Kundalini Splendor

Another bliss/light experience

Wen we are turning to light, we may experience bliss again and again, always in a slightly different way.  It is as if the "bliss master" wants to be certain not to overlook any area or part of the physical or subtle body, so each day or episode is different from any other.

Today it was legs.  When I first started doing energy practice (bliss outs) many years ago, I almost never felt any joy or movement in my feet and legs.  They were stiff, almost frozen, and seldom felt anything during practice.

But lately, while I was having so much pain walking or standing, I began to focus more on feelings in my legs and feet.

This morning, even before I brushed my teeth, I noticed something going on (sweet energetic movement) in my lower legs and feet.  I began automatically to rotate my hips in small circles.  Each time I shifted my weight from one foot to the other I felt sweet thrills of energy (like light) moving in my lower legs and feet.  Intention itself seemed to play a part in this response.  I kept on circling my body with my hands throughout, finally moving them up near various chakras, until I reached the crown.  There was a subtle sweetness wherever I moved.  

It was another "Surprised by Bliss" experience.  I am always delighted by these unexpected visitations of joy and it does indeed feel like light moving in exquisite sensation through various physical/subtle energy centers.

Sometimes "it' comes as the Beloved Within indeed making love to you, sometimes it is a wisdom source giving you downloads of thoughtful insight, sometimes it comes as the Friend (of Sufi tradition).  Just as we ourselves go through many stages or states in one day or over many days, so does the "guide' within, our Beloved and our constant companion as we constantly shift into fresh configurations of who we are as embodiments of ever more light.

The Purpose of Yoga and Kundalini

Here is a quote from the intro to the text named below:

"Its practice (Yoga) demands complete mastery of the physical and mental body, rendering the body and mind capable of withstanding prolonged ecstatic states of union with the infinite. Samadhi, or the enlightened state, is not just a mental experience; it is a psychokinetic or whole-body/mind event, involving every fiber, cell and tissue.”  

Later the same writer asserts that the final goal of Yoga is to turn the physical into light.

This quote is taken from the introductory comments for "Hatha Yoga
Pradipitika" (as presented by Swami Muktibodhananda).
Although he is speaking specifically about Yoga, his remarks apply equally to Kundalini.  Both are means of transcending mere bodily exercise in order to enter another level, that of total transfiguration of  flesh and bone into light itself.  Each fiber, cell and tissue must be transformed as a new self is readied to promote human evolution.  This process of awakening and integration can take a very long time, perhaps years.

❤️🙏 Vera de Chalambert 🙏❤️

"It is the nature of consciousness to seek wholeness, it is our destiny to find it everywhere.

Everyone is suddenly a 'spiritual teacher' these days pushing the proverbial crack of 'empowerment'. And even though you have indeed come with gifts to offer, like sex, spiritual teaching shouldn't be engaged in until every cell of Reality is begging for it, calling for you by name. Until she makes her advances, cooks your heart in her furnace, burns up your false dreams and forcing currents, leaves you breathless and speechless and unable to long for anything less. Ever.
Until then, please stop. Be quiet. Stay close to the ground. Ripen. Don't "step into your power." Rest into your vulnerability. Stop marketing sand in a desert. Get weary and tired and thirsty. Feel the humility of death in the scorching sun. Then, let the longing for the Real guide you... you might die, but you might get water from a rock. Taste it. Let it taste you. Then you can't help but devote your life to Water.

Otherwise you become just another pawn of the patriarchy; a dead thing selling smoke, high on the violence of certainty. Pushing your agenda, your brand of half truths upon parched, suffering beings. Don't let the culture of rape speak through you. Soften and worship until God is enflamed. And flowing. Stay in the unknown until freedom takes you through every orifice.
Truth is an orgasm we can't fake.

From today onward
Until the attainment of enlightenment
May I be willing
To live with my chaos and confusion
And that of all other sentient beings.
May I be willing
To share our mutual confusion
And work incessantly and humbly
To help and elevate everyone without exception."

-- Vera de Chalambert, is a spiritual storyteller and Harvard educated scholar of comparative religion working at the feet of the Great Mother.

