I’m going on vacation until January 2 and most likely won’t be posting again until then. Thank you for visiting my site, and happy days (they’re ALL holy!)
Here’s the completed altar I made while leading a workshop on making visualization shrines from recycled things at Doshi Camp, in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan last October:
Simple “Green Toe” Shoes box lid, art from the cover of the May 2005 “88” permaculture magazine (published in Japan), ad for Japanese edition of The Little Prince, California bay laurel leaf I found in my suitcase, pine sprigs from the Doshi forest, kimono cloth, plant photos, sea shells, buttons, candy wrapper found on the ground at Doshi, sequins, buttons, tiny broom, hemp cord and abalone given to me by En Ando, yarn from recycled saris and a coral covered seashell that were proof of admission at the Happy Flower Beach Party festival,
and love
from Alicia Bay Laurel
If you would like a greeting card with envelope with a photo of this shrine on it, click here.
Karin (aka Wyldflower Revolution) prefers food that is grown locally (to minimize the amount of fossil fuel and packaging used to bring the food the consumer), produced organically (that is, without pesticides, herbicides, hormones, genetic engineering, radiation, chemical fertilizers, and other substances and processes toxic to human beings, animals, plants and the environment), vegan (because animal products require a much greater use of fuels and land than vegetable ones, and because they are much more likely to contain toxins, due to the industrial farming, industrial pollution of the ocean and waterways, and the way toxins are bio-concentrated as you go up the food chain), and raw (because enzymes and other valuable nutrients are diminished or lost when food is cooked). Her acronym is LOVER: local, organic, vegan, essentially raw.
When I visited Karin, I brought over a bag of vegan groceries, and, after receiving her mild rebuke for all the packaging on my offerings, I watched Karin swiftly combine them into delicious wraps.
She slightly heated (to soften) the organic, sprouted whole wheat tortillas, spread them with organic hummus, piled on a couple of cups of organic mesclun (aka baby lettuces, or cafe salading), tossed on some cubes of ripe avocado and slices of bell peppers from her garden, dressed with a tomato-, tahini- and nutritional-yeast-thickened vinaigrette, rolled them up and called them lunch.
We ate off ceramic plates handmade by a local artist, which sat upon place mats made from recycled rags in the style of rag rugs, using cloth napkins and our fingers. Karin says you have to hold your wrap like Groucho Marx’s cigar, straight out, or the filling will fall out onto your plate (or farther).
Karin Lease (aka wildflower revolution) and her chihuahua friends Coco and Roxanne.
Karin’s been a strong voice for personal responsibility for the environment for a long time. She’s studious about avoiding waste in her life, and not afraid to tell other people they need to do the same. No one wants to be told what to do, but, alas, she’s right. We do all need to stop using disposable things, buying stuff made in sweat shops, using gasoline unnecessarily (and switch to waste veggie oil), and recycle like crazy. I mean, the polar bears are drowning because the Arctic ice is gone.
Karin had a brain aneurysm the same day as the big tsunami in south Asia, on December 26, 2004. Her partner Andy Bunnell organized fundraisers and volunteer round-the-clock care for her. Dozens of people participated to help; Karin was completely amazed at the love demonstrated by her community in her time of need. She emerged having learned the power of community, and now also focuses some of her time as an activist in this realm.
You can order a copy of her environmental manifesto, “Wildflower’s Beautiful World,” by emailing her at wyldflowr@comcast.net. It’s got instructions, resource lists, relevant quotes, and even a set of rap lyrics by Ms. revolution herself.
I hadn’t seen Karin Lease in a couple of years, but I love to visit her. She was my dear friend when we lived at Wheeler’s Ranch commune in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. She’s really something. As Anitash Designs, she makes fabulous costume jewelry and clothing. As Wyldflower Revolution, she’s renowned as an environmental activist.
The first morning I awoke at her house near Sebastopol, California, dawned bright and balmy, and I had no trouble convincing Karin to come with me to Wheeler’s Ranch for a walk in the forest. Once the only commune in the area, Wheeler’s Ranch is bordered on two sides by large communes, Oceansong and Star Mountain, and a third large communal land, Bodega Pastures, lies a few miles away to the south. This view is from the top of the land at Oceansong, looking south. Mount Tamalpais in Marin County is on the horizon.
We walked along the familiar forest road through Wheeler’s Ranch. Today the commune consists of a dozen households that pay rent to Bill Wheeler, who lives on the land and enjoys a considerable reputation in the San Francisco Bay Area as a plein air painter.
We stopped at Bill’s wonderful homebuilt cottage, built of his own hand-milled timber, and complete with stone fireplace and antiques from his Connecticut ancestors.
