The Healing Presence

If I were a horse, I wood (sic) run through the mountains and valleys at night.
-Patricia, Age 5-


The feeling of freedom is, for me, exhilarating. Nothing expresses that more than clouds. The clouds are constantly moving, being shifted by the winds. The shapes are there and then they are not. I am reminded of sacred sand paintings, seen in ceremony and erased. However, I am a photographer. My job, to my way of thinking, is to reveal through the medium the invisible and fix a place or a scene permanently in time and space for a potential viewer.

In 2009/2010 I spent time teaching in the Honors Program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. It was a wonderful experience. I became influenced by the diversity of culture and for this sky project the Native American spirituality, nature and the voices of parallel worlds. One cannot help but be affected by such space, long and wide vistas where the earth touches the sky. It is said that sky is masculine and earth is feminine. Where they meet a creative power is released.

In the Native culture, the meaning of what makes a mountain or a place sacred is that it is so mysterious and beautifully inspiring that one cannot hold a bad thought when observed or meditated upon. Likewise, these photographs by their nature will promote a positive feeling and, therefore, evoke a shift or a healing energy within the viewer.

In addition these images suggest unity in spirituality. The “heart-shaped cloud” image represents the center, the Christ, the whole, the one. The others represent the spiritual helpers, power animals, bodhisattvas, angels, and disciples.

As abstract patterns, more specific than spatters of paint on a flat surface or the random designs found in floor tiles, these pictures of clouds stand as portals into the world of shamanic wisdoms. They offer thoughts of freedom from the entrapment of suffering.

To be in the world but not of it is certainly the road less traveled and the most challenging for there are no earthly rewards for this choice- only peace.

A. J. Meek

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