thought, felt or done is actually taking place in your frontal lobe.
This specialized part of the brain is truly what allows us to create anything at all! It is the seat of human genius. And teaching this part of the brain how to rationally interpret symbols is the bulk of our cultural learning, from our earliest moments. The sound and pitch of a parents voice. The glowing warmth of fire. The smell of home. These impressions are remembered and begin to shape our internal symbolic landscape.
We then analyze these memories and experiences, and look for ways to employ them; to use them to our advantage; to experiment with our environment, and learn from the results. And all this while we are still toddlers, developing our earliest motor skills and employing rudimentary tools. Eventually we start to associate sounds with words, and words with there meanings, and we are on our way to sharing our ideas as we develop them.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the case, this amazing part of the mind, the frontal lobe, can be completely paralyzed by stress, anxiety and fear. These emotions trigger a response in the sympathetic nervous system, which governs fight or flight response. The amygdala will stop sending impulses to the frontal lobe, and direct them to the autonomic nervous system.
This is an excellent response when faced with a dangerous predator, or when leaping out of the way of a moving vehicle. This is not the time for analyses, but for action!
Additionally, our capacity for abstract thought allows us to invent and imagine terrors that seem altogether real to the amygdala. Since the amygdala does not interpret input as true or false (that would be the frontal lobe) but rather in terms of danger, it can shut off the part of our brain capable of realizing the insubstantial nature of the threat. And here is where our miraculous minds can poison us. When faced with an overwhelming decision, an eminent crisis, or even existential dread, the fight or flight response kicks in and shuts down the frontal lobe, often right when we need it the most.
So, how can we find our way back to the rational parts of our minds? One historically tried and true method is mythology!
Having a symbol set you can rely on in a crisis can help you analyze that crisis in light of the symbol set. And that analysis will activate your frontal lobe, engaging the problem solving part of your brain!
As an example – when faced with a dilemma as a child, one might inculcate a hero or heroine, like Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, in order to measure their choices against the contrast presented by their fears and their vision of what heroism truly is. These are abstract concepts that are embodied in the form of myths, that they impact real life decisions.
Once you move out of the realm of fear into the inspired space embodied by the myth, the problem solving part of the brain becomes active again, and starts to imagine not only how a mythic figure might react, but specific strategies they might employ. The ideal inspires the reaction, and reshapes the narrative.
This entire scenario is the basis for religious mythology and it’s practical application for good or ill. In their best sense, these stories can inspire strength of character, generosity of spirit and integrity of the self. In there worst sense, fear of the other, crippling superstition and a reliance on external authority.
The evil that men do
There is something else to say here, regarding the fear that paralyses the mind, and circumvents the interpretive process. Sometimes, when employed in an unconscionable manner, the myth becomes the source of the dread.
There is no need to imagine how it might be if a human were to be convinced (either by themselves or by others) that if they did not engage in some servile, violent, destructive, or cruel behavior that they would be subjected to some fearful result. The fear of eternal torment by a loving God has convinced otherwise rational people to do unspeakable things, committing horrific crimes against themselves and against other.
I am a fan of religion. Religion is a shared cultural mythology, a poetic narrative of our relationship with our reality that can be usefully employed to address complex problems. It has value insofar as it imparts positive group behavioral norms, a sense of internal discipline, and a program that can be employed in managing crisis individually and collectively.
Yet, in the hands of the unscrupulous, it is a poison.
For example, I believe that the employment of chastity as a personal discipline (or even preference) is a wholesome and powerful application of sexual magick. It is a choice to abstain from certain activities in order to focus that energy elsewhere, or to set them apart as Holy.
That said, the moment that this chastity is not longer a choice that empowers the individual, but a mandate handed down by some “religious authority” enforced by either fear of eternal torment, social isolation, or just being beaten to death with big fucking rocks, it is not longer a spiritual discipline designed to make something Holy; it is an oppressive superstitious abomination, designed to enslave people, employing the same methods that can set them free.
