Leneia a'Min & an Earthen Collision

Lana La Framboise

A’las fema-haul’ey. I’jir tali fema-haul’ey. A’zznar fema-haul’ey. I’jartil fema-haul’ey.

The project

Themes

Epistemology & Bias

Effects of Fiction on Perspective

Spirituality

Meditational Practices

Participants

3-6 Dancers

Classmates

Friends

Texts

Interviews

Byzantine Notation Music

Observations

Mero Verne Script

Journal Entries

The epistemology of the West has been shaped by logocentrism and binary methods of knowing. However, this Western epistemology manipulates a detrimental bias on one’s ability to engage in spiritual practices that benefit the soul. By combining elements of a fictional religious practice (Leneia a’Min Maserna), Byzantine chanting (from the Eastern Orthodox church) of earth, and movements of classical western dancers, I impose a challenge to Western epistemology, and consequently Western philosophy and religion.

Prompts

Experiments with Leneia a'Min Maserna

  • Teaching Leneia a'Min and Leneia a'Min Maserna
  • Practicing Leneia a'Min Maserna
  • Collaborating with others to further develop Leneia a'Min Maserna
  • Encouraging others to participate in the Leneia a'Min practice

Investigations of Byzantine Chanting

  • Reflecting on my process of reading Byzantine Notation
  • Writing about the multiple process of chanting
  • Interviewing other chanters
  • Reflecting on chanting and its purpose.

Explorations of Reading & Writing

  • Collecting reflections from practioners of chanting, Leneia a'Min Maserna, and dance
  • Creating the hymns, legends, and prayers of Leneia a'Min
  • Developing the language of Mero Verne (the language used in Leneia a'Min)
  • Comparing and contrasting Byzantine music with poetry, Mero Verne, and dance

some projects

Portion of: Qaslesna Dimensions of Movement

Please note that some of these works are not listed in their entirety as they can only be read and understood in the context of Vedam.

A paralleled cosmos, as infinite as we know here on Earth,

is pulsating with an existence we feel deep in our stomachs.

Behold the Plane Emprevar, the universe you dreamt of long ago.


Here, Vedam’s Leneiasomba are found in lullabies and childhood;

shapes revealed by pieces of TV shows humans believe in;

call them fairies or swans

call them mermaids or angels

Know that they subscribe to no system wrapped and tied in

Tyranny Superficiality Ashes


Can you handle these abstracts?

Fantasy forest

Carry me, oh Creator, to the sky

hold me like a* precious immortal

wrapped in hymns and rituals

not even the Angels can unwrap**


Carry me, oh Creator, the sky

hold me like a precious immortal

wrapped in hymns and rituals

not even the universe can challenge.


I greet you, oh Creator, in the First Realm

will you count me among the Ancestors,

among the children passed, and among

all the Souvi? Keep me in the lights

of Izaratos, Atlaros, and Dagris


*The phrase “like a” is a specific phrase in Mero Verne.

**The word “unwrap” doesn’t translate well to English.

Fantasy forest

Carry them, oh Creator, to the sky

hold this child like a* precious immortal

wrapped in hymns and rituals

not even the Angels can unwrap**


Carry them, oh Creator, the sky

hold this child like a precious immortal

wrapped in hymns and rituals

not even the universe can challenge


We supplicate you, oh Creator,

remember our Ancestors in the Expansion,

remember our children resting in the sky,

remember the Souvi who guide us

To the lights of Izaratos, Atlaros, and Dagris.


*The phrase “like a” is a specific phrase in Mero Verne.

**The word “unwrap” doesn’t translate well to English.

Red clouds

Inside a heartbeat are echoes intertwined with legends of Leneiasomba

ascending and descending the organs and the severity of bodies

pulsing rhythms strung together by vines and fluorescent bulbs hanging in trees.

This is poetry to gift with Strength found in dense foliage supporting

grounded voices with foreign scales and minor—sternums shake

twist like a wretched cry; rise like a wale to the sky; fall like a writhing body

Qaslesna | caus-les-na | NOUN; VERB

You marched with crosses on your breast plates

stole the relics of divinity misunderstood and said

“the sacred must be embodied—tangible—real.”

Come to Vedam instead, and let the journey begin.

There’s fire in your blood when the trance begins

holding stars that embody the morning sun

and echoes like voices under the temple’s dome

Come to Vedam, and access cosmic space.

It will require your soul—I know this is heresy to you

but this is just byzantine fiction. This is Qaslesna.

Landscapes of Strength and florescence interweave

art—movement—sound—dimensions you dream of

see them give substance to fairytales and nightmares.

breath

Breathe this land and see the sky erupt into color.

Breathe the suns and the stars all mixed with one another.

Breathe this sea and see the waves fall onto bodies.

Breathe these ashes of planets and ancestors deceased.

Breathe the metayas and the snow from dreams and valleys.

Breathe the lands.

Breathe the blood.

Breathe the skies.

Breathe the body.

Breathe the Creator.

Receive the body of the Creator in the land and the sky.

breath

Yes, my dear these are the lands

all folded into Earthen stars.


This is what I see at night

casted along the layers of the ocean.


Oh, yes, I know there are no oceans in Vedam;

there’s no such thing as vast unknown depths.


I murdered the creatures too powerful

and made you instead. Aren’t you so beautiful?


Yes, I’ve seen all this in dreams of Tuame.

I push this into the crevices of my mind’s palm.


Lands. Can you see them?

Blood. It smells not of death.

Skies. With all the moons for a lifetime.

Body. Are you afraid of yours?

Creator. Are you strong enough?