"The Awakening" - Numina Masks for the Elemental Powers

Ann Waters as "Dawn of the New Aeon"

"Dawn of New Aeon - She arises! Mother awaken to us! We see her on the horizon, rising with the sun…New Aeon - take hold!"

I've received photos from The Awakening - Our Changing Earth the  performance created and produced by Ann Waters, in Collaboration with Mana Youngbear, the Muse in Willits, and her Community of performers and writers - wonderful!  There are so many beautiful photos, and excerpts from the script I'd like to share.  

My deepest gratitude to Annie, Mana, and all of the wonderful people in the Cast - for creating hope, beauty, bringing the masks to life, and giving voice to the Numina.  May this important story continue to unfold.

Mana Youngbear as "The Medicine Basket"

"You’ve gathered through the springtime, the summer and the fall.
Your offerings are yours alone, and precious to us all.
 Now rest and build your strength up. Cycle with the moon.
Offer your song of life
 A very sacred tune.
Dream of where you’re going
 Dream of where you’ve been
 Dreams  make the Gathering.
 Beginnings never end."

"Rainbow Star Goddess"

"I bear a message of hope.   You are the Rainbow Bridge prophesized so long ago."

All photographs are copyright Jerri Jo Idarius, and used with her permission.

Corizone Elliott as "The Pythoness - Oracle"

THE PYTHONESS:

Pilgrim and Kings, alike, answers sought, spoke of their hopes and dreams,

 journeyed to holy Delphi,  a crevice, deep in the earth,

 journeyed to the Oracle, the Sibyl, the Pythoness

 In trance, she spoke offered visions, offered hope: 

Behold I draw a spiral for You - 

Step In I implore You

You are vessels of  

Finely Woven well pitched baskets

Ancient Urns, Carved boxes

and Medicine Bundles

Fashioned From Your Perfect Heart

They are Still Safe Inside HER Holy Womb

Ancient Prayers Stir the Air,

Stirring Breath and Bone 

Inspiration, Invocation, 

Your hope is yours alone.

To touch what was a memory brings no fruit, 

Your silent longing is the proof

As the Years move to months, 

Months move to days

Numina witness you this Night,

Numina witness you this Night,

Floating plastic, Trash, decay, 

Fill our planet and oceans today

Young and Old cry out to be free,

Grieving  loss from each killing spree

Earth Mother Gaia raped 

of soil and honor brings famine

Extinction threatens sockeye salmon

Elders sit alone in Hunger waiting; 

Chorus:  Man’s compassion dissipating.

Time to listen, Take note, Stand strong

Mark My Words - It won’t be long

When no water will be safe to drink, 

And Men will lose their right to think

Because their judgment is impaired 

with residue of regret and mind despaired.

Desolation’s Darkened Dance

Stomps out the last of free will’s chance

False pride clothed in glamour’s fashion -

a deceptive weaving of wasteful action

Chorus:  Grinding you down ...Back Down to dust.

A woman weeps - A baby cries, a seed refuses to grow

Where now there is open sea there once was gentle snow.

Fruitless trees that do not bear, drought pursues you everywhere.

But Listen within - Your Soul Still Knows.

Ageless Grace resounds around.

Chorus : A Prophecy is about to unfold

Thallia Bird as "The Weaver"

THE WEAVER:

Listen. Things are unraveling.   

Let me tell you about the fabric of your life. 

Your soul is the tightened yarn of the weft; your spirit is the weave. 

Your spirit is woven into the mat on which you kneel, 

into the cloak that wraps around the shoulders of your everyday lives.

 

Allow the distressed threads of your life to unravel. 

I have an old yarn. I have a new yarn.

Chorus: Take this yarn from me.

Form a weft that makes you strong

Take this yarn from me

Weave the threads so life goes on

 Take this yarn from me.

           

Stories are woven into the land. Stories wrap themselves

around old bones and compost, vine and curl and leaf in the night,

stories written in the rocks about Deer and Raven,

sung by a Tree Nesting Warbler, stories found

in the cold hearts of sleeping mountains.

