If you have spent time in the desert perhaps you have experienced how it reflects back to you whatever you bring to it.

There is a stillness and a silence to the desert that allows for a deep listening so we may confront our thoughts, fears, and desires in a new way.  The desert’s raw, elemental intensity acts as a mirror, reflecting the hidden landscape within us. The  inescapable blazing sun insists that the buried parts within us rise up and become exposed. The harshness of the desert demands a deep letting go. The wild winds mirror our restless minds- at times they howl with chaos or whisper with clarity, depending on our inner state. When we learn to surrender to them, they cleanse us.  The intense shift from searing days into cold nights speak to the duality of life.   As the desert challenges, it transforms.  And lying beneath the desert’s starry sky is one of the most humbling and awe-inspiring experiences.  The eternal starry sky is indifferent to our small dramas, and awakens something primal in us.  We remember how vast the universe is—and how fleeting we are.  Under its infinite canopy, the desert becomes a cathedral.

There is a reason prophets, monks, and mystics have journeyed to the desert seeking an encounter with the divine.  It invites us into deep solitude, which is very different than loneliness.  In many ways the desert is a crucible. It tests one's endurance, faith, and purpose. What emerges from the desert is never what went in.

It has been a dream of ours to have a space to curate experiences of heart opening, inspiration, and nature connection. The fire brought us to this wild landscape, and now we invite you to experience it, and peer into the great reflection. Come immerse yourself in its extreme beauty, clarity and color.  Not to escape the world, but to face its essence and your own.

We welcome you to The Mirror.

At the mirror we come together for a deeper listening to awaken to our gifts and consider how we might apply them to the world.  We open to the poetry that surrounds us.

Please join us for our first of many evenings of Awe and Wonder at The Mirror - with a beautiful meal and improvisational performances under the stars.

PERFORMANCES

Nico Maldonado & Susana Pineda create improvisational soundscapes influenced by nature's beauty. With vocals, saxophone, percussion, and electronics, they create immersive musical ecosystems. Their music explores imagined worlds and subtle rhythms, like bird songs in a forest.

Michel Von Loh is a classically trained guitarist, mandolinist, saz player, arranger and composer who is equally at home in styles ranging from Post-Punk and Experimental Rock to Western European, North Indian, Persian and Arab classical music. As a native of Germany, he began his studies under Christiane Spannhof, Thomas Müller-Pering and Jürgen Rost at the University of Music "Franz Liszt" in Weimar, and later continued at California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita with Stuart Fox, Omar Torrez and Miroslav Tadić under whose mentorship he received a BFA in guitar performance in 2021. In addition to his formal studies, Michel has taken lessons and co-taught on the subject of free improvisation alongside Marcelo Moguilevsky, Richard Doust and Alan Bern, on Ashkenazi music and contemporary Jewish song with Joshua Waletzky and Ilya Shneyveys, and on Middle Eastern music with Yair Dalal, Yuval Ron and Scott Marcus. Concerts as a solo guitarist and ensemble member have taken him to various venues across Germany (including the office of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel) as well as Austria (Great Hall of the Viennese Music Association), Italy, Israel, Canada, and the US (including NYC's Carnegie Hall and LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall). Michel has been recognized at several international guitar competitions, including the "Anna Amalia Competition for Young Guitarists", and was the recipient of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Scholarship (2015-16), the Lillian Disney Scholarship (2017-21), and the Shimon Peres Prize (2018) for his work on the German-Israeli "Caravan Orchestra" musical exchange program. He currently teaches at Pasadena and Monrovia Music Academies, and regularly performs as a soloist, with his band "Orchids of Jupiter" and the choirs at First Congregational Church Los Angeles and Church of the Good Shepherd Arcadia.

Soft Future is an ephemeral music collective stewarded by Lani Trock and David Moses. The group's central intention is to transcend limits and touch spirit. Their performances are improvisational, multi-sensory journeys, activating the language of music as a transmitter of universal consciousness. Often participatory in nature, their work invites audience members to co-create together, opening portals to imaginal worlds and new dimensions.

NOURISHMENT

Dinner by Chef Vanessa Wolfe

Elixirs by Mysticopia

Cacao Altar by Cd’A