Burning Man: The Temple at Sunset

Dancing Wolf was full of light, and joy, and secret pain. The wolf skin headdress he wore was antique, but I could tell that he had taken immensely good care of it. Wolf, he said, was an animal he held a deep connection with.

We talked about totem animals, the powers which draw people together, and the passages we experience as spiritual being from one stage of existence to the next.

These are things I do not normally talk about. Having once lived in a religiously-oppressive country, going to a Christian school which taught me that John Lennon and Frank Sinatra were advocates of Satan, and attending a church lead by a minister who stole money from the congregation, I naturally find it hard to speak openly about my spiritual beliefs.

Yet the fact that Dancing Wolf was wearing a wolf skin headdress and I was wearing a cougar skin headdress probably had something to do with the sense of ease I felt around him. We talked of Shamanism, and the power of music and dreams.

He walked back to camp with me, and along the way, we curiously asked a few passersby what their totem animals were. We were oddly pleased to find that most people openly shared theirs with us, and that the rest were simply curious to know what a totem animal was to begin with. There was no ridicule, no resistance, and no awkwardness about it. Naturally, the couple with animal skins on their heads would be the ones to ask such questions.

A few days later, I ran into Dancing Wolf again, this time accompanied by a pretty little lady called Singing Bird. I joined them as they walked to the Temple with a couple of drums, a watermelon, and the knife clipped to my wolverine tail keychain.

At the Temple, I cut up the watermelon into small pieces. We ate about half of it between the three of us, and then handed out the rest to the people meditating and praying within the main tower, beneath the gongs and bells which rang and chimed with the help of automated mallets and drumsticks. Once all the watermelon had been handed out, the three of us sat down in the center of the open-aired room and Dancing Wolf began to play his drum as Singing Bird and I set up a small alter of crystals and feathers and white sage.

Then, we began to sing.

And pretty soon, a few others within the temple joined in. It was haunting and harmonious, and Dancing Wolf's drumbeat was loud and perfectly clear in the still Playa air. The song changed and evolved as we continued, until we were howling and chanting and clapping out hands in time to the music, and many others from the Temple had joined us. One man was even playing violin.

I have no idea how to explain it. The sounds which came from my mouth during the chants and humming were wavering and powerful unlike any other time I've sang. Not even being on stage has drawn such sounds from me and it was beautiful. I felt beautiful. And when our song ended, many people came up to the three of us and touched our shoulders and thanked us.

I had been a part of something which had drawn tears to others' eyes. I had been a part of the magic that had drawn me to Burning Man in the first place. But the magic didn't end there.

Later on, as Dancing Wolf, Singing Bird, and I were walking across the Playa in search of food, Dancing Wolf mentioned that he was craving sushi. "Try to focus on finding sushi. Maybe the Playa will manifest some for us!" he joked.

But as we neared the esplanade, he spotted something on the ground in a little green package, still sealed and undamaged....

It was a box of dried and salted seaweed used for wrapping sushi rolls.

We all smiled and shared it amongst ourselves before parting ways. I didn't see Dancing Wolf or Singing Bird again, but they certainly left a mark on me that I hope will not soon fade.

On a Dare...

I've never kept a blog before. 

I'm doing so on a dare, under the condition that I keep at it for at least 6 months and see where it takes me. I don't know if I'll be able to stay persistent enough to maintain much of a following, but I do know that my life is far from 'normal', and should therefore prove to be somewhat entertaining. 

For starters, there's my job. I'm a freelance artist with a focus in taxidermy. I use recycled animal parts to create all manner of unusual and unique items, and I find my job very rewarding. 

It's an opportunity to give "new life" to an animal which has passed on, though I refuse to support trophy hunters or fur farms. It's hard for some people to accept, I know, but the way I see it, letting any part of any animal go to waste is disrespectful to that animal.

I guess it started as a personal interest in claws, teeth, and bones. They tell stories if you know how to read them. When I began making jewelry out of them, I would often make more items than I could wear, which is why I turned to eBay in an effort to sell my wares. But eBay was expensive and complicated and there was no sense of community there, which is why I eventually opened a shop with Etsy instead. 

From Etsy, my business began to expand, allowing me to delve into new projects using various different materials. Today, I specialize in making animal skin headdresses and fur tail keychains, though I often have a few claws, teeth, and photography prints in stock, as well. 

Full black wolf skin headdress commissioned by a friend. 

Working with wildlife parts is not only rewarding in that it's fun business. You can also gain an intimate understanding of the animals whose bones or skin you're working with. I can tell what species a fur coat was made from just by the texture of the hairs, even if it's been dyed or sheared, and can identify the difference between a fake tiger tooth and a real one just by looking at a picture of it. I've actually considered a career in wildlife forensics as a result, which is one of the main reasons I chose to attend Southern Oregon University in Ashland. 

As a result of my job, my life is very closely-intertwined with nature, wildlife, and death. I spend much of my free time running around in the Siskiyou Wilderness, photographing wildlife, and meditating on life in general. But I also allow myself to have a bit of fun with my job, which is why I sometimes show up at the 7/11 across the street at odd hours of the night with a coyote pelt on my head to buy all their beef jerky. I've even snowboarded with a wolf on, and was once questioned by police while sporting a mountain lion headdress.

Aside from my strange job, there's also the fact that I have a neurological condition called Synesthesia. To put it simply, I see colors in my head for various triggers such as numbers, letters, days of the week, and months of the year. I also see colors for personalities, music, and even orgasms. It's apparently rather rare, though I tend to think more people have it than are aware of it. After all, I thought it was perfectly normal to see these color until I was 17, when my physics teacher briefly mentioned it during a lecture on optics. After that, I began to focus more intimately on the colors in my head, and have now identified that I've got at least thirteen different forms of the condition. 

What I see while listening to the song "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Pink Floyd. 

Commissioned by David Coalburn

Then, there's the travel. I've done a lot of it, visiting and living in such places as Jakarta, Malaysia, Lombok, Singapore, England, Wales, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. Along the way, I've met many fantastic people and animals, and it has certainly changed who I am as a person. I don't think I could ever stop travelling now that I've got a thirst for it, which worries me in some ways and keeps me excited in others. Being in college now, travel is not something I have either time or money for, yet I somehow manage to seek out adventure nonetheless, often in the form of camping excursions and road trips with friends. 

In short, my life is rather quirky and unique - often playing out like some kind of adventure novel. I have no idea how I've been so lucky to experience all the things I have, but I do know that I never want it to stop. I'm having too much fun already, and I'm nowhere close to running out of steam!