Bill Wheeler was surprised and happy to see us again. He said that a film crew was due any minute to interview him for a documentary, and that, no doubt, they would want to interview me as well.
Karl Ferris and his wife Melanie have a grant from the Canadian Film Board to make a documentary on bohemian life, and, yes, they knew about my book and were delighted to interview me. Happily, I had some of my books and CDs in my car, so that they would be able to use images from Living on the Earth and songs from Music From Living on the Earth in the film.
Birgitta Bjerke, an Swedish fiber artist who lived at Wheeler Ranch a few years after I did, knows Karl and Melanie from their hippie days on Ibiza in the 1970’s. She introduced them to Bill Wheeler, and is accompanying the film crew making connections for other interviews as well. She remembered the scene in Ibiza. “It was all about the clothes. We didn’t know anything, but we were gorgeous.”
Birgitta gave me this photo of one of her amazing crocheted wall hangings, bought my book and CD, and regaled me with wonderful stories. I’m invited to visit her in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Below, she dances in one of her crocheted costumes in front of another crocheted wall hanging. Her work makes me think of the mosaic art of Simon Rodia and of Antoni Gaudi.
I had fun doing the interview, and I’m told the film will be released next summer. Karin and I walked back up to my car at Oceansong in the waning light, happily illuminated by a fat full moon over the forest.
Alicia onstage in Tamagusuku, Okinawa, October 31, 2010
Dear girlgroup,
In thinking about my year-end list, it occurred to me that there’s something on it that you folks may not have heard but would be quite interested in. And in hopes of getting it onto more year-end lists than just mine…
Alicia Bay Laurel is best known for her 1971 handwritten and drawn commune guide “Living on the Earth” (later picked up by Random House, and an international bestseller). Alicia became a friend and mentor when I was 15, and I’ve returned the favor by helping to build her website, http://www.aliciabaylaurel.com, and teaching her how to blog.
Her new album, What Living’s All About (available from her online store) includes an astonishingly powerful protest tune, “America The Blues,” featuring wild guitar work by Nels Cline and Alicia sounding more like the Queen of the Punks than the Queen of the Hippies. I made her promise to make it available for free, because this song needs to be heard. Please give it a spin if you’re inclined, and think of it when listing your singles for your year end list.
Alicia says: “This is a song about speaking truth to power—not only to despots, but to our own collective power. The operative lyric here is VOTE. If everyone who could vote actually did vote, we could elect representatives who would work with us to reverse the vast environmental, public health, diplomatic, and human rights problems we earth-dwellers face, and make this a sustainable, joyful world for all who live in it, now and in the future.”
Cover image of Sun and Earth kissing in a cosmic rainbow dance.
Book trailer for the new English language edition, published in October 2021:
I made this video in collaboration with digital designer Karen Tsugawa, displaying many illustrated pages from the book. The sound track is a recording made in 1973 by Ramón, of us performing together an improvised piece titled “Everything is Flowing,” track 9 from our album, Songs from Being of the Sun. Ramón is playing his signature pentatonically tuned zither, and I am playing an open-tuned guitar. I suggest watching it at full screen with headphones!
You can obtain a new copy of Being of the Sun here!
In the above photo, taken in 2004, I visited Ramon Sender Barayon and his wife, Judith Levy Sender, in Noe Valley, San Francisco. Ramón and I each signed each of our remaining copies of our book, Being of the Sun, saved over countless moves since 1973, when it was published by Harper & Row, Publishers.
On May 1, 2020 Ramón Sender Barayón and I signed a contract for the first English edition since 1973 of our book, Being of the Sun, with Echo Point Books & Media, a small publisher based in Brattleboro, Vermont.
On December 31, 2018: El Mundo, one of the most esteemed journals in Spain, published an article about Ramón Sender Barayon, and the documentary film about his life and work written and directed by Luis Olano.
In the early ‘70’s, while living in on a mountain farm near Popayán, Colombia, Ramon and I wrote Being of the Sun, released as a companion volume to Living on the Earth. The book’s central premise is that each person can find his or her own to way to a dialogue with the Divine, without middlemen, hierarchy, or externally imposed rules of living, while borrowing practices from many traditions to enhance this dialogue. We then offered, as an example, various practices that we found useful, especially practices honoring nature and its cycles, the vibrations of music, and the life-giving light of the sun.
Ramon’s unique contributions stem from his practices of meditation on sunlight and his background as an avant-garde composer and musician. He was, along with Mort Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley, one of the composers who formed the San Francisco Tape Music Center in the early 1960’s, and collaborated with audio engineer Don Buchla and Mort Subotnick in the invention of first synthesizer built on the West Coast, the Buchla Box (which was contemporary with the Moog, built on the East Coast).
