Maya Vision Serpent
“Sometimes Inspiration wears a great and Terrible Mask.”
Drawing: M. Krapek ©2006 20”X 26” Prismacolor on Strathmore Bristol Vellum
B/W Painting: ©2008 M. Krapek. Acrylic on pine crate wood
Images grown from limestone lintels at Yaxchilan, Mexico.
Lady Sexton has conjured an audience with Yaxchilan. The primary focus of ritual bloodletting centered on the miracle of visualization using an incensario bowl filled with charcoal, copal incense, sacred peyote, and self let blood. The admixture was ignited emitting a smoky plume that was inhaled creating psychotropic intoxication. Because of the DNA link thru the blood, Ancestors usually appeared in the smoky haze. Conversations were conducted in real time giving profound counsel. Visions were powerful to witness and were practiced for centuries.
The power of the pencil becomes apparent when the image is interpreted using color to reveal the wonders of the vision serpent. The convolution is a skill used to obtain a quality of dimension to the scene, pulling the viewer into the frame.
The fact must be stressed that the Vision Serpent ritual was a very real event and its use was documented from the tribes of Africa to the cairns of Ireland. (Using other botanicals.) The Genie in the magic lamp also comes to mind. Over a hundred Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee were murdered by the cavalry practicing the Sacred Peyote Ghost Dance. Introduced by Quanah Parker, an hybrid Texas-Comanche Shaman, the ceremonial difference was in focusing the process as a tribal bonfire event rather than a personal one, using human hair rather than blood for the DNA link. The sad fact of the Wounded Knee massacre is that the People were rubbed out saying goodbye to the ones who were killed last week. It is said Sacred Peyote is the Holy Wisdom plant. It seems to this day, wisdom is a commodity in very short supply.
The Peyote -Quetzal Dream of Jim Morrison
(“The Doors” By: J. Randall Johnson and Oliver Stone)
“Close your eyes, let it all go.
See the snake?
See the snake appear?
That its ten feet long and five feet wide.
One red eye and one green eye.
Oh, he’s seven MILES long...
DEADLY-
See it all?
The History of the world is on its scales;
all people, all actions,
we’re just little pictures on its scales.
God its big, its moving-
DEVOURING consciousness,
digesting power:
Monster of ENERGY.
The Universe is a Monster!
Kiss the snake on the tongue,
KISS THE SERPENT.
But if it senses fear,
it’ll devour us instantly.
But if we kiss it without fear,
it’ll take us thru the Garden to the Gate-
to the other side.
Ride the snake-
TO THE END OF TIME.”
“We’re all One...
One Tribe now!”
The adaptation of this masterwork titled “The Vision Serpent”
was presented to “4theheads.com”
as a T-shirt design, March, 2010.
Captions read, “This guy comes from a place out in left firld I’ve never been to!”
“That’s cuz he’s 4theheads!”
