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More information to come soon...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Green Tara ~ Bodhisattva of Enlightened Action
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Green Tara from the sketch to the final inked version...
More information to come soon...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
My Muses ~ The Real Life Goddesses
Here are several other beautiful women - plus one mini biscuit -who have allowed me the honor of illustrating their likeness as goddesses for this book - although I won't necessarily be illustrating them in the order they appear here.
Thank you all, my lovelies!!
And for those of you who might be all in a tittery bunch over the picture I may have chosen to post here - don't worry! These aren't necessarily the pictures I will be using for the actual illustrations.
The other goddesses on the list - which are subject to change since they seem to do that from week to week - are:
Hine-Nui-Te-Po - Maori
Erzulie - Haitian
Inanna - Sumerian
Isis - Egyptian
Kali - Hindu
Dewi Sri - Bali
Kwan Yin - Buddhist
Green Tara - Tibet
Mama Quilla - Incan
Uzume - Japanese
Sedna - Inuit
Gnowee - Australian Aboriginal
Al-Uzza - Arabian
Tlazolteotl - Aztec
Friday, August 8, 2008
Rhiannon ~ Divine Chanteuse of Healing Songs
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I chose my beautiful and talented cousin, Hillary, to be the representation of the goddess Rhiannon because she asked me if I'd design a tattoo for her earlier this year.
Once upon a time when I was 20 I'd actually apprenticed for about 6 months with a tattoo artist. I'd not really wanted to become a tattoo artist but my boyfriend at the time, Sean, had a friend who knew this guy who had trained with Keri Barba of Twilight Fantasy Tattoo Parlor in Anaheim, CA, and supposedly he was willing to train me. Sean and his friends were far more excited about this prospect than I was... but at the time I wasn't really clear on exactly what I wanted to do with my life yet so I just shrugged and said, "Okay, I guess."
John, my teacher, halted my lessons after about 6 months when he insisted I get a tattoo and I insisted in turn that there was nothing I wanted so permanently on my body to make me make such a choice... other than a small, light blue crescent moon lying on it's back and about the size of a dime set in the space on my forehead just above my eyebrows. Those of you who have read Marion Zimmer-Bradley's epic The Mists of Avalon will understand why. At the time, however, no reputable tattoo artist would ink anything on a body from the neck up - and John was no exception. Thus ended my illustrious tattoo career... and thankfully spared me from a lifetime branding smack in the middle of my forehead!
But I did learn how to design things in a way to make them tattoo friendly and Hillary's request was not the first I've received over the years since then. There are, in fact, a good two dozen or so folks out there in the world walking around with my artwork on them - which I find kinda neat.
Anyway, Hillary said, "I don't really have much of an idea in my head as much as a feeling about what I'd like, if that makes any sense. I'd like smallish birds, swallow-like minus the forked looking tails. I'm going to put them across my back, but not low, about right below where a bra goes across, one in the middle and one on each lat muscle. I haven't figured out how to have them sitting, maybe on a thin branch or something. I'd like the middle one to be just sitting and the outer ones maybe with wings spread like they're about to take off. I'm hoping for a dignified feeling. I'm very confident that your creative ability will bring out the idea that I'm going for, no matter what you come up with."
Her vision was inspired by the Three Birds of Rhiannon and the Fleetwood Mac song of the same name.
A bird that is not mine...
Three birds that belong to her
One emerald-green,
One snow-white...
One golden, flashing like a
Sunbeam through the night...
One golden, flashing like a
Sunbeam through the night...
The first "Rhiannon" illustration, done in 1992
Most people are familiar with Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon but perhaps not so familiar with the other song about her three birds. I happened to be one of them. As for Rhiannon - the goddess - I was very familiar with her. In fact, years ago in my very early 20's when I used to contribute regularly to SageWoman magazine - a magazine that focused on various expressions of the women's spirituality movement - I'd done an illustration of her for an article. I knew she had a strong connection to music and horses but still, I was totally unaware of these three birds. Thus, you won't see them in the early drawing done back in 1992.
The British Isles with Wales highlighted in green
Rhiannon is a Welsh goddess of ethereal beauty with strong Celtic ties (and may I just add here since this is one of my quirky little pet peeves: the word Celtic is pronounced Kel-tic with a hard K sound and not a soft S as so many Americans seem think) and is featured in the famous Welsh collection of mythological stories, The Mabinogion. Her name is a variant form of the Welsh word Rhiain, meaning "maiden", and is also derived from the Brythonic goddess, Rigantona, and means "Great Queen" - and that's exactly what she was: a great queen of the fairies. She loved her horses and her dogs - a pack of Welsh border collies. She rode so wildly and swiftly upon her horses with her dogs easily keeping pace that it was said no man, no matter how fast he was said to be, could keep up with her let alone catch her.
