Women In-Spirit

       Twenty-five plus years ago I read Julia Cameron’s book “ The Artist’s Way-A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity” and to this day I practice her main tenets; morning pages, artist dates and walking. Mind you at different times some have gone by the way side temporarily or been adapted differently like morning pages became “whenever I can write the pages” pages, or for a time they were not handwritten but rather typed into a file on my computer. I’m never separated from them for long. They have become a ritual that feeds me.      I was reminded of the importance of “artist dates” this past Sunday when I attended an Art and Music festival in Hamilton, Ohio at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. Strolling through tents looking at art under warm, sunny skies and trees changing into their colorful autumn wardrobe while enjoying classical music is near perfect an artist date as one can get! Especially since the pandemic has sent most of us to our rooms to wait it out, this rare opportunity wa

                        “First, flashes of lightning           From an unknown horizon,                      Then rays of light                             Showing the path ahead,                Finally, light all around,                      The brilliance revealed                              Only to those who                                    Turn their senses within.”                         -Al-Qushayri        Through Women Inspirit I share aspects of my spiritual life with truths that resonate with me personally; Nature my greatest teacher; my love for the Divine Feminine; Women who have inspired me along the path; but mostly ‘my intuitive wisdom’ garnered from my own experiences, all of which has led to a deeper knowing of myself which is really our ultimate goal, to find and see our own divine light.       It has been a couple of months since I created a collage based on a Sufi pathway and I felt it calling to me. I have been deeply involved in beginning a new book and tighten

Cypriot  Mother Goddess statuette.      At the end of 2018 a friend in London posted a picture, similar to this one, of a bird-faced goddess figurine that she saw in an exhibit at a British museum. I was intrigued and my curiosity piqued. I was inspired to try my hand at needle-felting the statue which I eventually completed last year. And then sadly I placed her on a shelf and got on with other projects, not giving her much thought honestly again until just a couple of weeks ago. In my morning spiritual work I randomly choose a reading from a book. That day I picked up one of my favorite books called The Song of Eve by Manuela Dunn Mascetti. This beautifully illustrated book is a study in Feminine archetypes and how we as women embody these powerful personalities still today even though the patriarchy has tried its best to repress them. In my way I will hold a book in my hands and ask for guidance and direction and then randomly open the book. I was startled when I opened the

    “Be empty of what you think you know.” Rumi Pathway 30, Subtle Mystery.      In order for anything of value to come into Being it must be nurtured, nourished, paid attention to and held. This is a process that begins with a seed being planted. It is held in the dark embrace of its container. If it is nourished by what we feed it,  soothed and bathed in the healing waters of life, nurtured by the warmth of our hearts and cultivated by our intent it will grow. And I’ll add,  if we can look upon this process with eyes and hearts full of wonder and awe then it is not just the life of the seed that is enriched but truly our own lives as well.      This holds true for anything we wish to create; art, a garden, our spiritual path, healthy and loving relationships to each other and the Earth, and to our selves. It is not enough to just drop the seed and hope for the best. Tending to life takes work, dedication, mindfulness and respect. Respect for the process and for what you ar

             Passion flower,   Passiflora caeulea, an exotic looking vining perennial with a quite distinctive  flower seems an especially fitting representation for the energy of this pathway entitled Putting Things in Order. In my continuing journey to explore The Sufi Book of Life-  99  Pathways to the Heart, by  Neil Douglas-Klotz, through art, I am always pleasantly surprised by the images that call to be used and later prove to be symbolically apropos.      It seems to me that during this extended period of quarantine and isolation that many of us have been doing just this, putting various things in order in our lives. I know for myself I have spent time organizing closets, kitchen cabinets, drawers and art supplies (always a never ending battle). Everyday I hear from friends and family busy tackling house renovations from flooring to painting rooms; putting in gardens; and cleaning out garages and basements. The quest to keep busy. Psychologically I wouldn’t doubt that s

Pathway 28, The Sacred Sixth Sense.       I am  continuing on my journey through Neil Douglas- Klotzs book, “The Sufi Book of Life- 99 Pathways to the Heart,” by exploring each spiritual passage through art and in particular, collage. Exploring spiritual concepts through the expression of art has brought a new depth of understanding for me personally because I am someone who craves real depth and I relate especially to symbols and their meanings. Collage I find is the perfect medium for this.      I find as I get older or perhaps rather as I become more at home in my own skin I do not want to be chained to labels. By compartmentalizing ourselves into groups we stop our growth or at least stunt it because by excepting that marker you are saying I’ve found my spot and I’m not budging. One can argue that they are happy in that imagined, comfortable place but the universe is in constant motion between stages of birth, living and dying. Nothing stays the same and that includes humans

Awakened Sight Pathway 27.      Continuing my exploration of Neil Douglas-Klotz’s “The Sufi Book of Life- 99 Pathways to the Heart” through art collage the next pathway introduces us to Awakened Sight. In my last post I delved into Awakened Hearing which asked us to consider experiencing our senses from a different perspective, from a Spiritual one. Awakened hearing asked us to receive beyond what we hear, beyond words, to hear the Universe through our own ears and not through what others believe it should sound like. It too can be a point of reconnection.     Pathway 27, Awakened Sight, asks us to look beyond the thousands upon thousands of images that we are “bombarded” with every day. I know that sometimes I feel overloaded from the constant stream on social media, the news and in advertising. We spend a lot of time viewing life through a screen these days rather than experiencing life ourselves and seeing it with our own eyes. Which reminds me of a television commercial where

Pathway 26, Awakened Hearing.       What is sound? Sound is defined as “vibration that travels through the air or another medium and can be heard when it reaches the ear.’ That being said everything has a vibration, it’s own pulse if you will; trees, plants, rocks, the Earth, but we don’t necessarily hear them with our ears. We may feel them or sense them which is a different kind of “hearing”, “Awakened Hearing”, As- Sami, which means “the all-hearing.” Pathway 26, “Awakened Hearing” asks us to contemplate where sound begins within ourselves.  Hearing as a spiritual practice asks us to listen more intently.      “We are here to hold within us the consciousness of all the beings that have traveled before us in the caravan of life, and to include the view of  the whole cosmos in our vision.” Neil Douglas- Klotz .      These next three pathways from his book “The Sufi Book of Life- 99 Pathways to the Heart” all deal with our ability to listen and truly hear or see or sense

     Where does time go? It's been over a year since I posted on Women In-Spirit. I tried a number of times to rally, to breathe new being into my creative life, but I just wasn't feeling it no matter what I did.  I hadn't written or collaged much, here and there at best, but again it felt like an uphill climb in high altitude. So I decided to stop and look about me, change directions for awhile, and catch my breath. All the while I knew I would return to my blog because I don't like to start something and not finish it.  My spiritual art exploration of the "Sufi Book of Life-99 Pathways of the Heart", by Neil Douglas-Klotz,  through collage was far from complete. Sometimes you just have to trust the process. I needed to rediscover my passion.      So off in a new direction I went. Last March, a year ago, I saw an ad for a seasonal, part time job opening at a local greenhouse and garden center. It kept nudging at me so I answered, and it was just what