The Darkness is Your Mother

"The darkness is your mother; she behooves reverence, since the mother is dangerous. She has power over you, since she gave birth to you. Honor the darkness as the light, and you will illumine your darkness.

If you comprehend the darkness, it seizes you. It comes over you like the night with black shadows and countless shimmering stars. Silence and peace come over you if you begin to comprehend the darkness. Only he who does not comprehend the darkness fears the night.

Through comprehending the dark, the nocturnal, the abyssal in you, you become utterly simple. And you prepare to sleep through the millennia like everyone else, and you sleep down into the womb of the millennia, and your walls resound with ancient temple chants. Since the simple is what always was. Peace and blue night spread over you while you dream in the grave of the millennia." 

Carl Jung, The Red Book
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Swan Blessing Story: The Outcast

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Sylvia Ji - Shapeshifters
On this Full Moon morning we share with you Kristan's Swan Blessing Story of the Outcast. In her past life, Kristan belonged to a tribe that could not accept the powerful medicine that she carried. In her tribe this medicine was seen as taboo for woman to hold. She was asked to obey or to leave. She chose to say NO to the tribe so that she could say YES to her spirit.

Many of us have experienced similar stories in past lives and in our present lives. We have felt that to truly be ourselves, we must journey alone. Or we have put up with behaviour that hurts us just to stay a part of the tribe whether that tribe is family, society, peers. In this time of the rise of the Divine Feminine we are being called out of the shadows to embrace all of our natural gifts and to release the fear of being rejected and cast out by those who do not understand or accept us. Saying NO when it is right for us is a practice of honouring ourselves. When we release the belief that there was ever anything 'wrong' with us we remember that we are all creatures of the earth - as individual as every animal and plant and an integral part in the wheel of life.

Looking into the waters of the crystal ball of consciousness, I stared and I waited and I imagined I would not see anything. And I saw nothing for what felt like such a long, long time, I was beginning to feel I would not see, that my mind was too strong to allow my soul to show me what I needed and wanted to see

I stayed with prayer, asking and pleading at one moment to see, please let me see  . . .  and then the mists began to clear and I could see a clearing in the mountains, green pine all around, the smell of freshness and soil, and a teepee 

And horses, many horses And then I saw HER, myself in another time By the teepee, the wild life of the mountains surrounding HER  Ah, she was alone, living an isolated life, no tribe, a sadness surrounded herI could also sense an understanding, acceptance of her situation as the best possible outcome for her at that time and place We saw each other, she smiledI could see her deer skin clothing, her turquoise choker with red beads HER long, long braids of dark black hair I could feel HER and I felt a relief that we had met, that the veils had parted and that we could meet I began to track why she was alone in the woods, her only communication with the forest life; the birds, woodland creatures, trees, the natural world who heard her and loved her 

A new vision appeared
I found myself within a tribe of teepees A fire A Father, a Chief at the door of his teepee
And a Mother and more children (my siblings) sitting at the door of her teepee I stood by my Father, the Chief as he asked me again if I would do what was expected of me
and again, the 12 year old HER (me) said NO
I would NOT 

I was banished from my tribe 

For being who I was For speaking who I was For saying NO to what was not true for me I caught the eye of my mother and she caught mine sadness but understanding i saw there
and in my father too, not as cheif, but as my father a sadness and again an understanding
And away SHE went, alone, to live a life of isolation, to be herself
Again, I find myself back at HER teepee This time we connect, we stand in a pool of water, a water fall, falling behind us The vines from below come up, writhing and cover her, strangle her, snake like she is bound I connect with HER, I cut with my teeth the binding reedy vines I free HER She smiles at me, she becomes as of light and as a shooting star Returns  

The wounding: I will be rejected, cast out, banished from my tribe if I am myself, authentic and truth speaking, if I say NO to what does not feel right I release this binding, this wounding as I bite and free the vines of that lifetime  

The blessing: authentic, true and free, I express myself fully, I am my actualized self, accepted, loved and cherished by my tribe, now and for eternity

Thank you Kristan Read, for sharing your beauty, strength and truth. Kristan is a Shamanic Midwife, Teacher and crafting creatrix extraordinaire! You can experience Kristan's inspiring medicine for yourself through her work at www.atmypractice.com and www.thecrafthive.com
For those who resonate with Kristan's Swan Blessing Story we encourage you to come forward to release the binding ties of past life vows and promises and the beliefs and fears that held within them. We will be sharing The Swan Blessing from our new nest, 'Bundaleer' (amongst the trees) in Sherbrooke Forest from 11th February 2013 and are already taking bookings.

