Monday 1 October 2012

That sums it up well ...

My first entry on Traci Bunkers' Get Your Art On Challenge.

In Traci's own words:
I hope you’ll join me in taking a pledge to make some art every day for 30 days. Decide what you want your rules to be in order for this to be a fun and positive experience for you. Be sure they are realistic and doable so that you aren’t setting yourself up for failure, and then beating yourself up when you break the rules.
My rules for myself are:

  • One and only one new piece of art every day in October. 
  • In addition, I will take one and only one new photograph for a minimum of 15 days in October. This can be the piece of art for the day, if I haven't created anything else.
  • In addition, I will work on completing other projects that I've already started. 
  • Random distractions and monkey brain chatter, will be dumped, as promptly and succinctly as possible, into one of my existing journaling / mapping / capturing tools. 
  • I commit to posting at least 4 blog posts during the month.  They will directly relate to GYAO and will include anything else I think is relevant at the time.
The photograph above is my entry for today, because the warning expresses very succinctly, what I was experiencing at that time: anger and frustration because I couldn't do all the things I want to all at once and because I couldn't have my own way in that moment.  Tell me, how to you get that damn Mastership? We all need to know,  don't we?

I am working with the Freya architype. In the past I may have said, the goddess Freya. Now, I want to keep my spiritual views more private, because in that way, I now know, I will avoid rubbing my own views in the face of those of different views.  My delicate enfolding spiritual core will have a chance to harden before I expose it to be gnawed at.  Whatever - I always like to tune it to those feelings, those aspects of myself that I recognise as Freya.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Autumn Energy & Serendipity

It struck me very clearly that I always have very strong creative energy at this time of year. There is a clear pattern and I finally got that I need to work with it when it kicks in. I call it Freya energy and this is an ideal time for me to start an art challenge.

I was only thinking of Traci Bunkers yesterday, and then today she posted one of her regular Get Your Art On challenges and I thought "hey, I should do this.  The timing is particularly perfect because I have just decided to go back to weekly classes in a local atelier and I need to get regular, daily practise. I sort of ran away the the art studio about a year ago because I lost confidence in my ability.  I forgot that to make progress, you have to make art all the time, bad art, good art.  It doesn't matter, don't be the critic, let someone else play that role - play the artist and keep playing. Makes life much more fun.

Twitter, Synchronicity and Timing

I failed to work out how to post a photo from my iPad last night. Everything that I used to do so effortlessly when I blogged from my own pc, is now quite a challenge. This is because I don't want my blog to swallow too much time. Also, I used to link straight into twitter when I posted here, but that isn't working either. So I think I may try getting my journaling posted on twitter and hopefully that will work while I'm still struggling with the technology.  So my posts look a little plain, but hopefully not boring!

I am currently riding the crest of a irresistible wave of synchronicity. A big thank you to all those of you who have inspired me to connect or reconnect with you by email. I've received 100% support, you amazing people, and feel stretched to investigate new and exciting challenges, for the first time in years. I'm not giving too much away until plans are shaping up, but I want to step up to the mark and do something new while I still have the energy.

The timing of this little move back into blog land seems to be spot on. I haven't checked what the astrology is doing right now, but I sense some strong forces that are waking people up all over the place. Let's make a difference where we feel compelled to act.

For any readers with interest in tarot, I can report that I'm still working om my Hallowquest journaling and every journal page I work on seems to reference it. I find that archetypes and symbols are currently very helpful to me in finding my way through this turbulent age. I seem to be more in my stride and individual style when I work on tarot journals, than any other style.

I'll keep this post fairly short. I haven't decided on the frequency of blogging, so it may be sporadic until I settle down with it all. If there are any old readers still hanging, do make contact, I'd love to hear from you.

Musings on a Series of Cracking Podcasts

I love a good podcast and I've been listening to some excellent ones recently. More about them later, but I've been inspired enough to start making a contribution to the blogosphere once more. What follows is the gist of some pretty deep thoughts that have been stirred up in my head. I don't want to get bogged down with this whole blogging thing, and for it to become a chore for me and a bore for my readers. I'm just going to put down my raw ramblings and see where they take me.

Times are getting hard everywhere, across the board, across the world, across all divides. Yet some people are still flourishing, shining, inspirational, beautiful. We can all see this but can't explain it.  For every dark and dreary individual or news item, a shining hero steps up to their quest, inspired to make their mark. The flow, the inevitable, irresistible flow takes us where we need to be. Stop resisting for a moment and we have the chance to embrace our circumstances.

We need to support each other more. This is what I think. If our enemy goes to hell in a hand-cart, then we do to. (I'm speaking in metaphor here though - no need to add any new dogmas, there's enough out there already.) Personally, I need to reach our more, like this attempt at using this technology in a new way for me. We have to make new, strange and unfamiliar alliances, across hitherto unbroken lines of division. We have to listen in new ways, so that we reach new levels of understanding. In return, it is reasonable to hope to be listened to and, at least accepted
 
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I have been in and out of periods of isolation from family, friends and contacts. I used to think I was being neglectful and self-centred, and would feel guilty. Now, I recognise that I have been taking a hermit's path in order to reflect and grow, away, as far as possible, from other people's dogma. The life I have chosen, gives me a great amount of personal freedom, within certain constraints. There are always penalties for every privilege, and only those people who have lived out here, in our community for as long, or longer than us, truly understand the sacrifices and changes that have been made to pay for that freedom. Many of us could take the charge of "idealist" or "dreamer" on the chin, but we don't see ourselves as escaping from the real world, rather, by taking ourselves away from non-stop cultural and societal input, we can, at last, start to tune into life's flow and accept and embrace the difficult stuff too.
The main podcast episodes that sent my mind off on those meanders were:

All of these episodes filled me with great hope and inspiration. If you take the time to really listen to one that you wouldn't usually, I hope you will get something useful from the effort.

I want to end with a photo from my creative work today - a bit of personal mapping in my journal, that Jill Berry calls Arty Cartophiles. I hope I can work this out, as blogging with an iPad (don't ask) is very challenging.     Failed :( - that's going to take more work.)