For all inquiries or to schedule a session please call: (561) 404 3222

Vera can be reached by email at: vdechalambert@gmail.com

https://www.healingawakening.com/

Surprised by Bliss Once More

C. S. Lewis wrote a book called "Surprised by Joy."  I could write one called "Surprised by Bliss."

A few days ago I went immediately to my computer after I got up, to see if there were any important messages from friends.  I soon noticed a simple stirring of energies in my hands and forearms and then this sensation became a sense of bliss in my hands and around my head.  I realized I was craving music and located some Ty Burhoe recordings on YouTube.

The bliss around my head continued as my hands took on more ecstatic vibration.  Sometimes they seemed to be carving sanskrit letters (as with om) in the air.  Eventually they moved closer to other chakras, such as the solar plexus, with arms stretching out as far as they could extend (the aura), the bliss stretching with them.

Sometimes I was able to send these sweet energies down to my feet, through intention.

Indeed, all of this was a real surprise.  Again, I was grateful to know that it is clearly possible to feel bliss while sitting in a chair when rapture arrives as a welcome morning visitor.

Kundalini never fails to impress with its own creative imagination.  It constantly comes up with new sensations, new delights.  It is sometimes like an unseen companion who wishes to play and instruct.  I love it.

Julie Podachefsky, YogiAmong Yogis

Julie Podachefsky is one of the most outstanding yoga practitioners/teachers of our time.  She teaches other teachers of yoga how to present their work in the most authentic fashion, taking into account the sacred roots of yoga and how to bring this awareness into their own classes.

Today many who practice or even teach yoga stress such things as the health benefits, the beauty enhancements, or the relaxation rewards of yoga, and are not aware of the sacred beginnings and purpose of this ancient practice.

Yoga in its origins was meant to be a means of "yoking" the human practitioner to the divine itself.  Seekers often practiced austere measures, followed extreme practices, limited their diets or pursued other harsh disciplines to ready their bodies to receive the intense infusions of (often blissful) energies into their systems.  These aspirants were instructed to find a worthy teacher (guru) to lead them on their journey and show them how to prepare for advanced practices of illumination, leading perhaps to enlightenment itself.

Julie does not follow nor prescribe such severe regimens, but she herself loves to read the ancient texts and adapt what she finds there to the modern student.  In fact, she and I are planning to read and study the text called the "Hatha Yoga Pradipita" once she returns to this area in the spring.  I also love these ancient texts, but must admit that this one looks rather formidable.  However, I consider this a blessing and a great opportunity to study with one so knowledgeable about the practice  of yoga.

Here is a quote from the intro to the above text: 
"Its practice demands complete mastery of the physical and mental body, rendering the body and mind capable of withstanding prolonged ecstatic states of union with the infinite. Samadhi, or the enlightened state, is not just a mental experience; it is a psychokinetic or whole-body/mind event, involving every fiber, cell and tissue.”  Later the same writer asserts that the final goal of Yoga is to turn the physical into light

Julie has gone to India many times to further her awareness of Yoga in the place of its origin.  In fact she has made the journey to India five times in the past and will be co-leading a small group there once more in a few weeks.

Julie spend this last summer in the mountains near Boulder and loved her stay so much that she has decided to move here.  Of course, this prospect delights me.  We have met for lunch several time this summer and I look forward to many more such meetings with her and her wonderful friends Brenda and Erica (who will I am sure visit her often.

(Don't know how I got two of these images, but I feel doubly blessed to know Julie.  Note the crown of light above her head.  Of course!)



 

Erica Bleznak

Erica is indeed an amazing woman.  She is a former winner of the Triathlon.  Now she is an outstanding yoga teacher and she keeps her body in wonderful shape, as the pictures on her website will attest. You seldom see a female attaining such postures––because males have more muscle mass, they can more easily achieve such positions.

However, what I most love about Erica is that she is also a writer herself and a lover of mystical poetry.  She regularly reads sacred poems to her yoga classes (including my own poetry.)  This is a great honor for me and produces an impressive demonstration of the mind/body connection.

Thank you, Erica.  You are indeed an inspiration and a way shower.

