Thank you

I found this beautiful image on the simply stunning blog: Artemis Dreaming - may you find inspiration through art and beauty as you move from this year into the next. Here comes the sun...  Thank you to everyone who shared circles and classes and consultations with us this year. We feel truly honoured to have spent time in your presence. Much love and peace to you.

Stay inspired, 

Julia & Tony

The Mythic Tribes and Wondrous Hands of Illustrator: Nadia Turner

Druantia and Ava

www.waywardharper.com 

When I first saw the beautiful drawing of ‘Druantia and Ava,’ I was stopped in my tracks. I had heard about the druid goddess Druantia but had never seen her ‘made flesh’. I love it when an artist can make a story real for you & how wonderful to discover that the talented illustrator, Nadia Turner, lives right here in Melbourne. 

Fire King

Nadia: 

'I have been drawing and creating for pretty much as long as I can remember, always very happy to just sit with pencil and paper in my hand. When asked when I was a child what I wanted to do when I grew up it was always ‘I want to be an artist!”  So I’m very grateful that’s how it’s turned out.

I don’t think I really realized until I started studying illustration that I’ve always been an ‘illustrator’ in that it was always the story and narrative that I was interested in. Of course it’s the characters themselves that make these stories enticing. As a kid I was always to be found drawing pictures of characters from fairytales – Cinderella, the little mermaid, sleeping beauty (most definitely influenced by Disney like so many other little girls!) And I still adore fairytales and stories for children – much more likely to find me in the kid’s realm of the bookstore than the adult section!  I was, and still am, fascinated by the exotic and otherworldly and I love costume and how what someone wears can tell a story in itself.

Mythology and magic have been a constant source of inspiration but most especially I’m intrigued by this idea of urban fantasy-that magic is only a step away, just a footstep through the veil and into the spirit world - a couple of my favourite authors like Charles de Lint and Neil Gaiman explore this idea a lot in their books – this notion that the gods and creatures from mythology could be walking around with us, even perhaps in everyday, human form.  And those creatures of fantasy don’t just exist in fantastical otherworlds but also in our own, just out of sight, glimpsed in the corner of our eye or just around that corner....

Wind and Sea

"He was conscious of any number of bodachs and spirits, shadowmen and border folk, faerie and ghosts, all going about their business. They were under the trees behind him and up in the boughs of those same oaks. They wandered along the streets, keeping to the shadows. They slept in gardens, poked through dumpsters. They scurried about in the sewers and alleyways, crept along rooftops or along windowsills, peering into people's apartments".

- Charles de Lint, excerpt from "Spirits in the Wires"

After all these myths and legends must come from some central truth far back in history, surely?!

I love that sense of mystery – when you see a fascinating looking person walk by in the street or find an amazing old forgotten sepia photograph – I love to wonder about who these people really are, what their story is – maybe old trickster coyote is running around in human form or that woman wandering through the spring markets is really Kore ....come back from the underworld for a while to remember what it’s like to be among humans again....

So that’s an idea I like to explore in my art. Often I don’t start a painting or a sketch with an idea of what or who it is I’m about to draw, the title or meaning often comes to me afterward.  While it might be loosely based on a myth or a character from a story, I don’t want this to be set in stone. The story is up to the viewer to imagine.  Often all I know is a name and not necessarily a story to go with the face.... After all, personally I believe that good art should strike a chord with the viewer and you shouldn’t have to know the full story of what and how and when it was created in order to understand it or ‘get’ something out of it.

I just hope my art entices people to use their imaginations and helps them to remember that the world can be a magical place!

Drabarni

To look more at Nadia’s illustrations & creations (and you really must) please go to: www.waywardharper.com. You can also purchase original drawings and hand-painted oak brooches from Nadia’s shop. Thank you so much for sharing Nadia.