My illustrations in Being of the Sun are far more lush, imaginative and colorful than those in Living on the Earth, and I bravely offered a drawing of a beautiful young woman defecating into a hole in the earth.
Twenty-seven years after its publication, I recorded three of the songs from Being of the Sun on my first CD, Music From Living on the Earth. In 2013, Ramón and I released Songs from Being of the Sun, a CD remastered from Ramón’s 1973 reel-to-reel tape of the two of us performing songs, chants and improvisations from our book, just before it was published. In 2015, I recorded three more of my songs first published in Being of the Sun on my seventh CD, More Songs From Living on the Earth, and, in 2018, on my eighth CD, Alicia Bay Laurel: Live In Japan, I perform a medley of the four chants for the solstices and equinoxes. I also performed this medley in the film I made in collaboration with filmmaker Luis Olano, of my live one-woman two-act storytelling and musical stage performance, Living on the Earth – The Musical.
If you scroll down, you’ll find a chart I made for the new edition of Being of the Sun, showing the pages on which the songs, chants and improvisations appear, and the locations of existing recordings of them.
Being of the Sun was initially not well received; in 1973, Rolling Stone declared it “the worst gift book of the year.” However, in the intervening years, it became a cult classic, often referenced on Pagan/Wiccan websites, the illustrations pirated into various alternative journals. People spiritually attuned to nature, for example, practitioners of Shinto, love this book. The Japanese translation of this book has been in print from 1974 to 1980, and from 2007 to the present. And some visionaries, like author/journalist/professor of design Alastair Gordon, saw the magic in it right away: “I still cherish the original editions I have of these magical works… Being of the Sun should be required reading for all earthlings. I truly love your spirit and vision…”
Since then, I’ve been licensing the illustrations to fashion designers in Japan. The Hayashi Sisters did a write-up in Japan Vogue Online, published May 25, 2015, about the Salon de Balcony summer fashion line (photo above), which includes clothing and accessories printed with illustrations from Being of the Sun.
Here is the synopsis/review on Amazon dot com:
“A do-it-yourself spirituality and music book, Being of the Sun (Harper and Row, 1973), is the sequel to Alicia Bay Laurel’s classic, best-selling guide, Living on the Earth (Random House 1971 and 2000.) Co-written with author, avant-garde composer and solar yogi Ramón Sender Barayón, Being of the Sun provides a guide to creating one’s own religion, and also offers a compendium of spiritual practices the authors found valuable. Similar to Living On The Earth, Being of the Sun is entirely handwritten in Alicia’s flowing cursive script and illustrated on every page with her line drawings, a shining example of her immensely influential original book design. However, unlike the simple brown lines and cover of Alicia’s first book, Being of the Sun’s design features purple ink throughout, a colorful cover, plus eight full color illustrations within. Ramón created sheet music of the original spiritual songs and chants he and Alicia wrote for the book. Being of the Sun offers a window on hippie life in the early 70’s, and remains a cult classic among nature-worshippers to this day.” ____________________________________________________________________
Here is the cover for the still unpublished Spanish edition. Still hoping to release it! ______________________________________________________________
In 2013, Indigo With Stars, Inc. released “Songs from Being of the Sun,” a remastered version on CD of an archival reel-to-reel recording made by Ramón Sender Barayon in 1973, of me and Ramón performing some of the sacred nature chants we created for Being of the Sun, just before it was published. It’s available as a physical CD here.
5 star review on CD Baby of “Songs from Being of the Sun” by Gordon Kennedy, author of Children of the Sun, an astonishing book that reveals the 19th century European roots of the hippie movement in the USA:
“In The Sunshine Of Your Love”
“Being of the Sun is an enchanted Solar Mass of relaxing, charming, seductive sounds. If I could pop into the book version like a superflex Gumby, this musical soundtrack would rejuvenate me – and I can’t wait to meet all of the colorful sun children. I visualized Gods-dog and even she sports a nice tan.
“Inside my sauna, the harmonies feed my inner sweat glands with radiant waves of helio-therapy. I surrender.”
Our friend, organic food product pioneer and philosopher Gregory Sams, author of a wonderful solar praise and scientific information book called Sun of gOd, received a copy in April 2017, and posted:
“Being of the Sun” was written 25 years before Sun of gOd. This beautiful book by Alicia Bay Laurel and Ramon Sender taps into the same spirit. Inspirational! All lovingly hand-written and illustrated.