To see her astonishing movements, go to her website at:

BRENDA MCMORROW––SINGER TO THE WORLD






RECENTLY I HAD THE AMAZING LUCK TO MEET THREE OF THE MOST TALENTED AND LOVING WOMEN I MIGHT IMAGINE.  WE WENT FOR A SPECTACULAR RIDE IN THE MOUNTAINS AND ENDED UP EATING AT THE KATMANDU RESTAURENT IN THE TINY TOWN OF NEDERLAND, COLORADO, LOCATED AT THE VERY FOOT OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.  SURPRISING AS IT MAY SEEM, THEY SERVE SOME OF THE BEST NEPALESE/INDIAN FOOD IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY.

BECAUSE EACH OF MY THREE NEW FRIENDS IS SO GIFTED, I WANT TO SET ASIDE A SPECIAL PAGE FOR EACH OF THEM, AND EXPLAIN MORE OF HOW I WAS SO HONORED TO HAVE THEM IN MY TERRITORY.

THE FIRST OF THE THREE I WISH TO DESCRIBE IS BRENDA MCMORROW, A VERY WELL KNOWN SINGER/COMPOSER WHO PERFORMS ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY AND ACROSS THE WORLD.  SHE IS PARTICULARLY KNOWN FOR HER RENDITIONS OF KIRTAN AND OTHER FOLK SONGS.  SHE IS ALSO,  I DISCOVERED, A MOST LOVING AND GENEROUS COMPANION, SOMEONE YOU FEEL HONORED TO KNOW.   I LOVE TO FOLLOW HER AND HER TRAVELS ON FACEBOOK, AND ENJOY HER AMAZING ADVENTURES ON HER FB PAGE.

WHEN I ASKED HER TO TELL ME SOME STORIES FROM INDIA, SHE NARRATED THIS REMARKABLE STORY, AND I ASKED HER TO WRITE IT UP SO I COULD PUBLISH IT HERE.

SHE TALKS HERE OF TULSIDAS, AN EARLY INDIAN POET AND SAINT, STILL REVERED IN THAT COUNTRY.

HERE IS HER STORY:


In 2015 myself and my friend/percussionist Raffa Martinez took a trip to the Holy City of Varanasi (also known as Kashi or Benares) after leading a chanting and yoga retreat in Tamil Nadu. One day we decided to take our instruments and find a shady spot along the river Ganga to play some music. We walked along the river, all the while keeping an eye out for a shady spot. We saw a tattered, palm leaf umbrella and sat down to sing the Hanuman Chalisa (a devotional hymn to Lord Hanuman which was written by Tulsidas in the 15th Century). A large group soon formed around this unlikely Western duo singing a 40 verse hymn to a Hindu God! At one point during the song we saw a tall  woman descend the long stairs that led to ancient buildings which faced the Ganga. She was filming us and when we were done she said "What a beautiful thing you have decided to do: honouring Tulsidas by singing the Hanuman Chalisa directly at the foot of his home". Raffa and I were stunned because we, in fact, did not even know that Tusidas had lived in Varanasi, let alone in a direct line from where we were sitting singing a version of his hymn! The woman was shocked and delighted that we did not know and graciously took us for a tour to his house and the small museum beside it. She then told us that because of this great synchronicity she was going to arrange for us to be able to visit the holy Ram and Hanuman temple, Sankat Mochan, to sing the Chalisa there. (this is a temple that was built up around the spot where Tuslidas received Darshan from Ram!) Even though Westerners are not really known for playing music there, she was able to get us an invitation to play there! Here is the link to us playing the Chalisa there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUf5aMg2aLc
The next day our hotel manager asked if it was us that were at the temple the day before as he had just read an article in the newspaper about some westerners who had just played there. He read us the article in which the writer talked about there "not being a Chalisa of this kind ever played within the walls of the temple" and that one of the highlights was the "body language of the lady"! This made us laugh!

Thanks for your interest in this, Dorothy! It was a remarkable experience for me!

NOTE:  Brenda is the one in the middle in the picture above.  She has many songs on Youtube as well as manyCD's available.

