Desert Illuminations

The record

The American South West’s desert is a place rich with mythology, folklore, and pop culture. Indigenous mythology has been ‘adapted’ into a broader narrative with beings such as Coyote the trickster, Navaho skin walkers, and Kokopelli a flute playing fertility god from the Hopi, Zuni and Anasazi peoples being commodified and co-opted by pop culture. TLegends of the American West played out their violent dramas against the desert backdrop with cowboys, lawmen, and bandits carving out a place for themselves in a history books. A potent blend of Native American, Spanish, and Anglo frontier culture has combined to create unique architectural and cultural artefacts and design. TMore recently atomic testing and the sheer weirdness of Area 51 and the Roswell incident have added a unique sci-fi aspect to the South West’s lore. Then there is the whole new age vibe going down in the South West with various energy hubs known as vortexes (or is that vortices?), crystal healing, desert yoga, meditation, and channelling of spirits, all attracting spiritual seekers like a mystical magnet. Throw into that a melange of co-opted pseudo native American beliefs married to white new-age culture and ther

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