Sonic Ritual by Jessica Rosen

Planting for the new moon following the vernal equinox. April 5, 2019

Produced in collaboration with / at mcca RAWBOX Tepoztlan, Mexico

 

Back in April, on the night of the new moon following the vernal equinox, I did a ritual in the mountains in Mexico...in Tepoztlan, to be specific. The farmers almanac said the date was ideal to plant seeds so, I prepared the space, cast a circle, got the crystals going, sang to Lakshmi...and I planted seeds both literally and figuratively to manifest some very specific intentions.

 

As Im sure you noticed, now its the middle of November. Yes, finishing the project didn't go as planned...as things often don't :) And I spent the last 7 months trying unsuccessfully to get this very short video edited. And, needless to say, nothing was moving forward in terms of what I worked on in the ritual and I was feeling pretty deflated about my entire professional skill set.

 

Finally last week I went to stay at a friends house outside the city to just focus and finish this. And I finished it in one day. Thats right! 7 months of unsuccessful struggle that was ultimately resolved in one freaking day. (insert exasperated emoji here) At this point, I had basically given up on the intention and work in the ritual and was just relieved to at least have the video done.

 

The last night I stayed at my friends house we did a Temazcal and for me it was a really hard one. I cried and felt terrible the whole time we were jammed in that shamanic oven together. And then when we got out I had a really simple realization that I just didn't see before.

​

The friend I went to visit to finish the video...he lives in Tepoztlan. I mean, he lives in the same place where I originally performed this ritual. It was like, I had to go back to the place where I started the ritual in order to finish it. And then the morning after I finally finished I got an email that was basically inviting me to move forward with the intentions I had originally set for the ritual. I guess that what they call completing the circle.

 

Also, I'm thinking the Farmer's Almanac doesn't have their headquarters in Tepoztlan. They said it was a good day to plant, but in Tepoz in April it hadn't rained a drop for months. It was so dry there that they literally had wild fires shortly after I planted the seeds for this ritual. And now, when I went back in November to finish the project, the rivers were full and everything was lush and green and growing. So, thats something to think about also.

 

There. I said a whole bunch of stuff. Here's the video. And here's the part where you can draw your own conclusions about whatever :)

 

For some reason I can't tag RAWbox! But I want to thank the whole RAWbox team for inviting me to collaborate and perform this ritual in their space. Thanks to Shamin Cecilia Ramos for her amazing light...and also for literally lighting the video. And big thanks to Antonio Outón and Iamu N Uri for your hospitality and production support.