I have heard it said that the Spirit is like a river, and that all religions are like vessels pulling water from that same river. The vessels are shaped by the culture where they are developed. Some are ornate, some are plain, some tall, some short, but all are useful, because they hold and shape the living water. It is only when someone places a lid on the container and claims to have the whole river therein that they become stagnate.
I like to shorten this to: “There are as many names for God as there are for water, it all gets you wet.” Because it sounds a little naughty.
Returning to the subject, that idea of stagnation and claimed authority is the real danger. To the extent that any leader claims sole authority, to that exact extent should they be suspect. We are all traveling our various paths, we are all learning our lessons, and finding our way. If you want to find a guide, so be it. You are welcome to employ any course of study, and find the practice that suits you best. Anyone who claims that they are the sole arbiter of the truth, the sole path to enlightenment, the sole infallible voice of God on earth, or the one true conduit for the Secret Masters is likely either delusional, or deceiving you.
Such an unscrupulous teacher will try to isolate you from other information. They will try to make you afraid of other thoughts. They will point to wickedness, evil, and impurity everywhere. Rather than seeing the divine expressed throughout humanity (an excellent method for finding it in yourself) or graciously acknowledging that the principals at work behind all these practices are essentially the same, they will encourage fear and hatred of others, often by inculcating that this fear and hatred is a glorious manifestation of your love for your friends, family and community.
It is an old and tested tool for leading people into servitude through fear. It circumvents the ability to rationally interpret the meaning of an otherwise beautiful experience, and makes it the tool of enslavement. Can you imagine any more absurd reason to hate someone than their preference between Star Wars and Star Trek? Because that is what religious discrimination is, a debate between science fiction genres. It is less substantive than arguing over which is the better sports team, as that can at least be proven by some objective measure from season to season. Yet, when faced with imagined torment, or real ostracization, it is difficult to see the irrationality of that false dichotomy.
They say the truth shall set you free. Perhaps. Understanding the method in which these symbols are employed affords us the opportunity to use these techniques to our best advantage, rather than allowing others to exploit them to our detriment. And it is up to us how we will employ this ability.
We will begin exploring some techniques for using these abilities to our advantage in the next post. Until then, courage!
If you follow me on Facebook, you have probably seen me wax philosophic on the subject of art and criticism. If you have managed to miss those musings (or if you have wisely chosen to wait until I have collected them in one place and removed a bit of the ranting) that is the subject of today’s blog post.
Let me start by saying that there was a time, when we were first starting out, that I reacted very poorly to honest criticism. I was anxious about the work we were doing. When people I respected came to me to say they found aspects of our work wanting, or with suggestions about how we might improve, I was defensive. When they described our work as an embarrassment to Thelema, I was hurt and angry.
That is often the case with art. No sooner have we begun to create something than people will come forward and try to help us make it better. And often as not, it is truly intended as an offer of assistance. In the early stages, when we are still finding our voices, and getting out feet under ourselves, I suspect there is an absence of awareness on the part of those “helpers” of just how fragile that process can be.
As an aside, my first bit of practical advice here is to be mindful of this fragile state when talking with your cast and crew. For the majority of performers, theater is the realm of amateurs, people who are literally creating for the love of the project or process. Correction and redirection is always most effective when delivered with tact, kindness, and even better when coupled with enthusiasm. Rather than criticize how someone is performing, simply framing the desired change as an inspired new approach can work very well, provided you are not given to sarcasm.
That said, the topic I am covering today is criticism of your creative work, and how to handle it.
The Power of Art
All criticism is a reaction to your art. Simply sitting with that is powerful. Any reaction to the art you have created is a result of your efforts. It abides as a living example of how your creative process has made some impact on the world. Therefore, any criticism is a measure of your success as an artist.
I will remind myself of this before diving into any review of our work.
From there, I find it is best to categorize (or critique) the criticism. You would be surprised how satisfying this process is, once you get the hang of it.
I like to start by placing the criticism that I have received over the years into four broad categories.
