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.

Venus Infusion - decoding

The job description I accept as an artist is:
to be a faithful encoder, expressing the archetypal language that arises from some cellular or inter-cellular space to the best of my understanding.  

The decoding of Venus Infusion has been another matter. 

 I have sought help from many sources I consider to be in tuned to this sort of 
symbolic expression.  Several individuals saw their present "in-the-moment" personal experience depicted along with the individual story that accompanies it.  Karin DiGiacomo was able to give me an extraordinary alchemical summary. I have received some astrological associations.  Poet Morgan Crowley wrote the following:
 I see movement, centering and also shining outward,  communication in the shining out, vital messages. A kind of explosive force, the wild feminine being spoken, yelled, howled out. Un-restraining.

For me this description rings pretty true except for one thing - the "wild feminine."  Hot, dynamic, active, powerful, directive, radiant, commanding even, but not frenzied or out of control. 

Taking a walk with my walking buddy JoAnne K. brought some light to my struggles with the series of the three Venus symbols flanked in the primary orbit  around the central hexagon by bees.

  

JoAnne has always been helpful with references from the epic poem Savitri by Sri Aurobindo.  Somehow much of my work resonates with imagery that comes up in that source, though I am personally unfamiliar with the text.  In this case JoAnne brought up the Triple Soul-Forces met by the heroine Savitri as she traveled with her beloved Satyavan to met the god of death. The soul-forces she identifies with herself, she refers to them as "Madonnas"  and recognizes that each is incomplete in themselves. She promises to return with their missing parts.  They are Compassion without Power, Might without Wisdom and Light without a forward moving Inspiration.  I could feel a bell ring as she described them.

This morning, in the shower, thoughts came flooding in.  I now believe that Venus Infusion is a messianic message, though not in the way you may think. 

As I stood under the shower flow my mind wandered to the number 6 and the hexagon.  In my inner vocabulary, "Life" is 8, as in the eight-fold form of the Breath of the Compassionate. 6, in this case, is a subset of 8.  It is messianic - from the Hebrew mei-si-ach, "the One who causes conversation to flow" - the same 3-letter root as ma-shi-ach with a repositioning of the dagesh from the right to the left (feminine) side over the SHIN.

Venus Infusion is about conversation, communication, the six-sided Holy of Holies; returning the work/worship (AVODAH) to the DIVIR - the spoken word.

Six is the water molecule - fluidity, fluency. 

Six relates to the conjunction symbols that reside within the outer orbit: the alchemical symbol for conjunction, the Hebrew VAV and the Arabic WAW, both of which equate to the number 6 and express the great and.

Here the bee's waggle dance that points towards the Flower Source leads to the production of bee pollen and honey - delectable nurturance and the sustainability of the community. 

The feminine force is infusing into the conversation - is infusing communication into the conversation. Communion. Community. 

Compassion with Power, Might with Wisdom and Light with Inspiration.

That is my best shot at decoding the ineffable.

Homing into liberation

 Psalm 84:4 

Gam tzipor matz'a vait oo dror kain lah

"The bird (too) has found a home and the sparrow her nest"

or

The soul has found her home --  & freedom is her nest

Flying Home - 18.5" x 19.25"

Flying Home is the culmination of a series of synchronistic events relating to the theme of "liberation".  It began with a visit to the Savitri House mid-May during a discussion of Sri Aurobindo's The Synthesis of Yoga.  "There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere." I remember the ensuing conversation leading in the direction of a consequent liberation.

The following week I received a call from an acquaintance in New York. She called thinking I might help her with a chronic, debilitating physical pain in her neck that resulted in miserable headaches. I had no idea what would help but I did believe that her body and its intrinsic wisdom would know.  I suggested she direct her attention into the pain, describe it's shape, texture, color and emotion as ask it what it needed to be released.  I was beyond gratified when she reported being told to get into some Kundalini yoga position (that she particularly detested) and do some specific kind of breathing.  She put down the phone and did as directed. When she got back on the line she actually felt more space space between her cervical vertebrae.  What I felt was Liberation!