Tigger Wheel was a child living at Wheeler Ranch commune while I was writing Living on the Earth. We’ve stayed in touch all these years; now she and her husband are retired special education teachers in Texas. She sent me this a few years back:
Another letter to me and to Ramon Sender Barayon from deLIGHTful Gregory Sams:
“After an initial delightful rush into it, I have now finally got to the end of your incredible testament, Being of the Sun. Sorry it took so long, but maybe I was waiting for the Summer to kick in. I’m just amazed at how tuned in you two lovers were, and to what a depth, all those years ago! Thinking that perhaps those sacraments and the light of our Sun gave a helpful and loving hand. It is at once a beautiful spiritual work of art and a practical guide to living a good life – a fitting accolade to the true light of all our lives.
“I was thinking, going through it, that there were so many pages I wanted to post-it note that it would be silly to do so. And then I see the hand-written index at the back. Astounding! The book covers so very much, even how to hand-make your own musical instruments and wind chimes. Got me wondering if you ever assembled that drone orchestra. Loved your words on food and your expression of the consciousness that pervades all. You both really deserved to retire on that book but hey, you’re happy and Sun still blesses us. I’m really happy to know that a copy of my book is in your hands. They are so different in approach, yet complement each other so well.”
Gregory Sams Cultural Change Agent, Organic Food Pioneer Author of Sun of gOd __________________________________________________
VIVIENDO EN LA TIERRA & SER DEL SOL
“Living On The Earth” (Viviendo en la Tierra) es una guía o manual para la vida sostenible, comunal y alternativa creada por Alicia Bay Laurel en el rancho-comuna Wheeler, en el norte de California, a finales de los años sesenta. Fue un éxito de ventas a principios de la década siguiente, y sin ser un libro de cocina, fue incluido en un prestigioso recopilatorio como uno de los 100 libros de cocina más influyentes de la historia de los EEUU. Está traducido al japonés y desde que el año pasado Kachina Ediciones se lanzara a editarlo en español, manteniendo los dibujos originales, podemos tener esta verdadera obra de arte en nuestra biblioteca. Pocos años después de su publicación, Alicia viajó con Ramon Sender a Colombia para investigar a fondo los cultos solares y en 1973 publicaron juntos otra maravilla: “Being Of The Sun” (Ser del Sol), una especie de manual para crear tu propia religión y vivir de una forma más consciente con la naturaleza. Está construido como un diario, e incluye las partituras y los cánticos asociados a diferentes rituales. No tuvo el mismo éxito que su predecesor, y la revista Rolling Stone llegó a catalogarlo como “el peor regalo que puedes hacer estas navidades”. A nosotros nos parece sin embargo, además de una obra de arte, un documento histórico de gran valor. Muy recientemente hemos conocido la fantástica noticia de que Kachina Ediciones se va a encargar de su edición en español para el próximo verano.
Luis Olano Writer and Director of the documentary, “Sender Barayon: A Trip into the Light” December 2018 _________________________________________________________
That Yellow book [“living on the earth”’] I can’t find it now. The next, “being with the sun” is now on hand. I liked Laurel’s leaf, and it was written that I put this name on it.
It was a book that was always whispered and whispered to the truth.
Certain books influenced me profoundly as a young teenager. I remember pouring over The Last Whole Earth Catalog and planning a theoretical venture into the wilderness. When I was thirteen, my brother gave me a book called “Being of the Sun”. I studied that book for months and began a process of developing my own traditions as a result. I don’t know what happened to my original copy, but a few years ago, I found a new one. Here are a couple of pages:
That book was my bible as a teenager! I colored in it and hung out with it in a sacred space I set up in my room to do my yoga…oh, that’s right! That’s where I learned many yoga poses too!
At the time, I didn’t really know anyone who shared that world with me…it was a window into my dreams for my life and really stimulated my imagination and added magic and warmth, color and joy to my days and nights….
I will introduce you to the book that touched the heart. This is my forever Bible.
In the light of the sun that lives us, Feeling the wind and nature To live comfortably and live, For us now That’s exactly what I need.
The author of this book Live by Alicia Bay Laurel How to live primitive Yoga, mantra and breathing It’s new when you look at it! It is also the magic of the scales from the eyes, It is also my life of the past.
Alicia Bay Laurel 💛 I felt you’re really magical of using all of nature 🌈🌲💖!
One words about ‘’Mekarauroko’’ , the scale from the eye is a Japanese Proverb, To see the light , to be awakened to the truth, to have the scales fall from one’s eyes are the meetings .
Thank you for blowing your wonderful wind into my life!
Nancy Taylor Holistic chiropractor Charlottesville, Virginia ___________________________________________________________
I read your book, Being of the Sun, and I got inspired by the life you wrote about in this book. These days, I spend more time in nature, and it brings me much calm and peace in my mind.