Bullshit
Friends
Fans
Professionals
Gardening 101
Let’s start with Bullshit. If you put your art on the internet, you are going to see a great deal of this category, although it is not limited to online forums. While there is an adage: “Don’t read the comments”, if you have comments enabled (and there are very good reasons for doing so in terms of outreach and engagement) someone will have to read and police those comments. Sometimes it will be something simple and vulgar, easily deleted or ignored. Other times it will be a long and hateful screed… yet strangely, also easily deleted or ignored. I do give the longer screeds points for effort.
While many would argue that these type of remarks have no practical value at all, I would say they will damn sure toughen you as an artist. Not that I think these hateful types are trying to help, but succeeding despite vulgar or unhinged detractors can be deeply satisfying.
I have literally had someone refer to one of my projects as a “piece of shit” to my face, in front of a room full of people. It was awkward. Also, it was entirely useless. The hallmark of bullshit criticism, be it long or short, vulgar, or oh, so polite, is that it is 100% useless as criticism.
There is nothing practical I can learn or apply from a critique that refers to my project as fecal matter, or suggests that Aleister Crowley would not approve, or demands that Ancient Egyptians have been mischaracterized and maligned by my work. So I refer to this type of criticism as bullshit, a substance whose only practical application is fertilizer. When I am feeling like a need a reason to soldier on, spiting these bastards can be reason enough.
People who love to help
This next category is for your friends, your family, and the people who know how you could be so much more successful, if only you would follow their advice.
First, let me say that after dealing with the previous category a few times, you will love to hear from these people. Even if they are disappointed in everything about your project, if they go to the trouble to say something intended to be useful, reflecting the actual content of what you did, it is such a breath of fresh air! And bonus points if they can do so without referring to bodily functions!
This category of criticism can be weighed according to it’s merit. Which as an artist is a blessing! Honest feedback can be difficult to garner, difficult to deliver, and difficult to hear. So the effort going into this communication should not be understated, and it is best to accept it graciously.
Some of it will be useful. And some won’t. Decide which is which on your own time, and act accordingly. Do not inform these critics if their criticism will be useful, and be certain to thank them for their feedback.
People who love your art
This is probably the favorite category of feedback an artist can receive. Praise. Adoration. Somebody bought a t-shirt. It is the best feeling.
And often, it is also much like the first category, in so far as it is not really that useful to development as an artist. If you ignore all the voices excepting those that sing your praises, it is like a diet of pure candy! Super sweet, but not nourishing.
Fans are the people who have reached to your art with appreciation, and even love. Something about what you created appeals to them. As long as you are creating something that you also love, this is a win-win, and it can make you feel like there are exactly that many people who understand your vision, and adhere to your view of the subject. But that is not really true. You will never hear from everyone who was touched by your work, and people will like or dislike what you create for their own reasons, and those will seldom align directly with yours.
Art is often a matter of taste, and not everyone who likes your art will agree with you about what it means, or why it is good. Let them enjoy it for their own reasons. There is no reasons to correct a fan, unless they are grossly misrepresenting you. Whenever possible, be gracious.
Gatekeepers
The Rite of Sol promotional write up from The Seattle Weekly, 2012
The last category is the most useful. An honest review from a professional writer.
Here is where a great deal of learning can happen. Here is the impartial voice that has an opinion about your creation, and is willing to provide feedback about what does and doesn’t work well, and why. (The friends category might also contain this type of information, but categorically it may not be reliably neutral.)
Any review will still be subject to a critics own tastes and proclivities, and that is all to the good. Any critics regular audience will likely have similar tastes and proclivities, and employ the criticism provided to ascertain if your art suits their collective taste.
You will seldom find professional or semi-professional critics being vulgar, or giving vague feedback. They have or are building a reputation, and that reputation is constructed around delivering an accurate assessment of your work to their audience, in order to set their readers expectation about the content of your art.
The net result of this is feedback that is both clear and objective, and that cites particular areas that worked well, and areas that could be improved, often with clear suggestions of how that might be achieved.
