Sometimes, when our bodies are challenged, the best place to dance is in our dreams.
This mixed media Woven Woman tapestry, “The Dance” is part of the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos series.
I twisted wire to make the armature for “The Dance” and freeform wove the beads to shape her into that moment of stillness that sparks the moment between the movements.
It is the Pause, Breathe, Begin Again that nurtures and heals.
The questions: “What would happen if I did this? How can I make this/that work?” are, for me, the key to living a fascinating, intriguing life that is stuffed full of creativity.
This mixed media Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series, is named: “Curiosity as a Healing Art”.
I wove her face and the narrow bands, made some lace, beaded her body, fused some glass and painted some images, and my husband welded her steel armature to embody these questions about living with curiosity and imagination and how they heal all manner of things in wholeness and harmony.
Yesterday was a day full of challenges and mistakes… I am working on a new series of mixed media weaving and had to do a lot of re-considering and re-working.
I also got a couple of other things quite wrong, so had to remind myself to be curious about what I could do about that.
At bedtime, I asked my Dream Guides and Wise and Well Ancestors for guidance, and what immediately popped up was: Do some Ho Opono Opono, so I did. It’s very helpful!
This morning, I woke up with a cluster of phrases in mind as I floated in the hypnagognic state:
Gifts from the Dream Guides and Wise and Well Ancestors, for sure:
“Pax Vobiscum”, “Fiat Lux”, “Que La Lumiere Soit” and “Pause, Breathe, Begin Again”.
It also made me think:
These challenges are the reason why the mixed media Oracle of Stillness Woven Woman: “Paradox- Joy and Sorrow Walk Together” is so important to me.
She speaks the truth of dealing with the challenges that help me to understand that life is multifaceted, complicated, messy, sometimes uncomfortable and downright miserable at times, too…. BUT… in among all that, there is still Peace, Wisdom, Strength, Tenacity and the ability to maintain the Courage to be Curious and the willingness to accept that sometimes I say and do things that I am unhappy about and have to find a way to reset my compass, and to Pause, Breathe and Begin Again….
Yup. It’s a Paradox and it’s profoundly healing and deeply soulful. Not easy… but oh so necessary.
Completing the “Oracle of Stillness” series of mixed media weavings has signalled some deep changes in our home.
This taken the form of a complete shift about of furniture and re-configuring how we use our spaces. Feng Shui in action!
This shape shifting has made us feel much happier with our little home as it feels more alive and cleaner and cozier and ready to receive the new work that is deliciously emerging for us… lots happening with new inspiration, but more about that later.
The decisions around ‘what do we let go of’ and ‘what do we use in new ways’ and’what do we need to bring in?’ has stirred all kinds of musings and dreaming about what ‘HOME’ is and how deeply the concept of ‘Home’ reaches down into our many levels of mind and also into our dream universes.
This Woven Woman from the ‘Oracle of Stillness’ series, “Finding the Way Home” is one of the ‘Grandmother’s Coat’ series, and is also a compendium of fleeting images from many dreams that I have had about the power of “home”.
My wish is: May everyone, everywhere find peace and healing in their homes May everyone everywhere have safe harbor in their homes May everyone everywhere feel heard and seen in their homes May everyone everywhere feel welcome in their homes May everyone everywhere feel restful repose and have sweet dreams in their homes Whatever “HOME” means to you, may you find your way home to that…
I’ve been working with my dreams for more than 55 years. I began learning how to do that back in University, with my Drawing professor, who was a strong advocate for working with dreams. He encouraged his students to learn techniques like Senoi dreamwork and to make it part of their daily practice. I am so grateful to him, as I have worked with my dreams in an immersive process ever since then.
The Woven Woman mixed media figure that I am sharing today from the Oracle of Stillness series is:
“The Dreamer”.
She’s a gentle dream guide that shows up regularly in my dreams, offering wisdom, protection and guidance.
Perhaps there is a ‘Dream Guide’ that shows up in your dreams?
If there is, then do drawings, write down the dream, watch for co-incidences and synchronicities in your life. It will make your life so much more delicious!
‘The Dreamer’ is one of the ‘Grandmother’s Coat’ series that emerged from a dream, carrying all kinds of meaning and information. Follow your dreams!
Have you ever heard Harry Belafonte singing. “We Come From the Mountains”?
If you haven’t, then please google to see him singing it with the Muppets…. it is the most enchanting song that is all about the ways in which we are all connected.
This Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series is another of the Grandmother’s Coat group of mixed media weaving. Her name is, “She Speaks for the Mountains”.
She came from a dream in which I saw a majestic mountain that was clearly a Goddess.
She moved slowly, slowly and I saw that she was made up of countless tiny elements- each one completely interwoven with all the others, with all of life…. and each element needs to be tended, carefully, tenderly with tenderness. How we treat each element is reflected in all of life…
This Oracle of Stillness Woven Woman is ‘ Grandmother Owl Dreams of Waking’.
She is one of the mixed media woven pieces in the Oracle of Stillness.
In the Oracle of Stillness series, there is a sequence that is based on images that arrived in dreams.
In the first dream, I dreamt I was in a gorgeous forest and the moon was full.
I looked up and there above me, was a shimmering Being who whispered that she dreams of waking. “How would that be?” I asked her.
“Like this” and she opened her wings wide, and it was like being immersed in the Northern Lights.
“And, like this” and she opened her arms wide, and I felt embraced by loving tenderness and ferocious Maternal passion with a cascade of images that flowed by so quickly that it was staggering.
“This is my coat, my Grandmother’s Coat- WEAVE THEM!!!’
– it was like a jolt of electricity shot through me.
And, then, she opened her eyes, and said:
“I am watching and waiting and dreaming”.
Oh my word! I sat bolt upright in bed and started sketching.
I had to make a loom that is specifically for weaving the Grandmother’s Coats (I’ll be showing photos of the other Grandmother’s Coat series soon).
I actually built and re-built the loom for each of the Woven Women who have emerged from the Grandmother’s Coat dreams.
The Grandmother’s Coats are still vibrating in me, and I have a feeling that they are going to be showing up in more new ways…. We shall see what dreams unfold of them and in them!
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