Ladder to the Sky
Chain Link Prayers
La Capilla de la Sangre de Cristo
San Geronimo de Taos
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Rancho de Taos
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church
Taos Rio Grande Bridge... nearby.
Bandelier Wilderness after the forest fires of 2009
Bandelier Wilderness after the forest fires of 2009
Kiva Pecos, New Mexico
Arrows in the Rain
Arrows in the Rain Left
Ch’óhojilyééh
Ladder to the SkyEach year some 30,000 people from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Santuario de Chimayó during Holy Week… bringing crosses, hopes, needs, and prayers for more than two hundred years.
Chain Link PrayersDesperation more than celebration brings us to these places. Times of need and hopelessness… more than times of gratitude and humility. We stick notes and crosses and money as tributes or favors asked of an all mighty and all knowing God... in churches on stolen land.https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/el_santuario_de_chimayo.html
A human with crossed legs. INRI (above his head). Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. Jesus of Nazareth, King of Judeans. Nailed over Jesus as he lay dying on the cross by Pontius Pilate.
La Capilla de la Sangre de CristoDriving away from the legendary El Santuario de Chimayó, “the most important Catholic Pilgrimage Center in the United States” (kind of real/kind of touristy)… on the left, I noticed what I thought was probably one of the modern day Chimayós but… no mementos for sale, no chain link fence with crosses woven into by those in need of comfort, aid, salvation from haunted memories… just a church.As I circled back to this little chapel, I was struck by the notion that Chimayó was, in fact, more of a museum or a pilgrimage site than a church at the heart of a community, but that what I just gone past was more likely where the village went on Sundays or for weddings or funerals or christenings… the real life blood spiritual center. I thought it was made of cinder block and was perhaps built in the 1950s out of affordable materials to emulate the cathedral form with a polygonal apse. It was quiet and serene as I walked around following the tires tracks in the sandy parking area. I thought that the building, this church, this little cathedral, this chapel was a humble place of worship built… to serve a purpose.It was not until I did a little research as I was printing palladium prints of the church that I thought to see if I could find it in the annals of the internet. I was right about the heart of the village thought, but I was off by about 100 years or really… more like 400 years and by nearly a half millennium of legacy. The Spanish families that arrived in 1598 and were exiled by the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. After the area was “re-established”, several churches were built.Now, it is La Capilla de la Sangre de Cristo in the village Cuarteles. It was built between 1850 and 1855 by the ancestors of the esclavos that still take care of it today. (Esclavos in English is slaves.)https://www.hcccsantacruz.org/80
San Geronimo de Taos
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Rancho de TaosGeorgia O’Keefe, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams… The form of the church is so different, so organic, so humble but certain of its purpose. The storm that approached as I walked around was energizing and enervating, at once. It seemed to come alive from it’s rather mundane location to say what I keep learning over and again… nothing is mundane and nothing is better… it is all beautiful when you see it… if you see it.
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church
Taos Rio Grande Bridge... nearby.
Bandelier Wilderness after the forest fires of 2009
Bandelier Wilderness after the forest fires of 2009
Kiva Pecos, New Mexico
Arrows in the Rain
Arrows in the Rain Left
Ch’óhojilyééhNa-Dené (Navajo) word for Jimsonweed [Datura innoxia or Datura stramonium]This plant has a long and complicated history in many world cultures and religions. From being burned routinely for the Oracle at Delphi to produce trance-inducing smoke to Buddhist and Hindu esotericism, or Tantra… it is a symbol of Shiva to whom it is offered, still, in rituals. From Aztecs, who called it toloatzin, giving it to human sacrifices before tearing out their hearts… to Navajo and Southwestern Native American use of it in shamanistic practices as both medicine and a gateway to other spirit worlds.
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