Of course, there are a few professionals who have built a career out of being cruel or witty at the expense of the artists they review. Happily, as an artist, you can usually spot these and dump them into the bullshit category, and move on.
Something that somebody said
A final takeaway, if I can offer one, is to restate what I said above. Criticism is a reaction to your art. It is something resulting from your work. And it is no more or less than that. Something somebody said after exploring your creation. And you can learn from it if it is useful. Or ignore it if it is not.
And the person who decides if it is useful is you. Always you.
That is your power as a creator. When you use your passion to create, all those reacting voices are the echos of your voice, shouting your truth to the Universe.
[Editor’s Note: Marcos Duran is a Seattle area artist and musician who has been gracious enough to work with us at Eleusyve Production starting in 2007 with The Rite of Venus. At our request today’s post is the story of how he developed one of our most interesting set pieces, the altar/hellbroth from The Rite of Saturn. Seeing as it features so prominently in the our first look video posted last Monday, it is fun to shed a little light on how it was done. In addition to props and set building, Marcos also appeared on stage for The Rite of Sol, and has regularly been integral to the entire production process, from attending planning meetings and adding his voice to the soundtrack, to providing playback for rehearsals, to being stage hand and musical instrument wrangler throughout the theatrical runs.]
Lighting the Hellbroth
Fire is expensive. You wouldn’t think to look at the stuff you can make fire with, nor how easy it is to set one, but fire is terribly expensive… at least if you’re trying to put it on a stage inside a building where more than two people are going to witness it. So.. ok.. Maybe not the fire itself. But the insurance you need for most venues to cover open flame on a stage is much more than a self-funded amateur theater company is going to have on hand. So… you have to improvise.
I’m Marcos Duran, prop-master for Eleusyve productions, and having participated in nearly all of the Eleusyve renditions of the Rites of Eleusis, I’ve come to learn a little something about fake fire. Over the years, we’ve employed various tricks and methods to approximate fire or flame like things. Even incense, which is still open flame, cannot be used, so we’ve managed our old favorite standby: dry ice and boiling water. We’ve used colored lights. But for our production of The Rite of Saturn, fire was going to play a center role in a lot of scenes and we needed to come up with something more interesting.
Fake fire in the theater world where there needs to be visible flame generally only takes a couple of forms. The first is fan-blown dyed silks that are lit from below. With the proper weight of silk fabric and the right colors of dyes and lights, this effect is actually pretty decent. The silks wave and ripple in the fans and make for a pretty good prop. The only problem is that fans make noise, and when you’re recording your audio live from the stage, any extraneous sounds, especially if they would mask dialog or singing in any way, are right out.
Digging around, I stumbled on a different technique that I also found out has commercial backing. It turns out that when you blow a diffuse water vapor mist through a set of appropriate colored lights, the reflection of that light through the mist and as it tapers off into the air make an impressive demonstration of believable flames. A great source for fine water vapor is an ultrasonic humidifier, and they generate the volume of mist needed without any noticeable sound. This technique is used commercially for no-fire fireplace inserts as well as large fire-like effects indoors for casinos and other large installations.
Here is an example of the effect:
I found a video of a prop guy building out a version of this kind of fake fire, and I decided to work with his techniques to build our own fire altar.
I picked up a test humidifier, and with a combination of tubing and some LED christmas lights, I was able to see the effect on a very small scale, so I knew if we could ramp it up, we might have something.
Here is what that test looked like:
The YouTube video included plumbing out two separate humidifiers to create enough mist to make a decent size faux fire, so I picked up another humidifier and some PVC piping and fittings along with a chunk of flexible marine tubing. The builder in the video used theater lighting cans to light the mist, and I didn’t have those available to me at the time of testing, but I picked up some strip LED lighting to attempt to build a lighting rig. Once I was able to collect mist from two humidifiers set at their highest level, I was able to get enough pressure to create the flow we needed.
