Joseph Rael – Beautiful Painted Arrow

Joseph Rael, Beautiful Painted Arrow, is an internationally respected author, artist, visionary and master storyteller of the Ute and Picuris Pueblo Indian traditions. He holds a Masters in Political Science and has devoted his life to the understanding of vibration and its role in the creation of conscious reality. His mother was Beatrice Head, a member of the Southern Ute tribe, and his father Alfred Rael (Red Fish) was of the Picuris Pueblo people. Joseph has been studying the ancient Tiwa language of the Picuris Pueblo of north central New Mexico. In that endeavor, he has written five books, based primarily on the Tiwa world view: Beautiful Painted Arrow, Being and Vibration, Tracks of Dancing Light, The Way of Inspiration, and Ceremonies of the Living Spirit.

In 1983 he had a vision that led him to the establishment of over 63 Peace Chambers throughout the world, and the number keeps growing. The chambers are specially built for chanting for world peace. In other visionary experiences, he has created three dances. They are the Long Dance (to bring into existence what we seek), the Drum Dance (to be able to see what kinds of seeds we are planting for the future generations), and the Sun/Moon Dance (to be able to see the active/passive existence of life inside perceptual reality).

Prayer and ceremony have always been an important part of his life. He was taught by the tradition of his father’s people to pray all the time through his every action, thereby honoring all the principle ideas, keeping a continual state of prayer in every single moment of his life. Joseph is in semi-retirement, continuing to work on his one-of-a-kind paintings, and now lives on the Southern Ute reservation in Colorado. His art has been shown in several galleries in the U.S.: Turtle Creek Gallery, Asheville, NC; Blue Bird Art Gallery, Black Mountain, NC; and Hummingbird Gallery, Dallas, Texas. He has also had an art showing in Oslo, Norway.

Joseph made the first of the DuVersity video-dialogues with Anthony Blake many years ago and became a pivotal figure in the series of seminar-dialogues held in Baltimore (1996-9). He has run joint programs with the DuVersity and in August 2001 led a special tour of sacred sites in the South West for us.