Rhiannon is a goddess closely associated with the night and the moon, thus she's an instrument of change, movement and magic much in the same way the moon is. Her color are silver, white and blood red. Jasmine is her sacred flower and moonstones are her precious gems.
She was said to be a great healer - and not just of the body but of the wounded heart and soul. Like all great healers, she endured great suffering of her own so her compassion and insight into such matters was boundless. She gives us the gift of tears, forgetfulness (to aid in the healing process) and humor to bear what may seem unbearable. She is also a goddess who brings great joy - because sometimes the only way to know what something truly is requires we experience all that it is not. Sorrow and joy are two sides of the same coin.
Rhiannon's Three Birds
And, of course, she had three magical birds. The Welsh called them the Adar Rhiannon - Birds of Rhiannon. It was said these marvelous birds could revive the dead, restore life, heal all ills but also lull the living into eternal sleep with their song. And when her song is joined with that of her magical birds, it is said the song is so beautiful it can heal all sadness and pain.
A very realistic statue of "The Fine Lady" at Banbury Cross
In her maiden aspect, Rhiannon is associated with a white horse, and depicted as finely dressed in gold. The famous nursery rhyme, Banbury Cross, is actually attributed to her. Although nursery rhyme books recite the words differently now, the original rhyme is as follows:
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady on a white horse.
With birds at her shoulders
And bells on her toes,
She will have music wherever she goes.
The story goes that Rhiannon chose to fall in love and marry a mortal king by the name of Pwyll (pronounced Pow-ell) and together they had a son whom they named Pryderi. Not long after the child's birth, he vanished in the night while Rhiannon and her ladies-in-waiting slept. A nursemaid was supposed to be watching the boy but she had fallen asleep as well. Fearing dire consequences for slacking off while on duty, the nursemaid took a newborn puppy from among Rhiannon's dogs and killed him. She smeared it's blood all over Rhiannon's hands, face and clothing.
When the household awoke the next morning all eyes fell on the bloodied Rhiannon and she was immediately accused of not only murdering her own son but eating him as well. She was, after all, not of the earthly world and thus an outsider and, like most outsiders, considered different and feared by many in the kingdom. Consensus felt Pwyll should have married someone "of his own kind".
King Pwyll, however, was despondent at the loss of his son and even more aggrieved that his beloved and much adored wife was the one accused of being responsible for his death. He could not bring himself to have her executed so, as punishment Rhiannon was made to sit upon a horse-block outside the castle walls and offer all passers-by a ride on her back for a duration of seven years.
Rhiannon was devastated at the loss of her son, too, but could find no way of proving she'd not been the one to murder him. And so, without any defense, she had no choice but to endure her punishment. Being the great and dignified queen she was, she bore her task without complaint. She bore her humiliation with such grace and dignity despite her overwhelming grief that she was said to have moved even the most hardened of hearts of her adopted countrymen.
All the while, Pryderi was alive and well and being raised by unknown persons. When her seven year trial came to an end, he reappeared at the castle gates. He had no explanation for where he'd been but Rhiannon obviously didn't care. Her son was alive and with his return, she was vindicated and absolved of the crime she'd been falsely accused of. More importantly to her though was that she had her beloved son back and safe in her arms once again.
Statue attributed to both Rhiannon and Epona, another Celtic horse goddess
Thus, Rhiannon is considered to be an archetype of understanding and compassion. She understands hardship and pain, separation and loss. Yet she also teaches that even when we are wronged we can find a way to not only forgive ourselves and others but also to remain true to ourselves by loving and honoring the truth of who we truly are within - even when it seems the world is against us.
In my research I ran across what I considered to be a moving statement, written as if Rhiannon were speaking them herself and given as food for thought:
All my life, I've heard about the wonderful friendships women have. I'm a woman. But I'm probably not your friend. Let me tell you who I am...
I am the woman you will tell your troubles to in the line at the store...the one who will listen and empathize. But then you will smile, and maybe say thanks, but never ask my name.
I am the one who will walk out of the school with you and two other moms after a project in our children's classroom, and will hear you invite the other moms over for lunch, but will not be included.
