A message from the teacher

"Group,
"It's important to remember that clay is only a medium.  Coming to the studio is for self-expression and to be creative!  You must keep that going while we all wait for an end to this.  Write about being in the studio or make plans for when you return.  Use Pinterest to search for future inspiration.  Set aside the time you use for class or open studio, as your brain is already expecting you to use that time.  Try a new food, a new recipe, get outside, draw leaf patterns, look hard at the grass and branch systems of the trees you have.  Play music, play an instrument, sing often.  Coming to the studio is habitualized, make sure your brain gets what it needs, lots of water yes but more importantly, a healthy dose of the remarkable artist that I know all of you are.  This time will pass.  And it's important that you come through it mindful and stress free, ready to excel past where you left off, and leapfrog into a whole new chapter of clay and artistry.
"Charles Freeland
Studio Manager"

I was totally surprised and pleased at this message from our community clay studio manager/teacher. 

Then I thought of how hard my hands are to return to using tools in carving or smoothing or painting. I've been through that before. So for this clay lover, I need to do more than just think about creating. If I'm going to return to clay, I've got to work my hands on tools.

I have a couple of projects that need attention. I'll let you know how it goes. Today I was pleased with myself in doing almost all my physical therapy exercises. I felt really good till about 5 pm, when I kept coughing and coughing. Oops. and there's a new ache in the old body, an ear ache! So now I'm using the nebulizer early and hope it will pull whatever's bothering out of my lungs and sinuses.

The last 3 cards...this has gone on quite long enough!

The here and now of my life

Continuing a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it!

The card I drew to represent the environment of my life was the Ten of Swords...major changes!

OK, I asked for it didn't I!  What do I learn about myself from thinking of a complete end to life as I know it? Would I be suicidal if it came to it? I usually don't want to give up a fight. Goddess knows I've been accused of always wanting to win any argument.

So at what point would I realize that I (and others like me) would be so brutalized that we would just give up all we know in the face of the disaster that presented itself?

We won't know till it happens.

For now can I let go of any idea or rigid system of thinking/expression/feeling to which my ego is so attached that it would feel like the end of my existence by doing so? Can I come to terms with my idealized rose-colored glasses interpretation of life and accept reality? Can I give up my hopes and dreams if it comes down to it, to sacrifice all I hold dear?

The answer today is a resounding no.  But I will keep this thought in the back of my mind.  My survivalist friends are thinking of another reality of life...and occasionally I think of what all of our lives might become.

"What if"...is the name of my mental game.

What if the ocean did rise a couple of feet?
What if crops were no longer pollinated because of the crazy use of pesticides?
What if all the fossil fuels actually were gone...all gone?
What if a war happened in the US?
What if there was no more transportation with gas/oil?
What if there was no more electricity?
what if there was no more water/sewer?
what if I had no access to food
what if the internet stopped?
what if we didn't have phones?

So that's a mind-game for which I have no answers. I'd like to think I could survive a while, but I probably would be among the elderly frail to die early with any of those crisis situations.

I would be very sorry about it though, and will struggle as I can in the meantime to keep any of those things from happening. Like most 76 year old voters, I have all the power of the pen, and the ballot box.

Next card:
My hopes/fears...two sides of the same coin

all have them, and with the other cards in this spread, I expected more things that I am afraid of. However the card Son of Cups (aka Knight or Jack of Hearts)

Hopes are one side of the coin when we face the future, and as with the last card I played the "what if" mind game which gives incredible anxiety to me, fears are just the other side of a possible future. We know we don't know. But being human, we wonder.

Here's a young man playing his flute/recorder, sitting inside an egg-shape, on water while in the lotus pose of yoga.  He represents male energy surrendered to feminine energy.  Cups represent feelings/emotions, as the heart suit of our playing cards.  He offers the gift of music, and flowers, perhaps giving a message. The trident is the symbol of poetry, visions and trances.

So this card is a bit up-beat. The flower in the foreground can offer trances or poison if you aren't careful.  So I like seeing this young man, but I am also a bit guarded about the sweetness he offers.  How much of this is realistic?

And the last card of the spread:
The outcome of my question to the universe through cards

Outcome - a place on the Celtic Cross spread with a culmination of things that have come up in the reading.  After all, this is all just a depiction of my own unconscious...and does bring to my thoughts some ideas that I may prefer not to think on a usual level.