The Knowing - Peter Muraay Djeripi Mulcahy

Indigenous painting The knowing by Murray Djeripi

The Knowing

With sensitivity comes greater understanding, from greater understanding comes finer clarity. Only with a timeless patience, a connective sensitivity and a deeper willingness to understand and see the relevance of all creation come the knowing.
This painting shows a people who were connected to their mother while in the embrace of their father.

Historical painting Elders are our embers by Muraay Djeripi

Elders are our embers

This beautiful symbolic painting is deep in its explanations of the complex culture that spawned it. Loving, nurturing, respectful and whole are all words that best describe this piece and the culture it portrays.


Each part of a whole

A fine detailed painting with incredible relevance for today. This work is another in Peters own indigenous knotting series. This artwork tells of the story of the core beliefs in “Indigenous Australia”. Why respect was at the heart of every thought and decision
What Baayama has entrusted to you I have no right to disrupt, disturb or disrespect.
Historical painting Mainly spirit by Muraay Djeripi

Mainly Spirit

We must continue to remind ourselves that we are spirit first, that we are a part of the all. Our old people knew it and lived it.
They really understood life as a continuation, there’s no gaps in time and there’s no gaps in creation. There’s just the one. In both space and time, we share the same moment and place with all before us.
We do well to know they are with us, so we remember our respect for them, the land and each other.
The physical world is simply a shadow covering our spirit.....
We are strong when we know this.

Ancestors

This vision is two spirit ancestors watching over me. They circle me, keeping me true to what I know and what is expected of me. They came as eagles to represent strength and invoke a feeling of awe. Their effortless flight teaches us of life and how when we allow ourselves to be one with spirit, the flow of life is continual and without effort.
My ancestors allow me to know that I am on tract and not alone. Someone to look up to and live up to. We are never alone and that is our strength.




Birth of the Butterflies

A truly beautiful story depicting the true philosophical nature of our Indigenous people. In the time when death did not exist, creation was suddenly forced to consider it for the first time. After turning to their leaders, clever ones and most wise. The answers to the mystery of life, death and reincarnation were carried on the wings of the lowly insects, Birth of the Butterflies.

All artwork and stories from: www.aboriginalaustralianart.com

Chuck Close Daguerreotype Portraits

A good portrait should reveal answers about the person, yet leave enough room for more questions. In some cases, the old ways become exciting methods for producing refreshing images and themes. A good example of this is Chuck Close's daguerreotype portrait of Kara Walker.

Chuck Close is one of the most prominent portrait artists of this generation. He is famed for his extremely large canvas paintings of people's faces, using varying grid and pixel methods to create smaller artworks in the larger portrait. Despite having prospagnosia (face blindness) and having suffered a seizure which left his arms and legs weakened, he continues to produce artworks on the same scale. Over the last decade, he has experimented with different forms of photography, with most of his famous photographs done with the daguerreotype process.

This particular portrait is a collaboration between Close and his artist friend Kara Walker, known for her work dealing with race, sexuality and identity. Walker poses in profile and is captured in silhouette, a more common form of portraiture in the 19th century. Close used daguerreotype photography, of the earliest photographic processes over a century old which involves long preparation, exposure and developing times.

The end result of these artists experimenting with old processes is a beautifully haunting profile portrait in the shadows, the outline of Walker's shoulders and head clearly visible, with the bare minimum amount of light showing enough detail on her face. For this 2007 portrait, Close was awarded the 2nd prize in the Portraits category of the World Press Photo.

For more on Chuck Close, check out this previous entry on him and his not so typical daguerreotypes. Time magazine has a good profile on Kara Walker. To find out more about the daguerreotype process, have a look at Louis Daguerre, the father of photography.