New Exploring Past Lives Workshop - 19th Jan, 2011

This is a wonderful workshop for those of you who are new to Past Life Regression and wish to know more before booking for a one-one-one personal Past Life consultation. You can read more about the healing benefits of this modality here. Please let me know as soon as you can if wish to join us in this interactive workshop as places are limited to 10 people only.

New Full Moon Vision Board Workshop

Hello Everyone,

I will be holding a new Vision Board Collage Workshop on the evening of the Full Moon on Thursday, 20th January, 2011.  When we let our intuition guide us & choose images to express what is birthing deep within our hearts, we can direct this powerful energy into new projects, creations, relationships & dreams for the New Year ahead. 

In this creative workshop we will use meditation & collage to work with the Universal Law of Attraction.  A vision board is a collage of the things you want to be, have, or do in your life. The purpose of a vision board is to activate the Law of Attraction to begin to pull things from the external environment that will enable you to realise your dream. By selecting pictures and writing that charges your emotions with feelings of passion, you will begin to manifest those things in your life. Creating a vision board can be a simple yet powerful visualisation tool to begin manifesting your dreams into reality.

Places are limited in this workshop so please let me know as soon as possible if you wish to join us. Please bring a small photo of yourself & any images that call to your heart to add to your collage,

Warm Wishes,  Julia

Spinning the Threads of New Learning at the Full Moon

When I woke up this morning I felt as if a weight had moved from my shoulders. Ah, the full moon! On Friday we finally experienced Venus going direct after being in such a tough retrograde for the last month. Venus has not completed all of her 'Shadow' work yet (she will move back into Scorpio on 30 November for her last dance with the shadow until mid-December) but there is no doubt that we can enjoy some flowing movement for the next week. Tonight we will see and feel the Full Moon in the last degrees of Taurus as the Sun moves into the dynamic sign of Sagittarius at around 9.15pm.

Rebekah Holguin

So what has Venus been showing and helping you to face during her retrograde? Venus is the Goddess of Love - have you noticed any relationships from the past popping into your mind to be examined, remembered, released? When Venus is in retrograde I liken it to the image above - she has to step into the waters of the past to retrieve the deeper and hidden wisdom that we hold around relationships, boundaries and love for ourselves.  Now that she has gone direct, use the intuitive flashes, new understanding and hopefully healing that Venus has facilitated to make that final reach for the gold that waits deep within our inner knowing. The gold of acceptance and then release from the past.

I see the full moon tonight as an enormous spinning wheel - a symbol of transformation. We are always growing and learning and evolving just like the moon, the earth and nature's cycles. I have been fascinated with the image of the spinning wheel since working with Venus. I like to imagine that with all we have learnt last month that we can now spin the strands of the past, with the present to create the future that we truly desire. In the Tarot we see a similar movement in The Wheel of Fortune - a card that reminds us that sometimes we just have to trust that the Wheel of Life will turn regardless of not knowing what that turn will be.

The Wheel - Gaian Tarot

Has Venus been asking you to think about the need or desire to control relationships in your life? Surrender and open your heart to the full moon tonight as the great spinning wheel in the sky helps to weave together the threads of your life to bring symbiosis and integration and most importantly, to create the gold that will be waiting for you once this process is complete. Next month we will feature the amazing art of Nadia Turner in our newsletter and below is her exquisite sketch of 'The Weaver' - may the threads turn to gold for you this evening.

The Weaver by Nadia Turner www.waywardharper.com

Past Life Workshop

Due to the popularity of the last Exploring Past Lives workshop, we know that many of you missed out on a place and we are offering a 2nd workshop on Monday, 6th December. Places are limited to 10 people only - please let me know as soon as you can if you wish to take one of these places.

Artemis Rising on the New Moon in Scorpio

"Lady of Ephesus', Artemis

“I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.”