To diffuse the mist, I took a straight length of piping, just like in the video, and drilled holes at short intervals along one line. This worked ok for a short time, but it was apparent that there were going to be some challenges. Water vapor would condense at the holes in the pipe, and over time due to the water surface tension, a droplet would form and completely block the hole. I tried a few techniques to see if I could find a way to lower the surface tension so this would stop, but what ultimately happened was that I created larger openings that took the form of slots instead of holes. This allowed the vapor to escape and it allowed the condensation to collect in a way that did not impact the pressure of the vapor. Another issue that came up was the fact that the diffuser tube was just too narrow to allow the vapor to spread well, so instead, larger diameter tubing and fittings were arranged and the slots were once again cut into the tube. This combination allowed us to get a fairly large and directed cloud of mist.
Lighting this cloud became a different challenge. The LED strip lights were definitely not bright enough. The light needed to be bright enough to reach high into the vapor cloud, so I began searching for alternatives. I stuck with LED mostly for safety. The cooler temperatures ensured that we wouldn’t have to get creative with cooling or other heat-related considerations when deciding on how to color the lights or how to enclose this assembly. I found two 3-light spotlight style lighting fixtures such that you would use in a living space to highlight a wall or a piece of art, and configured them with 600 lumen LED spot lights. I put one fixture on each side of the diffuser tube, inverted and angled so that the light would hit the wall of mist from underneath and at a focal point of about 2 feet above the deck. One of the advantages of focusing the lights this way was to also provide stage lighting on actors who were performing around the fire altar. As they approached the fire altar, they would glow and light up as though from the light of a real fire. It was a neat effect!
Lighting color became an important piece. If you use the wrong color gels, the effect does not look like natural fire. I did experiment for the sake of “science” with some alternatives, and it is possible to do some really interesting effects that are fire-like but very definitely not natural.
Here is what it looks like with red gels. A nifty effect, but definitely not natural!
The original reference YouTube video suggested that a mix of yellow and orange gels work best and that red is not advised. In my case, I discovered that the color temperature of my LED spot lights was cold enough that the yellow gels didn’t offer much to the effect, so I went strictly with an orange colored gel that I ended up doubling to increase the color saturation.
Rigging the gels was one of the most fiddly parts of the rig because I did not have a good pre-built solution. I ended up building a wire framework to hold the gels over the bulbs. It is the one piece of the puzzle that I will eventually rebuild if I bring out this prop again.
We ended up housing all of the equipment inside one of the base units from our old, well-painted friends, the obelisks. These are the sames obelisks that have enjoyed a role in nearly all of the Eleusyve Rites of Eleusis productions. The base offered plenty of room for all the equipment and gave us a structure for our fire altar. One of the face panels of the base was removed to allow access to the equipment, and a deck was made to cover the top except for about a 4 inch wide slot that ran the length of the middle from where the mist would escape. The mist rose and the lighting seemed to be working, but we needed a little extra force on the mist, so a small personal fan was installed beneath the diffuser tube to blow the mist up and out. This addition made the difference! It didn’t add appreciable noise, and in testing we were able to get some impressive flame-like effects. All of this was routed into a power strip inside the obelisk, and an extension was run to our lighting relays so that the effect could be controlled from the board.
Here is the initial test of the fully assembled rig:
The one consideration in the design that did get missed was the need for supply air venting for the fan. This problem wasn’t noticed until we were in the theater space, the unit installed, and the equipment hatch closed up. The fan had no source to pull in air and lost pressure, and as a result, the flames were not very high. I spent most of the production run battling this issue with various solutions including cutting holes into the floor of our set in order to provide the necessary venting. Thankfully, we figured it out in the end!
All in all, the piece had the desired effect, and we had amazing fire on stage! All this for around $100 plus the enclosure. It was relatively easy to build, and mostly easy to maintain. Adding it to the lighting relays, we were able to turn it on and off at will, and that added to the mystery of it.
Final look before installation in the theater:
This was a fun build, and it was extremely well received! I would highly recommend this as a great solution to bringing a larger fire to your stage production. It will keep your insurance agency and your pocketbooks at bay.
