Communication – A Desert Wisdom Card

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Petroglyphs © 2011 Bo Mackison

Symbols pecked into boulders over a thousand years ago. What were the ancients saying in these prehistoric communications?

Though nothing is certain, it seems plausible that these rock figures were a means of communication. Whether they were symbolic, astronomical, directional, or ceremonial is not known. What is known is that these petroglyphs were a means of communication or documentation.

Imagine the many ways we communicate. Conversations, the written word, social media, body language, even in symbols and metaphors.

Petroglyphs in Saguaro National Park

Concentric Petroglyph in Sonoran Desert © 2014 Bo Mackison

A trail through the western part of Saguaro National Park leads to Signal Hill.

Here a large mass of boulders featuring dozens of petroglyphs. The  Hohokam chipped or pecked these petroglyphs into the desert varnish, the dark outer layer on rocks.

Petroglyphs in Saguaro National Park

Animal Petroglyphs © 2014 Bo Mackison

Some of the figures seem to tell a story — a hunter following a mountain lion or a deer.

Some are easily identified depictions — figures like humans, deer and wolves, snakes, turtles, and lizards, spirals and circles, mountain peaks and sun. But the meaning behind these simple etchings are mysteries.

Petroglyph Canyon Wall

Petroglyph Canyon Wall © 2014 Bo Mackison

Some are symbols that align at astronomical seasonal beginnings – solstices and equinoxes.

While hiking in a canyon, I met a scientist who had eight cameras triggered to photograph a rock wall of petroglyphs every few seconds.  He kindly showed me a phenomenon he had been studying for several years. A spiral petroglyph splits — half in light/half in shadow — from sunlight shining through a narrow slit in the canyon rocks at the precise hour of the spring equinox.

Petroglyphs in Saguaro National Park

Concentric Petroglyph in Saguaro National Park © 2014 Bo Mackison

While the petroglyphs hold onto many of their secrets, they still offer a glimpse into the world of people who lived over a thousand years ago, people who found a way to communicate with a sharp implement and a varnish covered rock.

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The first photograph in this series is the third preview card of the Desert Wisdom Cards Second Series now in the production stage. The words on the new series of cards are letter pressed, the photographs are printed, the cards are cut and trimmed. Currently I am assembling the cards and I’ve completed the design of the portfolio for the second series.

An announcement re: availability will be coming soon on my blog and newsletter.

Listening to the Land

Before the Storm

Storm Watch © 2013 Bo Mackison

There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks.
Most of the time we are simply not patient enough,
quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.
~ Linda Hogan, in Listening to the Land

I spend a lot of time out in nature, standing on the land. Grounding myself in the present. On watch. Listening to the sky as the clouds rumble into each other, listening as the dust blows across the earth, contemplating where the dirt road with the missing gate would take me if I chose to walk its lines.

I believe that this is one of the gifts I was given at this time in my life. I have time, time enough to stand and silently absorb the story of the earth. I have the time it takes to be patient. I have the time it takes to be fully quiet. I live a life of pacing. I am blessed that I can life my life slowly.

If I have the time to listen to the land, then surely I have time to also listen to the inhabitants of this land.

I read an article not so long ago regarding the customs of greeting people. We give automatic responses to each other to one of life’s important questions. “How are you?” we ask, routinely, not waiting for any sort of meaningful response. Even eye to eye contact would be a small gift in this exchange, an acknowledgement. “Yes, I see you. I honor you as a fellow human being.” But busy lives often prevent even the most fleeting moments of connection.

As a practice, it is harder than I think it should be. I’ve been intentionally practicing this for quite a few weeks now. With store checkers and baggers, with gas station attendants, with people I pass on the street. A simple hello and a meeting of the eyes. Sometimes I find it incredibly difficult, and I wonder if it is a practice that we have learned to curtail as a society?

So I continue to practice. And pay attention to the story I am hearing.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.