I am the one who will hear all about the great scrapbook retreat you and another woman went to, and how you can't wait to do it again. But you will never ask me if I would like to join you.
I am the one you will tell all about your big, crazy Thanksgiving family dinners, and maybe you'll even ask to borrow a recipe or a baking pan, but even though I have no family within a thousand miles, you will not invite my child and me to join you because after all, we're not family.
I am the one with the book you need to borrow, the name of the doctor or Realtor you want to find, the one with information on the new restaurant, places to go on your vacation, or the website to help with your child's project. I am the one who can pick up your child when you're running late, pitch in when another mom didn't show for the gift wrapping table at the school holiday market, or hold your hand when the doctor's news is scary.
I am the one who will ask you over to lunch, only to have you cancel... twice. I am the outsider, the not-from-around-here, the stranger in your midst. I am educated, well dressed, well mannered, and literate. I am a woman, a mom, a neighbor But I do not go to your church. I do not celebrate the same holidays you do. I was not born here. I did not grow up here. I am a woman with no friends. You tell me of the wonders of women's friendships. But you never see my tears. Do you even see me?
-Lynn, a subscriber to The Goddess Path
How many of us have been this woman? How many of us have been guilty of doing this to others?
An ancient Welsh coin with the image of Rhiannon imprinted upon it
Rhiannon also teaches us how to work with doubt and to doubt someone or something when our instincts are giving us warning signals to do so - and that this is healthy (and puts me in mind of Gavin de Becker's wonderful book, The Gift of Fear). To spend precious time doubting oneself is self-negating and unhelpful. Rhiannon teaches us that the best way to work with self-doubt is to turn it into self-questioning and not allow it to erode your self-esteem and Sacred Self. Allowing yourself to question rather than doubt is to allow the answer you need to reveal themselves so you can continue on your path to wholeness and happiness once again.
There are two festivals connected with Rhiannon. Gwyl o Rhiannon - Feast of Rhiannon - is celebrated at sundown on December 2nd. The other, Rhyfeddod Lleiaf o Rhiannon - The Lesser Mysteries of Rhiannon - is celebrated from sundown on March 3rd through sunrise on March 6th. Both of these holidays are still celebrated by modern day Welsh witches and pagans.
Self portrait of my cousin Hillary (modified a little by moi for the blog). She's 11 weeks pregnant here with her second child, due in early 2009
Just a few pieces of some of Hill's fantastic photography. I told you she was talented!!!
Hillary's affinity with Rhiannon's birds was not the only reason why I asked her if she'd allow me to use her likeness for this illustration. Like Rhiannon, Hillary is a beautiful but intense person and she's endured her share of sorrows of the heart and soul over few years of her young life. Yet it has been my observation that she's not only borne them with grace and dignity but she has turned them around and used them as tools for her own personal healing. They have served to make her more compassionate, more loving, more present and more appreciative of those in her life and all those she loves. I think, too, that she's found a way to incorporate these qualities in to her work as well.
Hillary is a very gifted photographer and her work is very evocative and moving... and a little ethereal too... as if she, herself, is of the realm of some other world and has managed to capture glimpses into her reality for the rest of us to experience via the expertise of her dreamy, shuttered lens.
Thank you so much, Miss Hill, for channeling your amazingly beautiful energy into this piece! I love ya muchly!! And I promise as soon as this project is done, you will have your beautiful birds. :)
Ix Chel ~ Lady Rainbow
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The Maya civilization was an ancient Native America culture and is still considered to be one of the most advanced civilizations in the western hemisphere before the arrival of Europeans to the North and Central Americas. The people known as the Maya lived in the region that is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. They thrived for more than 2,000 years... and then mysteriously went the way of the Egyptians and the Romans; their amazingly rich and intricate empire all but dying out to a mere flicker of what it once was.
One of the Mayan pyramid temples at Tekal
These amazing people built massive stone pyramids, temples, and sculpture that still defy the comprehension of "experts" and they developed a system of writing using hieroglyphs and recorded their achievements in mathematics and astronomy that mathematicians and astronomers are still trying to wrap their heads around to this day. Archaeologists believe that Maya culture reached its highest development from about AD 300 to 900 but recent discoveries in northern Guatemala have found highly developed cities, sophisticated art, and examples of Maya writing that date from as early as 600 years prior.
The Mayan world
After AD 900 the Maya mysteriously declined in the southern lowlands of Guatemala. They later revived in the north on the Yucatán Peninsula and continued to dominate the area until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Descendants of the ancient Maya still form a large part of the population of the region. Although many have adopted Spanish ways, a significant number of modern Maya maintain traditional cultural practices.
