I kept adding on to the building with recycled materials and kept gazing at the full moon from the coffer. The full moon came across the southern sky and almost burned a hole straight through my brain. Guess it was no wonder I had a vision…
a vision of four wizards.
The First Wizard
The first wizard told me about time and motion and magic. It used the example of a toy top that spins. The top is painted two different colors. While the top is motionless, these two colors appear as two individual spaces on the surface of the top. When the top begins to spin, the two colors blend into one color. Time and motion took the two colors on the surface of the top and made them one.
The wizards, however, say that time and motion must be applied to the observer rather than what is being observed. In this respect, time and motion not only change the vantage point – they create a situation where the vantage point is no longer a point but a line circling around the object being observed, i.e. an orbit. Consequently, what is being observed (be it abstract, conceptual, or physical) is much more thoroughly examined and finally much more fully understood.
Wizards have developed the ability to orbit – i.e. to maneuver. Fixed humans cannot maneuver. Their vision is from a fixed position
My first office in Cañon. It was here I learned to “orbit” garbage and found its true value. The wall in the back left is pickle jars and aluminum cans filled with water to form thermal mass bricks for structure and heat storage and… the passage of light.
The Second Wizard
The second wizard told me about the application of maneuverability. An example involving violence was used.
Imagine you are driving in the wide open salt flats of Utah. Way in the distance you can see a violent obstacle. Because you can maneuver the car, you can obviously avoid it with little effort. This maneuverability and the fact that the wide openness of the salt flats allows you to see things long before you encounter them gives you complete control over what you do and do not encounter.
Violence in ones life span is as easy to deal with as the obstacle in the salt flats if one can “see” and “maneuver”. This ability to “see” and “maneuver” in space and time (not just on Earth) must be developed. Many people and groups of people are against violence. They have neither the vision nor the maneuverability to totally steer clear of it so they get to it and stop. Their energy is blocked by the violent obstacle. Often people who believe in violence, smash right through the obstacle. This is usually damaging in some way (i.e. war). If they could have seen the obstacle from a distance and were aware of their maneuverability in space and time, they could have made their way without ever encountering the violent obstacle.
Imagine how much maneuverability one has in the salt flats of Utah as compared to the usual ribbon of highway. The potential maneuverability in space and time as compared to living and dealing with time in sequence and space from one vantage point is infinitely more than this. This is not a method of avoiding violence. It is a method of making violence non-existent in one’s path. This is much easier said than done. It involves development of self energy which comes from immaculate concentration.
The Third Wizard
The third wizard used another basic example for the explanation of maneuverability and introduced the use of distance.
Imagine standing in front of a huge building. A complicated building like an air terminal or a cathedral. You are almost consumed by the building as you look up, and to both sides, and still can’t see nearly all of it. You could get lost in it. You have no feeling for what it is totally like. You only see one elevation.
Now walk all the way around this building – once – twice – three times. Each time you see and understand more. You now have a feeling for the nature and scope of the building.
Now imagine you could go up and over the top of the building – down the other side, into the ground and under the building and back up to where you started. Imagine all that you would see and absorb in doing this once – twice – three times. You now have the total exterior of the building inside your head as a result of your “orbiting” around it in two different orbits. The more different orbits you take and the more times you orbit the better you understand the building and the more clearly it exists in your head. Now apply distance to these orbits. The greater distance you are from the building in your orbit, the more you see in terms of how the building relates to what is around it and the more total picture you get of it. The closer you are to it in your orbit, the more detail you observe with respect to the building itself. Both orbits (with respect to distance) are enlightening in a different way.
Thus is the orbit of self observation and life observation for fixed humans. The threshold of cosmic travel awaits the development of maneuverability. Maneuverability is a specific organization of human energy.
From bliss to battle…
The early days of Cañon were filled with visions, music, dogs, people and inventing. The candle chandelier (opposite) was made from dog food cans and tuna cans. The fireplace was an old boiler found on the land. The chairs were made from carpentry drops from the building sites. The table was a wire spool from the electric co-op.
The road to Canon (left) was nothing short of magic. The land had apple trees, pear trees, asparagus, cherry trees, plum bushes, knee high grass, ducks, chickens and magpies. I actually had extreme fits of happiness, almost to the point that it scared me.
There were few enforced rules, codes and regulations. I thought of something and the next day I did it. I saw the world changing – I responded.
Thirty years later, the world is changing faster than ever and it takes months, even years, to respond due to codes, rules, and regulations.
Then it was bliss – now it is battle.
I saved those pieces of time though. I use them now to fuel the fight. Inspiration, imagination and intuition…
and sometimes desperation…
all arrows that penetrate dogma.
Even in 1976 people were recognizing the dilemma of the future. The book above came out with many people attempting solutions. The Cañon Compound and a couple of my aluminum can buildings were represented in this book as possible directions for the future. Regular people seemed to recognize this as a valid direction while much of the architectural community began to think of me as a freak.
Above at the table – My step daughter, Georgia and me reading and drawing under the candle chandelier. Right, the coffer on the top of the pyramid. I strapped myself in up there every full moon… then I wondered why the architectural community had concerns about me?
The vision and the reality of the Cañon compound…