BATGAP INTERVIEW

"Batgap" is a contraction of 'Buddha at the Gas Pump," a network site where people are interviewed who have had unusual lives.  I have been invited to appear on this site next Saturday:

DATE: AUGUST 17 

TIME: TWO P.M.--FOUR P.M.  (CENTRAL TIME)

LINK:TO BE ANNOUNCED (Batgap.com)

TOPIC: KUNDALINI:  MY SPONTANEOUS AWAKENING; WHAT IS KUNDALINI; HOW KUNDALINI IS RELATED TO THE CURRENT EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES; READING OF MYSTICAL POEMS FROM 'THE KUNDALINI POEMS-REFLECTIONS OF RADIANCE AND JOY' (NEW BOOK BY DOROTHY WALTERS)

THIS INTERVIEW WILL BE LIVE STREAMED AND ALSO ARCHIVED FOR LATER VIEWING IN A FEW DAYS AT BATGAP.COM

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT WRITTEN QUESTIONS AHEAD OF TIME, YOU CAN DO SO ON THE FORM AT BATGAP.COM

A weird happening

Yesterday as I was having lunch with a friend, I noticed two women sitting across the aisle, one of whom seemed to be listening to our conversation.  When they left, she stopped to say she had indeed been listening, and added (to me): "You are Irish."  That of course, is quite true, since I am almost all 'Scotch Irish' and was even born on March 17, St. Patrick's Day.  I have been to Ireland several times, and when I travel there I often pick up ecstatic earth energy at the sacred sites, such as the holy wells and Tara, a locale once considered to be the body of the Great Mother, later taken over by the patriarchy and where the ancient Irish kings were crowned.

When I asked her how she knew, she mentioned that my eyes were a combination of blue and green (they indeed are).

Then my friend and I went to pick up her daughter, a lovely young woman in her early twenties whom I had not yet met.  After we two exchanged a few comments, she announced, "You are Irish."  I have no idea how she knew, but thought it odd to have two such pronouncements out of the blue all in the space of an hour.

https://youtu.be/9IayZz7aeNQ

This presentation is quite fascinating, since it attempts to compare ancient yogic writings and modern practice.  It has much interesting information, but I read it with a very critical eye coming as I do from a different experiential perspective.  Mostly I am concerned that the speaker insists that the aim of kundalini yoga is to enter a state of samadhi (awareness of vastness) and not what he calls "worldly experience."  He does state that kundalini yoga will reveal your true nature.  I agree.  But I feel that your "true nature" is bliss itself, that state that lies like a sleeping serpent beneath consciousness.  He insists that 'worldy experience" precludes attainment of "spiritual wisdom."  I believe that it (ecstasy) is the gateway to progress in spiritual wisdom.  The two go hand in hand,  When your body opens to intense rapture, you are introduced to a level of feeling and perception beyond anything you have imagined before.
Yet his perspective is one worth considering.  I of course feel that we must always weigh any philosophical interpretation carefully, sort out what rings true from false.  I love the advice attributed to Buddha: "Lay down your own path."

https://youtu.be/9IayZz7aeNQ

P.S.  Just for the record, I again experienced the Beloved as bliss once more today.  But this time, it started in the lower chakras and as I slowly rotated my hips and shifted my weight,  the feeling spread into my calves and feet. I have been focusing on feet recently, and have even been using a vibrator (no, not that kind) to increase the circulation in my feet.

Consciousness, Bliss, and Reality

Yesterday I listened to a respected spiritual teacher and learned two new things.  For years I have felt that images of gods and goddesses were merely visual representations of the energies behind them, for what they ultimately depicted were simply human creations derived from the raw energies of their source (an imageless reality).  She expressed this idea this way: these deity images represent more compressed vibratory representations of the imageless source from which they came.

For her, the 'imageless source" is the vastness that one seeks to enter during meditation.  All is focused on this mental capacity.  But she explained it this way: we know that we are seeing and indeed accepting as reality the "room" (setting) in which we find ourselves once meditation ceases, though this setting is created by our own perception and imagination.   Actually the room exists only in our own consciousness––we create it in our awareness when our eyes are open.   In the same way the Goddess of All embraces the totality of creation for it exists only as part of her vast consciousness.  This explanation makes sense to me.