Ix Chel is primarily a lunar goddess.
Below is the hieroglyph for "Ix Chel"
The Maya religion was comprised of several deities. Predominantly worshiped by women, Ix Chel (pronounced, roughly, EE-shell), a rainbow goddess associated with healing, childbirth, and weaving was one of the primaries. The origin of her name is thought to come from the Yucatán and is generally assumed to translate to "Lady Rainbow." She is what is known as a "triple goddess" indicating that she has a maiden, mother and crone aspect - each of these aspects being represented by one of the three main phases of the moon. And much in the same way the waxing, full and waning lunar phases bestow a unique energy, each manifestation governing different realms of the female experience.
Unfortunately much written mythology was destroyed by priests trying to forcibly convert the Maya to Christianity so there is little recorded information about Ix Chel outside the symbology of images. She figures in a single recorded myth, in which, as Mother Goddess, she is married to the god, Itzamna. However, she does figure prominently in several folkloric stories of more modern origin. It is important to remember that while such tales are considered of questionable value in anthropological and archaeological study, they are of great value in folkloric and mythological study. Spiritually, they are no less valid than the ancient myths.
Ix Chel in her Maiden aspect
As the young goddess of the waxing moon, Ix Chel oversees matters of fertility and feminine sexuality. In this form, she is usually accompanied by a rabbit, a symbol of fertility. Much like Chinese and Japanese cultures, the Mayans saw the figure of a rabbit in the moon. In this guise, Ix Chel is much more playful, mischievous, and sensual than in her other forms.
One tale relays the story of Ix Chel falling in love with the Sun God K’inich Ajaw, but he showed no interest in her. She pursued him, even after her grandfather struck her down with a lightning-arrow to prevent it (in some tales, out of jealousy; in others, to try to prevent what he knew would be a bad match). The arrow killed her, but dragonflies sang around her for 13 days (the number 13 also relating to the moon and its 13 lunations that comprise the lunar year), until their song raised her. She then continued her pursuit, finally reaching her lover’s sky-palace.
Before long, though, K’inich Ajaw became jealous and falsely accused Ix Chel of taking his brother, the Morning Star, as her lover. K’inich Ajaw cast her from his home, but when she found refuge with another deity. She did not beg him to take her back. Instead he came seeking her forgiveness and begging her to return. She did, but he grew jealous again almost immediately, and this time Ix Chel left him voluntarily and for good, making herself invisible by turning into a jaguar whenever he came too close in his search for her.
Ix Chel in her Mother aspect with her husband, Itzamna.
Ix Chel, the Weaver
Love, marriage, and motherhood did not come easily to Ix Chel. Her independent and erotic nature assisted her in her resistance to participating in clinging, unhappy relationships... but only maturity and experience did she gain the wisdom to avoid them entirely.
In her guise as a Mother goddess, she finally found a good match in Itzamna, the gentle and wise Moon God and founder of the Mayan culture. With Itzamna, she became the mother of thirteen sons (there's that number 13 in relation to the moon again!). Two of their sons were creator deities, and what they made, she set into motion, her weaving spindle the whirling center of the universe. Four others, called the Bacabs, are the giants who hold up the sky at its four corners.
One of the shrines of Ix Chel at Cozumel
Also as a Mother goddess, she is said to have spent much of her time among humans, especially on her sacred islands, where she healed those who came to her shrines, and aided women in childbirth. She is also revered as the great water goddess who governs the life-sustaining waters... which relates to both the water than humans need to survive as well as amniotic fluid a baby needs for survival in the womb. The rainbow is also a symbol interconnected with water (can't have a rainbow without water and light), a symbol of new life and serves as a bridge from the spirit realm to the earthly realm and back again. The rainbow is the pathway to God and vice versa - in Mayan mythology as well as the myths of many other cultures... and in accordance with biblical teachings relating to the story of Noah and the Arc (Genesis 9) - yet another myth that demonstrates new life.
Ix Chel in her Crone aspect
Ix Chel as the Dark-Moon Crone was wise, fearsome, and oddly merciful as well. As is true of most goddesses of this nature, she was equally loved and feared, sometimes simultaneously, because both the light and dark aspects of her other natures can be found in this one.
