#098 – The San Miguel Katastrophe (Static)
Techniques: Chaotica, FX Photostudio Pro, Project Milk Syphon, Sound Spectrum Aeon, Pixelmator, Final Cut Pro
I listened to this musical mix from DJ San Miguel the other day, the monthly #44 at the Schirmchendrink cocktail bar, and it set my mind in motion.
The name San Miguel summons the vision of a distant village lost in the torrid heart of New Mexico, with its white houses, its dirt streets, its catholic church, the hot wind blowing over the rooves, and the cool contact of terracota tiles under naked feet, deep in the hacienda. The babbling of a fountain, the pleasant echoes of guitar strings pinched.
San Miguel… Saint Michael… is also the archangel that leads the heavenly armies to fight those of Satan in the book of Revelation, and who slays the dragon.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels [going forth] to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels;
8 And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.
Revelation 12:7-9
The scene of Michael trampling the Dragon has been painted and sculpted by the centuries by countless artists, including the most iconic representations below by Raphael and Albrecht Dürer.
He is the Saint Patron protector of the city of Kiev, which hosts a golden domed monastery named after him.
Thinking about this epic battle between Michael and the Dragon, I imagine the motion of the angel’s flamed sword, swirling in the air and hurled at the Devil, tracing in the air holy curves branding the eyes with retinal impression. And every time the sword hits the scales of the fiendish creature, it throws sparks in the air. Transcending space and time, this fighting sequence becomes the holiest of all katas one can imagine, leading to the most catastrophic moment of the cosmos and of Mankind.
Controversial philosopher Rudolph Steiner once theorised that each leading Archangel in turn guides human evolution for 354 years and four months. His timetable set November of the year 1879 A.D. as the beginning of a Michael age. And he added that the Archangel St. Michael, one of the original seven leading Archangels, received at that time what one may call a promotion. He was to lead a civilisation that would, for the first time ever, encompass all of humanity. Who knows what is myth or delusion and what is true?
Regardless, today I felt inspired to try a visual abstraction of St Michael’s kata, San Miguel’s katastrophic choregraphy. There you go.