Although she is well aware of the role of bliss as part of the human experience of transformation, she did not include it in her discussion.  I don't know why.  I do not seek to enter an indescribable 'vastness" but rather to be aware fully and wondrously of the Great Bliss that enters and transmutes my system.  Why contemplate nothingness when you can "know the divine' by opening to the vast bliss currents that power the universe?  I think that bliss is the ultimate goal of yoga, meditation, and all the transformational techniques.  Bliss is the closest we can come to God.  Bliss is the state that tells us who we truly are.  "Bliss is beautiful."

Dorothy Walters
August 6, 2019

(image from internet)

Bloch and Ecstasy

When I was writing my spiritual memoir ("Unmasking the Rose") I was fearful that I had so many entries describing my near constant days of bliss that readers would be bored.  Finally a friend suggested that I simply write 'Ecstasy again––see page 86."

Just now, a similar situation is happening, daily "bliss outs, each experience arriving under different circumstances and with a different flavor.  Today it began with listening to Bloch's "Concerto Grosso" on my new sound system.  This is the music I associate with my original awakening, for I played it a lot during that initial Kundalini awakening (1981, age 53).

It has not lot its power.  This piece is powerful and also sensuous, each passage and phrase arousing deep feelings of rapture within.  It mainly involved sensations of ecstasy around and within the head, my hands moving in circles nearby.  So very sweet, so indescribably delicate and even quasi-erotic.  It is the musical equivalent of Kundalini itself.

I am always grateful when these wondrous experiences return, for they assure me that Kundalini is still active within, despite my age and occasional quiescent periods.  Once Kundalini ecstasy begins, it can continue, apparently, until the very end of life.  This is the real 'unconditional love" spoken of by the NDE survivors.  It is the 'Beloved Within" active forever.

And as I have said often, Kundalini as the life force is leading all of us through our current transformation to a new level of human evolution.  The nervous system is literally refashioned to allow a different kind of response as we reverberate in a new way to the world around us.

Vibration of Love

Once out of nature
I will not take my shape
from any natural thing...
                        Yeats

Nor I
but be a sphere of light
to float above this realm
of pain and joy,
a sun with my own center,
a rapture too profound
to say in words,
a sacred trembling,
vibration of Love,
frequency of all that remains,
Soul unleashed at last.

Dorothy Walters
August 4, 2019

(image from internet)

Jeff Carreira––Summer Retreat


I strongly recommend this retreat.  You can still sign up online to be a virtual participant.  Jeff now has distilled years of practice and contemplation to become an authentic teacher, one who understands the joys and pitfalls of the spiritual path.

Hi Dorothy,

The start of my annual summer retreat is now just about a week away, and I wanted to share some of what I’m thinking and feeling heading into this event.

For the past five years this summer retreat has been the most powerful event that I do annually. It has over 70 participants in-person and well over 100 when we include our virtual participants who take part from home. (By the way there is still time to register for virtual participation.)

These summer retreats have also acted as a focal point for the entire global community of people who are engaged with this work. The experiences that we explore on retreat shape the direction of my teaching and the engagement of the community for months after.

As the retreat draws near, I’m thinking back to the first summer retreat I led in 2015. So much has happened since that retreat five years ago.

A community has gathered and strengthened, people are staying connected all year long through The Mystery School for a New Paradigm, and my first meditation teacher training is nearly complete. In fact, some of those teachers will be teaching during the summer retreat.

Spiritually I feel that there is more power and insight flowing through our community and as a result, I feel moved to speak about purification and devotion on this retreat in ways that I haven’t before.

Love,
Jeff

Devotion and Purification

As we gain access to spiritual power, it becomes more important to remember that the aim of spiritual work is always and only to be more surrendered to divinity.

Have you ever seen the musical Jesus Christ Superstar? There is a powerful moment in the story where Jesus is asking God to help him understand why he must die and he sings:

Why then am I scared
To finish what I started

-pause-

What you started
I didn't start it

At this point, Jesus has an epiphany and reconnects with all of the inspiration that had fueled his early ministry. He realized that he had mistakenly started to think of what was happening as if it were his agenda. When he remembers that his work had always been dictated from something higher, he feels a surge of courage and faith rush back in. Suddenly he is not just a person trying to enact a plan, he is surrendered to a divine plan that he is ready to see through to the end.

