Monthly Archives: August 2014

Introducing Janelle, with open hands to take your pain away

Hands open to take your pain from you

Hands open to take your pain from you

The faces for this series I’m doing of paintings as a shamanic soul retrieval project come to me before the symbolism comes. In common they have hands open in offering and a moon or moonstone.  Inspired by a friend’s cat eye, I call this one Janelle and as I began painting, her story unfolded for me.  Moonstone is an expression of the yin, the soothing energy of the moon.  A stone for “new beginnings,” moonstone is a stone of inner growth and strength, soothing emotional instability and stress.  When she revealed herself as a remover of pain, I painted her reaching her hands out to receive.  On her forehead is an ancient symbol of healing: the spiral depicts the natural rhythm of life, and the healing power that is constantly radiated from the cosmos around us.  I’ve painted shakti sparks outside the aura encircling her hands, showing they are energized and powerful.  Continue reading

Introducing Rosa of the Aqua Eye

I notice I’ve been making the eyes blue and green on each face in this series I’m doing of paintings as a shamanic soul retrieval project.  This is Rosa. I meditated on the colors and Edgar Cayce came to mind.  In his Color Meanings Of Auras, blue is considered the color of the spirit, prayer and contemplation. It signifies having found one’s work and being heavily immersed in it.  Green is the color of health, vitality and healing. A green with blue in it signifies truthfulness and trustworthyness Wearing and viewing these colors imparts that quality, so I use the blue and green of the eyes I paint to raise the level of healing vibration.  I work the color until I can feel it.  At this point in the piece to the left, I’ve just added her hand. Each of the paintings in this series will be handing me something. Which is ironic because I’ve never been good at drawing or painting hands; most were just suggestions or maybe a paw or lobster claw.  I found myself studying online tutorials to get a grasp of the hand.  Also ironic because it was a car accident in 2000 that knocked my own hands out of commission and halted my painting for several years.   Continue reading

Introducing Moon Gal with Raven and Moonstone

I’ve been doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval. As I paint, I meditate on the images that come to mind, which I take to depict a part of me.  I’m then taken on a journey, via inner imagery and creative visualization, to the astral realm where I connect with the individual messengers and power totems that will be included in each piece.  This one I call Moon Gal with Raven and Moonstone. Raven activates the energy of magic and links it to our will and intention. The raven shows us how to go into the dark of our inner self and bring out the light of our true self, resolving inner conflicts which have long been buried. Moon Gal has an extra long neck representing giraffe energy.  Giraffes see from the higher perspective and are able to reach things most can’t.  They like to stick their neck out and they remain high above the fray. The neck is the bridge between the worlds, so I often elongate it, signifying being on that journey.   Continue reading

What’s the lesson behind my moved trash bin?

Last night someone moved my garbage can to the end of the block. Odd to think someone was right outside and I didn’t know it. It’s deja vu all over again!  I always set the bins out on the street the night before.  My odd hours have me often working overnights and my office overlooks the street. When it’s cool outside I have the window open. I had it closed last night as I worked in the office from midnight til 6:00am, so I didn’t hear anyone rolling my bin to the end of the block.  That would have made a lot of noise. It’s odder to think someone would put it in their vehicle and drive it to the end of the block and toss it on the ground.  People do crazy things!  Continue reading

He: “When did that happen?”
She: “Don’t you read my blog?”
He: Exasperated sigh…

How I begin my day makes a big difference as to what kind of day I’ll have

August 2014 A super moon is a full moon that coincides with the time in the moon’s orbit when it’s closest to Earth

August 2014 The super moon rising over the treeline

I sat for an hour this morning outside at the fire pit in the clearing in my woods, watching the full moon move across the sky.  A super moon looks so huge because it coincides with the time in the moon’s orbit when it’s closest to Earth. We’ve had three this year and September 9 will be the next. Talk about taking a full moon bath! Here’s –> How to Take A Healing Full Moon Bath.  How I begin my day makes a big difference as to what kind of day I’ll have.  Sometimes, like today,  I want to wake up and paint right away but instead have to be 8-10 hours at the desk doing final layout for the September magazine. I can either pout and grumble and feel like I once again don’t get to do what I want to do when I want to do it. That’s nice pouty self talk to cheer me into my day!  Or I can instead think — more correctly — let me whip out a few hours’ work so I can get to painting afterward, and then carry on my merry day.
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I like being able to digitally correct my painting faux pas

Janelle clone 8-9-14 4amJanelle clone 8-9-14 EYE copyI didn’t notice until after I’d begun painting this one that her eyes were so close together.  I snapped a photo and took it into Photoshop and moved the eyes farther apart.  That probably made her more esthetically pleasing to some, but there was a reason for her eyes the way I did them.  Our eyes are our windows, providing our perspective of the physical world.  I’ve painted them close together and a bit skewed so she can examine closely and see from all sides.  Now I’m off to meditate to find the symbols to include in her palms.

RELATED: Doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval
Update from the art studio
The new art studio is coming together
My former dining room is now the art studio
There’s the painting on canvas and there’s the Photoshopped digital version
I begin painting from out of body, astral flight sketches
Painting is a daily meditation for me
Painting as a method of altering consciousness

Doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval

I wrote earlier in My spiritual lesson from the Brighthouse repairman that being without internet and phone after the lightning flash led me to contemplate what a lost signal meant on my path to personal growth. I’d been feeling a little off signal and like I was ready for a reboot. Now that I’m back in the art studio after years away, I’m feeling re-motivated and back in the slot.  I know one reason is that art is a form of meditation for me, and more meditation and self reflection is always good for me. In shamanic fashion, I’ve been working on a series of paintings for the purpose of  soul retrieval, showing the spirit version of the various fragmented parts of myself, each bringing back a healed part.

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My spiritual lesson from the Brighthouse repairman. I am the only one who can amplify my life, I do that by choice of focus

I get rebooted in the lightning flash

I get rebooted in yesterday’s  lightning flash

Yesterday I arrived home just as it began to pour rain and I was happy for a garage to drive into.  As I looked into the back yard, a sudden flash of lightning and thunder startled me.  The lightning was so bright that it whited out the entire backyard. That let me know it hit close.  I found my internet, cable and land line phone lines were down. Brighthouse arrived 36 hours later and he first wanted to find the amplifier that sent a signal to his equipment, which should be, he said, a cable connection that is plugged into an electrical outlet. We looked at every outlet in the house and couldn’t find one. Then at the cable box outside he found a splitter looking thing  that he says is typically attached to an amplifier, and that it had gone bad.  It looked, he said, as though a technician prior to him didn’t have the correct device on his truck when he came out and replaced it using this one, then the tech didn’t alert the office that it needed to be swapped out.  It was coincidence that it went bad right after the lightning strike and that was the cause of my internet, cable and phone going down.  Continue reading