All Visual Posts

I made a music video!

Weatherall is the first music video from Ellery Twining’s debut solo album “Revenge”, released 17 January 2022.
It is a deep dive into intergenerational relationships…
Written and directed by Mystic photographer Michelle Gemma, featuring archival photographs from Mystic’s 1990’s underground dance party scene at Mars Hall, alongside video footage from last decade’s recreation of scene at the Workshop.
Edited by Jim Canty.
The song and video are a tribute to British producer/DJ Andrew Weatherall (1963-2020), who passed as Twining was writing the songs for “REVENGE.”
Song credits: Ellery Twining (all Noises) Dave Bentley (the Bass Guitar) Brad Bensko (Electric Guitar) Jason Curland (Percussion)
Produced by Eric Lichter at Dirt Floor Recording & Production Haddam, CT
Engineered by Guido Falivene
Video credits: All photographs and video by Michelle Gemma Except two indoor Mars Hall dance party photos by Kerry Niering and Mars Hall demo photos by Erin Pipping
Models: Carly Straub and Jane Anderson
Photographed March 2022 in Mystic, CT, USA

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https://youtu.be/2Nr_hx_9jiQ.

Bringing the Columbian Exposition Back to Life in Augmented Reality

On May 1st 1893, President Grover Cleveland opened the Columbian Exposition on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago. No matter how strong our sense of nostalgia is, the past is gone. But what if we could bring pieces of it into the present?

On the 129th anniversary of that opening, we released the first views of Chicago 1893’s augmented reality experience. Chicago 1893 has been working for the last year to do just that by recreating the largest buildings from the event that were originally located around the Grand Basin. This project aims to create museum-like digital assets focused on historical integrity and architecture with the intention of expanding broadly toward experiences focused on learning and richer functionality for entertainment.

These structures are being rendered in 1:1 scale. The goal is to allow people to perceive the scope of the buildings the way those in 1893 did, if sculptures loomed from 100 feet above they will within augmented reality as well. Just imagine: classical architecture, anywhere in the world — No matter where!

Ever since HG Wells published “The Time Machine” people have been fascinated with the idea of time travel — the Chicago 1893 XR project begs the question: “what if you could bring the past to back life?”

The Columbian Exposition is arguably the most notable World’s Fair of all time but very little of its architectural legacy remains. Over the last four years we have been diligently scouring archives to compile the documentation required to render the buildings in digital 3D for augmented reality which were created by some of the finest architects of the Gilded Age.

Now we are in the final stages of Phase 1’s buildout which includes the major structures located around the Grand Basin. The plan is to make the first asset available to the public this summer. It will be the Administration Building, a Beaux-Arts structure designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt who is also responsible for the entrance facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

You can expect more details as we approach this initial release.

Join us and see the Columbian Exposition come back to life.

For More:

Documentary Film: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JCPFJ54

Book: https://amazon.com/dp/1082413585

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/1893-chicago-columbian-expo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicago.1893

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chicago_1893

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicago.1893

Full Moon in Sagittarius at 23 degrees

“The body’s wisdom musically in touch and in tune, sensing the resonance of cellular awakening. Eager and enthusiastic and bright, you have given over to the process. Always in midstream. Seizing upon opportunities, challenges, openings. Needing to know just how it feels at the micro levels. What is it like to be free, to be joyous, to be unrestricted, here in the body, in the world? You seek the full-on motivating spark of knowing what it feels like to be tuned out and discovering what it really means to be tuned in all the way.” from Sagittarius at 23 degrees by Ellias Lonsdale

In much the same way in which he characterized planets and asteroids as powerful, gendered beings in Inside Planets, Ellias Lonsdale gives new depth and nuance to degree analysis, an area often seen as technical or reduced to cliche.

Lonsdale builds on three main degree interpretations: Dane Rudhyar’s concept of the Sabian Symbols described in The Astrology of Personality and An Astrological Mandala, Marc Edmund Jones’s Sabian Symbols in Astrology, and John Sandbach’s recent Chandra Symbols. Beginning in 1988, Lonsdale worked with his wife Sara in tracking the Sabian symbol, the Charubel Symbol (the most useful of the other sets of degree symbology) and the Chandra Symbol. After Sara died in 1993 Lonsdale worked with her (as Theanna) and their friend Alita “to pierce through the veil,” as he says in his Introduction, “to find the angel behind each degree. This ultimate version is won from death and fused with rebirth and each word shows this power.”

The degree symbols are most useful in elaborating a personal birth chart. One can learn about personal cycles from studying the place of a transiting or progressed planet by degree at a given time, revealing collective as well as personal timings. The Zodiac degrees also act as an oracle. One can open the collection anywhere for a given day, or in reponse to a question. The degrees will reveal what is happening now and if we are attentive and responsive to the cues, what is required of us. Comparing charts of friends and famous people who are known for certain qualities, one can gradually discriminate among the degrees.