Lei Aloha Smile Communicator Izumo, Shimane, Japan _____________________________________________________________
I have my old copy. It has been such a beautiful influence in my life. Alicia Bay Laurel, I am truly beholden to you for your countless gifts, books that changed my life, set me on my path, and were friends to me when no one else understood. Treasured with all my heart.
Alicia Bay Laurel: So thrilled to see the harvest goddess smiling in your winter solstice altar, dear Hecate Doe!
Hecate Doe: Alicia Bay Laurel, you already know I love me some toilet paper roll Goddesses! You should have seen my Mabon one dancing on my altar, and my Imbolc one was quite cheeky ! I’ve made various Yule ones for 50 years (ack) but this is the first year I’m diligently making one for each Sabbat. Although I design and change up the skirt and blouse on each one over the years, the original inspiration came from your beautiful book.
Alicia Bay Laurel: Wow, I am very honored that a page from Being of the Sun has become so deeply woven into your spiritual life, dear Hecate Doe!
Hecate Doe: Alicia Bay Laurel… and then some. Because it was before scanners, my books are all cut up, the pieces carefully guarded. My 50-year-old son was thrilled to hear that I’ve “met” you; he still remembers the words to [the song] “Receiver Believer” and can play Winter Solstice chant on the old recorder. For the last 50 years, we’ve always sung and played “Receiver Believer” every Yule!
Here are the two pages from the new edition of Being of the Sun that give the locations of the existing recordings of the music in the book. All of these recordings are available from our online shop (there’s a link in the horizontal menu bar at the top of each page of this website).
Ramón Sender Barayón and Alicia Bay Laurel perform together on November 13, 2016 at the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa, California, as part of Alicia’s song and story show, Living on the Earth: The Musical. Alicia’s clothing is printed with the pages of her book.Alicia Bay Laurel and Ramón Sender Barayón making music together in 1973.
Just thinking about you this morning as I was going through an old box of books I used for research on SPACED OUT and came across these two beauties…I’d completely forgotten about them!
Your work still inspires and brings joyto so many… (moi meme)
Much Love, Health and Beatitude for 2021
Alastair Gordon Author, Architecture Critic, Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design New York, New York
Dear Alastair,
Thank you for this loving message, which brings me joy. And beatitude!
I have great respect for you and your work, and am thrilled to have had my work be part of it.
Last year, I finished the layout for the first new English language edition of Being of the Sun since 1973. I thought of you while I was restoring the color drawing that you used in your great book, Spaced Out.
Being of the Sun was so amazingly influential for me. I saw a copy in the Lafayette CA library when I was 14 in the ’80s, checked it out and based a large part of my life on it. My approach to spirituality was influenced by your book.
Neil R. Rasmussen Los Angeles, California
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Beautiful Extraordinary Book!
Brigitte Mars Herbalist, Professor, Author, Plant Expert, Natural Food Chef https://brigittemars.com/
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Intended to be a companion volume to Living on the Earth, this book goes deep into a communal way of life in 1973.
Alicia Bay Laurel and Ramon Sender share their vision of yoga, healing, sun songs, moon songs, meditation, ceremonies, communes, solitudes, and more in a how-to format connecting us back to our inner child, naked & free!
May the holy words found in this book heal the world at a time when we need them most!
Tracy Conti and Stephen McCarty Solar Return Shop Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Front cover and two interior color illustrations from the 2021 Echo Point Books edition of Being ofthe Sun.
______________________________________________________________Hecate Doe’s lively Winter Solstice altar, including one of her Being of the Sun paper dolls. Here is the gorgeous prayer she wrote for the occasion:
Spirits of the Center, I come to you on this magickal HolyDay as I light this candle, reaching out, opening to, absorbing the blending of the joy, inspiration, and harmony of the East, the life force, passion, and healing transformation of the South, the intuitive wisdom, magick, and peace of the West, and the grounding, fertility, and nurturance of the North, as I release my suffering, my bonds, my regrets, and my fears to bring me into deep connection with the primal Truth and Divinity of my Higher Self in the year to come and always. Blessed Be, so mote it be.
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I finished reading Being of the Sun, and I loved it. It’s beautiful, and I can’t wait to see my dad read it to my [future] children one day. It will be a lovely bed time book.
Bianca Scott Herbalist and Writer Tigard, Oregon ____________________________________________
Natural foods pioneer and author Gregory Sam’s foreword to the 2021 English language edition of Being of the Sun.
We don’t own or keep much in our lives, but this is one of the most treasured. This book came into our lives and gave us such joy. Wonderful images and genuine words of love and care for the planet and each other. Gratitude each day for the arrival of the Morning Star, bringer of life and joy to each and every living being on this planet.
