Ghost in the Collage: Ritually Consecrated Art

To create a consecrated piece with a spirit, you must be ready to undertake a labor of love.

When I first started making collages in 2018 it became almost a reflexive practice to help my brain synthesize my feelings. While finishing my undergrad, I needed an outlet that was just me, something that could balance out the collaborative nature of the film I was doing. But within a few weeks into making these collages, I relized that something was tapping me on the shoulder.

Marrying spirit work and artistic practice has been a two-fold process, merging the unseen realm of spirits and the (relatively)unseen digital realm. Feeling my way in the dark through this practice, I realized how complementary art and spellwork are. The collage is emblematic of gathering ingredients in a dense forest, scouring through the thicket of the internet’s digital archives.

In practice, synthesizing these two has been a trial and error process, figuring out exactly how a part of each spirit wishes to be ensouled is as much a process of creation as it is finding a collaborative partner.  In this animist practice, all elements get to have a say in whether they become a part of the creative process and, ultimately, it is the spirit who consecrates the final product.

Providing the collage as an anchor for the spirit gives it life… and perhaps gives my laptop a run for its money on occasion.

Plate offering to collaborating ancestral spirit (2023) 

 I often start with research into the spirit themself, working through their associations and mythology that help inform a familiarity and appropriate conduct. Throughout the consecrated pieces, the spirits, are given multiple points of contact for collaboration, that involve initial scrying, petitioning, and invocations.

Fomalhaut ritual consecration of original print (2024)

Ritual Offering in honor of a shapeshifting Spirit (2022)

After consent and establishing a working relationship, physical and digital offerings (herbs, smoke, libations, etc.) are given during appropriate astrological timings to the collage. During the construction, I imbed digital representations of elected herbs and elements within the piece that are favored by the spirit and that will be reproduced later for the actual working. This layering ensouls the digital piece with virtues that are then “woken up” by the ritual itself.

When the collage is finished and printed, it is presented and the final ritual ensues. The spirit and I enjoy celebratory cheers and peruse our little private gallery opening waiting for the candles to burn down.  Now, we invite you all to peruse with us and enjoy the fruits of collaborative labor.

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