CoSM blog

Green Goddess of CoSM

We are BLOOMING!

Walking the Wisdom Path in the evening, we say prayers of gratitude to the forest. Tiny plants covering the ground, offering us creatures the softest, most exquisite carpet.

Eight hives of bees are so busy making honey and wax, forming comb and tending pupa, that there is only a small group hanging out on the "beard" of each hive where incoming and outgoing bees meet. We have eight new Queens on the property with their busy communities. 

Last week one of the hives swarmed.  They elected a new queen and the old queen is here surrounded by her community.  They protect her until the scouts find a new home, within about 48 hours of leaving the previous hive they are making a new hive in the woods.  To have bees return to the wild is part of our goal at CoSM.  Later in the year we will bee making honey!

What's with the flowers this year?!  Could the bees have anything to do with those perfumed fields of purple and white that we never remember seeing before and that sea of daisies was not growing here last year to our memory.

A sudden damp spell and dead trees fall down and interlock with living trees, now inclining, forming an arch between them. The frogs, crickets and other creatures communicate continually. Living outdoors is where it's at in this weather.

Visionary Permaculture leader, Delvin Solkinson completed the first Permaculture class of the season, the mapping and recording of the naturefield of CoSM has begun!

At top of property

The Goddess of CoSM over map of CoSM Property

The dimensions of the CoSM property relate to the vesica piscis, the archetypal sacred geometric feminine form. This one by two proportion is that of the adult human and perfectly hosts an imaginal goddess. A temple is a vessel for the soul and intuitively a place of pilgrimage relating to the Divine Feminine. Our very first odyssey in life is as separate sex cells toward the ovum. Our existence depends on the success of that journey to the Great Goddess. A sperm and an egg are the only cells in the body with 23 chromosomes. Every other cell has 46. For life to begin, the sperm must travel far at great peril and probable death to join together in Oneness with the awaiting Goddess. A sacred space calls to those who seek Oneness.  An angel once told me, "The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors is a womb for the gestation of the awakening human spirit."  Allyson, the Sacred Feminine in my life, both inspired and named the Sacred Mirrors. The Goddess of CoSM is embedded in this Holy Ground. [excerpt from the soon-to-be released Net of Being, by Alex Grey with Allyson Grey coming November 2012]

Bicycle Day 2012

Thousands enjoyed massive Visionary Art explosion, painting collaborations, top electronic musicians, sculpture, and mind-melting lighting and projections at Bicycle Day celebration, April 19, in San Francisco.

Carey Thompson's amazing Altar. Carey is designing the stage of Boom Festival and under Burning Man

Allyson welcomes everyone and thanks them for supporting CoSM by coming out in force! 

Alex tells the story of Bicycle Day and introduces a great panel of artist's who each described their connection with the visionary worlds.

James Oroc, Vibrata Chromadoris and Amanda Sage

Amanda Sage uplifts the audience with her visions

Oliver Vernon shares his multi-dimensional painterly worlds

Ollie collaborated with his friend, the amazing Damon Soule

Alex collaborated with Mars-1

Vibrata Chromadoris collaborated with Allyson

Anthony Ward made the stage beautiful with his flowers!

Tribe 13 installation featuring works of Michael Divine and Amanda Sage

Michael Divine and AG (Amanda Sage ptg. behind)

Android Jones (w AG) exhibited a most beautiful dragon and collaborated with visionary light-slinger Johnathan Singer.

On April 19th, visionary artists painted collaboratively onstage before thousands of Love Tribers while rocking to the uplifting sonic vibrations of a few of our favorite musicians.Thousands of people entered the visionary dimensions that evening by contemplating the artwork of some of the most outstanding creators in the genre.  We send our love and appreciation to all who came out to celebrate together!  This was also a pre-celebration for Symbiosis, where many of the artists and musicians will reconverge for creative collaborations!

 

 

Why Visionary Art Matters

1. Visionary mystical experiences are humanity's most direct contact with God and are the creative source of all sacred art and wisdom traditions. The best currently existing technology for sharing the mystic imaginal realms is a well-crafted artistic rendering by an eye witness.

