So, the East Jesus Labyrinth Project revived an older thing I’ve been playing around with for years. It was originally conceived as an art project for Burning Man, but wouldn’t work as such for various reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I never have enough time at the Burn to do a project.
In playing with the idea, I’ve decided it needs to be an advanced level class, actually. If I do it through MIU, it would straddle the disciplines of Earth Magic and NeoShamanism, but I’m actually thinking about talking to some of my colleagues at more traditional houses of learning to see if maybe it’s something one of their institutions would be interested in picking up. When I play with things like this, I like to get my ideas down in writing to sort through them. This is what I have so far:
This advanced class centers around a project to build an eleven-circuit labyrinth as a shamanic initiation. We have been offered a location near the Salton Sea to create this as a permanent installation, and some of the initial planning has already been done.
Students would have the opportunity to be intimately involved in the design, planning, fundraising, logistics, and building of the project, and would receive artist credit, as well as have the chance to be part of the first group to go through the initiation. If you are actively involved in undergraduate work in a related field, Ayamanatara can work with your student advisor to get you college credit for this project.You will be learning about
- labyrinths
- sacred geometry
- building large-scale art in the desert
- alternative fundraising
- creating and maintaining sacred space
- project management
- workshop facilitation
- guerrilla marketing
- shamanic initiation
- and yourself
We anticipate meeting 1-4 times a month March – October, making several field trips, and coordinating several fundraising efforts, and then spending a week or so, on location, building.