‘Facing Her’, Drozda, Acrylic/wood, 16 x 20 “, private collection

Welcome to our first week on the January art/life trail ride. What a turn in the trail this is! 

From your current vantage point see yourself gently and safely sinking deeper into the feminine half of the Natural Year. The two quarters making up the fall and winter quadrants are represented by the keywords: Life and Mystery. The fall Life quadrant gave us 12 weeks to address issues pertaining to art/life experience, death and rebirth as well as learning more about true strength all within the boundaries of what had been unfolding since April.

From fall equinox to spring equinox primary energy is feminine in nature. Notice the inward, rejuvenating, inventive, resourceful, imaginative, inspired, intuitive and deep parts of your calling. The Feminine calls us to have courage. She invites us to visit the womb cave of the Underworld. This is not a scary place, and yet we do have to muster our courage each and every year so that we can break through the status quo and dive  down to where all ideas originate. Follow the in-breath and drop into your womb cave, your belly, your Orenda. Sense into the regeneration and re-creation that are naturally taking place.

This is the quieting time of the year

Our keyword for January is Clearing. This word has so many definitions and ways of being interpreted that you could become dizzy and confused. For our trail ride purposes lets imagine that we’re moving into a month of being in a  clearing, an open space within our creative depths, a place where we can envision new paths coming into view over the next few weeks…this is a naturally quiet time. This is a week to practice: no rush.

 

Thanks to our art/life trail ride companion Sybil Mays for her ‘gardening begins in January’ share.

The Mystery…and the Dream

Persephone’s Dream, Drozda, Acrylic60 x 60″, private collection

A piece of The Mystery …and a mythic glimpse into the Underworld… are told in the story of Persephone, a young goddess of nature and flowering plants.

Hades, god of the Underworld, burst forth from a rift in the earth and abducted her. Demeter, her grieving mother, eventually convinced Zeus to send Hermes to retrieve her. Unfortunately, Persephone had grown hungry. Hades, the lord of the dead, offered her fruit and she had eaten four or six pomegranate seeds. With that act he was able to claim that each year Persephone must spend an equal number of months hidden away deep in the Underworld as his queen. 

This was an obvious explanation for barren winter, which is alternately described as either Demeter’s sorrow for her daughter in the lost months, or the effect of Persephone’s simple absence…the idea that things in the Underworld can permanently change a visitor. 

The 10 weeks ahead are the natural time of The Mystery. We are Wise Women and we know enough to realize that the masculine side of ourselves cannot abduct our noble powers and spirit us away.  The Mystery brings up our hunger. We yearn for expansion. We become deeply curious. What will grow from the seed ideas that we ingest now? What will blossom this year? We’re midwifing our own growth. There will be much meeting up with ‘compassion in action’ as the trail ride unfolds in 2016.

This is a powerful time to begin to watch dreams more closely. Look for clues.

For the next 10 weeks we’ll be exploring the creative territory from deep within the cave of the Underworld. We are safe and secure in this part of the journey…trusting that the trail ride will be unfolding with a renewed gusto. We take the time now to re-create and rejuvenate.

Our focus this week is to sense into the quieter pace that fits our most natural art/life rhythm. 

Here are wise words from a companion on our trail ride helping to support our inward journey:

I used to approach goals (and Life) with a violent speed the likes of which you are all too familiar. Mine was (is yours?) a hurried, nearly frantic pace—burdened by the prideful distress of coveting ‘getting ahead’. Ahead of what? Ahead of death? Ahead of a colleague? Ahead of a slower driver? It’s a delusion. This lie we’re sold about faster, richer, thinner, better than. Don’t buy it. It will kill you. You and your dreams will die. Right in the middle of trying to get somewhere else.

                               Read more from writer Antoinette Levine on her blog.

Between now and March 21 connect with the biggest dream/vision that you can imagine even as you rest and re-form yourself. Resting in the Underworld is a rich time. It takes you far from distraction. Remember 15 minutes each day is all the time you need to dream your dream of evolving:

Where will your art/life trail ride take you in 2016?

Might you create your master peace…failures and all

Might you complete the project that shares your expansive joy

Might you rise to your highest level of compassionate service thus far

 

Journal Page, Drozda, Media blend, 11 x 14″

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants.

The question is: What are we busy about?”

Henry David Thoreau

 

Action for this week…

Be embracing of your Mysterious and Mystical brilliance. Take time to visualize your dream leading you into The Mystery.
The Mystery is an alchemical zone where you transform and transmute the lead of the unexpressed life into the gold that this evolutionary year of trail riding offers. All through the year we will be exploring these pathways…moon by moon.

This week make gentle progress. Practice leaning into the Unknown. Open to your deepest Mystery. Be willing to pioneer an evolutionary leap into your art/life. Look for clues.

Lady Leaping Over the Sea, Drozda, watercolor/Arches, 24 x 30″, Artist collection

See you next week on the art/life trail ride…leave a comment, share the blog, invite your art/life pals to ride the trail with you…it helps us all as we buddy up.

 

 

TIME MASTERY IS SELF MASTERY

Experience the uplift of the monthly Luna See newsletter and a personal creative tune-up with a Lifecycle Consult. These are natural time management tools aligning you with the creative rhythms of your best Art/Life. Since 1991 I’ve been an art/life trail ride guide. I support you as your trail turns and change becomes the operative gift. Read the Testimonials.

Lifecycle Testimony of the Week:

Lifecycle Consultation is simply magic. There is nothing ‘out there’ even remotely similar that I know of! You combine esoteric sciences, natural cycles, inner wisdom, lifelong learning of a vast variety of traditions, in addition to practical insights and top it all off with profound gentleness and love. Your verbal light guides me home to my deepest yearnings, my most authentic self.

Marianne Stanley, LA
Artist/Writer

 

 

As a working Heartist with more than four decades of practice I focus on mutual support as we encourage one another to live our creative best on our trail ride.