Elaine Mansfield

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

His bright silk shrouds were soaked with yogurt, honey, water and herbs, or ghee, one substance at a time. His body had been cleaned and wrapped in fresh layers of silk. In the last ritual, ghee rolled down the sage’s dead face, over his glasses, and penetrated the silks. They were within me–a gift, a koan, a lucid dream?

Grief 71

Grief Bereavement 71

Palliverse

JANUARY 27, 2024

To clean the silk screen before the next print is made. Allowing the person’s spirit to move to where it needs to go. Spiritually resetting the room to be a blank canvas again. To allow the next person and their family to make their imprint on the room. Is there something missing? Someone missing? In an acceptable fashion for all.

Presentation 52

Presentation 52

Elaine Mansfield

OCTOBER 11, 2022

We sat on the cement near a family of wealthy people dressed in gold-threaded silks. We tiptoed in bare feet through a dark concrete passageway before entering a bright bare room. Balu lowered one flattened palm toward the ground. The silence was deafening. Their feet were bare out of respect, not poverty.

74

74

Elaine Mansfield

OCTOBER 25, 2022

His body was draped in thick layers of colorful gold-threaded silks for which Kanchipuram was world famous. In the middle, surrounded by his closest male attendants, Sankara was seated in meditation posture on a raised chair. He was dead. Where was the old sage in his thin cotton saffron robes?

Grief 99

Grief Bereavement 99