Antipater, Greek Anthology (IX.58)

Today is the birth of the new moon and yes, it's in Scorpio! So more deep insights still to come but if you feel you have been through all the soul-searching you can handle in the last month, take faith in the energy of the New Moon today to help you to plant the seed of new wishes and dreams. We are also going to experience a welcome reprieve as Venus (whilst still in retrograde) moves into the more flowing sign of Libra from 8th to 30th November. The Goddess I feel around us at this time of deep introspection is Artemis. She is coming in to help us gain focus and clarity and to understand the true meaning of freedom. When Venus finishes her work as the Dark Goddess in December, will you be ready to embrace freedom? In Greek mythology the goddess Artemis was represented as the huntress, a symbol of the natural world, and the goddess of childbirth, children and young women. She can be both beautiful and dangerous - just like nature. I have often called upon the wisdom of Artemis to help free myself of old patterns or to embrace new challenges. As the goddess of freedom and independence she is also a courageous energy to call upon to first create a healthy relationship with your own self-worth so that you can go on to develop respectful and honest relationships with others. Artemis will also help us with clarity and focus - focus on what it is you truly desire and release the arrow. Now keep moving forward just like that arrow and trust that the universe will provide you with exactly what you need. 

To plant the energy of the New Moon tonight, this is a simple Tarot spread (you may also use any oracle cards) to not only show you where you may need to focus attention but also to check in on the sacred balance of the 5 elements needed to create harmonious growth:

The Gifts of Artemis New Moon Spread

1. Air - East - New ideas, memories, cutting ties. How can I best embrace the element of Air at this New Moon?

2. Fire - South - Passion, courage, intuition. How can I best embrace the element of Fire at this New Moon? 

3. Water - West - Healing, relationships, creativity. How can I best embrace the element of Water at this New Moon?

4. Earth - North - Caring for the body & environment, finances, grounding. How can I best embrace the element of Earth at this New Moon?

5. Spirit - Centre - What is the message from Spirit at this New Moon?

Interview with the Visionary Artist, Tammy Mae Moon

The Seer

The Gifting

Deirdre of the Sorrows

Hyrdrangea Faerie

Interview with Tammy Mae Moon:

Most of us knew our soul’s purpose better when we were children then we do as adults.  Three of my biggest loves as a child were mythology, anything having to do with mysticism or the occult, and drawing medieval women.  The first two loves I had to really search out as I grew up in a small Southern U.S. town where there were only two religions: Southern Baptist and Presbyterian.  My love for art was not nurtured and I never thought that becoming an artist was even an option for me growing up.

In college I studied antiquities and had planned to become an archaeologist, but instead I married another archaeologist and became a massage therapist after college.  I started to have a lot of psychic openings in my early twenties, and after being trained in Reiki I began to commune with the spirit guides of my massage therapy clients.  My own guidance led me to learn to draw these guides for my clients.  It took me two years before I felt confident enough to start doing this.  During those two years I reconnected with this deep yearning I have within, and have had since I was a child, to draw and create art.

Doing the spirit guide portraits was an interesting way to learn to do portraiture.  The sole purpose of doing those portraits was to manifest spirit into the physical.  I still feel this is the main purpose of my art today.  I would spend a lot of time on the eyes of the guides, as I really wanted people to feel like the eyes of the guides spoke to them.  People are always commenting on the eyes of the women in my paintings as if they are really alive.  We are so inundated with imagery in this modern world, and very rarely does it feel like it is filled with spirit.  I think that one consequence of the Modern art movement is that art has become more and more lifeless.  I feel it is very important for people to reconnect with art that is tangibly alive.

Along with drawing the guides, I would channel a lot of spiritual information for my clients.  This information was dominated by past life information.  The guides were usually people that my clients knew in a past life, or sometimes, were the clients themselves in a past life.  This was always intriguing to me as it showed that we truly are our own guides and reminds me of that old Native American saying

“We are the ones we are waiting for”.

