The Dream Tree

When Anne was thirteen she had a dream that seated itself into her cellular memory so that, as a grown woman, she recognized the familiar setting when she moved into a new home some fifty years later.

She was on horseback, accompanied by a woman dressed in a long flowing garment.  It was coming upon daybreak as they approached the mountains.  There stood a tree ornamented with golden spheres. Within each sphere was a single letter in an unknown language.  She was in awe.


Fast forward several decades and there are the same mountains and the tree, only this majestic cedar, rare for up here where most of the junipers are small and shrubby,  has been had a dozen and more limbs amputated by the builder who favored a better view of the mountains from inside the house.  To Anne, these amputations feel like gaping wounds in need of suturing.  She remembers the dream.

So, with some tracing paper she had handy and some old stamping ink, not knowing what to expect when I arrived and unequipped with a crayon, I took rubbings patterns of the severed branches that were lowest and largest.  For the ones too high to reach except by extension ladder, I held up a tape measure and she wrote down the approximate diameter, to which a added a little leeway.  

She chose 12 locations visible from the house to place the "spheres." Combining her Jungian, astrological frames of reference as well as her familiarity with the Hebraic mystical tradition, we agreed upon creating constellation pieces, with a Hebrew letter (something she would not have recognized at 13) within each sphere representing each the 12 tribes, which in turn are associated with constellations.

The Yalkut Shemoni identifies them this way:
In the East - Yehuda (Aries), Issachar (Taurus), Zevulun (Gemini)
To the South - Reuven (Cancer), Shimon (Leo), Gad (Virgo)
In the West - Ephraim (Libra), Menashe (Scorpio), Binyamin (Sagittarius)
To the North - Dan (Capricorn), Asher (Aquarius), Naphtali (Pisces)

Within each sphere I placed a 12 pointed star.  Within each star went the initial of the tribe/constellation.  

I should add that, after they were all mounted in place, she felt a 13th location that called out to be covered.  For that one I will be making an empty star which will hold the intention of the whole.

For those scars facing the mountain (and some newly built house that I couldn't see), Anne wanted mirrors.  This has something to do with Feng Shui.  I happened to have just enough copper acrylic copper mirror to do the deed:

Pretty cool, huh? 

NEWS:  

My Studio Moresca Copperwork Illuminations website can now be found at: shahna-lax.artistwebsites.com

Please come for a visit!

Fine Art Prints on Metal & Clear Arylic

In my explorations of images on the internet, one led me back to an interesting artist site that deals strictly in prints. What really drew me in was that, among their offerings, they print on metal, which, as a copper worker, reeled me in for a closer look.

The site is Fine Art America, a professional network for visual artists, photographers, art collectors, and gallery owners that fulfills each order on behalf of the artists - taking care of the printing, framing, matting, packaging, shipping, collecting payments from the buyers, and sending profits to the artists. They serve a global population. There is a 30-day money back guarantee that gives everyone a wide comfort zone and insures the initial quality to be high in order to maintain their standing in the marketplace, which they have since 2007.

So I pulled up the info on their metal printing service and here's what I found:

Looks pretty good to me, but this has to be pricey, right? Actually, it blew my socks off to realize how astoundingly affordable they are. Each artist, of course, sets the price about cost to FAA that they require, but since all the cost of materials, processing, handling and shipping are handled, not to mention advertising, who needs a high mark-up?

So I'm looking at one of my smaller pieces, Yggdrasil Rune Greenman:

It just wouldn't have the same intensity on paper or canvas, but on metal? The possibility is intriguing.
Based on the size of my original image, the largest print possibility is 15.63" x 16".  The cost: $92.49. Now that doesn't include shipping. I called their information number about shipping costs and was told that it's entirely dependent on the size, weight and ship to location. They ship UPS. FedEx and USPS.

I was pricing out a metal print for another image that I uploaded to their site (yes, I have 25 images there now) that was twice the size in pixels: 24.38" x 30" (darn close to the original size). It priced out at $142.92.
If you have ever wanted a piece of my copperwork on your walls and don't have thousands to spend,  what a way to go!!!

Fine Art America also can produce acrylic prints, which turns out to mean that the images are printed on clear acrylic. When I was on the line with them this morning I asked if you could shine a light behind these and have the image illuminate (BIG QUESTION!).  I was put on hold so that someone who works with the acrylic prints could give an accurate response.  The answer is YES (rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham!). Illumination prints - NO KIDDING.