2. Mystic visionary artists distill the multi-dimensional, entheogenic journey into externally crystallized theophanies, icons embedded with evolutionary world views. Since mystic visionary artists paint the transcendental realms from observation, their work offers a growing body of evidence substantiating the divine imaginal realms and by extension, Spirit itself.

3. The mystic state described by visionary artists includes images of unity, cosmic oneness, transcendence of conventional space and time, a sense of the sacred in having encountered ultimate reality, positive affect, vivid color and luminosity, symbolic pattern language, imaginal beings and infinite geometric jewel-like vistas.

4. For pilgrims to the sacred inner dimensions, visionary art provides validation for their own glimpses, and proves the universal nature of the imaginal realms.  Reflecting the luminous richness of higher spiritual worlds, visionary art activates our light body, empowers our creative soul, and stirs our deepest potential for positive, transformative action in the world.

5. Humanity's materialistic worldview must transition to a sacred view of Oneness with the environment and cosmos or risk self-destruction due to continued abuse of the life-web. Artworks can call us to imagine our higher unity as humanity evolves toward a sustainable planetary civilization.

6. Mystic Visionary Art is a product of the Primary Religious Experience. The word religion comes from the Greek meaning "to tie back." The Primary Religious Experience is a personal connection with Source that "ties us back" to our own divinity.

7. Entheon means a place to discover the God within. Entheon Exhibition Hall at CoSM will honor and preserve visionary artworks that point to our common transcendental source.

ENTHEON

As the old world order is crumbling around us, cutting edge creative types are dreaming of a planetary civilization with cooperative agendas of healing the damage humans have inflicted on the lifeweb during our scurrilous, tribal, and near suicidal adolescence as a species. Visionaries are creating and populating festivals like Burning Man, Boom, Tribe and thousands of other echoes of the big bang of Woodstock, the weekend "music and art fair"  that defined hippie hope-aholism. These celebrations of life are arenas of intense alternative worldviews, social groups, and the birthplace of a "WorldSpirit." The evolutionary agendas shared during these temporary ecstatic zones makes one yearn for a more permanent embodiment of our worldwide love tribe aesthetic.  Enter ENTHEON.  

"Entheon" refers to "a place to discover the God within" and is the name we offered to the renowned Burning Man Camp birthed in 2006. Many of the best and brightest Visionary painters exhibited banners and live paintings in Entheon Village's various domes and sculptural tents. At CoSM, Entheon will be the Exhibition Hall of Visionary Art, now under construction. The first exhibition at Entheon will be the art of Alex Grey including all twenty-one Sacred Mirrors. New technologies in 3D modeling and printing will be utilized to create the sculptural elements of this architectural design. Estimated cost to build this two story public structure is about $1.4M. This enduring legacy will be manifested through the donations of many visionaries from all over the world.

Imagine the day you will visit Entheon. Pre-purchase a ticket to Entheon NOW before it exists. A community can vision sacred space into being. Co-create Entheon with us and use your e-ticket ANYTIME after the opening date.

CoSM Grail

CoSM Grail by Alex Grey, 2012, bronze

The four-eyed Quad God "CoSM Grail" is the perfect altar object and vessel for your favorite beverage or sacrament.  A special silver lining makes the Grail safe for drinking.  These take weeks of production and very few are available at the special introductory price of $500.  See shop for details.

As the Grail was in production the first casting was buffed to a high polish by Grant Standard, amazing metalsmith artist.  This reflective "sacred mirror" CoSM Grail will be ceremonially displayed at CoSM.  Would anyone be interested in a polished Grail?  They will be at least $750.  If interested, write to Heather@cosm.org!

 

 

Birth of the CoSM Grails

 

 

The Grail is said to possess miraculous powers. This sacred object is most often identified with the wine goblet used by Jesus at the Passover seder, the Last Supper he spent with his family of choice, the Apostles. The myth of the Grail became renowned in the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who rode around armored on horseback questing for the legendary vessel. Symbol of the divine feminine and gnostic enlightenment, the grail quest can only be attained when you drink from the cup of spiritual reality.

CoSM has a Grail of its own, a quad-faced cherubim created by Alex Grey. Partners in the vision of CoSM, our friends, Grant Standard and Kristin Donnan Standard of Black Hills Bronze in South Dakota, have cast the first ten in a numbered unlimited edition of bronze grails.  This special pouring of liquid metal, ocurred March 26, 2012 and made sacred through ceremony officiated by a Lakota elder. Grant Standard read Alex's blessing to honor the intention of the pour and then burned it in the crucible.