In previous posts I have written about how we create a narrative around the poetic content of The Rites of Eleusis, in order to make them more accessible to the audience.
Those who saw The Rite of Saturn may recall how we employed this technique in the opening Overture to The Rite of Saturn, Kronos the Titan.
In case you were unable to attend, you are in for a treat!
This is a rough cut of what will appear on the streaming video and DVD, but it captures the way the entire premise of our presentation of The Rite of Saturn was set, with themes of mind altering sacrament and brutal oppression before a single line of dialog is spoken. There is still some color correction and final audio mixing that will be taking place in the coming months, but as you can see, it is already pretty great.
The architect of this scene is Melissa Holm, who used the opening musical interlude to set a tone of mystery and peace, of a social harmony and a sacred ritual space that is entirely disrupted and overthrown in the final moments of the opening. Working with the cast (most notably Richard Cardone, Ryan Holsather, and Shawna Jacques) to craft a swift, violent and decisive overthrow by an outside force, the stage is set for the interactions that will ensue.
The featured dancers, Sony Hinojosa and Tara McMillen, add to the sense of other-worldliness that precedes the disruption, while the lighting and fire effects created by Touran De Anda and Marcos Duran, respectively complete the setting. The set itself was constructed on the platform used for the carousel in The Rite of Jupiter in the garage of Daniel and Ana Christensen with the assistance of Posh Eckert, Julie McCoy, Dana Gasbarri, Joshua Hanson and Melissa Holm.
And I would be remiss if I failed to mention Bob Jones and Nicole Plastino, who shot and edited the footage of several performances into this presentations, and Christian Ballard with Dead Albatross Studios, who will be providing the final audio mix. You can see both of their amazing handiwork on The Rite of Jupiter.
There are a great many people to thank, really, and I am certain I will be reminded of more in the coming hours!
By the way, since now would be the best time for a shameless plug, you can purchase or rent The Rite of Saturn in advance for streaming and download via our Vimeo site!
I have been quiet
here for a week. I have to admit that it is not for lack of trying. I
have been writing, but my thoughts have been scattered, and my
ability to concentrate has been disrupted to the point of
debilitation. So, in order to get back into the swing of writing
again, I am going to start by explaining what happened.
Last Thursday
(February 21st) at work, a member of my crew punched another crew
member in the face. It was an intentional physical assault, and full
on fight broke out. They were on scaffolding with 5 other crew
members trying to separate them. It was ignorant, brutal and very
dangerous. Ironically, it was also right after my post about dealing
with difficult people.
The result: one crew member was
hurt, another fired, reports were filed, and it was a source of
gossip and speculation all over my job-site for the past week.
As the fight broke out, I ran toward the uproar. I shouted a great many orders, took command as best I could, made it clear that this was an intolerable circumstance regardless of any perceived provocation, and that someone was no longer working on that site (or for this company), and needed to leave now, as they were trespassing. I went into crisis management mode, and had most of the crew working again within 5 minutes, before I went around the corner to shake.
Immediately I began to feel some responsibility for the incident. There were warning signs. My position doesn’t grant me a great deal of authority to remove people from the job, but in retrospect I wish that I had done more. To be completely honest, I didn’t really have the authority to dismiss them when I did, but I took it anyway.
For my own part, I am not someone who responds well to violence. It throws me off. I have a history, and it includes a long list of things I don’t like to talk about. (This is why we have therapists!)
When this personal trauma gets kicked up by circumstances, it is like so many eels in the mud; it starts to move in the corners of my mind and the uneasiness draws all my focus until I have the opportunity to process things and finally calm down again.
And that is what I have been doing this week.
In the past, I would just take some personal time as these things come up. I mean, if I take a week or two and don’t edit a video or record any music, that can be alright. For the most part I work on my own timeline. Or if I have promises to keep, I could function on auto-pilot, and maintain a reserved countenance. Unless someone is very close to me, most people wouldn’t really notice. But having a regular deadline has made the effect much more obvious. I am aware that I shut down in a way that has never been quite so pronounced to me before. It has given me something to think about.