Her most common appearance in this form was as an old woman with jaguar claws and/or ears. Figurines of Ix Chel in this guise shows her with her hair bound in the traditional Mayan style commonly donned by older women but tied with a snake rather than a strip of colorful cloth. These figurines also show her wearing a skirt decorated with crossed bones, and in her hands or on her back she carries a jar from which she pours rain and floodwaters.
In this form, Ix Chel is the midwife, the magician, the healer, and the diviner - the Wise Old Woman who might be honored for her experience one day, and feared as a witch the next. She brings rains to nourish the world, and floods and storms . Hurricanes are her forte and she used them to destroy and lay waste to what had previously been created in order to make way for new birth and new beginnings. She helped the celestial serpent create a flood that ended the third world of Mayan tradition and ushered in the fourth. She is the Birth-Death-Rebirth Goddess who is at the heart of the Crone, whatever her name or form, culture or myth.
As is evident, I have included elements of all three aspects of Ix Chel in the above illustration... as well as the other touches such as the top of one of the pyramid temples at Tekal and the dahlia, Mexico's national flower. Images of Ix Chel often show her holding a dahlia flower in her hands.
Ruins of the shrines and temples of Ix Chel on Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and the Yucitan
Important shrines to Ix Chel existed on Cozumel - known as "Island of Women" and Isla Mujeres; ruins of both can be seen today. Pregnant women and those seeking fertility made long pilgrimages, walking from villages as far away as Honduras, then crossing the 12-mile channel from the mainland to the islands in dugout canoes. At her sacred temple, she was worshipped on the 6th day of the moon with a special ceremony that honored and celebrated her powers of medicine and magic. Modern offerings are still found at her shrines from time to time.
Ix Chel was worshiped on the sixth day of the lunar month with a ceremony that honored and celebrated her powers of medicine and magic. In the month of Zip (or Sip), the feast Ihcil Ixchel was celebrated by physicians and shamans. Medicine bundles containing small carvings of Ix Chel, healing fetishes, and divination stones were opened and blessed (Ihcil Ixchel currently falls on May 21; it will shift to to May 20 in 2012.).
The Mayan Calendar
And speaking of 2012... According to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar, the world is said to come to an end on December 23, 2012. The buzz about this in certain communities and schools of thought is quite the major big deal.
The Tzolkin and Haab
Our modern calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, has days, weeks, months and years. In the Mayan Calendar, it's more complex. In fact, it's really three calendars all in one - the Tzolkin, the Haab and the "Long Count". All three work together in a highly complex and intricate system of fascinatingly accurate time-telling, prediction and prophecy.
Now, I'm not going to even attempt to explain how these three calendars work together in tandem. I suck at math - and in order to really understand how it all works, one must have a mathematically and astronomically bent mind. I've tried to make sense of it all but, honestly, it makes my head hurt. I suppose that's why I'm an artist and a predominantly right brain thinker.
What I can tell you is that the Mayan calendar predicts December 23, 2012, as a day when the maximum possible influences for solar flares that the universe can provide will be at it's height, potentially causing some major simultaneous global disasters. It's also when the Mayan calendar resets to year zero. Interestingly, this very date in 2012 is also the Winter Solstice. On this day the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that "whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time.
The 7th century Mayan prophet Pacal Votan remarked on this date, saying "If Humanity Wishes To Save Itself From Biospheric Destruction It Must Return To Living in Natural Time."
It is said he foretold of our accelerated technological society and the resulting damage of our collective divergence from Natural Laws and living in harmony with the earth in exchange for materialist values. In essence, if we don't get a clue, we very well may go the way of the Egyptians, the Romans and yes, the ancient Mayans. Obviously, there are a growing number of those who seem to be tuning in to a mass shift in consciousness, commonly referred to these days as "Going Green." Concerns about global warming and the damage it's causing, hybrid cars, organic foods, saving our resources and our environment, using less, giving more, going natural... these are all manifestations of that steadily rising shift.
Some interpret the day to be indicative of the world coming to an end, a doomsday of sorts. Others see the date as a marker for a radical and massive shift in global consciousness, when Ix Chel's waters are said to close the Mayan era begun with the Spanish Invasion and usher forth a new era. After all, she's a destroyer and a creator... and sometimes you have to level out the old to make way for the new. If you ask me, this isn't a sign of doomsday but, rather, a positive shift for the better.
If you'd like to know more about the 2012 Mayan Calendar prophecy, here are a few sites to check out:
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19/no-doomsday-in-2012/
http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html
http://www.breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1185
http://www.13moon.com/prophecy%20page.html
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