Synchronicity and the Great Pyramid by Hillary Raimo

I remember once walking down the grand gallery of the great pyramid. Leaving the kings chamber after an extraordinary experience inside. I was feeling alive, cleansed and filled with glitter. A man was walking up the gallery, I moved to the side so he could pass by. He politely nodded and mumbled a greeting. I stopped and looked at him.

I asked, “What are the odds we cross paths right now, right here?”

He paused, caught his breath, looked me in the eye, smiled, and kept going. I turned and continued my descent.

Many times since that moment I have wondered what would have come from knowing him? What incredible synchronicity could that have been? I know we were meant to meet, talk – a sign perhaps.

But that moment dissolved and moved on.
One day years later, while in my kitchen cooking, I had a random thought that suggested I rethink that. We did not miss our moment, we had our moment. That was it. A simple crossing of being in the grand gallery of the great pyramid. I could’ve kept going and NOT have asked him. I could’ve been less bold.

But I wasn’t, and I did stop and say that. I looked him in his eye and saw a precious opportunity to share a thought out loud. Even as I still recall this stranger moment, I realized how unique this moment was, and I could carry it with me forever. I wondered if I held that same symbolism for him?

These moments are everywhere. Crossing paths with people, opportunities to connect, talk, share, are often overlooked, cut off to soon, or they are filled with negative self speak, insecurities, fears and die before they even experience life.

Finding the synchronicity is a massively misunderstood art.

My moment in the grand gallery was memorable, and as I crossed paths with this man and asked him the question, I smiled; while he paused, everything in that moment was the interaction. Complete in its very existence. The said and unsaid filled the walls of this ancient place. Emanating up into the chambers and out of the shafts into the constellations. While going deep down into the bedrock of Giza.

In that rare crossing of orbits, the balancing of everything, awe was the reigning factor.
That is the magic of synchronicity. Had the power of the ancient forces coordinated all of our movements exactly to cause that very moment? Think about the astronomical and mathematical coordinates that would have to occur.

At the very least we should have had a Turkish coffee!

Hillary Raimo

 

Varina’s Poetry Magic (Read at Your Own Risk) May Induce Feelings of Love

There is freedom in order, but whose order?
Being comes first, along with feeling. How deep can you go?
Once done there’s no going back. The surface never feels quite the same.

Tears of joy only please.
Grief is a solemn teacher.

Experience breeds wisdom.
Owls hoot in the woods.

Poetry is a dying art.
Transformed into etheric vibes.

Why are so many afraid of their own power?

Dreams coordinate our destiny while we appear to be doing nothing.
Dinner conversation reveals the strategy of it all.

Do not stir the flame with no intention of warming by it.
Pleasure heals.

– Varina

 

 

Solo Gallery Exhibit June 2020

“Apparition” by Hillary Raimo

This photograph titled “Apparition” was taken at Ruby Falls in Tennessee. It is the largest underground waterfall in North America. I was on a road trip from New York to the deep south of Louisiana in the middle of August.

To say it was hot was an understatement. Yet somehow the humidity was refreshing. I am excited to announce that for the first time, “Apparition” will be on public display in my first solo gallery exhibit in Johnstown, Pennsylvania with an opening reception Friday June 19th. More formal details coming soon.

Among other work to be included, will be work from my Inner Earth series. A collection of images from visiting the Masterpieces of the Earth collection, the worlds largest mineral collection to size, in 2017 and 2019. That included some crystal specimens as large as cars. I focused on the close up crystalline landscapes and created abstract photographs from them. Hoping to invite the viewer in closer to see what is to be seen. These micro landscapes hold the ancient earth resonance. Some images from this series, taken over the course of two years, were featured in the 41st Photography Regional at Collar Works Gallery in Troy, NY and in the 2019 Photography Open at the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York. My journey through this series was one of transformation and growth. I will be showing never before seen images from this collection in June.

Also to be included, are works from my 2014 Gods of Nature collection. A project dedicated to a living experiential hypothesis that includes human love, meditation and nature. From 2014- 2016, I organized global group meditations where participants found a spot in nature, meditated on their own idea of love and documented their experiences in some art form. These Gods of Nature images hold the memory and power of these Love Breathe for Earth moments. The project was blessed by his holiness the Dalai Lama in May 2014.

Earth, nature, crystalline energy, ancient consciousness, meditation from the heart, empowered by nature, celebrated in life and color. Come see some of my most precious life moments, projects and artistic legacy.

Special thanks to Marcene Glover Studios and Gallery for sponsoring my artist in residence this summer and hosting my solo exhibit.

What I Learned While Seeking Refuge in a Buddhist Monastery

On Valentine’s Day most people go out to dinner, do something romantic with someone they love. The restaurants fill and the tips roll in. Expectations include cards, flowers – especially roses, something sweet even if only in a single thought of love sent out into the ethers towards another. The one day set aside for love is always on the 14 of days.

