Weekend Zen

First snow

Refllecting on Archetypes: High Priestess

I have had all my life a series of strange, indefinable, instinctive feelings and visitations that bypass logic and make no sense.  Call it intuition... I think of these moments as something instinctive at work.

                                                -   Ralph Shapey

High Priestess Collage

     The High Priestess is the part of you that is the mystic, poet, healer and dreamer.  She was Oracle of Delphi, the muse for Shakespeare, the protector of the Temple of Solemn and the mystical seer in many royal courts.  She was Isis, Diana, Artemis, or Morgan Le Fay.  She represents your inner knowing, silence and emotions.  She lives in your unconscious realm. The High Priestess understands metaphors, symbols and images and speaks to you through memories, feelings, introspection and dreams. She takes you to your emotional depths to find the wisdom buried there.

She works by helping you develop your inner knowing or intuition.

            … a dreadful mistake occurred when our culture took the view that spirit is to be attained by the suppression of nature and instinct.  Spirit can attain its divine heights only with the power of nature to provide the strength for its fulfillment.  One can proceed with one’s spiritual journey only with the understanding that opposites are constantly close to each other.  It is never a matter of one vanquishing the other but a matter of each performing its proper function.                                              - R. A. Johnson

           

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

                                                - Paul Gauguin

High Priestess journal entry

Creating a High Priestess Collage

When making a collage for your High Priestess pick images that reflect your silence, your quiet, your inner urges and your deep inner knowing. What things in your universe reflect this archetype?  How much do you let her play in your life?  Is she visible, honored, listened to or ignored?  What images can you put in your collage that talk about your history, your past or your memories?  Is there a story or myth that comes to mind when you think of your expression of this archetype?  Fairy tales are good reminders of themes that we have played out in past lives. Is there a fairy tale that sounds like it reflects the soul work you are doing? Is the High Priestess evident in your life on a surface level or is she buried deep in your psyche?  You could try to do this collage after experiencing a dream or deep meditative state.  You could use colours that remind you of darkness, images that reflect shadows, and words that talk about what is under your surface existence.  Make it become a window that you can see through into your intuitive nature.

Weekend Zen

White Butte Trails Saskatchewan Canada

Read my Guest Post on Gypsy Girls Guide

 If you are a gypsy at heart, a closet gypsy, or a want-to-be gypsy, you will love this blog. I was a guest blogger today. Enjoy reading.  here

Come with me to Morocco

 Focusing to Help Free the Artist in You 

Come with me to Marrakesh where I am teaching at Peacock Pavillions. Read about this amazing place owned by Maryam and her family from My Marrakesh. It will be a week of learning Focusing, doing Art Therapy, shopping, eating, henna painting, an outdoor movie on the lawn, and much more.

Come to Peacock Pavilions in Marrakesh in Morocco to learn Focusing and Expressive Art Therapy to help free the artist in you!

 Do you want to learn how to:

Be a better listener to yourself?
Make clear choices?
Be calm and compassionate to yourself?
Support yourself through change?
Feel relaxed and less stressful? 

Focusing helps you learn how to be Present and listen to yourself so that you can move ahead in your life in an empowered and safe way.  Focused Centered Art Therapy brings you closer to wholeness and allows you to access your inner wisdom. This helps you move in the direction of your potential. It can help you move beyond blocks and get in touch with your goals. Focusing is a gentle and powerful way to develop a deep interpersonal healing relationship with yourself. Art therapy helps you express your emotions, thoughts and reach a deeper level of yourself awareness.
You will learn the skills of and receive credit for Level One and Level Two Focusing by taking this workshop. You will also learn how to use art to become more present and aware. Art therapy is using art to explore and express yourself. It helps make the unconscious conscious. You will learn many fun and creative exercises to work through issues and blocks with art making. Learn more about this workshop by:
Contact: kwallace@islandnet.com
http://islandnet.com/~kwallace

All photos by Katie O'Shaughnessy

Weekend Zen

Living high

The Magician Archetype and Art Therapy Exercises

The Magician Archetype has called Trickster, Coyote, Hermes, Brigid, Merlin and Kali.  He has been personified by: sorcerers, illusionists, alchemists, shamans, wizards, medicine men and women.  He first appeared as Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods to give to humans.  Some cultures saw him as Trickster or Coyote.  Merlin played him as a shapeshifter, Brigid used his fire to heal and Kali used it to fight.  In Greek and Roman times he faced obstacles to transform himself into a hero.  He has been immortalized as Superman, Wonder Woman and other Superhero’s.  He used be called an alchemist, someone who turns base metals into gold, but Joseph Campbell (1949) reintroduced him as any individual who goes on a journey of initiation to awaken their consciousness.

