THE HIGH PRIESTESS

The Golden Dome School is a nomadic mystery school dedicated to studying the triangulation between art, science, and spirit. We currently have open applications for our "High Priestess" session, taking place in Joshua Tree from March 27th - April 2nd. We will be exploring automatic writing and drawing and producing a 'zine, as well as presenting work in a Los Angeles based gallery at the culmination of our time together. This program will take place in Joshua Tree, CA in a comfortable mid-century home in the desert complete with tiki bar and hot tub! Applications are due on February 28th or until all places are filled. Visit our website for more information at: golden-dome.org.

"She lets the other language speak—the language of 1,000 tongues which knows neither enclosure nor death. To life she refuses nothing. Her language does not contain, it carries; it does not hold back, it makes possible.”
― Hélène Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa

The High Priestess represents wisdom, illumination, inner knowledge, and intuitive understanding. In traditional tarot imagery, The High Priestess holds a book in her lap that destines her to study and knowledge - because she is not reading it, we are given reason to think that this volume is nothing other than herself. The High Priestess represents a wisdom akin to vertical memory, which Plato describes as the memory of the transcendent self: “Seeing that the soul is immortal, and has beheld all things both in this world and the nether realms, she has acquired knowledge of all and everything….thus it would seem that research and learning are wholly recollection.” (Plato, Menon 81).

In an effort to mine the wisdom of our transcendent selves, “The School for Psychic and Water Based Mediumship” consists of a week long series of automatic painting and writing activities centered around sustainability, spirituality, and consciousness. We will be exploring desert terrain, engaging in collaborative art and writing exercises, investigating patriarchal language structures and exorcising the alphabet, visiting local spiritual centers, practicing regular meditation, and participating in lectures offered by visiting artists. This series of workshops takes place in Joshua Tree and will culminate in the creation of a High Priestess ‘zine as well as a public presentation of our findings in Los Angeles.

This gathering seeks to traverse boundaries of medium, materiality, representation, and embodiment to provide its community with tools to create vocabularies for reconciling our selves and our work to each other and to our world. How can art contribute to cultural and psychic hygiene for the benefit of our planet? How do art and language function in a patriarchal society? What language do we have for mystery within our current systems? What can we do as artists to enact change? The Golden Dome is interested in fostering a co-creative environment of experimental pedagogy that fosters community, collaboration, feedback, and the collapse of boundaries between life and art. Faculty members include: Liz Armstrong, Genevieve Belleveau, Maja D’Aoust, Ryan Ingersol, Ron Rege, Eliza Swann, and Laurie Weeks.