So here's their blurb on acrylic prints::

So: Reflection & Passage- Through the Thinning Door

19.38" wide  x 30" high = $177.38

14.63" wide x 16" high = $109.20

To access my images on Fine Art America go to  profiles/shahna-lax.html

I should point out that I chose to have a watermark appear on the online images.  For the record, they don't appear on the actual prints.  I just thought it was a good idea.

I'm going to be changing over my website to their site at the beginning of March.  The cost per year is $30.
To simply create an account and upload up to 25 images is a completely free service.
All of my artist friends, do check it out and see if this would be another treasure to slip into your survival kit.

Love,
Shahna

(below are links to various pertinent searches on Fine Art America that make my work visible on the first page just by placing the link somewhere on the internet that is accessible without login or password).


moorish art

breath art

black madonna art

tree of life art

sacred space art

illumination art

divine feminine art

copper art

calligraphy art

bee art

jungian art

sufi art

dance art

andalucia art

sacred geometry art

moon art

celtic art

labyrinth art

earth art

gaia art

sacred art

greenman art

fire art

goddess iphone cases

copper iphone cases

pagan iphone cases

pagan galaxy s4 cases

Garden Brownies

It all started out with the resurrection of a charming idea I had back when I created and ran the Stewardship Tools Catalog (many long years ago now).  Ever the counter culture iconoclast, the thought of an ephemeral, light emitting, and, let's face it CAUCASIAN Guardian Angel rather rasped against my personal, earthy grain.  A Garden Angel now, would have qualities of a different persuasion! ... Hence :

They do look a little dubious, poor dears.

My dear friend Peggy Godfrey has a sheep ranch out in Moffat, CO.  Peggy has sheep poop coming out the wazoo (more correctly the poop is coming out of her sheep's wazoo).  I looooooooooooooove this stuff!  I shoveled shit loads into every vessel that could fit into my car 5 times this last summer to top off my newly formed garden Hugel mound, which I will describe in a future post.  I still had a pile from the previous year composting nicely in another part of the garden which I have been using to produce the true Garden Angel:

Beautiful, don't you think? They don't even smell!

By the way, I have bedded each one down in sheep belly wool, a bio-degradable protein garden mulch.

That's the large one (~4,75" in each direction), and here is a smaller one that prefers to travel in pairs:

~3.5"

For me they are a new art form, each taking on its own character!  So now I'm hooked.


 Here comes BABY Poop Cake:

BOOTY Poop Cake:

LAMBIE Poop Cake:

LEAFY Poop Cake:

the BROWNIES, Biggy and Benny:

and Big and Little HEARTS:

with more to come!

I have to admit that "pure and simple" doesn't exactly describe the final product.  To my appall and my sisters resigned good humor, the first "pure and simple" batch dissolved into a crumb pile by the time it reached California in a 2-day trip through the US Postal Service in time for Hanukkah.

After that mortifying event I worked feverishly in my laboratory until I had created the profoundly improved formula enhanced by a powerful, albeit completely natural binding agent that now gives the little critters a half-life similar to Twinkies!  I have been submerging one angelic guinea pig for the last 2 months in water. It's still completely intact, though it did produce some nice manure tea.  I have faith that, exposed for long enough periods to a challenging garden environment,  each brownie will eventually be restored to its original constitution.

Until then, may all of us, and the brownies too,  have our day in the sun (please).

Dream Door

I had the pleasure of tea this weekend with James O'Dea, who brought up a connection with Sheikh Muzaffar Al-Jerrahi in Turkey. 

I was musing over that conversation as I was digging in my garden this morning.  it brought up the memoryof the Zikr I attended with Sheikha Fariha years ago here in Crestone when she told the story of the dream of the Sufi master Sheikh Nurredin Al-Jerrahi of her lineage.
 
When she got to the end of the dream I felt an internal explosion that announced "THAT!" It was my instruction to connect intimately with that Door and its contents. The image above is what came through. The small jewel you are seeing through keyhole is a ruby heart.

Dream of Sheikh Nurredin Al-Jerrahi
My soul departs its earthly body and is taken in waking dream to Paradise. Led by a loving guide, it discovers vast, radiant gardens filled with joyous beings of light, who are engaged in countless forms of whirling, chanting, and silent contemplation.

Though overwhelmed with the beauty of paradise, my soul wishes to understand the whole picture, and therefore asks its guide where the fires of Hell are to be found. Smiling, the guide replies: "Dear friend, there is no separate realm that you call Hell."

