Review of Rowena Pattee Kryder

Talk at St. James, Picadilly, London, UK.

3rd April 1995

Adam Gordon

Rowena Pattee Kryder's most recent book, "Sacred Ground to Sacred Space", was published late last year, and is a brilliant compilation of drawings, poems, photographs and clear prose that reveal the visionary and practical philosophy of a vital contemporary thinker.

The title encapsulates the themes: she explains the laws by which we can transform the two-dimensional plane we stand on into a new regenerated community. What is truly inspiring is the set of colour photographs at the end of the book which show the beautiful buildings that she, and a few colleagues, have worked hard with very little money to build. She now lives in a sacred temple she built below holy Mount Shasta in Northern California.

So tonight, we were shown slides of the rich mosaic floors and the intricate wood beams of the twelve- sided structure and the gardens hacked clear around it. Unfortunately seeing them again only reminded me of the unique vision and power of Kryder, which rarely came across to the audience in her talk. It is hard to say what went wrong. In the introduction to the evening she was compared to Joseph Campbell. Although she is a figure, I believe, of equal importance and learning, this is an inappropriate comparison, because the way each works is very different. What was most noticeable this evening was that, while Campbell was a fine teacher and taught all his life, Kryder did not seem able to handle a large audience. She talked as if she could happily talk all night; earlier in the evening that might have seemed a blessing, but her address was nervy and unstructured. Occasionally her learning would be revealed in an aside or anecdote and I was galvanised, but consequently her ideas, rich on paper, would sound mundane.

There are many great visionaries in today's consciousness movement, and it is such a pity when one like Kryder fails to ignite an audience. Perhaps there were not enough of us, or we were not familiar enough with her work to warm to her. Much of what she has to say concerns bringing down inspiration into actualisation on the ground through what we call the creative process. I in turn will continue to be inspired, like many who aspire to ecological and sacred building, by what she herself has built. She encourages us not to leave our inspiration on one side as a dream because she could have used the same excuses as we do - no money, no training and no time. This disappointing evening has not diminished my respect, because for her the work is the key, and I in turn will continue to learn from her realisation of the vision through that life's work.