Monthly Archive

Today it was announced that scientists have found a great big nothingness in the universe.  It isn’t a black hole or something that is too dark to be seen, it is literally “nothing there.”  While they are contemplating the scientific meaning, I am considering the creative and spiritual meaning. 

To me, the universe is the great artistic enterprise and whatever is in it, or not, has a message both for those who create and those who think about what Goddess, who is the original creator, is all about.  What does it mean to create a creation where a lot of it has nothing in it? 

To me it means that Goddess is looking for co-creators.  It isn’t that She expects us to make galaxies and stars and planets and park them in that space.  But, you have to create a place of nothingness for people to create in.  If every spot is filled, you do not have the emotional and intellectual space to allow what is within to come to being in the physical world.  She is saying “now it’s your turn.  I want you to create with me — whether it’s a birthday cake, or a painting, or a song, or a letter, or a quilt, or a bouquet of flowers, or anything else.  It is what we create together that is beauty.  So, here is a space that has the silence and receptivity of nothingness to hold you as you create.”

What will you make in Her space? 

I recently had brought to my mind a period of my life, in my 20s, when I lived in NYC and used to do things like wear floor-length opera capes to punk clubs.  I’ve always thought of myself as an Emily Dickinson type — invisible, quiet, living through the written word.  In  those memories of NYC, I am a very different person than I ever imagined myself to be, and yet I know I did what I remember because I still have the cape in my attic.

So, who am I?  I am, of course, both those people, opposite as they may be.  When you see the Divine within yourself, as you see the Divine as looking like yourself, you can be all aspects of yourself.  You do not have to hold an identity together, desperately grasping at its pieces to try to cobble together one whole person.  The person you are in each moment can be the reflection, like sun shining off water, of the much greater Divinity that dwells within.  You can be all the people who will make your life full, who will allow you to be the best you can be, who will enable you to accomplish all you must do, who will delight and amaze and teach you, even as they all are you.  Each moment you can be a new, full person that emanates from all the universe both within and outside of you. 

Mary Webb was a British writer in the early 20th century.  She had a brief moment of fame in the 1920s when her novel, “Precious Bane,” became popular then another briefer moment more recently when it was made into a movie by the BBC.

Most of her life, though, Mary Webb spent in rural England writing about traditional life there and supporting herself by selling produce she grew and other similar pursuits.  What is amazing about Mary Webb is her very deep connection to nature.  When I read her work I feel as if nature is speaking through her directly to me.  She expresses the transcendent beauty and profound meaningfulness of the nature that we take for granted everyday.  She wrote a number of novels — Precious Bane is my favorite and is a delightful love story also — and a book of poetry and nature essays.  You can probably find reprints of her work, especially the novel, here and there.  Look her up!

Some months ago I was browsing in an art gallery featuring Tibetan art and I came across a CD titled “Dancing Dakinis” by Ani Choying Dolma.  I bought it out of curiosity and was thus introduced to one of my favorite contemporary people and artists.

Anu Choying Dolma is a Buddhist nun who uses her powerful and beautiful voice to raise awareness of the need for the education of Buddhist nuns and to generate funds for a school.   In just a few short years she has built her school where women can learn about Buddhism and other academic topics and become health care providers.  She still continues to sing and record in order to raise money to improve the school and further her goals of education for Buddhist nuns and using voice as a force for healing.

Her songs include much traditional Tibetan music, but some are also styled in a way that includes western and other traditions.  Her music is both mesmerizing and calming, inspiring and enlightening.  Her CDs can be difficult to come by, though Amazon does carry some of them.  If you come across this amazing artist through her CDs or in concert, I highly recommend her to you.

You may read more about her at her website.  

Today I was thinking about how envisioning truly is an art, something that takes care, practice, and natural talent.  By “envisioning,” I mean taking your highest ideals and imagining a future that embodies those ideals, that is better than the present we have now, that is relevant to real people’s needs, that is possible enough that people are likely to rally round you and help you achieve it. 

“Envisioning” is actually quite a useful art, like blending tea or carving wooden bowls.  Whenever I find myself in a situation that is hopelessly complicated and murky, in which there seems to be no way out, if I envision powerfully enough, I can see the situation from above and understand what needs to be done.   Envisioning is the only way to get people to stop bickering long enough to solve a problem, and not just get back to where you started, but end up with a world better than the one you started with. 

Why is envisioning a Goddess-related art?  Well, if you think of Goddess as related to intuition, then it surely is a Goddess art because you must pull up from within yourself that vision of the world that guides you, that you know in your heart is the way the world should be.  Envisioning requires faith that humanity truly can agree to live together peacefully in a better world and the creativity to figure out how to make that happen. 

 What are your best visions?

I have been photographing nature this summer and everywhere I look I seem to see Goddess.  Here She is.  All you have to do is look for her.

 These are “glacial potholes” from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.  Notice that cauldronlike combination of strength and stability and receptivity and holding.

Here is the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth - a flower growing from the decomposing leaves.  It looks like a mushroom, doesn’t it?

Here is a place of peace.  Notice the sun coming through behind the tree, just waiting to energize you again when you are ready.

Some things need no explanation, like dragonflies and wild roses

Here’s another story of how women in my family found the Sacred within themselves.

When my mother was in her 40s she took up flying and eventually earned a private pilot’s license. Though she went to church, flying alone was her spiritual practice. It was how she connected to her inner being and the Mother Earth and Sky. She always said she had thought she would do something wonderful with her flying but never did. In fact, she taught her daughters that women can do anything they put their minds to and to let their spirits soar.                                                                                                        

I truly believe that the Sacred Feminine has been with us for as long as women have come together, even during times when no one spoke of Her or called Her by Her true name.  Here is a story from my past that I think express how She has always been present.

In a beauty parlor in Montgomery, Alabama

When I was young, in the mid-60s, I would go to my grandparents in Montgomery, Alabama for some time in the summer. Each week my grandmother would take me along with her to get her hair done in a beauty parlor down the street. I would listen as the women would talk over everything but even then I realized that what they were really doing was celebrating themselves as women together. They may have said they were doing their hair for their husbands, but their husbands never really noticed. It was really for themselves and each other. This was their way of having time alone with other women in a place that was completely woman-centered. It was their way of feeling good about their physical being in a place and time when women and their bodies were not taken seriously. It was the mid-20th century version of women gathering at ancient temples to honor the old Goddesses and themselves.