Orbs?, You Must be Kidding
Okay, this is an ongoing joke with many of my friends. Every time they take picture somewhere and there’s a spot on the lens they start freaking out that there are orbs floating in the atmosphere that the cameras picking up. They view this as an indication of some spiritual presence. I of course give them a hard time and say listen, “Don’t put your finger on the lens, and you won’t get those spots on your pictures.” They insist that they are some sort of spirits, aliens, or some sort of intervening energy that is making its presence known through photography. Well, on this last trip to Burkina Faso we were out in the village of Dano. One of the girls in our group said, “let’s go out and see the Baobab trees. I thought that would be a great idea since I have a beautiful photo that was taken on my last trip of these very trees. We went out at dusk and had a group of people, many of the village children included posing around these great trees. These trees are an amazing source of food for the native people. They are absolutely Enormous! And the bark is like the skin of an elephant. They also have a fruit that hangs from their large limbs that is very good and holds a tremendous amount of water. In many cases the Baobab trees have saved village people during drought by providing large quantities of water stored in the fruit. So needless to say, these trees are very important, and very sacred.
The Story Continues
Okay so I’m back on track. We go out to the Baobab trees posing around the trunks as the sun goes down. In the dusk light someone says, “Hey, take a picture of the Baobab tree against the beautiful sky.” So we began to take some photographs of the trees against the night sky. I will show you the order of pictures and what was happening and you can see for yourself the change in the energy that was around us. If i was not there to see it for myself I would never believe what appeared on the camera.
120 Seconds of Transformation
The photo to the left is the first in the series of three photos that were taken within 120 seconds of each other. This is a photo of the night sky the moon center top, and the branches of the baobab tree reaching into the night sky. Second picture was taken immediately after as I began to call on the ancestors to be present for us as we head to an evening of community from the trees. The third photo was taken a few seconds later, it is clear, that the ancestors were gathering on our behalf. As we continued to take pictures you could look into the night and see the flash physically reflecting off of the spirits that were coming through! This is how thin the veil is between ordinary reality in the spirit world is in this remote village. It was like walking into a Harry Potter movie. Things that could be seen in the night would have been considered profoundly unusual in the West but it was everyday normal “everything as usual” for this village in Dano.
Proof Is In The Pictures
I will never give anyone a hard time about saying there are orbs in a photograph. I have become a believer. There is no denying that in 120 seconds there was a rally of spirits who answered the call to join us in celebration of community and joy. The evening that followed these pictures being taken was full of dancing and play with the children of the village!