Walk out into the orchard. Sit beneath a fruiting tree. 

Notice the shapes of things. The shape of the sky,

the shapes of the shadows, the shape of your own shadow.

There are cracks in the land like a spider web,

full of light, full of fire. Once,

you could see the Web as plain as day. 

Song lines, leylines, threads, the pattern. 

Each shining, woven thread.

It’ s time to weave a new story now.

See yourself as Spiderwoman, 

sitting in the center of your   web.

All of its snaking rivers and twining roots are inside of you! 

All those threads come right out of your hands and out of your hearts

All those threads just go on forever

Chorus:  

Into the Earth, and into each other: 

into all your stories, into everyone you'll ever know,   

Into all those who came before you, 

and all those who will come after you.

 

Script excerpts by Ann Waters, Mana Youngbear, Ilana Stein, Lauren Raine

My gratitude to the fabulous performers of Willits who danced the masks to life!

"Drought"

Thank you once again for bringing these masks to life, for truly making them "Masks for the Elemental Powers"!

"Storm" by Diane Smalley.

"Desert Spring (Our Lady of the Arroyo)"

"Ocean"

"Ice (Glacier"

"Flood"

"Volcano"

"Butterfly (Imaginal)" by Diane Smalley.

"The Lady of Avalon (Sacred Spring)"

"River"

"Rainbow"

Medicine Basket

Gaia

The Black Madonna

All photographs are copyright Jerri Jo Idarius, and used with her permission.

"The Awakening" - Numina Masks in California

I  feel so honored that ritualist, community organizer, and choreographer  Ann Waters, along with her collaborator Mana Youngbear, creator of  The Muse In Willits, and the wonderful dancers of the community of Willits, California, will be performing "The Awakening".  They will give voice to Our Changing Earth with a mythic journey. 

"The Awakening" is a dance theater event in our newly revived Little Lake Grange Hall. We will experience the story of our times and our changing Earth using the 'Masks of the Numina', dance, poetry and music.

Do you think our current cultural direction needs revision? Are you concerned about the extreme weather we have experienced in the last decade - Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the Tsunamis, drought in the Midwest, GMO Labeling, Species Extinction, Plastic in the Oceans? Would you like to go beyond your fears and find a place of peace and simple connectivity to nature? 
 
Join us. 

Local playwright Annie Waters has written this timely script with flowing renditions of poetry by Mana Youngbear, Lauren Raine, Marilyn Motherbear, Ilana Stein, the Grange Founders, and others. 

Many local dancers and speakers will bring their talents to the stage for this contemporary drama. The early Romans believed nature was inhabited and maintained by elemental forces they called the Numina. The mysterious forests, the generous orchards, the fields of grain, the healing springs each had an intelligent spirit, a Numen. Every Roman farm had a shrine dedicated to the spirit of place that lived there. Being in good relationship with the Numina, receiving their blessings and their wisdom was necessary for the health, prosperity, and spiritual well being of all who lived on the land.

As Rome grew storytellers began to give the Numina names, and the weavers of myth gave them faces, and temples were built for them. But their ancient origins were never forgotten, their primal grace always sought. Indeed - the “Spirit of Place” calls to us today. We experience it in our wisdom and concerns over the salmon, health of the ocean, hurricanes, summer heat and wild fires being experienced each year.  This unusual performance of Mask Art, Poetry and Dance presents the dilemma of our time in Classical Greco-Roman theater style. We will enjoy the enigmatic Masks of Ancient Numina (Spirit of Place) created by master mask artist Lauren Raine - as we face our fears, and find a key to re-visioning our collective future.

Newly installed theatrical lighting for the main stage at the Grange is being used for the very first time; we thank all of those who contributed to this great revival of our completely renovated Community Grange Hall.

Please join us for an evening of deepening and artistic vision.

Playing one weekend only- March 15 and 16th, 7pm
Little Lake Grange - 291 School St - Willits, CA 95490
Tickets $10 - available at Good's Stamp Shop
 and Grange Grains (Farmers Market)
General Seating. Call the Muse (707)  354-2475  for more information