I Am the Fire Around You
Posted on | August 8, 2010 | No Comments
Surrounded by Sacred Fire by Angela Raincatcher, 2010
I am the Fire around you.
I am the spark of life within you.
I am the flame burning through you.
I am all that I am.
Behold, there is magic all around us.
Behold, there is magic all around us.
Behold, there is magic all around us.
Awaken! Rejoice! Sing!
– from “Behold” by Abbi Spinner
Rumi Dances With The Beloved
Posted on | August 7, 2010 | No Comments
Dance of the Beloved, Angela Raincatcher, 2007
You light the fire of love
in earth and sky
in heart and soul
of every being.
Through your love
existence and nonexistence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane
becomes sacred again.
Rumi, The Alchemy of Love
Self-evident Equality
Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 2 Comments
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The overturning of Proposition 8 and other legal successes to grant same-sex couples the same rights as different-sex couples are one more step toward the fulfillment of the grand promise and vision that our Ancestors/Founding Fathers and Mothers ascribed to.
I have been struggling with how to put into words how deeply I feel it when another state takes a stand for this equality. It hits my family in an intensely personal way. My father, who died 10 years ago, lived a life of shame and depression, which would have been ameliorated by the social acceptance heralded by legalizing same-sex marriage. Choices would have been available to him that were not.
When I look at same-sex couples getting married today, I see people who are pursuing their American dream of life, liberty, and happiness with the people they choose, the people who they are called to in the deepest level of the heart.
This can only strengthen our society, our connections with each other. Same-sex marriage makes for stronger families and happier people overall.
On Monday, I’m going to the District courthouse to register as a legal wedding officiant in DC. I could’ve done this 5 years ago, but the paperwork never seemed worth it. Now, I have two very good reasons — two same-sex couples have asked me to perform their ceremonies for them. How could I say “no” when I am so honored and humbled to do such a service?
In need of a bath
Posted on | August 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
I need a bath.
I need to submerge my body into a large, warm tub of water, where I can float for a little while. Totally blissed out, relaxed, quiet. Someplace beautiful and green. Someplace private and cozy.
Mmmmmm….
When I lived in Houston, my priestess had a hot tub where we would do our Imbolc ritual of purification and healing. I have come to associate free floating in hot water with being nurture and held gently. There are the obvious associations with being in the womb, but I visualize it more like being bouyed by the energetic flow of the universe.
My body and my soul is craving this feeling right now. I foresee a trip up to Atasia Spa in Berkeley Springs in my near future…
Mmmmmm….
Wishcasting Wednesday: What do you wish for your creativity?
Posted on | August 4, 2010 | 10 Comments
Talk about synchronicities and inspiration!
1) As part of Wishcasting Wednesday, Jamie Ridler asks in her blog: What do you wish for your creativity? This is so timely for me as I have been asking essentially the same question of myself.
2) I am reading Alex Grey’s The Mission of Art, which is sparking some major “ah-ha” moments for me, such as these beauties:
When artists give form to revelation, their art can advance, deepen, and potentially transform the consciousness of their community.
Artists offer the world the pain and beauty of their soul as a gift to open the eyes of and heal the collective…. Art sings and shouts from the axis of truth to wake us up to who we are and where we are going.
And these are just from the first chapter!
3) Yesterday, I created a new logo for Nine Ravens Studio to use on boxes and cards for my jewelry and wrote a new mission statement for my art practice.
I create manifest forms of deep beauty that act as portals and vessels for the gods and other spiritual energies to make themselves known and felt in the physical realm.
This is my wish and intention for my creativity, my Artist self, that part of myself that brings dreams and visions into manifestation.
Oh yeah, and I’m back in the studio painting and working again on my Qabalah book.
Holding Myself Hostage
Posted on | June 7, 2010 | 3 Comments
Ode to Bonnie Parker, originally uploaded by nhungsta.
Sunday morning I had a dream of myself at 10. I am rollerskating through the neighborhood and wearing this filmy pink nightgown that my grandmother had given me for my “dress-up box.” I used to wear this over my regular clothes and run or skate around with my friends, who were also dressed up in funny, older clothes. In the dream, I am skating in this outfit through lawn sprinklers, and I am happy. So very happy and joyful and laughing.
