☽ The Visionary Warrior: Shaping Clay, Consciousness, and Ancestral Memory | Kimberly Orjuela ☾

"There's a set of visions which I've had, which I'm working toward. I'm currently not capable of painting those things."New York painter Steve Latta has put almost 14,000 hours into oil painting in six years, learning the light and shadow of the Old Masters to get there.Steve's Prime Movement series comes from a single vision he says he could explore for the rest of his life. Most of what he knows came from the work itself, and he now teaches his whole process on Patreon, with one camera on the palette and one on the painting. He also animates cameras for cinematics in 3D software, a career he is slowly leaving for painting.In this Solar episode of The Blue Hour, recorded in his New York studio, we talk about edges and where they turn sharp or soft; why it took Renaissance painters centuries to render light and shadow; how he paints visions as if working from life, from a quick sketch, from nature and fractal patterns, down to microscopic photographs of sea urchins; staying "closer to Rembrandt in spirit"; why 4D and 5D experience won't compress onto a 2D canvas; infinite layers of creation; what religious art gave people who never had the visions; the monk-like discipline the work asks for; Severance, the Backrooms and TV as ritual; occult symbols and the Buddhist teachings on the nature of mind; and the two old books he recommends to every painter who has felt a teacher held something back. We finish on Bouguereau, particle physics, and why painters need to step outside the painting world.THE SUB-ROZA CIRCLESteve says there's no real meeting point for artists who are seriously walking this path. That's why the Sub-Roza Circle exists: an esoteric sanctuary and peer network for visionary artists. Join for $5 a month instead of $9, for a limited time: https://sub-roza.circle.so/checkout/sub-lunar-tier?coupon_code=VISIONARYROZEGIFTMembership includes:- Live talks and masterclasses with occult scholars and established artists- Full Moon Transmissions: a monthly meeting reading the esoteric side of members' artwork- The monthly Scrying Gallery- The archive: video masterclasses, blog entries and resource lists- Open-call directories and announcements of retreats and workshops- Chat rooms to meet other artists, share studio progress and lead art talksThis month in the Circle: Full Moon Transmission (Fri Oct 23) · Remote Viewing workshop with Esther Hoflick (Thu Oct 29, 3 PM ET) · Gold Is Not Decoration, Alex Coma with Karen Fitzgerald (Fri Oct 30, 1 PM ET)The Visionary Roze Gift closed with many applications, and the community is now choosing an award. www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegiftNext Monday, October 26: the Lunar episode. Steve walks us through his process in his studio, and we look at the symbolism in his work.Links & Resources:Steve Latta: stevelatta.comFollow Steve on Instagram: @steve.painting.perceptionSteve's Patreon: patreon.com/c/SteveLattaBooks mentioned: The Science and Practice of Oil Painting by Harold Speed · Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake · The Quantum Revelation by Paul LevyExplore Visionary Art at Roze Umbra: www.rozeumbra.comFollow Alex Coma on Instagram: @alexcoma.world#SteveLatta #OilPainting #OldMasters

Why does Terra Keck tell her unfinished drawings "please don't leave me"? The Brooklyn artist, curator and "Witch, Yes!" co-host opens her studio to Alex Coma for the Lunar half of her Blue Hour diptych.

Are UFOs, fairies, angels and ghosts one phenomenon that every era explains in its own language? Brooklyn artist, curator and "Witch, Yes!" co-host Terra Keck joins Alex Coma for the Solar half of her Blue Hour diptych.