My name is Alix, from Amsterdam. Currently I am on the island of Ibiza, in Spain.
Yesterday, I had the most perfect, aligned, beautiful ceremony with the mushroom. It told me to step in to the light, for I am a light being. It told me to always search for the Sun.
Then this morning I stumbled upon a vendor with retro books. The first one I was drawn to was your book Being of the Sun. I hope that you feel, as much as I do, how your time capsule found the right place at exactly the right time.
Thank you for your wisdom, for I will hand it over to my unborn children.
Being of the Sun found me at my local used book store the other day. It was the first book I noticed, and grabbed it . Being of the Sun speaks to my soul! I’m so grateful it found me. I want to thank you personally from my soul to yours.
It is almost everything I already believe in, and soo much more. I didn’t realize that it was the sequel to Living on the Earth, which I actually just went in search for and ordered along with the new edition of Being of the Sun, because I want to be able to color it, but didn’t want to ruin the original. I’m so happy that your book had found me, and grateful for being, and to get the chance to thank you for inspiring me and soo many others.
Its like you said in your book, the human race is awakening, and the universe listens to everything that we say feel or think. I’ve recently been awakening over the past few years, which has been a blessing, yet difficult at the same time, just because of the world we live in. I find soo much comfort in your books and I’m soo happy that you decided to write and publish them.
I hope that your books continue to find their way to more beautiful souls in search of their own spirituality, just like me
Stephanie Rose Gracon Avon Lake, Ohio
Stephanie Rose Gracon with her 1973 first edition of Being of the Sun Dedication page from Being of the Sun, photo by Stephanie Rose Gracon
How lovely it was to live largely outdoors in nature back then. It didn’t rain all summer (1973)while I built my [stained glass] dome to live in. The only bugs I encountered were yellow jackets. I wonder how many people have made stained glass panels on a table under the sun, naked but not too hot. That’s when your book “Being of the Sun” was so illuminating.
This is the “Breathing Cloud” It has lots of openings for air and there are prisms to breathe rainbow colored light.
Caroling Wholeo Geary Artist and creator of the Wholeo Dome
I am loving experimenting “modes/scales” from Being of the Sun currently ( got Japanese one from second hand book store, very lucky!) Will get living on earth in Japanese soon too.
Thank you for your beautiful creation and being you.
Portia F, of Todmorden, Yorkshire, UK, sent me her copy of Being of the Sun with her wonderful colorations of many of my line drawings, along with a note:
“I have cherished the lightness of touch of Being of the Sun for many years. I live near this lovely landscape [the Yorkshire Dales] in the UK and was definitely a hippie in the ’70s/’80s. Many thanks for your continuing creativity and positivity!”
Above is Portia’s coloration of page one of Being of the Sun. The heat of the sun is palpable!
Portia’s color interpretation of page 7 gave me the feeling of a divinely enlightened mime.
On the reverse of page 7, on page 8, is a miraculous serendipity of design from the ink coming through the paper from page 7. I feel the intense light and shadow of the rainforest in this one.
Happy Solstice! I’m delighted to share this short and sweet offering by a true master, Alicia Bay Laurel. Her first book, Living on the Earth has been inspiring me for nearly five decades. Imagine my surprise when I found her companion book, Being of the Sun just last year. Please support this amazing artist and wisdom keeper!
A Facebook post from February 29, 2016 about Being of the Sun:
I received today a request from a postgraduate literature student at a university in London who is writing a thesis on spirituality in books from the 1960s to the present, and wondered if I would send her a summation of Ramon Sender‘s and my spiritual book, Being of the Sun, which was published by Harper & Row in 1973, and which is still published by Soshisha, Ltd. in Tokyo. I told her I was honored by her request, and scanned the opening chapter, which sums up the book and its intentions. In case any of you would like to read it, or just look at the pictures, I am posting those pages here.
Note from 2024:
Eight years ago I did not know I would be publishing a new edition in English of Being of the Sun in 2021. The pandemic offered an opportunity to step back from concert, art and book touring, and create new editions of both Living on the Earth and Being of the Sun.
I was thrilled to do the page layouts digitally – for the first time – with digital designer Karen Tsugawa coaching me over Zoom. Unlike the editions published in the 1970s, the colors of these illustrations are true to those of the drawings I made in 1972, because I made the scans myself and had hands-on control of the layout.
The result of this collaboration is available here.
Being of the Sun is Alicia Bay Laurel’s second book for the ages. Following on the acclaim for her consummate natural lifestyle guide, Living on the Earth, and partnering with the renowned avant garde composer and yogi Ramón Sender, Being of the Sun explores the ways in which a person can strip away the trappings of Western culture and “be here now” in a more natural and spiritual manner through daily practice, meditation, song, dance, and celebration of community.