So I have this Daughter of Wands card as the outcome. A fiery young woman who is dancing holding a wheel in one hand.  Vicki Noble (the author) tells us it's the wheel of Nemesis, the Goddess of retribution for breaches of taboo.  Yes, that's a very good thing to dance around with...as a threat perhaps? Or is it just that she is confident that Nemesis will balance things that have gotten all out of whack.

But I need to also go back to my original question to these cards...dealing with aging and changes.  This is my younger self who certainly did have lots of fire in her belly, and not much thought to the future.  She had quite the tendency to rush into things with little thought, or even little sense of feeling. A quick mover, that was me. And carrying around the unicorn who danced with me, ah the dreams and fun I've had!

And now I've slowed down and the world rushes past, with many young people dancing into their lives. I do hope they all have as much fulfillment as I have had in mine.

But to have my "outcome" card just remind me of the past doesn't quite make sense.  It has to have to do with the Devil card, and the nightmare, and the Emperor, and the surrender, as well as the two young men, the first being Pan who turns the Devil away, and the latter being that yoga musician who is full of emotions.  I think my imagination can still let me be a young dancing girl, with the fire that pushes us both to do whatever comes our way.

The card of 4 of discs may mean that any answers I'll have from this reading will be found when I make my own sanctuary and spend time in it. That is how I can feel grounded with all the turmoil that exists all around me. I have a little altar, and it's been kind of stacked with other stuff lately. Going to refurbish it next! I have even used my sage smudge stick to purify the environment of my home...and to ward away any energies that might do me harm. Now I'll have my sketchbook by my side, and sit with a candle in the dark, letting myself be open to whatever else might come my way.

Thank you for reading this with me.

Now to any readers out there...have you had your Tarot Cards read? What did you think? Has my experience been too personal, or too wild and weird? I am happy that you shared it with me.

Let's observe my own shadow self

Continuing a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it!

Yep, as Karl Jung suggests, we carry around a shadow self, which we don't want to see, because it's the negative parts of oneself. (I like that there's also a bright shadow, the part that is good that I also deny existence to.)

My card to represent myself is none other than the Emperor. Yikes! It's a Trump card (pardon the intentional pun!) So much as I dislike the man, I must have some of what he is within me. How terribly distasteful to me. I've often tried to find a way to give love and forgiveness to him for his being another human...and I fail terribly because I won't ever forgive the hurts he is responsible for causing for so many others. There are so few redeeming qualities in the man, I find it a challenge to see how a dear relative can support him.

But to see my own Emperor qualities is my task today.  Am I detached from my feelings?  I cried when I read the blog a few days ago of a friend blogger who's dog died.  That started my day.

I may avoid some of my angry feelings about the government's misadventures (to put it mildly.)

Am I rigid? OK, perhaps a bit. I like my life simple and with just enough free time that I can stop and do something different every few days.  I do like having control over my life...which any day could tumble into a state of disease with crisis....and then I'd either be dead or under the control of medical professionals.

Am I afraid? Yes, of the end of this life as I know it...through disaster, through a government which seems bent on hurting those I support, through my personal crisis as I mentioned, of being victimized in any way.

Am I defensive? I have been many times in the past. I don't want to ever be hurt the way I have in the past, so I do defend myself pretty strongly when I get the hint that anything might go that way. I'm vulnerable in so many ways.

My positive message is to get in touch with my inner child and connect back to nature...the opposite of the Emperor.  Unfortunately I have to shield my eyes so I don't pay any attention to the dangerous childishness of Trump...which is more scary than fun.

What comes next?

Come along with me this week as I explore a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it! Yes very personal, but also political, environmental and even somewhat humorous.

Though I often try the Zen approach by focusing on the Now rather than the future (or the past), a bit of consideration would help in planning things. Like is it going to rain, so I'll be able to wear the right clothes. These days I move beyond one plan for the day, and often have a Plan B. But I do stay flexible enough to go to another direction if it seems wise.

A four of discs...a future of meditation, establishing sanctuary for yourself...this card comes up frequently these days for me.  The meditative self led me to do this Tarot reading...to spend the time and attention to let subconscious information come to my awakened knowing.

The card suggests that I need to find an answer to the question...what do you need for yourself?  My first thought is "meditation."