My fascination with past lives grew as I did the readings, and I eventually got trained as a hypnotist and began doing past life regressions.  This helped me to journey into my own past lives and to uncover my own soul’s story.  I know I was a gifted artist in a few past lives, and that is why I was able to reconnect with this skill in this lifetime with no formal training.  I also uncovered the skill of reading tarot.  I was always a little frightened of tarot readings before discovering this.  I found a lifetime where I was tortured as a Romany gypsy and I was a tarot reader.

Today I am a busy mom of two and I have cut back on doing the readings.  What little time I have for myself I enjoy spending it painting.  I think creative energy is something that you channel up through your root chakra from the center of Gaia.  The more you open up to the energy the more it floods into your system.  Learning how to balance this creative energy is a struggle for every artist.  Images are constantly flooding into me and sometimes all I can think about is getting them out and onto the canvas.

My art is always centered on two themes, the sacred feminine and its connection to nature.  I work with a lot of mythological stories to show this connection.  I am most drawn to the ancient Irish myth, as I have a lot of past life connections there.  I am borderline obsessed with the stories of the Tuatha de danann and the Sidhe (the Irish name for faeries).  You will find in a lot of old Celtic lore the idea of the sovereign goddess.  She is the physical embodiment of the land or the earth.  She has to be treated with respect and nurtured for the land to be fertile.  In most myth the goddess herself is symbolic of the human psyche.  I feel there is a strong connection between the health of the human psyche and the environment.  When we have a balanced psyche the land will also be in balance.  This is the basic meaning behind the Beltane festival.  It was the coming together of the god and the goddess (the balancing of the male and female aspects of the psyche) to insure the fertility of the land. 

One of my favorite teachers of myth, as I am sure he is many peoples favorite, is Joseph Campbell.  On many occasions he commented about how it was the role of the artist to create the myth of today.  One of my favorite quotes of his says: “Artist’s are magical helpers.  Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.”  If I can help others on their soul’s heroic journey with my paintings, then I know I will be following my bliss.

To see more of Tammy's beautiful art, please go to : www.moonspiralart.com

'The Seer' by Tammy Mae Moon

Here's a peek at the artist we are featuring in our Beltane Newsletter coming out tomorrow...

Have a look at Tammy's extraordinary art here: www.moonspiralart.com

Creating New Relationships with the Dark Goddess

For some, it's been pretty hard-going for the last month, ever since the time of the Spring Equinox (23rd September). We are in a time of releasing old patterns and gaining new insights - particularly about our relationships (to others and to ourselves). Last night's Full Moon in Aries was the second Aries Moon and because of this, the energy was amplified. It's very unusual to have two full moons in the same sign consecutively. The Fire of Aries combined with being in the sign of Scorpio (Water) can often bring up feelings of anger, fear or melancholy. These 'shadow' emotions tie in with this time of the Dark Goddess as Venus is in retrograde until 19th November - so hang in there! I love that Queen Elizabeth I wore the emblem of the Phoenix over her Solar Plexus. The Phoenix is a totem associated with the sign of Scorpio representing rebirth and emerging triumphant from the flames of dark times.

Instead of fighting the Shadow or Dark Goddess within ourselves, try to embrace this time of change as an opportunity for growth and liberation. I find the Goddess Medusa to be particularly good to work with feelings of anger and frustration. And what is the Goddess Venus trying to tell you about the relationships or lack of relationships in your life? What relationship patterns are you noticing at this full moon? Create a list of relationship experiences that you can now take responsibility for (well at least half, hey?!) and then say goodbye to them and thank them for all that they have taught you. Now you are ready to create a wish list for the kind of relationships you are getting ready to embrace! Go for it, don't hold back.

For those of you who are still feeling ties to old partners or behaviours and need to cut energy ties to the past, you can EMAIL ME  to receive an exercise to consciously release yourself from etheric and energy ties.

The energy of the full moon will still be strong tonight so use this time to consciously create change and manifest the joy and abundance you truly deserve.