As I awoke, I saw that image morph into another from that time period. I used to dream that my father was a terrorist holding my family hostage. Unless I met all his demands, he would blow my mother, my grandmother, and my grandfather up. This Sunday morning, it wasn’t my father as the terrorist, and it wasn’t my family as the hostages. It was me–me at 10 years. I was the terrorist holding the gun, and I was the hostage. If I did not meet my terrorist demands then my life would be destroyed.
Two images of my life — one carefree and joyful, the other constricted and miserable.
I’ve been talking with my teacher about the need to free up my life to allow more time to just be and let creativity percolate. I run around so busy with my self-imposed responsibilities to others. I was ranting about this to my husband Friday evening — because I have “responsibilities” and I am “dependable,” I can’t just let things “drop!”
But I am holding myself and my life hostage, and that needs to stop. And that bomb needs to be replaced by some green and white rollerskates!
Working on Art Today
Posted on | June 6, 2010 | No Comments
Spent today at home. Working on some art in progress and embellishing a Touch Drawing from last month. Experimenting really with oil pastels and beads and Modge Podge. Decided that I needed a circular saw, but would rather just get a friend to cut the pieces I need. Sharp, rotating blades in my hands are not a good thing.
Tonight after cooking dinner, I’m planning on journaling a bit about a dream I had this morning and then creating another necklace to take to Florida with me in October. I’m vending at the Parapsychology Expo in theVillages and need to have inventory! I’m also looking at vendors to print note cards featuring my digital collages and Touch Drawings.
I need to get PhotoShop operational on my newish laptop. I forgot to transfer the registration when I de-installed it from my old laptop, and now I can’t get it to work on my new one. Not good! So, it looks like an afternoon on the phone with Adobe is in my future at some point.
Anyway, I leave you with this photo of an embellished Touch Drawing. I don’t have a title for it yet.
Let’s talk
Posted on | June 4, 2010 | 1 Comment
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
This aphorism has always irritated me. Maybe it’s my wee, little intellect, but I love talking about people.
People are so complex, messy, fleshy, and juicy. I look at humanity and I find us brilliant, wonderful, curious. We are lovely in both our bigness and our smallness. We are lovely in our joy and our angst. We are fascinating in our kindness and our cruelty.
See, I don’t think it is what we talk about — ideas, events, or people — but how we talk about them.
You can talk about an idea like patriotism and either inspire people to do great, big, beautiful things, or small, mean, and petty acts. All in the name of ideas and ideals.
You can do the same about people. There’s gossiping about your neighbor’s misfortune or picadillos, and then there’s finding ways to help make people’s lives better. And that usually, if not always, takes dialogue.
Maybe instead of definging someone’s intellectual depth by which of three broad categories they discuss, we should look at how they express their hearts…and their minds.
“Colors of Life” by Ketzirah (Creative Commons)
Purpose with a side of joy, please
Posted on | May 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
Ebullient: overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited
Last night, Michael and I watched the first episode of Heroes. I had never seen it, but the series has been highly recommended by people whose taste in TV matches mine enough to justify a sampling.
I love Hiro’s ebullient dance through the sea of cubicles when he is able to make the clock on his desk go back just one second. His joy and conviction is unsinkable in the face of his skeptical colleague. I laughed giddly watching him in this first episode. And yes, “ebullient” was the first word I thought of to describe him when my husband and I were deciding whether to continue watching the show on Netflix. And then I’m looking online for more about this character and what makes him tick, and I realize that I may just have another media obsession.
“I wanted a guy who felt trapped in a life that was not his dream and what could be a power that would be most wish-fulfilling for that character? And that was the ability to teleport out of that life.” — Heroes creator Tim Kring on Hiro, 2007
Oh, boy.
In the recesses of my psyche, a little head has popped up with wide eyes open. She is watching and wondering at Hiro’s embracing of his special power and how she can grab onto that joy for the ride of her life — and maybe change the world around her for the better. Maybe this is what listening to and answering the call to vocation looks like to my Younger Self.
Spring Cleaning
Posted on | April 10, 2010 | No Comments
The contractor is finally and completely done. Today is a day of moving furniture back in place, unpacking, and figuring out what to do with the stuff we’ve been ignoring since we moved.
That, and laundry.
And changing the cat boxes.
Rather than piss and moan about it, I’m grounding, centering, and using my body and this work as a prayer for a peaceful, loving home for my family and friends to gather.
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