That may sound a bit like circular reasoning...but as many other areas of my life are rich with people, ideas, art, spirituality, and circles of support, I keep coming back to what I most need is to look within, to turn off the outside world much as the woman in the card is doing. She has mandalas on her wall, as do I.  I think perhaps I should consider creating some more.

How did I get here?

Come along with me this week as I explore a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it! Yes very personal, but also political, environmental and even somewhat humorous.

There's a card placement called "the things that have gone before."

For this reading, the Strength card came up. So there is a history of sorts when dealing with my basic question of aging and changes...of having a strength to help me.

That's a bit reassuring.This card lets me know that in the past I've been able to stay grounded/centered and connected to others. It reminds me to continue to listen to and observe what the animal and natural kingdoms have to tell me. After all, they've been through this before...whatever challenges are coming are just part of a continuing cycle of changes, birth, life, death, birth...

What is given to me from above?

Come along with me this week as I explore a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it! Yes very personal, but also political, environmental and even somewhat humorous.

What other people might call their angels...the inspiring energies that the universe give me to consider.

Tarot Card Nine of Swords...a nightmare card!

OK, this negative stuff keeps turning up in this spread, asking about aging and changes.  I wish I had just flowery kitten energy coming my way, but no, I've got some serious stuff to deal with.

Swords are the suit (could be diamonds in playing cards) of intellect.  So things move very swiftly, like an idea here and gone.  I think of my dark shadow self...she who exhibits the fears that might be a nightmare...a childlike persona who has nobody to comfort her.  But she is with the part of my  bright shadow, a loving nurturing, wise aspect that I can find to give myself comfort.  I own both aspects of myself.

My friend Byron Ballard frequently talks about a Tarot card which didn't appear in my spread today.  The Tower Card.  It even has been her root for calling our era of life as Tower Time.  We are living through scary times.

Now the card in the Motherpeace deck actually reminds me that I must fight the demons of my unconscious with a conscious intent. The swords offer strength in that fight against the negative fears and anger that I sleep with/live with daily.  What are my swords? I choose words. I choose goddesses who have many myths of strength. My intent then is to confront my own negative impulses with calling upon goddesses like Athena the warrior goddess, Artemus the hunter, Sofia of wisdom, and of course Boudicca the British queen warrior who defeated Romans.  We are ready whenever the demons of greed and environmental degredation come into my sleep, whenever demons of illness and want rear their ugly heads in my psyche.

Ground and connect to earth energies

What is the root of the question? That which comes to me from the earth, welling up to connect with my quest and keep me firmly standing on the earth.

The two of Discs, a young woman is depicted on the card, who is raising twin babies.  I think of my twin aspects - the dark vs. light shadows.  Can she tell me more about them? She reminds me that as I'm juggling a busy life as she does, it's important to stay grounded or centered.  Since the placement in the spread is that which is connected to earth energies, it's a twin energy of being doubly important to keep my feet firmly on the ground....in considering my question.

Being grounded. What does that mean to me? Standing firm in what I believe is right and true. Standing up to those who hurt others, and knowing that I have a source within me that is the same source as all earth energies.

What energies come to counteract the basic question I'm asking?

Come along with me this week as I explore a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it! Yes very personal, but also political, environmental and even somewhat humorous.

The crossing card in the Celtic Cross spread of Tarot cards was the Son of wands (aka Jack of clubs)

After considering the primary card of the spread, there's a card that crosses it...which says the energies of that primary card need to be aware that there's another current pushing it in a different direction than perhaps it intended.

This card reminds us Pagans of the Horned God, or Pan, an entertainer, a male who is comfortable in a female society.  Here life is celebrated in an untamed way...play is part of everyday existence.

How would Pan go against the Devil? Well, we see his energies in cartoons about Trump all the time.  Just this week Ivanka has been painted into several old gatherings (including a last supper painting) as she was so inappropriately part of the G20 photograph with her father!

The Devil represents an opposite kind of energy, straight laced, rigid, where the Son of wands wants to have everyone feel better about life.  It doesn't approach the misuse of power so much as tickle us as we try to find alternatives.

When I consider my basic question about aging and changes, a Pan type energy gives me the chance to sit back and relax for a moment, to consider that I have a sense of humor in the face of everything that I fear and am angry about.