The guidance and inspiration is presented in muted color with Alicia Bay Laurel’s flowing line drawings and script, along with 8 pages of original full-color illustrations. The information ranges from the quirky (such as how to make bagpipes) to the practical (how to make a sauna and tell time from the position of the sun) to the spiritual (with tips on breathing, mantras, and positions) to maintaining a supportive community.
Throughout this compendium are scores and songs written by Ramón Sender, with explanations of suitable instruments and occasions. The influence of the seasons of the year and astrological signs is also noted. This unique work is an invaluable resource to read cover-to-cover and fascinating to open to any page.
Amazon’s review of the 2021 English language edition of Being of the Sun
This is my coloring from one of Alicia Bay Laurel’s beautiful books, Being of the Sun. It’s not a coloring book. It’s about living life, but many illustrations give the opportunity to color. I had so much fun doing it, too. I colored much of the book. It was during my long convalesence from a crushed ankle. It was a godsend.
Sheri Bender Yucaipa, California “Playing music keeps the passion flowing, which keeps life flowing. I believe in love. I am a Gypsy Indian. I will always be a free spirit, till the day I die.”
This drawing depicts a Sunday potluck and music jam at Wheelers Ranch commune, circa 1970. I love the way you colored it, dear Sheri!!
Alicia Bay Laurel
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Alicia, I would love for you to inscribe the book, Being of the Sun. It is for my dearest friend, Talulah, on her 24th birthday. I’m a big fan of your books!
Being of the Sun is clearly a book with a long standing legacy, touching lives and holding its own place in literary and spiritual history. The quality of the printing, design, and illustration speaks to the care and commitment you’ve invested, and it’s easy to see why it has become a beloved classic.
I want to express my genuine admiration for your artistry and the way you’ve continued to share it with the world over the decades.
Sandra K. May Community Manager, Winning Waves Bookniche Reedsy Canisteo, New York
The street sign at Noe and 24th Streets in San Francisco, decorated for the holidays.
I took at walk on 24th street, the shopping promenade of Noe Valley, an upscale bohemian neighborhood in the Mission District of San Francisco on December 1st. The famed San Francisco “painted ladies,” beautifully restored Victorian buildings with exterior details stylishly embellished to be more visible, house many of the shops.
The art supply store.
Corner of Castro Street and 24th Street.
Global Exchange, the Fair Trade Gift Store, features imported crafts and folk art from artisan coops in third world countries, often using recycled materials. As an alternative to supporting local artisans, these tasteful holiday tchatchas rest easy on the shopper’s conscience.
For example, here are colorful baskets made in Nepal of recycled food wrappers.
The Global Exchange policy posted at the front door. No sweat shop items here.
A glorious Victorian building with a Mayan restaurant on the first floor.
Moon over the roof of the Noe Valley Ministry, where concerts, lectures, yoga classes, bellydance classes and a pre-school share the space with a church congregation.
A mural on 24th Street in the Romantic style.
Noe Valley Music, a friendly place to buy a guitar, which used to be co-owned by my friend Dale Miller, a guitarist who, like me, was inspired by John Fahey.
In the window of Noe Valley Music, a guitar painted with sea creatures.
A grouchy right-wing realtor wishes “all” a Merry Christmas from his storefront.
So here’s the magazine interview with me that Takashi Kikuchi wrote for 88 (pronounced “hachi hachi” in Japanese) Magazine, a permaculture journal printed with soy inks on recycled paper. Kikuchi-san is the editor, and he was assisted by Maki Ozawa, who interpreted for us. They flew over to Ohshima (island) to interview me, and they also interviewed me at Koki Aso’s house in Hayama, since he and Kikuchi-san are friends. Every one of the 88 covers is a work of art. I recycled the cover of a May 2005 issue into the shoe box shrine I made at Doshi Camp in Yamanashi Prefecture at the Kurkku weekend workshop.
Page one of the November 2006 issue. This photo of me was taken in the forest in Ohshima, on the path to the ancient style rice straw hut. The way the embroidery on the dress echoes the curve of the ferns is a tribute to the superb designer’s eye of the photographer. His name is Hiroshi.
Page two. Behind the writing is an illustration from Living on the Earth of a girl awakening at dawn at her mountain encampment to the sound of a bird calling. She sits up nude in her sleeping bag, wherein her lover still snores. It’s got to be one of the most evocative drawings in the book.