Well, the next issue was really uncomfortable.  A smoldering resentment reared it's ugly head over which I couldn't escape obsessing. I'll leave out the specifics on this one.  Let's just say it had to do with being manipulated by a person of means around my art over several months during a time of serious financial vulnerability. I called my dear friend Peggy, who directed me to hold that person in my thoughts and ask for them to be released from whatever enslaves them - and me too.  I told her I didn't know if I could honestly say that. Peggy said, "it doesn't matter - JUST DO IT".  I did. Wow. What an immediate visceral response. Hard to believe. I've been doing it ever since, any time I am irritated by some personality that rubs me the wrong way: 

"May so-and-so be released from whatever is enslaving them, and me too." 

It's really humbling to get in touch with ones subtle and not-so-subtle internal and external enslavements.

There's more that added to the theme but the symbolic language and impetus to translate these liberating experiences into art came during a gathering of friends when asked what I saw in the mint leaves of an empty tea cup.  What I clearly saw was a bird with extended wings flying above a nest.  This Rorschach Test brought to my mind the line from Psalm 84:4 : Gam tzipor matz'a viat u d'ror kain lah, "the bird has also found a home and the sparrow her nest."  Tzipor - "bird" is the soul, and D'ror is both a sparrow and the word for "freedom."  

THE SOUL HAS (ALSO) FOUND A HOME & FREEDOM IS HER NEST

You can see the Hebrew words u d'ror kain lah written into the tail

Here is a detail of the nest cutwork backed in textured clear acrylic and a translucent blue washi paper that adds to the sense of spaciousness.

May we all be released from whatever enslaves us so we may experience the expansive divinity of who we really are.

Ciphering the Sacred

Or Zaruah garden threshold illumination

We live in a world that ceaselessly seeks to decipher - to take things apart to uncover the secret of their existence; to break the code.

As an artist, I feel drawn into mirror world, the realm of ciphering - to participate in the act of creating a space that holds the secret. 

Aleph ciphered medallion*

When I think of "cipher" my mind immediately goes to the Hebrew root SAMEcH PEI RESH - the root for words like number, counting and recounting (mispar); telling a story (misapair), book (sefer), library (sifria);  the one who writes sacred texts (sofer), sapphire (sapir) and the Spheres of Emanation (s'firot).

Adrinka ciphered medallion*

The English word "cipher" sounds suspiciously related to words like sphere and sapphire.  It does indeed come to us from the Semitic root, though not directly from Hebrew but from the Arabic of Al-Andalus - the Golden Age of Spain where words like "sifr" and "shayfara" created a whole new concept in mathematics that sparked a revolution of thinking, that of the space holder, the concept of zero. As one philosopher put it: 

"Zero does not mean "nothing". Zero is on a border between things identified and not identified. Once the identification is set in, or something is appointed it's name or meaning or characteristic, then one appears."

This mystical mathematical addition gives rise to irrational numbers, with which I identify wholeheartedly!  

To participate in the act of ciphering is to reside in the experience of number, story and the sacred space that borders the real and imaginary worlds where intention has an opportunity to lean a wish into a manifestation.  

Mem ciphered medallion*

*For more information on the ciphered medallions shown here as well as others available you can go to the following Facebook link;  Ciphered Medallions  .  The link to place an order is: Paypal link. You can also just send me an email at moresca.copper@gmail.commoresca.copper@gmail.com

Lute Rose Windows

Toward a Higher Fidelity Series: Umanut,  -  closeup

What is a "lute rose"?  It is the opening that is cut into a lute to create a soundbox.  The lute as musical instrument derives from the oud, an ancient instrument of the Arabic origin carried to Al-Andulus, that is to say Spain, during its Golden Age. Al-Oud العود becomes La Oud which settles into "lute" in the Renaissance vernacular.  The lute rose (or oud shams - shams meaning "sun") maintains its characteristic arabesque form.  In my own work I have found the lute rose form to have a beauty and movement that goes beyond the compass and straight rule into a fluidity which lends a kind of roundness and femininity to an angular world. 

Kaddish  detail

According to Friedemann Helwig, who seriously researched the symbolic geometric language of lute roses,  the lute rose as pierces through the visible into the invisible worlds.  The 6-fold forms which predominate among lute rose patterns symbolizes the intrinsic harmony of the universe.