A card of significance - pay attention/beware!

Come along with me this week as I explore a Tarot Card Reading and how my inner psyche relates to it! Yes very personal, but also political, environmental and even somewhat humorous.

My questions to the universe, to ask my unconscious self (a shadow of the dark or light parts of myself) brings a card that unsettles me.

The Devil.
This is the significator of the spread. I'm reminded of a state of greed/selfishness. Remember that the Inquisition was the most public demonstration of the use by the Church of Rome to kill people by calling them instruments of the devil. The devil is an invention of Christianity. There have always been dark forces in Pagan theory, but not as personified as this devil.

The government and established religion can represents the devil in a way...something to be feared, and something that subjugates it's followers. The use of Power Over, rather than gathering of power with others...there is misuse of this power everywhere these days.

The True Power of the earth, mother nature, is the source that most Pagans look to for guidance, and we are feeling a lot of fear and anger towards the people who are harming the earth with unimaginable laws and intrusions into the earth's well being.

I look at the image of the card. I consider what part of myself might be one of the depicted individuals there.  I think probably a potter, who is offering the jug of life-giving water to those of higher level than I am.  I hope I'm related to the individual who is breaking his chains of slavery. I will need to keep this card of ultimate hierarchy in mind for a while.

Looking for inspiration

I sometimes look within for inspiration...to take me to new ideas, and to suggest things I may have forgotten about myself.  This week the form of question was in reading Tarot Cards.  I have done this many years...and very seldom offer to do card readings for others, so I consider myself an amateur.  But I find that the Jungian theory (Karl Jung) of shadow self and the unconscious having messages that I can listen to, provides information that may be of use to me.

I'm reminding myself that there is a dark shadow (that part of myself that I don't know much about, but others can frequently see) as well as a bright shadow (also mostly invisible to me) of my unconscious.  I shuffle the cards and think how I want to focus my question to the universe.  I'm thinking about aging and changes.  That is all.

I keep the question in my mind as I shuffle the cards, and then start turning them over and placing them on the cloth.

I spread the cards in a familiar and ancient pattern called the Celtic Cross. I'll share here for the next few days how this spread talks to me, and what I think of it!  It took maybe an hour the first time, and now I'm typing the details here, after taking photos of the cards.  I use the Motherpeace deck by Vicki Noble, all cards made on circles of cardboard. I skip the idea of reversed cards that way, since I turn them all facing upright.

Where is my muse?

The trouble with feeling depressed, is that you're just not inspired either.

I have tried going looking for my muse.  I know getting in nature helps, and for me, being near moving water.  So glad there were a few days of sunshine, and I took myself to not only my favorite mountain creek, but a river nearby with some nice waterfalls.

Hooker Falls

See here for more photos of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Spiritual practices and changes

Do you have a spiritual practice?
Many people who meditate, or do yoga, read their religious publications, or pray regularly do.

Many people go to a gathering place on Saturday or on Sunday (and or Wed or other times) as part of their spiritual practice.  Many people stay at home and never go into churches or synagogues or temples except for rites of passage (christening, marriage, funerals.)

I had a great spiritual inspiration with a women's program honoring my ancestors last Sunday afternoon.  I frequently feel spiritual when out in the woods in the mountains around me. Going to church/temple etc. isn't necessary for spiritual practice, after all.  Church is good for a community of a central group that believes in similar beliefs.  And it sure can offer inspiration some of the time.

I shared my Christian friends' joy at the Oct 31st 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church, kicking off the Protestant Reformation   If you haven't watched it, try to find the PBS movie "Martin Luther: The Idea that Changed the World,” " which tells a lot of interesting facts about his life.

This was the beginning of moving spiritual messages out of the hands of just the clergy, and into those of common people, enabling the rituals to be said not only in Latin, and eventually allowing the Bible to be printed not only in Latin. The power of the Pope in Rome was in many ways just political, not spiritual.  Common people were thus given access to the spiritual messages of Christianity.  A few years later, my ancestor, Rev. John Rogers,  helped translate the Bible into English.

My own personal spiritual interests weren't really served in any direct way through the Reformation, though all of Protestant sects were indirectly an offshoot of this.  My church affiliation has been the Unitarian-Universalists for the last 47 years, another branch from the protestants following Martin Luther's Theses.  The Unitarians and Universalists had women ministers for over a century.