In the ensuing time, I have been making an effort to find something to say. And my internal dialog keeps coming back to questioning why anyone would care to read it. My internal sense of criticism is both deep and harsh, and can be unrelenting. And it has been stirred by the belief that I should have done more to prevent this. “What the hell do YOU know about managing difficult people, if you let THIS happen?”
Finally, I have to remind myself that one cannot pull on flowers to make them grow. I am going through a process too, and it may be messy. But that is how we learn. So I have taken some time to process, and put things in perspective.
During my search for that perspective, I recalled a similar incident. This recent event closely mirrors something that happened 19 years ago, when I was just starting out as an apprentice bricklayer. My second day on the job, two laborers got into an argument on the scaffold, and it erupted into a full on brawl. One literally tried to throw another to the ground from 40 feet in the air. It was reported as an assault, but could as easily been characterized as attempted homicide.
And looking back, I never blamed the foreman. How was he to know someone was going to lose their shit? He handled it professionally. I have no idea if the memory of every conversation with perpetrator of that long ago assault still bothered him days or weeks later, as my recent interactions with an assailant have been bothering me. I do remember how everyone was shaking afterward. Much as we all were last Thursday.
How does this relate
to art? Well, aside from the obvious, that we make art to process
grief, or trauma, or to celebrate change, there comes a time in the
creative process when we find ourselves dealing with the unexpected.
The cast and crew of The Rite of Saturn (2018), “Closing Circle” photo by David Parks
Rolling With the
Punches
There are times when making art that something will happen that threaten to derail the entire enterprise. The chances go up, the more people you are working with. I can think of several we encountered over the years. None of them were violent, but all of them were hard.
There are moments
that leave the cast members shaking. Everyone excited and distracted.
People so on edge that they are ready to throw their hands in the air
and run out the door, because this was supposed to be fun, and
somehow it turned out to be hard!
And at those time, that is when leadership matters. You run into the fray. Provide context and direction as quickly as possible. That is what people need. For example, if someone who your crew is counting on (like a principal performer) isn’t going to make it, come up with an optional fix quickly, and relay the plan. Pick an understudy if needed, let them be on-book if required, get them a costume and be ready to roll. On with the show!
The same principal applies for whatever circumstance arises. Barring a traumatic injury or tragic event, find a path forward and present it as a plan. It doesn’t have to be a good plan, as you can adjust, but it has to be immediate. A rapid response, with a focus on moving forward is key to re-instilling confidence in your team.
At that point, if
you have fostered open communication, everyone will shift to “problem
solving” thoughts, and will start to share their own ideas about
how to proceed. Five minutes of conversation and everyone will be
adjusting to the new reality.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
I used to read that quote and think that it meant that when things become skewed, those with a skewed perspective might imagine a method to profit from it, turning “pro”, so to speak. Perhaps that is one meaning, but lately I find a more satisfying interpretation in the idea that those who have a history of dealing with circumstances going awry have the ability to compartmentalize and function through future traumatic events, and process the stress at a later time. They put on their “pro” face, and wrestle that many-headed-heinous-fuckery into submission.
Which is what I suppose I am doing now. It got weird. I dealt. I processed. The show goes on.
Because when the show is over, and the costumes are packed away, that is a time to process. To celebrate and grieve. That, to me, is the big take-away. Plan your time to process. And in the event of a traumatic event, take the time to process. Certainly there can be celebrations in having achieved something, even if it is just making it through another day. But do not neglect a quiet space to meditate, and put things into order in your mind. Treat yourself as well, with kindness and patience.
I realize that I never really addressed that inner critic, the one that asks why anyone would read this. I guess I came to the conclusion that you will stop when you want to. you are adults, ans all. And I am simply going to appreciate that I am getting something from writing it.
I will close with the opposing corollary to the above quote.