Modern day Magician working his magic.

     He is the part of you that you call your imagination.  When you feel passionate or creative in your life, he is present.  In the past he has  been powerful Shamans, artists, scientists, inventors, and politicians.  When you get in touch with him, he helps you find potential and creative abilities. 

 Learn what the magician knows and it’s not magic anymore. - Richard Bach

 If you block your desires, you block your natural avenue of growth.

- Deepak Chopra

 Art Therapy Exercise: Creating a Magician collage

A collage for your Magician archetype should be created around a central theme, idea, or focus. It may show a new direction that you want to take, a new idea for an art project, or a new environment you may want to explore. It could show all wishes that you would grant yourself, or projections that you have. The collage could resemble a treasure map. What you would like to become, or change in your life? Let it evolve and take form without you getting in the way. Let it have its own life, and expression. All you do is provide the starting point then let it evolve. Let it show you your wishes and desires. The Magician collage can act as a catalyst by helping to connect your attention to what you really want. What magic do you want to add to the universe? What talent do you want to pay more attention to, nurture, and bring out into the light? What does your inner fire look like? What color, shape and images reflect it? How does it light your life?

Weekend Zen

The Fool Archetype and Art Therapy Exercises

Destiny  Deck

Archetypes are universal patterns that influence or shape our experience. Jung called them “inherited thought patterns”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArchetypeYou can think of then as different parts of you. I am starting my Archetype Group this week and I thought it would be fun if you, my readers wanted to take part. We are starting with the Fool Archetype. The Fool represents the part of us that is spontaneous, playful, childlike, free and willing to take risks. Fools can be personified as circus clowns, the inner child, the eternal child, the naive simpleton, tricksters, travelers, gypsies and people who live on the edge. Some movies that have Fool Archetypes as the main character are the Wizard of Oz, Forrest Gump, and Being There.

 What is your history with this Archetype:

What stories, myths, poems or fairy tales does it remind you of?

Which political figures or movie stars represent this archetype?

What would you like to ask or learn from this archetype?

How could your life be enriched or expanded by this archetype?

What can you do to encourage this archetypal energy to grow in your life?

Leap and the net will appear. - Julie Cameron

            “Come to the edge”, he said.

            They said, “We are afraid.”

            “Come to the edge,” he said.

            They came,

            He pushed.

            He pushed them . . .

            And they flew.

            - Guillaume Apollinaire

A dreamer you know - its a mind that looks over the edge of things. -  Mary O’Hara

The Rider Tarot Deck

When you feel Fool energy in your life, something in you wants to take a risk.  Ask yourself, what needs to be changed?  Is there some opportunity that is presenting itself to you that you should take advantage of? Is it the right time to quit a job, break out of an old habit, or move to a new city?

Fool energy tells you to follow your instincts. What are you not seeing or paying attention to? What does your instinctual nature tell you to do?  What are you afraid to risk or do? Do the unexpected.

This part of you wants to play. Be a Fool.  Let some creative energy flow through your life.  Create for the sake of creating. Be silly. Play can lead you down the path of creativity. Follow the Fool even though you have no idea where she is going or for how long. You will learn along the way.

Making a Fool Collage:

  A collage for your Fool archetype should be done with as little preconceived, logical, rational type thinking as possible. Pick images that surprise you, jump out at you or wink at you. Don’t judge or question your selection of any materials, images, or colors. The collage may reveal your playful or trickster side.  It might show images of what you would do if you were brave enough, reckless enough, or foolish enough to take risks.  It could reveal buried dreams, frivolous ideas, or a forgotten hobby.  Look for your symbols that will lead you to your Fool. What colors come to mind?  What shapes do you see?  What lines and images jump into your mind?  Let the collage evolve, as it wants, in an unstructured way.  What are your Fool stories? How much room does she get in your life?

                                   

If a man would persist in his folly, he would become wise.              -William Blake

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what is next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.  The artist never entirely knows.  We guess.  We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.

                                                            -Agnes de Mille

Weekend Zen

Bridges