Spring Creek Spirit Vessel, Brandon Weston

Spirit vessels work on the principle of embodiment. In Spiritism and many folk traditions that have Spiritism as a foundation, embodiment is the view that spirits can take on a physical form in order to experience the world in a different way and learn the lessons they need to learn in order to evolve and elevate. A spirit vessel isn’t a trap, it isn’t a prison, it’s a tool a spirit can use to experience the world. I like to compare it to a submarine, which gives us humans the opportunity to experience a part of the world we normally wouldn’t given our physical limitations. Spring Creek doesn’t need embodiment. As a spirit it has its own life, desires, motivations, and aspirations. But, sometimes even spirits who don’t need embodiment might still want it in order to do some work they need to do or experience life in a different way. A spirit vessel is a body for the disembodied.

My initial planning involved asking two main questions to Spring Creek, which it was able to answer through a divinatory system I use called Geomancy. 1) Do you want embodiment? and 2) If given embodiment, will you use it for the benefit, healing, growth, and wise guidance of all beings? Both questions yielded a neutral water element indicator tending towards auspiciousness, which I interpreted as Spring Creek being ready for whatever adventure awaits–a very watery approach, I expected nothing less from a creek.

The spirit vessel was created and birthed on the new moon August 12th and empowered daily using prayer and ritual for the entire waxing cycle. It was then sealed with this power on the full moon in Pisces (an auspicious water element moon.) 

 

The vessel itself is a large glass jar that contains holestones and other rocks from the creek, Arkansas quartz, gemstone chips, tumbled crystals, a large reddish holestone found at Spring Creek for its heart, as well as living creek water. It has a face that I painted on a piece of slate I found at the creek, as well as some additional adornments including a rattlesnake vertebra necklace, shawl, and necklace made from beads I carved and a Spring Creek holestone.  

 

My intention starting off the project was to let Spring Creek speak and act however it wanted to without my own expectations getting in the way. I didn’t know what would come of the project I only knew I wanted to give Spring Creek a different way of experiencing and interacting and interacting with the world.

 

Because I included living water in the vessel, I knew that it would probably start growing algae. This was intentional. I wanted the energy created by the water itself to help strengthen and power the vessel. Living water for a living spirit. About three days into the project clear, gelatinous webs began to form in the vessel connecting the walls to the heart stone in the center. About four days after that everything in the vessel began turning black. Clouds of black algae began to settle on top of the rocks. The beautiful, tumbled gemstones and Arkansas quartz began turning black as well. Taking this as perhaps an ill omen, I did a divination session. I used an Oracle deck called the Southern Gothic Oracle by Stacey Williams-Ng. The question I asked was what this omen represented in terms of the activity of the spirit vessel. The card I drew was one called the Abandoned Plantation. One sentence from the interpretation guidebook caught my eye, “…there’s no point admiring the pretty decorations if the ruined underlying structure threatens to fall and crush you.” The card itself is about dismantling crumbling systems in in the world and facing up to the shadows of the past. Spring Creek had spoken.

 

As I’ve enjoyed the beauty of Spring Creek as well as the energizing, life changing moments I’ve had throughout this project, I’m reminded through this omen that Spring Creek is still an impaired waterway. It’s still suffering due to agricultural and industrial runoff. Its clear waters hold a deep secret, black algae growths that if given the opportunity would quickly choke out and kill any life around it. Algae is one of the first tells for impaired waterways. As unnatural sources of biological nourishment increase in the form of fertilizer runoff algae blooms rapidly. As the algae dies it releases ammonia into the water choking out other plant life and in stagnant pools it will kill fish and other animals as well. Black clusters of algae clinging to beautiful rocks in this spirit vessel sings the message we all need to hear. No matter our spiritual connection to the land, we are still the causers of its demise. Simply admiring the beauty of the place is no remedy for such destruction.