As we open more deeply to our own spiritual potential, we inevitably gain access to greater power. We’re able to see with piercing clarity, we find wellsprings of strength and conviction within, and we often find that we have tremendous influence over the people around us.

As these extraordinary characteristics grow within us, our spiritual work must expand to include more practices of purification, renunciation, devotion, and worship. In the excitement of realizing expanded human capacities it’s easy to forget who started this.

Your spiritual path was not started by you, so you could become a superman or a superwoman. It was started because you were touched by a source of love and wisdom that wanted to shine through you into the world.

When increased human capacities are overly glorified on the spiritual path, it tempts the ego to run away with the show and make it all about glorifying itself.

Over the last eight months I’ve been adding more practices of devotion and purification to my own personal ritual. That means more time spent in silent contemplation of the divine, it meant setting up an alter that displayed realized beings that I admire, and it means spending time in prayer asking for the strength, clarity and sensitivity to be true to the path. It also means reading sacred texts – not to learn, but simply to commune with the sacred spirit of the wisdom they contain.

Purity doesn’t mean being perfect. It means remaining in service of divinity. And whenever you discover that you’ve lost sight of who started this, it means returning to the source and connecting once again with the reason you entered the spiritual path in the first place.

We entered the spiritual path because something opened us to a higher possibility. It might have been pain, trauma, or personal tragedy that opened us up. It might have been revelation or spiritual insight that did the trick. But something made us recognize an immaculate source of love and wisdom.

We saw it, maybe for just a minute, or maybe longer, but we saw it. We knew that we were capable of being a vessel of that immaculate love and wisdom. In fact, we realized that only that was truly worthy of our lives.

We embarked on the spiritual path. We found ourselves in the world, but not of it. Maybe we were living a human life that was in many ways normal, but we were not motivated by the same things that motivated most of the people around us. We now had our heart set on the possibility of becoming a reflection of divinity and grace.

That sacred purpose moved us along the path, and eventually we started opening to profound insights, powers and capacities. At that point our ego tries to muscle in. "Hey, I want this!" it will say, "Yes, be a vessel for divinity, but do a little something for me too."

Practices of devotion and purification protect us from being fooled by the ego’s beckoning, and if we do get fooled, they help us find our way home again. The way home is always back to the source, back to whatever it was that introduced us to the divine in the first place.

...the end...

I truly believe this growing community has the chance to become a spiritual beacon of hope in the world. And the explorations we engage with together on retreat will help guide us there.

It will be a privilege to explore the sacred practices of purification and devotion on retreat with so many of you.

If you want to join us virtually, you can find out how here.

Love,
Jeff
e: jeff@jeffcarreira.com
w: jeffcarreira.com
w: mysteryschool-memberscircle.com

And yet another way

Recently I wrote a description of a very sweet experience of bliss.  This bliss continued again the next day and again the following day.  Than it disappeared for many days, and indeed I felt ill for several of these.

But then something unexpected happened this morning.  I was sitting at the computer checking my e-mail when I noticed some soft "tingles" in my hands and forearms.  I lifted my hands up and moved them in circles around my head, and the tingles grew stronger, and soon became a sweet bliss as I moved my hands farther and farther from my head (about 6 inches away).  It was delightful.  I then moved my hands down through my chakras (again, never touching), and there the feelings were not so strong.

It was as though my energy body was reminding me to do my ritual of moving rapture through my system, even when I was not standing (usual posture) or smelling my "magical" frankincense/amber essential oil.

Once an internet correspondent said he did not want to know what was next in my journey, since he was doing his own advance into Kundalini. I told him he need not worry, since each of us follows our own path.  However, I now feel that much of what I do and feel is a foreshadowing (in small) of what all of us will feel and do once wefully enter our next stage of development.  We may not have a physical body as such but our body of light will throb with  pleasure, and we will feel not only our own special frequency of light and delight but also those of others.  We will be like dolphins, constantly at play in a field of joy.  We often say or hear, "God is love."  That love will enter and sustain us and we will be total, sensuous love.

