The Art of Ritual: Creating and Performing Ceremonies for Growth and Change Beck and Metrick remind us that human beings have used ritual for centuries as an important buffer to change, and as a way of consciously recognizing and supporting a life event rather than denying or indulging in it. The end result of all ritual is increased balance, strength, energy, and comfort. 

 Ritual. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” 
This extraordinary book reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell’s work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture. 

environment activist & artist

Save the natural world!   When I harm the natural world I harm myself 

I am nature and nature is me

Nancy's Primal Scream for the loss of the natural
​limited edition glycine print

in human history.   My old ways of viewing the world
are obsolete and unworkable. Enormous events
caused by human beings are happening quickly.  Great
acts of cruelty are perpetrated against the natural world
everyday.  Most money spent of spoils, pollutes and
degrades the environment bringing about major
disorder and suffering.  Animals are burned, or starved
to death, trees are dying, species are becoming extinct,
air more toxic, rain more acidic, oceans more polluted,
and the planets equilibrium more disrupted.
PRIMAL
SCREAM
for

the
loss of my natural world
The worlds population tripled last century and is
expected to more than triple in this one. With this
expansion comes the endless belief in material
advancement.  Nature as a force independent of
man no longer exists.  I now live in a post natural
world of irrevocable changes I can not wish away.  
Taken from me is my comforting sense of the
natural worlds predictability, in slow geological
time, its wildness, its irreplaceable intricacy and
grandeur,
PRIMAL
SCREAM
for

Self-portrait by Nancy Forrester on her sixty-fifth birthday July 29, 2003

TITLE   Nancy Forrester's Ritual Mourning Ceremony:  65 Roses for the loss of the natural world
​limited edition glycine print

Homage to Scarlet macaw "Lucy", our magnificent exotic parrot who is 40 years old and has been in captivity his whole life.  His type is Costa Rica's poster bird and promoted as one of Earths' ten most beautiful avian species.  
Tragically "Lucy" is a commodity bred by breeders for the pet bird trade, one of 11.5 million parrots in America's throw away society.
Lucy's life expectancy is 100 years

Do you know there is no natural world anymore?

Wild nature disappears to
Contract Landscaping, quick
formula installations and to the  
common refrain of
gentrification

"I  Love to Garden"