The Psychedelic Art Show
by Z Zoccolante
This week I stumbled across a quote by A.R. Lucas, who writes “We’ve been infected with this idea that love is an emotion only felt between two people. But love is universal. An energy. A contagious force. A gift. To offer money to a homeless man is to love. To save a worm from the sun is to love. To smile at a stranger is love. To be grateful, to be hopeful, to be brave, to be forgiving, to be proud, is to love.”
This week every book I’ve opened randomly has fallen to a page about love. How the phrase “Love is the ultimate law of the universe,” vibrates at 750. How after soul searching one nun devote writes, “I shall be love.”
What I like most about this is that we have this idea that we shall be lovED. We desire to be loved, which is normal and healthy. However, when we feel the lack of it is because we have disconnected from the truth that it is there all the time. Instead of asking to be lovED, what if we simply stated that “we shall be love.”
Because love the things that people have pondered and philosophized and written about in a million capacities. It’s the thing we all crave and yet most of us, because of our past hurts, are still afraid of receiving it in full. We are afraid that love can hurt us, that it will make us weak and breakable.
But the truth is that love is the most powerful force. The thing we fear is not LOVE, but rather the absence of it. For love is only good. It’s the absence that breaks our hearts.
I remember having a conversation about hell with someone once. You know the one where you arguing if it’s a place that actually exists, and what kind of cruel God would send people there?
I remember the person said, “What if hell is just an absence of God, the way that black is an absence of all light.” And yes, if my childhood teachings were true, and I believe that they are – God is love, and so a world absent of love seems cruel.
God, whatever we might call it, exists in the energy all around us and there is love everywhere. As A.R. Lucas said, in the simple things, even saving a worm from the sun. A smile to a stranger.
For me, the small things are always the big things. How do we treat people, animals, or the earth when no one is watching? How big can we open our hearts to connect with those around us? How present do we allow ourselves to be?
Love is not just a romantic dripping red hearted thing. Love is the small ways we take care of each other.
And this week I went to a show in L.A called Mesmerica (Mesmerica show info). It was held in a small dome so that 3D projections flittered across the celling while beautiful music played in the backdrop. The show was written and performed by James Hood, a lovely human who sat in the front of the room and thanked us all for being there and how excited he was to share his creation with us.
The music began as he tapped on a metal cymbal instrument and the ceiling grew in kaleidoscope transformations. And every moment was a journey, a fascination, a internal shifting. Stars, shapes, movement, music. The pictures seemed like the beginning of everything, like the paintings I’ve seen people draw on DMT, what they call “the spirit molecule”.
Anything that brings us into oneness, brings us closer to love. And I felt a part of it and an observer all at once, taking in the wonderment of it all.
My friend touched my leg midway through, leaned over and whispered, “Look at how happy he looks.” And I took my eyes from the ceiling to the stage and James was tapping his cymbal like drum as his eyes shone upwards and the happiest smile beamed on his lips. He was in joy.
And I pressed my hand against my heart and my friend and I locked eyes for a second. To witness someone in their joy fills my heart to the brim. And this was his bliss, sharing his beautiful creation with strangers, reminding us that we are connected and loved.
The images blossomed and wove through the space like breath, dance, and melody. And as the final music played and the ceiling took a solid shape once again, I wondered about all the things we can’t see, about the energy between us all.
And how love is all around in the ether. How joy can be a breath away. How peace lingers so close it can graze our fingertips. How easy it is to forget that we can be love.
If you’re in L.A. this show is worth attending this month: Mesmerica. Buy tickets here.
And this week I’m going ponder love and all the ways it surrounds us, all the little things. I invite you to do the same.
Forward Locomotion.
With Love,
Z :)
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