I am here to tell you the kind of love promoted on the commercialized holy-day is not love at all. It is a cultural societal obligation. We all speak the words, do the protocol, and expect something in return. It is engrained deeply into your subconscious. You aren’t aware you are even doing it. Love as defined by our current state of BEING from a larger collective perspective, has grown a neurological network within itself that is hardwired. The brain has no central processing unit because the heart does that. Valentine’s day is a cut off from that other part of yourself that does all the work. Your brain is just the projector. Your projector has images from all of your experiences, facets, beliefs, thoughts, and it filters everything that comes from the heart CPU. It rewrites the code of your perspective.

When you still the mind you leave filters off. Having no filter stops your mindstream. With no mindstream your quiet is actually the invisible plane of creation being still. Waiting for direction. The beginners mind is here. Ready, willing, open and hoping to learn, create, stimulate. In any number of coordinations of these possibilities lies the miracle of infinite probability. All odds are available. Any outcomes possible. All seeds are awaiting their great awakening.

If there is only the now, the past is gone, done never to be again, and the future is anything possible, but usually filled with worry, how can karma even exist? If karma is based on our choices and the consequences thereof, but the only thing that is real is the now, then how can consequences of choices made in the past even exist? The past is done. There is only the now.

If there is only the now, why are memories made?
If memories imprint the mind are they just filters for your projector?

It is here that I ask the question what if the projector can be used for things other than just coloring your perspectives with your totality as you are in the moment? But doesn’t that mean our totality at any given time is who we really are? Is it a matter of how awake are we to see ourselves?

Questions are like seeds. The thoughts produced from questions have the creative force of germination and can power birth.

Birth is what happens when you outgrow your perspectives because new experiences change your mind as to how you see and feel about things. Your reactions change and triggers heal, while other soft spots open up and reveal themselves so they too can be birthed into their own destiny.

What fuels the birth of stars in star nurseries in space, is the same as in your imagination and your ability to create space for new creation to make its way through you.

Have you ever asked yourself why ‘you’ have manifested as a human now?

Hate is learned and your cultural ties to it matter. The subconscious mind of a collective force is filled with the thoughts and creations of filtered mindstreams. Funneled into a collective space they become an entity and need to feed. Just like your ego. Quitting your ego is a possibility. But for those who haven’t learned how to yet, you fill your collective space with your thoughts, heart, actions, habits and its uploaded into that place for dinner.

You are what you eat.
At any given moment, in the now.
The past is done. Your consequences have no meaning now, unless you still need
the filter. The schoolhouse of karma is accepting submissions now, perhaps that is because there is still a need to help those along who are seeking answers to their own questions about life, pain and happiness. Seekers looking to have a swim in the ocean of leaning opportunity that offers. Life is eternal. Form is transitory.

I’d like to share a dream I had recently.

In this dream I was taken to the bottom floor of my mind by a rackety elevator, falling apart yet still functioning. It stopped just sort of a pile of rubble blocking the bottom of the elevator shaft. I climbed out and found myself looking around this large warehouse sized room. Despite the clutter at the bottom of the elevator shaft the room was dusty but uncluttered. Ahead of me about 30 feet was an old woman with white hair tied behind her neck. I thought to myself that there were scary things in here. The woman said “Try using your imagination that everything in here is good.” 

So I did, I had the thought that everything in here was good. And a pulse wave of energy burst outward through the entire space, the room, walls and beyond. I felt better so I walked forward. The woman with the white hair walked through a door on the far wall of the room, into what I assumed was a bathroom. As I came to be underneath a spiral stairwell, I sensed a small child standing next to me. I looked out from behind the stairs and saw a pterodactyl. I stopped moving forward and sunk back a bit. The pterodactyl was moving slowly towards the door the woman had walked through. I could sense the enormous power of this ancient predator. Suddenly another walked into view, and then another, and another, and another, and another as now a small herd all walked towards the door. Slowly, deliberately I backed away as to not get their attention. I knew if I even thought it they would see me. But even in just having that thought one turned its head towards me and made eye contact. I silenced my mind, held the glaze. It’s eyes began to grow into giant cartoon eyes. Still I had no thought except the observation. It turned its head back towards the direction of the door and joined the herd focusing their energy on it. 

I backed away, still sensing a child next to me, went back into the rackety elevator and pushed the up button. It opened to another level of my mind and the dream continued.

I share this part of my dream with you to offer a visualization of what it means to clear your foundations of fear. You are cultured to be afraid. Your society worships fear. You are fed fear for almost all aspects of your collective identities.  Take an honest look around where you are right now literally and in life. What are you afraid of? Your subconscious mind holds all of the fears you don’t even know you have. These include your cultured fears, deep-seeded subconscious fears lurk like ancient predators, hunting for whatever it is they feed on.

In this foundational part of yourself, you can imagine there is nothing to fear. Just in that simple act will the energy change and free you.

Liberation is available in each moment. It is a choice and mindful of the power of that choice.

The woman who walked in to my space offering her advice was heard, received, acknowledged and as I did what she suggested I made a space for her wisdom to be born through me. The door as I reflected later on probably led to somewhere else. Perhaps a faraway place. I made note of my own growth in my self-reflection, and smiled as I did.

