A Velada for Maria Sabina

This video project was inspired by the recent topic for the June Psychedelic Challenge, which is a collaboration between Alien Art Hive and NFTShowroom. I’m not formally entering the challenge, however, but I wanted to acknowledge the inspiration.

I created the video in honour of Maria Sabina, one of history’s most enigmatic psychedelic heroes. During the 1960s, youth began to experiment with mind altering botanicals, which led to a host of social changes (good and bad) in various regions of the western world. The beginnings of that psychedelic revolution had some of their roots in a remote region of Mexico, where a wise old lady conducted pseudo-shamanic rites for clients in need of spiritual guidance.

Maria was visited by ethnomycologist Robert Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina, who learned about the techniques of the veladas, as Dona Sabina's rituals were called. Wasson wrote about these techniques, including the use of special mushrooms, and the rest is psychedelic lore.

History was not kind to this amiable and noble lady. For her troubles of bringing eternal wisdom to the world, her community shunned her, her house was burned, and her son was killed. She died in poverty and obscurity. Yet, she is without question one of the most influential personages of the 20th century and beyond.

This video project is composed of three main parts: the images, the audio, and the video.

I generated the images using AI, prompting for Maria Sabina by name with a few added descriptions to try to get a younger version of her. Most what we see of Maria is from her older years, but I wanted to elucidate the fact that she had been young once and had lived an entire lifetime. I generated multiple versions of the images to use in the video.

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I used UDIO generative music software to create the music score and voiceover. I conducted research on the life of Maria Sabina and incorporated some of the key elements in the lyrics, which I wrote by hand.

Invisible wise mother,
Weaver of secret histories,
Timeless poet;
Tonight the flame dances to remember.

Generations awakened in a mycological dream,
Singing the mysteries of the jungle.
Ancient primordial game of life,
Creator of worlds,
Words that were unheeded are now needed.

“Beautiful love
Always remember
You are the medicine.”

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I copied these lyrics into Udio and prompted it to generate a spoken word song using the lyrics. I added descriptions to try to get a slow tempo ambient song with ethnic meseoamerican sounds. I created the song in pieces, first creating several 30-second snippet, then extending the chosen one to add an intro and an ending.

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