May our cups runneth over with love, health and abundance, blessing each person who owns a CoSM Grail. May all who have contributed to this project be richly rewarded. May these Grails serve the building of Entheon and the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.

As bronze poured into the cups, a Lakota elder read Alex's message from the "voice at dawn" entitled, "Come Build With Me." (See Art Psalms blog)  Each grail will come with a blessing and be authenticated and numbered. The proceeds from purchases of the CoSM Grail ($500) will help build and sustain CoSM. At CoSM's Full Moon ceremony there will be a goblet filled with CoSM's holy water from our pure well. Have your own goblet for an altar or sacred ceremony. Contact heather@cosm.org to reserve a grail.

Happy Birthday Allyson!

Allyson In the Queens Chamber of the Great Pyramid.

Chaos, Order and Secret Writing by Allyson Grey, part of her amazing body of work that has explored the interactions of these principles for decades. 

Happy Birthday to my greatest teacher, the extraordinary artist and spritual leader, Allyson Grey!  60 years young today!  I celebrate the gifts she has given the world in the form of her beautiful art, our daughter Zena, and the inspirational love and advice she gives to her friends and community.  Thank you Allyson for inspiring and naming the Sacred Mirrors, and for co-founding CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors!  I love and cherish you forever! --Alex

Happy Valentine's Day from Egypt!

Dawn this morning, February 14th, Happy Valentine's Day!

As we walk toward the Sphinx

We brought a riddle...

Because the Sphinx, an Earth Altar, is good at riddles, we brought the mystery, "How can humanity help heal and not destroy the web of life?" 

Emil, our intrepid guide, informs us that the word Sphinx means "giver of life." Sphinx is also a symbol of the rising sun because it directly faces east. That means that on the equinoxes the sun rises in straight alignment between the eyes of the Sphinx. At sunrise this morning, the Love Tribe in Egypt, coming from as far as Columbia, Australia and Bali, followed our Alchemical shaman, Nicki Scully, into a mystic initiation between the paws of the Sphinx, identifying with the four directions and the vertical line between Earth and Heaven, and connecting our hearts with the heart of the Sphinx.

"We are living on a planet in crisis. Never before in recorded history have so many people walked the surface of Earth, and never before has the human species achieved the power to destroy life on such a scale as we have reached today. As more and more people awaken to the co-creative power we share with one another and with Spirit, the potential to become active participants in determining the future of our world grows with the overall population. The potency of our thoughts, intentions and actions exponentially increases as people in growing numbers consciously combine forces -- we can now redirect and reinvent our evolutionary trajectory."
---- From Planetary Healing: Spirit Medicine for Global Transformation by Nicki Scully and Mark Hallert

 

Entering the Heart of Mystery, Sunrise at the Sphinx, 2012, With Nicki Scully and CoSM Tour

Happy Valentine's Day from Egypt

Love,

Alex and Allyson

With Nicki Scully

Board member Susan Buck, Chairman, Laurence Singer, A & A

Denver

Event was sold out!!! Nearly 4,000 people!!!

Allyson and Alex thank Denver for supporting CoSM and tell them how things are coming.  All proceeds from speaking and live painting appearances goes to build the exhibition hall.

Reading from Art Psalms

We got to spend the first hours of our wedding anniversary, December 4, together with thousands of friends immersed in a sea of creativity and love.

Johnathan Singer melted everyone's eyeballs with his stunning video projections.

Zoe stuns Denver



Celebrating with the amazing Beats Antique!!

Dance of Cannabia (so far)

We hosted a screening of CoSM the movie at the historic MAYAN theater in Denver as a benefit for CoSM and Colorado cannabis legislation.  The theater is an architectural masterpiece by Montana Fallis, with beautiful ornamentation throughout.

Rob Kampia of MPP Marijuana Policy Project who was there collecting signatures for reform in Colorado, a bill to regulate cannabis like alcohol.  Thank you to Colorado for leading the way to sensible drug policy.

Holiday Greetings from the Greys