Page three. Now here’s a wink from the Universe. In 2002, when Mana Koike and Sachiho Kojima came to Hawaii Island and recorded a CD of Tara songs onwhich I sang backup, Mana came to visit me at my home, and I gifted her with a Japanese language edition of Being of the Sun. The book had been out of print since the 1970’s, and Mana thought she might want to re-publish it herself. I was thrilled with her offer, but not counting on it, either. When Kikuchi-san and his crew came with me to Mana’s house in Ohshima, Mana showed him her copy of Being of the Sun, and he had Hiroshi, the photographer, take this picture of it next to the Japanese edition of Living on the Earth. Not long after the magazine came out, I received an email from Soshisha, Ltd., which had published both books in the 1970’s and still publishes Living on the Earth, to discuss publishing Being of the Sun again.
Page four. Again, the graphic designer for the article has chosen one of the other most evocative drawings from Living on the Earth – the title page image of a young man and woman dancing on a hilltop under a moonlit sky while a dog dances beside them. I’m looking very serious in the photo at Koki’s house. I’m probably discussing politics. I wish I could read the article! I wanted to get it translated for my blog, but, mercy, it’s 5 to 15 cents per character, which adds up to hundreds of dollars! Kikuchi-san (“Kick” is his screen name) sweetly featured my new jazz CD, What Living’s All About in a sidebar, with its cover art that echoes the image of ecstatic dancing in nature by moonlight.
The first two people in line for the Saturday Mentoring Luncheon were me and Vivi Chu, a feisty schoolteacher from Minnesota who plays an ancient Chinese instrument called the guzheng, from which the Japanese koto evolved. She recently released a CD of twelve original compositions with one thousand year old Chinese lyrics. “Why do performers care so much how about how they look?” she wondered aloud, “They are only there to make sound.” I thought about it and said, “Some listeners don’t really listen. They only know what they see.”
The mentoring luncheon: nine music biz aspirants and one rotating mentor per table. Maybe twenty tables in the banquet hall? It was vast. We had five mentors in total during our hour and half at the table, including Jai Josefs, Jason Blume, Liz Redwing, and Dan Kimpel. Our mentor in this photo is Ronan Chris Murphy (standing next to me).
After lunch I attended Bobby Borg’s talk “How to Market Your CD and Create a Buzz on a Limited Dollar Budget,” a standing room only event. I discovered that even note-taking has gone digital. It seemed like a good idea until I considered that I would probably make readable notes at home when I watched the class again, so why not just do it the first time?
I got to hang out and play some of my music with Jai Josefs later in the day. Turns out he produced a record of my friend Sophia Songhealer some years back, and he knows film composer, Ron Grant, who co-produced my CD What Living’s All About.
The 2006 Taxi Road Rally came to an end. I bid my new friends a fond farewell, got in my car, and flowed out onto Hollywood Boulevard, becoming one with the glowing Hollywood night.
Another bright blue November day on Sunset Boulevard on the way to the Taxi Rally. In LA, you don’t have to look in the newspaper to see what movie is opening soon. Gargantuan movie posters take up the entire sides of tall buildings, as well as enormous billboards, and the sides of buses and bus stops.
I could hardly wait to hear Nancy Moran’s lecture “Alternative Markets and Outlets for Songwriters and Artists Who Don’t Fit the Commercial Mold,” and I was not disappointed. I took six pages of notes, dense with information about alternative performance venues, radio stations, sales venues, and song markets.
I met Adam Rauf, mathematician, guitarist and percussion player, and Eric Belcastro, drummer, percussionist and guitarist, of the Pittsburgh instrumental group Kalon. Eric bought a copy of my book, Living on the Earth, which endeared him to me immediately. He said he wants to live off the grid someday.
Adam and Eric gave me their CD “Dark Sky, Bright Sun,” with a wonderful cover painted by Eric’s father Mario Belcastro, which amazed me because of its similarity to two of my CD covers: Music From Living on the Earth (a naked goddess smiling at the sun and the sun at her) and What Living’s All About (a girl waltzing with the moon over the ocean).
I cruised around the Music Biz Bookstore in the Silverlake Room, where the teachers and mentors offered their books, CDs, DVDs, and brochures. This lovely girl with rings through her upper and lower lips had devised a simple marketing strategy, which I know worked well for Lawrence Welk.
At the end of the day, I bought a Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-3 Drum Machine for one third off at West LA Music’s booth in the Grand Ballroom. My 1984 Roland TR 505 had exceeded its dotage, and a replacement had been on my shopping list a long time. It’s the second time in three years I’ve bought a piece of equipment from Noel Gould, their friendly and astute sales manager. And, yippee, he bought a copy of Living on the Earth, too. Those two books paid for my first three days of parking at the Hollywood and Highland mall.
with deep love, 
Alicia Bay Laurel 
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