Ambient pioneer Laraaji draws two tarot cards at the start of this Lunar segment — the Devil and the Prince of Discs — and we leave them face up for forty minutes before coming back to them. Filmed in his studio in Harlem. He walks through how a collaboration actually works: a track arrives, he layers zither, kalimba, voice and synthesizer over it, sends experimental mixes back, and eventually hands the artist to his publisher. Then, mid-conversation and entirely unplanned, he puts on headphones and improvises. That improvisation runs uncut from 06:36. On the Devil, he gets specific: a capricious rascal who ignores rules, the augmented fourth that music theory once called the devil's tone, and the devilish energy he sees running through the way scripture has been rewritten. On the Prince of Discs, he traces a lifetime in recorded sound back to his aunt's tape recorder — cassettes, LPs, compact discs, and now streaming, which he describes as a realm of service rather than a format. Then a run of word prompts: liminal, orange, vision, New York, nature, film, romance, Aquarius. Orange turns out to be how he languaged a transformation he had no words for. Romance turns out to be meditation. The second half is his Vedic chart. He entered a Saturn cycle in May 2022 — Saturn in the twelfth house, the placement of the monk — and he describes the withdrawal from social life that followed without ever having named it: "That's the sunset on that old social need. Sunrise on a new inner appreciation." Before that came sixteen years of Jupiter, the guru planet. We read him the myth of Rohini, the moon's favourite wife, and the curse that gave the moon its waxing and waning. Then back to the two cards. The Solar episode — the 1974 sound-hearing experience, the pawn shop, the silences Japan understood → — CHAPTERS 00:00 "The devil has gotten a hold of that" 00:28 Two cards, left face up until the end 01:02 How a Laraaji collaboration actually works 04:44 "Like a $20 bill on the sidewalks of New York" 06:36 An unplanned improvisation 11:25 The Devil, and the devil's tone in music theory 12:15 The Prince of Discs, from LPs to streaming 16:18 Why this card now: the Nicene Council and inner authority 18:34 His aunt's tape recorder 20:21 Word prompts: liminal, orange, vision 24:06 New York, and being reborn in Virginia at seven 27:56 "The highest romance is meditation" 32:20 The chart: a new cycle since May 2022 34:19 Saturn in the twelfth house, the monk's placement 36:29 Rohini and the moon's 27 wives 40:11 "Sunset on that old social need" 43:36 Back to the two cards 46:38 Visionary Roze Gift — applications close October 15 — ABOUT THE GUEST Laraaji is an ambient pioneer, sound healer and laughter meditation teacher based in Harlem, New York. He has been performing and recording since the 1970s, and his work with the zither and open-tuned autoharp helped define the genre. He leads laughter workshops and sound baths internationally. https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/music — The Visionary Roze Gift is open. Funding, a residency place in Spain, astro-tarot mentorship, and a guest slot on Season 5. Applications close October 15 → [GIFT LINK] #Laraaji #ambientmusic #tarot

Laraaji's first album was produced by Brian Eno. Fifty years later he's one of 24 artists in the Vatican's Holy See Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This Solar episode is where all of it started - and it started with a sound he could neither record nor write down.In 1974, around midnight in a quiet New York apartment, he heard what he describes as endless streams of brass improvisation with no beginning and no ending. The next day he went to the music library at Lincoln Center with no language for what had happened, and found it named in Sanskrit: Nada, the inner sound current. A month later a voice - clear, loving, and aware of his situation - spoke to him in a Queens pawn shop and told him not to take the money. He walked out with an autoharp he'd never played and five dollars.What follows is a working life built on acting when that voice speaks. He describes preparing completely - yoga, breathing, five rhythms, self-talk - and then letting all of it go the moment he steps to the mic. He describes the Saturday morning he abandoned a friend at 7:30am to go play in an empty Central Park, what he found there, and what it cost him. And he describes the time he ignored the voice and totalled a car.He talks about his teachers, the honorary swami ceremony that gave him his orange, and the album that hid three silences of random length in the playback. Japan understood. Everywhere else, listeners assumed the record was broken, and it was remixed to take them out.Then laughter. He came to New York to do standup, and quit after realising the comedy he was making got its laughs by polarising the room. Years later he found laughter meditation in Osho's Orange Book, and it became the two-hour play shop he now teaches internationally. He demonstrates it on camera.Next Monday, the Lunar: a studio tour, two tarot cards, and several minutes of unreleased music improvised live on camera. https://youtu.be/Y4wnE2W-s6s—CHAPTERS00:00 "Don't take the money"02:20 A teenage sense of being called to service05:00 The sound that arrived in 197406:00 Finding it named in a library: Nada, the cosmic sound current08:30 The pawn shop in Queens10:22 Park Slope sidewalks and the Aquarian Coffeehouse13:17 Preparing completely, then letting all of it go21:27 "Spontaneity is the doorway to the beyond"23:03 The Saturday morning he walked out on a friend26:20 Ignoring the voice, and the car that got totalled32:00 The honorary swami ceremony, and the orange37:11 Learning to leave space38:09 Three silences hidden in an album — and only Japan understood41:59 The Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale48:10 Trying standup in New York, and why he stopped50:43 Osho's Orange Book and laughter meditation55:32 432Hz, 440Hz, and what he's still waiting to hear59:24 Water, copper, and structuring01:04:50 Next Monday: the Lunar—ABOUT THE GUESTLaraaji is an ambient pioneer, sound healer and laughter meditation teacher based in Harlem, New York. Recording since the 1970s, his work on zither and modified autoharp is foundational to the genre. His debut on Brian Eno's Ambient series introduced him internationally. He performs and teaches worldwide.https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/music—The Visionary Roze Gift is open. Funding, a residency place in Spain, astro-tarot mentorship, and a guest slot on Season 5. Applications close October 15 → www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegiftConversations on this channel are personal accounts, not medical advice.#Laraaji #ambientmusic #BrianEno