"Source" is preparing us, honing us to be ready for the Big Shift that is already taking place across the planet.  We are each doing it in our own way, whatever most suits us for the journey, but when we feel it in our subtle bodies, blood and bones and tissue, we know it is happening.

"Unmasking the Rose: A Record of a Kundalini Initiation" is still available on Amazon.  Published in 2000, it is a detailed account of the first 20 years of my awakening, that took place with no external teacher or guide, but followed the direction of the "guru within."

Suggested practice:

Your mantra is 'Breathe Joy."  Inhale slowly and fully, "Breathe" on inbreath, 'Joy" on exhale.  When you forget during the day, do it again. Notice what you are feeling.

My Destiny

I have burned my house down.
                             Kabir

I have destroyed it all––
myself, my assumed
identity, my face of
who I am.

Sometimes I used flame––
sometimes a mirror of truth.
Sometimes a chopping block
to rid myself
of those false claims.

Now I am free
and can choose what
I wish to be––
a bird crying at midnight,
a salmon swimming upstream,
a page in a wisdom book,
a lost continent,
an invisible cell
in the body of God.

Dorothy Walters
February 17, 2019

My dear friends and colleagues,

As you can see in this photo, my new book, They Call Me Grandma Techno, is now in print and can be ordered online at 1xRUN.com! The 157-page hardcover book features 150 color photos that I took at the Movement Detroit electronic music festival every year from 2007-2018. Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic Brian McCullum's conversation with Grandma Techno provides text for the book, and Jason Clark of Paxahau writes an introduction to the Movement festival and Grandma Techno's place in its history.

With heartfelt thanks to my publisher, Jesse Cory of 1xRUN, the Paxahau producers of Movement Detroit, hundreds of generous donors to our Kickstarter campaign, and an enthusiastic team of creative, committed individuals and groups who have worked for months on this project, we are ready to celebrate a book launch and signing at the Sheometry Music & Art Festival at Detroit’s Marble Bar on Saturday, August 10.

In addition to Grandma Techno’s book signing from 12 noon - 8 PM, this female-centric festival features performances by R&B artists Monica Blaire and Ideeyah, and electronic music DJs Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale, Minx, Whodat, Jenny LaFemme and John Collins, among others. It goes from 12 noon until 2 AM and includes art curated by Detroit painter Sabrina Nelson, a wide array of food, vendors and grassroots organizations. Festival tickets can be ordered online via Resident Advisor.

Over these past months I have been fortunate to be featured in the VICE video, “Grandma Techno Captures Detroit’s Rave Culture,” and a radio interview with Ryan Patrick Hooper of WDET, Detroit’s public radio station, “Grandma Techno Parties Harder Than You.” The adventure continues…

I look forward to seeing some of you at the book launch but whether or not you can join us in person, please know that I am grateful for the time, energy, support and encouragement I have received from each one of you during my years as a photographer.

All the best,
Patricia a.k.a. Grandma Techno

Patricia Lay-Dorsey
www.patricialaydorsey.com
playdorsey@comcast.net
Instagram @patricialaydorsey

(from Dorothy:  Patricia and I have been closest friends for over 20 years.  We met when I was living in San Francisco and she was spending winters there to escape the harsh weather of Grosse Pointe (near Detroit).  Åt that time, she simply used a cane (as I recall) but even then she showed her spirit and spunk.  She often rode the Muni across the Bay to attend Jazz music in Oakland, and then returned alone at a late hour.  Brave woman!

When the U. S. invaded Iraq, the U. S. began rounding up persons with suspicious passports and deporting them summarily, often without benefit of trial or hearing.  One such person was held in detention without trial, having been seized in front of his terrified wife and children without notice or due cause.  Patricia befriended his wife, who went to court again and again, hoping to get a hearing of his case.  ˇhis hearing never happened.  Ultimately he and his wife were reunited in Lebanon and they invited Patricia to visit them and she accepted.  She traveled overseas alone and had a wonderful reunion with her friends.

More than once, Patricia drove alone (in her outfitted van) from Detroit to NYC, this at a time when she was unable to take a single step alone––M.S.

Sh is a gifted photographer and her work can be seen on Instagram.  She is one of the most remarkable persons I have ever known and I am immensely grateful to have known her.)

III