Listening to 'Cycles' right now! Very cosmic, despite being in a classroom on my free period before 35 high school students walk into my art room! I am feeling like I am hovering in the exosphere. I think this has to stay on during class! 😎
Beautiful to read about your experiences, Mike. This post in particular brings home to me how much I miss your company and our conversations. Another great introduction too; I love the keyboard and horn textures in this one.
Michael, I restacked your article with this note, gleaned more or less from your own words. I hope it draws a few more readers to it.
"In this article by Michael K. Fell, he describes his recent visit to Peru, where he gained deep insights into the cultures of the Andes, and the Incan and Pre-Incan civilizations that held the land there. I found his report to be insightful, informative, and a truly interesting read."
Thank you, Martin, for reading and for restacking! I very much appreciate you taking the time to do both and for leaving a comment here. I'm also glad you found it an interesting read. My thoughts have been filled with my time spent in Peru, and I needed to get this piece out. It's always nice and validating when your piece connects with a reader. 🙏
I loved this post and the connection you felt there with that Mothering Spirit and Machu Picchu. I've always wanted to go there, feeling a connection even in absentia. I included a significant chapter in my novel From the Far Ends of the Earth that takes place at Machu Picchu, where a husband travels to find his missing wife and comes across her doppelganger instead. I don't know if I will ever get there in person but it's one of those places I've "never but always been" as I wrote about in another post.
Your photos are magnificent and I loved the song you chose so beautifully to go with this post. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you, Deborah! I think Richard Elliott said it beautifully when he wrote in his comment:
>>>"The first is how we connect to time, experience and spirituality through the spaces and places that we connect with, wherever they may be. The other is how well you've captured how these affective moments combine the eternal and what is unique to the present. You and I and many others may have walked on some of the same paths and these are, at least to currently living humans, relatively unchanged. But what transpired in those specific places at those specific times is different for all of us. The collective experience of the former helps us understand the individual experience of the latter."<<<
I think Richard's sentiments can also be applied to the "never but always been" places you mention, thus why you have that connection and were able to set your chapter at Machu Picchu despite not having been there. That said, I do hope you make it there. It's one of those places that photographs simply don't do it justice. Pachamama's energy has to be felt!
And lastly, I am intrigued about your novel and just clicked on your website to read more about it! Is it still in print?
PS: I'm also glad you enjoyed the song and felt it went well with the post.
Yes, Richard does put it beautifully. As to my first novel, although I had an agent, it failed to find a home and I let it sit while I worked on a new novel. Now I've been doing the research and have decided to publish it independently. It will be a while before that's done, but I'll let you know when it is. I'll probably be writing more about this soon in a post or newsletter. I really appreciate that you took the time to go to my website an dread about the novel. That means a lot to me.
I enjoyed reading your recreation of what was clearly a profound experience and your reflections on how it still feels so present for you. I've been to Machu Picchu and Late Titicaca and, in a way, that makes me feel a connection to what you're describing. But what comes through more strongly are two other things. The first is how we connect to time, experience and spirituality through the spaces and places that we connect with, wherever they may be. The other is how well you've captured how these affective moments combine the eternal and what is unique to the present. You and I and many others may have walked on some of the same paths and these are, at least to currently living humans, relatively unchanged. But what transpired in those specific places at those specific times is different for all of us. The collective experience of the former helps us underatnd the individual experience of the latter.
Thank you, Richard. This is wonderfully and eloquently said, and I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. I appreciate you reading and sharing your thoughts. I also hope you enjoyed the tune at the end. 😊
Indeed I did like the tune, very much. Another new one for me. I can see the Mazzy Star comparisons but, as you say, it's another thing. Thanks for the introduction.
Thanks for these wonderful recollections of Peru Michael. I too had a profound spiritual experience at Machu Picchu in 2007 with a local indigenous guide with whom we’d spent several days in the Sacred Valley. The ceremony and the invocation to Pachamama left me feeling closer to god (the universal spirit is how I personality characterize god) than I had in many years and was one of the more profound spiritual experiences of my life.
Thank you very much, Mark. I am glad that you, too, had a profound experience. I certainly felt grounded, centered, and whole, and a sense of completeness flowed through me. So much so that in Machu Picchu, I was quite literally in tears. Whether it was a closeness to a spiritual god or simply Mother Earth, whose hand and spirit touched me, I'm not sure. But for hundreds, thousands of years, people have been drawn to these magical and mystical places for a reason. The energy is very, very palpable.