These beautifully written and fully imagined readings of the Chandra degree symbols speak to a deep level of personal change and authenticity.

Ellias Lonsdale is the author of Star Rhythms, The Book of Theanna, and Inside Planets. He lectures widely on astrology and is an astrological counselor in Santa Cruz, California.

https://aquaorfire.net/astrology/inside_degrees/inside_degrees.html#sagittarius

featuring Model: Titus Abad
as Sagittarius for the Personal Universe Series
Photograph by Michelle Gemma

Moon enters Taurus 3 July 2021

PARADOX VISION

From The Polarity Experiments for Emporium Photo III October 1995 Mystic, Connecticut, USA

featuring Model: Bethany Webster
Collaboration with Mark Wallace and his “Tree Wounds” series, Paradigm of Tree
Mark tells us, “The tree, through the ages, has been seen as a symbol of balance and fulfilled potential. The viewer, upon first seeing these photographs, may only be affected by the notion of the wound. But upon finding that the wounds are those of the trees, the sensation becomes a deeper, unexplainable psychic phenomenon. By combining the tree and the human form I hope to provoke the realization that modern Western culture is out of balance with nature and itself, and expose the need to regain the connections.”

Happy Birthday Bethany who does great work with her “Mother Wound” psychology and education.

Jewel of the Solar System


The brink of the infinite. Tapping directly into realms of existence beyond the physical, you sense all-pervasively the multiple frequencies of all that is really here.

Having a vast grasp of what is possible and of what is asking to be brought in, while extended very far into regions others miss.

Feeling, hearing, tasting the power of spirit in action.

Half mesmerized and half supercharged to get everybody in on it somehow. 

Perhaps retreating to more traditional versions of the infinite path if frightened by a lack of understanding coming back.

Communing with the mysteries, and absolutely at home within those places others find strange.

The inside becomes all, the outside virtually transparent to the light within…

inspired by PISCES 26: “The Aurora Borealis.” by Elias Lonsdale
https://aquaorfire.net/astrology/inside_degrees/inside_degrees.html

Saturn takes about 28-29 years to come full circle.

Saturn transits and cycles can be considered cycles of achievement and maturity. When Saturn forms a hard aspect to a personal point in our chart, we might feel that everything is slowed down–we encounter delays, frustrations, and pressures. But these times also challenge us to face reality, thereby opening ourselves up to increased wisdom and the freedom that comes with living in truth.
cafeastrology.com

featuring Model: Caroline Walz
as Pisces and her Saturn Return
8 March 2021
Westerly, Rhode Island, USA
all photographs by Michelle Gemma
Dec 17, 2020 12:04 AM EST Saturn entered Aquarius…
Caroline was born with Saturn in Aquarius at 24 degrees!
This is Saturn Return.
This is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Adorned with a dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn’s. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium.
Surrounded by more than 60 known moons, Saturn is home to some of the most fascinating landscapes in our solar system. From the jets of water that spray from Enceladus to the methane lakes on smoggy Titan, the Saturn system is a rich source of scientific discovery and still holds many mysteries.
The farthest planet from Earth discovered by the unaided human eye, Saturn has been known since ancient times. The planet is named for the Roman god of agriculture and wealth, who was also the father of Jupiter.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/in-depth/


WAX and WANE: The Full Moon of February 2021

Hymn to Demeter

The Earth Goddess Demeter went to Eleusis in search of her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades , God of the Underworld.

Demeter goes in search of Persephone and, during her journey, reveals her secret rites to the people of Eleusis, who had hospitably received her. Her distress at her daughter’s disappearance was said to have diverted her attention from the harvest and caused a famine.

The Mysteries at Eleusis originated in the two-fold story of Demeter’s life—her separation from and reunion with her daughter and her failure to make the queen’s son immortal.

The Mysteries began with the march of the mystai (initiates) in solemn procession from Athens to Eleusis. The rites that they then performed in the Telesterion, or Hall of Initiation, were and remain a secret.

Another important aspect of Demeter was that of a divinity of the underworld; she was worshiped as such at Sparta, and especially at the festival of Chthonia at Hermione in Argolis, where a cow was sacrificed by four old women. The epithets Erinys (“Avenger”) and Melaina (“the Black One”) as applied to Demeter were localized in Arcadia and stress the darker side of her character.

featuring Model: Jane Anderson
all photographs by Michelle Gemma
The Full Snow Moon of February
in Virgo, Honoring the Myths of Seasonal Renewal,
for the Full Moon Photoshoots series
27 February 2021
Norwich, CT  USA

source text: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Demeter