Lute Rose window from The Cosmic Dervish copperwork illumination

For me these forms have become windows peering into the numinous, co-present nature of reality, as expressed in the Song of Songs 2:9 : 

Here it stands behind our wall, winking through the windows, twinkling through the openings.

Flight for Life - A love song      Lute Rose detail.

I draw from the broad resource of Islamic geometries to find an appropriate lute rose window for an illumination.  Any form that functions as a window through the worlds can qualify.  The beauty of these geometries is that any form is only a snapshot of an infinitely extending reality, a harmonic moment captured within the boundless celestial symphony.

Dynamic Intervention

Who's that in the mirror?

Singularity mirror detail

The final illumination associated with the series "Toward a Higher Fidelity" is called Singularity. Singularity reflects the development of the self, the human soul, as it takes on the responsibility of inherent holiness and moves closer to the Source of Being.  In the Hebraic Mystical tradition this quality of soul development is called YEcHIDA or Singularity.  

The central geometric illuminated cutwork is twelve-fold or twelve around one, "one" being the flame. In three dimensional space this geometry become a dodecahedron.  The dodecahedron has twelve faces formed from pentagons, so it also has a 5 nature. This is significant to me since YEcHIDA is the 5th level of soul development. I also sensed a musical aspect to this form suggestive of the circle of 5ths. My son Noah studied at the School of Music in Eugene, Oregon.  He had told me that sometimes the students would stand around and each take one of the twelve tones (comprising the black and white keys on a piano within an octave). I found myself rather reeling from the numeric diversity of this assignment - 12, 5 and 1 (as in Singularity) and asked him what it would mean were he to commit to an ascending note of the twelve tones.  He said it would depend entirely upon the resonance (not tempered as it is on a piano) of the tone of the person standing next to him - in other words, it was a matter of relationship and resonance.

Singularity, then, is a self-portrait of anyone who looks deeply into themselves and commits to the unfoldment of their intrinsic divinity expressed in relationship to those around them.  

Who's that in the mirror?  

It is you and the faceted jewel that you are. 

Be beautiful. 

Be holy.

After completing this work, I was directed by a friend to a canto from the epic poem Savitri by Sri Aurobindo: Canto III Book 1 of The Yoga of the Soul's Release.

All here must learn to obey a higher law.
Our body's cells must hold the Immortal's flame
Else would the spirit reach alone its source
Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.
Nature would ever labour unredeemed;
Our Earth would ever spin unhelped in Space
and this immense creation's purpose fail
Till at last the frustrate universe sank undone.

Symbolic Language of Human Holiness

 וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים, כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אָנִי 
"...you have been, will be and are holy, for I am Holy."

Leviticus 11:45

Toward a Higher Fidelity: Being Holy 

19.5 "x  19"

The copperwork series entitled "Toward a Higher Fidelity" explores the triune nature of human holiness.  The initial call came while chanting from the daily Hebrew liturgy: The One who triplicates in 3's HOLINESS for the One Who is Holy. The internal impulse made it clear that there were three aspects of human holiness that I was to discover and find symbolic language to express.

In short, after many failed attempts, I sat down one Sunday afternoon, admittedly in a state of boredom. to listen to New Dimensions on the radio.  An interview was just beginning with British poet, adventurer and author David Whyte concerning the conception of his book The Three Marriages - Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship.  Stunned out of my own stupor, I grabbed a pen and began taking notes.

The Aramaic work for "betrothal/marriage" is kiddushin. It is a feminine plural form of the root KDSh - "being holy."  You can see why my mind went BINGO! upon hearing the book's title.

Three illuminations make up the Higher Fidelity series.  This blog will consider the symbolic language of the first one: 

Being Holy.

Beginning at the root, engraved in Hebrew are the words: 

Ha'mishaloshim b'shalosh - "the One who triplicates in 3's."

Moving up to a 3-petalled heart center are 3 Hebrew letters that represent the 3 aspects of human holiness: cHET (lower left), YUD (lower right), and ALEF (top).  They stand for cHupa ("marriage canopy". i.e. relationship), YecHida ("Singularity" - the 5th, most cultivated level of human soul development, closest to merging into divinity) and Umanut ("skill/ artistry" from the same root as Emet - "truth").