Are you afraid of the pterodactyls?
The herd noticed the ripple of energy that came from my own realization that I could imagine it all to be good. By ‘good’ I mean nothing to be afraid of. They were curious as to what did that. They followed the trail as expert predators and found the source.

Was it the white haired woman who gave me the advice? or was it the door?

I checked into a Zen Buddhist Monastery for Valentine’s day. To self-love and create a safe space to seek refuge. I needed refuge. I was very aware of the world around me and in need of the wisdom from the monks. I learned how to bow. I learned how to better navigate my thoughts, the dreaming realms and how to deepen and better my practice.

I especially thank my new monk friend Yukon. Who listened, laughed and lightened things up for me as I entered the renowned Zen Buddists way for a short period of time, until I was full and ready.

Leaving the mountains and coming home was peaceful, obstacles better handled by a quieter mind. I realized that in going I was in fact arriving.

Hillary Raimo
Zen Mountain Monastery
Catskill Mountains 2020

Miso and His Journey into the Afterlife

“Miso and His Journey into the Afterlife” Mixed Media Hillary Raimo 2019

In this piece I contemplate death, transition, dying consciously, pain and understanding the interconnectedness of the human and animal bond. I make a humble attempt to understand the emotional inner landscape they create in color, layer and texture.

The Day My Cat Died

If Jesus died for our sins.
Then my cat died for our hate.

Take it with you..
where exactly.

How do you know where your thoughts go?
Navigation.

My temple cat ascended.
Castle in the clouds.

If Jesus died for our sins,
aren’t we all clean?

If Miso died for our hate,
how can we now?

If you don’t trust yourself,
you won’t trust anyone.
Good luck with that.
Bond.

He lights up the rainbow bridge.
Pain be gone.

Miso was my soulmate.
I held him as he crossed over.

Death is just a door.
In contemplating this piece, I mused on all of that.

– Hillary Raimo

 

“Miso and His Journey into the Afterlife” Mixed Media, 2019 Hillary Raimo 

 

What I Learned This Fall by Hillary Raimo

This fall was a productive season for me. Traveling to the high peaks of the Adirondacks to study with the Adirondack Photography Institute, to the Pacific Northwest and Olympic National Park to the beautiful charming coast of Maine. The changing colors of the leaves made the journey even more spectacular with a display worthy of any artists greatest feat. Losing my father this year has made me very mindful of where I put my time and energy. Loss is a fertile ingredient for creative transmutation. I have learned and quickened more this year than any other. I have produced three new bodies of work from my travels this fall: Inner Earth Series, Adirondack Series and the Coastal Maine Series.

Coming in 2020, I have been invited to be the artist in residence for the grand opening of the Art Adventure Loft and Gallery on 7 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I will be spending the winter producing work for this solo exhibit in June, and I will be living in the artists loft for almost 3 weeks next summer. Special thanks to Marcene Glover Studios for sponsoring me. I look forward to expanding my comfort zones and picking up the paint brush again.

This past October I traveled to the Pacific Northwest to photograph the Masterpieces of the Earth Collection, the worlds largest mineral collection to size in the world. Privately owned by Richard Berger, this collection has produced acquisitions for the Smithsonian, The Museum of Natural History, and many more well known venues. These giant crystals are equivalent to ancient mineral elders and when in their presence it is easy to feel humble.

On location in York Maine most recently, working with Ed Fritz and the Schenectady Photographic Society, I toured the area for the first time. Charmed by the iconic coast it was easy to find great things to shoot, and my fellow travelers made it fun to relate to each others perspective and eye. I can’t think of much else better then musing with other artists and sharing experiences and adventures.

This winter promises solitude, quiet and a cleaned out studio! As I prepare for next year and two solo gallery exhibits, I pull back on some other manifestations in order to make room for some concentrated focused love.

Nubble Lighthouse, York Maine Hillary Raimo 2019

 

 

 

Salmagundi Club 2019 Photography Open FORMATION by Hillary Raimo

“Without being able to source the core imagination of the earth as the seed crystals of vision, human creativity would be so diminished. Trying to imagine a rhinocerus or a tree frog or a sequoia or a drop of dew or a blazing sun or a liquid cloud morphing from a bunny rabbit to an angel to a thunderhead spewing flames… and being able to riff off those myriad experiences and forms without their templates previously existing in the world, it would melt the human mind to even begin to come up with this stuff. The earth, and nature, are the training wheels of our imagination.” – Richard Berger, Owner Masterpieces of the Earth Collection 

My photograph FORMATION is on show at the 2019 Photography Open Exhibitions at the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan New York through August 2nd. This photograph of the Fountainebleu Concretions from the Masterpieces of the Earth Collection will reside in the private collection of owner Richard Berger after its presentation at Salmagundi.

The world needs positive images of the Earth right now. Reminders of the beauty that is all around us, and the hope that comes with it.

Chosen from 400+ submissions the photographs in the Open represent the talent of both famous well known photographers, as well as those up and coming in their craft.

Read more about Hillary’s adventures with The Masterpieces of the Earth Collection