But there were other avenues that the Lutherans opened up the way for tolerance in their own congregations.

This week the Lutherans celebrated Elizabeth Platz, who became the first female Lutheran pastor in 1970.  That was a pretty good step for women. But even more important was " the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (as) a leader in welcoming gay members and clergy — even though that caused hundreds of congregations to leave, in search of less open churches. Personally, I enjoyed working for ECLA in providing counseling in nursing homes in Florida for several years.

But back to spiritual practices...for each of us, there's that inner connection to our highest guide, whether we call it God or Goddess or the Universe of all possibilities.  For those who don't believe there's an external source of guidance, who believe the spirit comes from within themselves, that's also alright.  I'm open to many ideas about how life goes on.

I do think it's important for each of us to have some kind of spiritual practice.  Just my opinion.

Today's Quotes:

My religion is nature. That’s what arouses those feelings of wonder and mysticism and gratitude in me.

OLIVER SACKS

"If you want to know who your tribe is, speak your truth, then see who sticks around. Those are the people who get a spot in your blanket fort." -Nanea Hoffman

More inspiration and art.

Great design work by Escher.

I thought, briefly, of doing something like this on my pottery.  Well,  I did think about it!  Stop laughing at the absurdity of me being able to paint with glazes anything like this.  I am still considering it.  Mainly I'm thinking of how shape, form, depth of coloration, line, mass and so on make something happen that is beyond the simple design.

Large bowl with bee and flower, an order that's late being delivered!

Quote for today:

Because we instinctively know that nature is good for us on many levels, it's not unusual to feel powerfully drawn to it.   
Madisyn Taylor - Daily Om

Inspired words and nature and pottery choices

John F. Kennedy Explains Why Artists & Poets Are Indispensable to American Democracy (October 26th, 1963) Transcript below.

President John F. Kennedy: Remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963 - Transcript

Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. "I have been" he wrote, "one acquainted with the night." And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man, and it is hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

Listen to speech

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fibre of our national life.

If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society--in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man, the fate of having "nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope."

I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction.

Robert Frost was often skeptical about projects for human improvement, yet I do not think he would disdain this hope. As he wrote during the uncertain days of the Second War:

Take human nature altogether since time began . . .
And it must be a little more in favor of man,
Say a fraction of one percent at the very least . . .
Our hold on this planet wouldn't have so increased.

Because of Mr. Frost's life and work, because of the life and work of this college, our hold on this planet has increased.

Text and recording courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library and the U.S. National Archives.

Why Spirit Houses?

My work has always grown out of my spiritual inspirations.  Maybe I didn't have much success sculpting goddesses. But trees were kind of fun.

Now I've been making spirit houses, for placing in someone's garden primarily.  I think inviting spirits to inhabit our gardens seems pretty simple.  Spirits (of whatever cultural tradition) are part of place.

I know better than to replicate the Thai spirit houses, (which I showed HERE) because that isn't my own tradition.  I learn a lot from other culture's traditions, then use the ideas with my own style, not trying to make what has worked for generations and I've just discovered today.

I love Native American tradition, but know my own Native American roots are so far removed that I didn't have one bit of that culture as part of my heritage.  So I can borrow, and interpret, but know better than to try to represent it.

Powhatan style homes, Jamestown, VA - my ancestors

Circle the globe to Australia, and I learn about the Aborigine's Dreamtime.  They also have spirits of place.

The places the ancestral spirits traveled and where they came to rest was told to the Aborigines through Dreaming. Aborigines know that they do not own the land but are a part of it and that it is their duty to respect and look after the earth. Aboriginal Dreaming acknowledges that the ancestral spirits still reside in the natural world and their imprints resonate everywhere. The past is still alive and breathing today, as it will be in the future.

Dreamtime painting Wayamba the turtle by Peter Mulcahy

My own spirit houses reflect what I feel most...not the ideas or traditions that inspired me, but what comes through me into being.  Just as many rituals are combination of different cultures and are designed to bring people together into an emotional community, the spirit houses can remind us of our own joy of beauty.

Quote for today:

Sometimes I go about pitying myself, and all the time I am being carried on great winds across the sky.

Chippewa, translated by Robert Bly