Above the 3-petaled heart is a Kiddush cup engraved with the word kiddushin - "marriage".  The gematria of wine = secret (70).  Here resides the mystery.

The overarching, unifying symbol of the illumination is the Tree of Life/Burning Bush.  I was amazed and delighted when this image arose since I have heard the burning bush described as a bush and fire dancing together without one consuming the other.  I can't think of a more appropriate definition for "marriage."

Crowning this burning bush is the 3-branched letter SHIN.  If you look closely you can also make out a 3-pronged crown on the branch farthest to the left. SHIN is a fire letter whose gematria is 300. Though I heard instructions for the SHIN to be placed as it is, I cannot say for certain what its function is.  My imagination wanders to David Whyte's book and his proposal that, should a person find a way to balance Relationship, Work and Self without compromising any of the three, one might indeed attain to a new level of human experience, the Marriage of Marriages. 

Perhaps we are looking here at an evolutionary potential of humanity that each of us is capable of cultivating within a single lifetime.

Breath of the Compassionate

Oh beloved, I savour and swoon to the taste of that which is

the Breath within the Breath.

 attributed to the Sufi poet Alcragujar 

Breath of the Compassionate Series: Breath

The traditional Islamic cosmological worldview speaks of  the 18,000 universes were created through the Nafs Ar-Rahman - "the Breath of the Compassionate."  An elegant geometric intertwining expresses this concept throughout Islamic art and architecture as the octagon star and cross.

Beginning with a square as the symbol of "matter," it expands from the center into the out breath of an octagon star.  The square then contracts into its center in an in breath.    

In Hebrew as in Arabic, "breath" and "soul" are intertwined.

Compare nafs (Arabic) to nefesh (Hebrew); ruh (Arabic) to ruah (Hebrew); nasama (Arabic) to neshama (Hebrew). All are expressions both of "breath" (with the inference of wind, breeze...) and "soul."

Breath of the Compassionate Series: Reunion

This intertwining has become a significant source of inspiration for many of the copperwork illuminations.

Mihrab Ar-Rahman - "The Mother Nature of Divinity"

Nafs Ar-Rahman is generally translated as "The Breath of the Compassionate." The meaning of the Arabic rahman, however, yields a meaning far more informative than "compassionate" or even "merciful." The deeper meaning, comparable to Rahman and Rahamim in Hebrew, is reflected in its 3-lettered root R H M. That three lettered root renders us the word "womb."  Far more concrete and personal than the abstract concept of "compassion,"  this God name, foremost among the 99 names, is the "mother nature of divinity."  Ar-Rahman, then, describes an intimate, creative, nurturing and ferociously protective Source of Being.

I welcome you to add archetypal "womb-ly" attributes to enliven our mutual understanding of this most fundamental of divine names for the Source of Life and our own being.

Gazing through the Lattice

 “When Alice stepped through the looking glass, she entered the realm of imagination.

…This “going through” is an essential aspect of Eros, the great principle that connects us to things beyond our egos. 

excerpt from Words as Eggs by Russell A. Lockhart

The archetypal language of lattices in the form of fluid geometries opens to us a secret view into worlds beyond the apparent.

Bee Light detail

Geometric forms communicate in symbolic language to the foundation of our being. We, and all of life, are made of geometric interlacings. Those of us who take the time and space to attune to this universal geometric language find ourselves resonating through its fluid movement.

I love the way that dance feels.

Cosmic Dervish detail

Journey through the Space between Time

Following The Great Transition blog entry came directives for a new illumination. I was to look for a maze in the form of a Vesica Pisces – the () intersection of two circles. In my search an additional maze turned up that was also to be used. That second form is called a Baltic Wheel. Here are what each looks like:

Vesica Pisces

Baltic Wheel

As you can see, the Baltic Wheel functions here as cross-section through the center of the entry spirals of the Vesica maze –  an entry and exit point.

The arrangement indicated was the Vesica maze in the center and a Baltic Wheel on either side. The left side wheel was to have the entry point facing up, the right side wheel's entry point was to face down.

