Telling of the Bees

Divora is the word for bee in Hebrew.  Both the word for bee - divora, and the word for Holy of Holies - divir, derive from the same root verb Dalet Bet Resh, concepts abuzz with "communication".

In medieval Europe, bees were considered to have a special intelligence regarding the mysterious unfolding of the universe.  They were revered as messengers between the Divine realm and our own.  Celtic mythology has held that since bees were the link between our world and the spirit world, if you wanted anyone to stay informed who had passed over, you could tell the bees and they would pass along the information.  To this day there are bee keepers who still practice the old Celtic custom of "Telling the Bees".  Important events are told to the bees such as marriages, births and deaths. 

In Telling of the Bees, the other side of that equation is represented.  Here a confluence is taking place between 5 angels and a bee regarding life on Earth.         

It is the bee who appears to be relating something of significance about the comings and goings, the doings and happenings of the earthly realm to five angelic forces.

Surely a bee can report on many issues regarding water, soil, seasons, winds, weather and relationships of balance and imbalance.  

Whatever is being reported is clearly something of consequence since one of the angels is assigned to take action.

  

It has been some time since I was first instructed to create this copperwork illumination.  Before discovering the practice of "Telling the Bees", I had referred to it as Flight for Life, A Love Song, as it feels potentially benevolent.

Having assigned it a new name, I felt it time to try, once again, to capture its essence in a photograph. Up until now, this illumination has eluded my arduous photographic efforts.  The wing on the right side (from our perspective) was always disappearing when shot from a full frontal position.  As you can see, even now that I have a newfangled camera and a very cool set up to take images which can illuminate both the back as well as the front, that wing is still elusive - albeit almost capturable.  What is the mystery of that ephemeral wing?

Let me know what you think.

The Crane

Cranes may be the oldest bird on earth. There is fossil evidence that they have existed more than 60 million years ago. There is a legend that the crane’s legs grow before its wings do, making for a bird with strong ties to the earth.  They are, symbolically, creative creatures, being particularly famous for their extravagant dancing and the sandhill crane in particular, is known for it's singing, producing a range of vocalizations, from a sing loud warning call to the synchronized calls of a breeding pair and a low, soft call to maintain contact while foraging. Male and female birds incubate eggs and parent together and find nourishment according to what they find available in the environment in which they find themselves.  

This illumination this called "The Crane."  It has been maybe 9 months from conception to completion, which was just this last weekend.  The crane depicted here is not in it's original ancient form but has been augmented by a new infusion into the reality of Earth.

There are 6 seed rays encountering the Earth. Each ray is led by a hand.

There is an internal calligraphy to each of the 6 hands - the Hebrew word YESH -"there is" - spelled yud shin.  Here is an example of the word YESH made into a cufflink: 

If you notice, the hands at the helm of the 6 rays don't quite match the YESH above.  It is a 4-branched shin along with the yud that forms the hands. The name of the 4 branched shin is Ha Ot - "the letter". 

The 13th-century mystical text, the Sefer HaTemunah speaks of a single letter of unknown pronunciation (such as the four-branched shin on one side of the head tefillin box) which is missing from the current alphabet. The distorted nature of the world is related to the absence of this letter.  Its eventual restoration will bring reparation to the world.

The theme of "six" is recurring.  The Earth herself is composed of a six-fold geometry, an expression of "as above so below".  Behind the cutwork is a piece of fabric with a watery photo of the earth taken from space.  Water is another recurring theme - the seminal droplets of the rays, the Earth, the crane.

As I mentioned in the beginning, despite the simple elements of this illumination, it took an exceptionally long time to come to fruition.  It wasn't until silver was added to all 3 elements that it came alive. That was somewhere around 2:30pm February 16 MST.  May it signal the triggering of a new order and release of energies required to see us into a new era.

Sanctuary

It's been a year since my last post.  I submerged myself in my garden this year as a means of getting through the demoralizing news cycle.  Being winter I took refuge again in my studio and was provided with a most wonderful assignment, which I describe here.

Judith has recently designed, built and moved into her new home in the Baca. She hails from New York but has been looking for somewhere that would resonate for her as a true home.

She has loved my work for sometime and asked me to create a ceremonial homecoming piece for her that celebrates her home as a sacred space.

Judith has been coming to a group that meets at my studio on Friday afternoons to do Hebrew chant. She is not Jewish, nor for that matter are any of the other participants outside of myself, but she is a singer and loves the sound and mystery of the chants. She’s even teaching herself the Hebrew alphabet. Consequently, she wanted a Hebrew word included in her piece that meant “Sanctuary.” That word transliterates as mishkan. Mishkan (in Hebrew) appears in the central cutwork backed by turquoise mirror.

We talked about other elements she equates with a personal sacred home space to develop a highly personalized symbolic self-portrait. Those symbolic elements included a Sri Yantra, something verdant (gardener that she is), transformative animal totems (the peacocks and dragonfly) and a chicory flower, which she particularly loved in her New York garden.

Despite the quantity of disparate elements and the size limitation of 18”x18” with an arched roof, the design flowed together easily, the patina that developed was fabulous, flaming brought life to the sri yantra as did the small drill points of light.

Somehow the chicory and dragonfly danced together and was brought into resonance with the rest by means of some iridescent enamel. I am sooooooo pleased and she is too.