I was listening to Wolfgang Bock's "Cycles" as I read this, which was appropriately cosmic. And now I'm wondering how soon I can get to Peru.
Listening to 'Cycles' right now! Very cosmic, despite being in a classroom on my free period before 35 high school students walk into my art room! I am feeling like I am hovering in the exosphere. I think this has to stay on during class! 😎
Beautiful to read about your experiences, Mike. This post in particular brings home to me how much I miss your company and our conversations. Another great introduction too; I love the keyboard and horn textures in this one.
Michael, I restacked your article with this note, gleaned more or less from your own words. I hope it draws a few more readers to it.
"In this article by Michael K. Fell, he describes his recent visit to Peru, where he gained deep insights into the cultures of the Andes, and the Incan and Pre-Incan civilizations that held the land there. I found his report to be insightful, informative, and a truly interesting read."
Thank you, Martin, for reading and for restacking! I very much appreciate you taking the time to do both and for leaving a comment here. I'm also glad you found it an interesting read. My thoughts have been filled with my time spent in Peru, and I needed to get this piece out. It's always nice and validating when your piece connects with a reader. 🙏
I loved this post and the connection you felt there with that Mothering Spirit and Machu Picchu. I've always wanted to go there, feeling a connection even in absentia. I included a significant chapter in my novel From the Far Ends of the Earth that takes place at Machu Picchu, where a husband travels to find his missing wife and comes across her doppelganger instead. I don't know if I will ever get there in person but it's one of those places I've "never but always been" as I wrote about in another post.
Your photos are magnificent and I loved the song you chose so beautifully to go with this post. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you, Deborah! I think Richard Elliott said it beautifully when he wrote in his comment:
>>>"The first is how we connect to time, experience and spirituality through the spaces and places that we connect with, wherever they may be. The other is how well you've captured how these affective moments combine the eternal and what is unique to the present. You and I and many others may have walked on some of the same paths and these are, at least to currently living humans, relatively unchanged. But what transpired in those specific places at those specific times is different for all of us. The collective experience of the former helps us understand the individual experience of the latter."<<<
I think Richard's sentiments can also be applied to the "never but always been" places you mention, thus why you have that connection and were able to set your chapter at Machu Picchu despite not having been there. That said, I do hope you make it there. It's one of those places that photographs simply don't do it justice. Pachamama's energy has to be felt!
And lastly, I am intrigued about your novel and just clicked on your website to read more about it! Is it still in print?
PS: I'm also glad you enjoyed the song and felt it went well with the post.
Yes, Richard does put it beautifully. As to my first novel, although I had an agent, it failed to find a home and I let it sit while I worked on a new novel. Now I've been doing the research and have decided to publish it independently. It will be a while before that's done, but I'll let you know when it is. I'll probably be writing more about this soon in a post or newsletter. I really appreciate that you took the time to go to my website an dread about the novel. That means a lot to me.
I enjoyed reading your recreation of what was clearly a profound experience and your reflections on how it still feels so present for you. I've been to Machu Picchu and Late Titicaca and, in a way, that makes me feel a connection to what you're describing. But what comes through more strongly are two other things. The first is how we connect to time, experience and spirituality through the spaces and places that we connect with, wherever they may be. The other is how well you've captured how these affective moments combine the eternal and what is unique to the present. You and I and many others may have walked on some of the same paths and these are, at least to currently living humans, relatively unchanged. But what transpired in those specific places at those specific times is different for all of us. The collective experience of the former helps us underatnd the individual experience of the latter.
Thank you, Richard. This is wonderfully and eloquently said, and I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. I appreciate you reading and sharing your thoughts. I also hope you enjoyed the tune at the end. 😊
Indeed I did like the tune, very much. Another new one for me. I can see the Mazzy Star comparisons but, as you say, it's another thing. Thanks for the introduction.
Thanks for these wonderful recollections of Peru Michael. I too had a profound spiritual experience at Machu Picchu in 2007 with a local indigenous guide with whom we’d spent several days in the Sacred Valley. The ceremony and the invocation to Pachamama left me feeling closer to god (the universal spirit is how I personality characterize god) than I had in many years and was one of the more profound spiritual experiences of my life.
Thank you very much, Mark. I am glad that you, too, had a profound experience. I certainly felt grounded, centered, and whole, and a sense of completeness flowed through me. So much so that in Machu Picchu, I was quite literally in tears. Whether it was a closeness to a spiritual god or simply Mother Earth, whose hand and spirit touched me, I'm not sure. But for hundreds, thousands of years, people have been drawn to these magical and mystical places for a reason. The energy is very, very palpable.