Two figures needed to be added to this arrangement, both in fetal position. The expiring figure is over-ripe: 

the counter figure, not yet individuated, but moving towards birth: 

I was also given the arched framework that was to hold this coded arrangement, creating large areas of empty space.

Early stage of Matrix after etching

As you can see from this image of the final version, there are two additional elements that have been added.  The story of the light lines ascending and descending from the Baltic Wheels comes in the continuation below.

Matrix - Journey through the Space between Time

On Thanksgiving I had two artist friends come over for a potluck. One noticed Matrix when she walked in and walked over to it. As if compelled, she proceeded to give an all inclusive de-constructive critique of one element after another of piece as it was, though she had a hard time articulating what exactly didn't work. The other artist then walked over to it and began a giddy proclamation: “Where's the pregnant woman? Where's the teenager? Where's the old (I can't remember if it was man or woman)…?” Perhaps one would call this re-constructive criticism? It was all so curious coming from these two who heretofore have expressed nothing but love & support my work. I was all the more amazed since I had not solicited any input. Despite my astonished amusement, I understood from the spontaneous, well-intentioned abuse, that there was likely something missing in the work's symbolic code that kept it from being intelligible, that is to say, resonant with what is known within the human cellular experience. So that night I brought Matrix into my bedroom in hopes of receiving some additional instructions.

I had a dream.

My dream Nov 26^th, Thanksgiving night

I was wandering the streets seeing if I could find somebody who could tell me what I would find if I were to go through the maze and come out the other end. I saw a library and went in. The librarian was a leanish man with glasses who sat me down at a table and wanted to engage with relish in a debate about the validity or invalidity of belief in reincarnation. I felt annoyed with this guy who was on some intellectual trip and left to go back outside in search of someone who could show me what it was like to come through and out of the maze. I then came upon an old woman whom I seemed to know. She was pretty no-nonsense. She told me to follow her and she would show me what I was looking for. We came to a field and I remember us rolling on what felt like a soft grass. I kept my eyes closed. We kept rolling and rolling until I felt the feeling of “arrival”. I opened my eyes and found myself facing a wall in a kind of anteroom with two openings – one behind me from which I had just come and one to the left which was apparently an entrance to another place (an exit from the maze). My first impression was that the space seemed dark – not dark dark, but a room which had no windows and no particular light source, though I could see just fine. There was light coming from the entrance behind me – bright sunlight, as it were. The exit seemed to be to an internal place that didn't have it's own source of light, but did have some form of reflected light that was less intense. The shape of the room was like this:

The form of this anteroom is the shape of the Hebrew letter Hei lying on it's side and in mirrored form.

Hei is the number 5, the number of potential Souls within the human experience.

Hei is the Breath, the root of the Verb of Being. 

I turned back to find the old woman who was ready to move on. I pulled out a calendar to see when we could meet again. The calendar page was blank but was full of small empty squares, except for one square that contained the number “5” about two or three columns from the left in and several rows down. The moment I looked at that 5 I knew it was the day she was going to die.

The only other part of the dream that sticks with me is that I looked down at her left knee, which was a kind of a colorless transparent white. Though I saw no bruising, I knew it had suffered some injury, probably from all that rolling. I remember wondering what I should do about it, if I should be concerned about her injury. I was also thinking that I should thank her for showing me the way. Neither seemed appropriate at the time.

I have pondered the meaning of “knee”. I woke up feeling the word to be significant. Upon waking I couldn't think of anything that might signify. After some consideration I transliterated “knee” into Hebrew - Nun Yud – equivalent to the number 60 in gematria. Sixty is the number where things begin to transmute or take a quantum leap from plane to plane. Sleep is 1/60 of death; a dream is 1/60 of prophecy... 60 is also associated with the Priestly Blessing and the transcendent light of Havaya.

I awoke shortly after the dream and looked at Matrix sitting on the floor by the bookshelf in my bedroom, wondering what alterations I needed to make in order to incorporate the dream teachings. I saw where a single line on each side could create the number 5 symbolic language of the anteroom.   

Ultimately, the entire figure takes on this double 5 formation if viewed from a depth dimension where the space between the junction of the 5's is the saturation space of the Vesica Pisces:

Matrix - Journey through the Space between Time
Illuminated