My soul, steeped in the revelation of Islam, responds immediately: "But we read in the Holy Koran that those who deny Allah will suffer in Hell eternally." The beloved guide replies firmly: "But you read again and again in the Holy Koran that Allah is all- compassionate and all-merciful. How could an all compassionate Power create a realm expressly designed for beings to suffer even for an instant, much less for eternity?"

This response startles and intrigues my soul, but it remains unconvinced. Perceiving this, the guide continues: "What is taught in the mystic tradition about the person who, even once, repeats with utmost sincerity la ilaha illa’llah -the ultimate Source alone is worthy of worship?" Joyously my soul replies: "Such a one is counted among the blessed and after death awakens immediately into Paradise."

"Good!" exclaims the guide, "and since all souls are rays from the Divine Light, the essence of every being is this affirmation that Allah alone is worthy of worship, and all beings awaken, after the sleep of death, directly into Paradise."

My soul is exhilarated by this profound explanation, but because of its deep commitment to the words of the Koran, it still hesitates to accept the truth that there is no separate realm called Hell. The beloved guide sees this hesitation and offers my soul the final solution to its doubt, 'My dear friend, it is true that when a soul who has so practiced the life of loving submission to Allah reaches Paradise, it cannot bear the intense radiance here, so falls asleep again and dreams of Hell. Hellfire is simply the purifying radiance of Paradise. And all dreams, even dreams of eternal damnation, are but momentary. These dreaming souls soon awaken into Paradise purified and joyously praising the All-Merciful One." The explanation now complete, my soul feels the full coherence and power of this marvelous truth.

However, this mystical teaching deepens the soul's longing to understand completely, so almost at once a profound question arises: "Revered guide, if the experience of Hell is but a dream~ may not the experience of Paradise - its dancing maidens, its flowing streams, its radiant dervishes-may not all this be a dream as well?" The guide responds with delight: "Ah, my dear, dear friend, you have guessed the secret. Paradise, too, is a dream. But it is Allah's perfect dream, totally unlike the fragmentary and confused dreams experienced by earthly beings."

These words kindle the ecstasy of mystical knowledge in my soul, and it realizes that this unsurpassable guide is none other than the Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessing of Allah always be upon him. And in this state of holy exultation the soul becomes bold enough to question the Prophet of Allah: "Beloved guide, are you, too, a dream, telling me that Hell and Paradise are dreams?" The most excellent of guides responds instantly and with great power: "I am the dream key to the dream lock of the dream door that opens into the treasure of Divine Love, which alone is not a dream."

peace prayer art
world peace art

symbolic art
symbolism art
grail art
holy grail art
cosmos art

Feverfew ((Tanacetum parthenium) Sinus Headache Remedy

I

Here is feverfew growing in the garden this year.  Feverfew is a member of the tansy family and I planted it out in numerous places where I was having very active ant populations that I was hoping would move on.  It worked quite well as well as providing beautiful perennial flowers on mounds of manageable size, unlike it's worthy if unwieldy cousin.  Moreover, feverfew is a valuable medicinal that I use in the following effective potion for sinus congestion and headaches:

1 tablespoon dried feverfew (use 2x amount for fresh), half a lemon cut up, 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme (2x if fresh).  Steep these in one and a half cups of filtered water for 30 minutes. 

Strain the herbs from the liquid, making sure to remove all the lemon seeds.
Simmer the remaining liquid down to 1 cup. add 2 cups of honey plus 2 tablespoons of vegetable glycerin which helps to preserve the syrup.  Sometime I add 8 drops of Aerobic 07 to serve as a preservative.

Let cool and pour into a jar with a lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months if preserved with glycerin, longer if preserved with Aerobic 07, which kills off any anaerobics that stop in for a visit.

If you muscle test that go with what your body tells you you need.  The linear rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lb. child; 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb child or adult.

Also excellent for fevers and cough.  It tastes good too!
 

Whirling from World to World to World

Spinning Dervish Lute Rose Window,    31.5" x 17.75"

I was tuned into NPR's All Things Considered when I caught Robert Siegel interviewing Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Telushkin about the afterlife. The rabbi's comments were pretty unremarkable until the subject of reincarnation came up. Despite the disclaimer that it is really not part of "The Tradition" (at least not his tradition), he did mention that it does sneak into some Kabalistic parts of the liturgy. One reference I was not familiar with turns up in the meditation (traditionally) recited as part of the Sh'ma while in bed before falling asleep. 

I turned to my baby siddur (~5"x3.5"x1") that contains all such meditations and found it. Below is my (paraphrased) translation:

The Four Worlds

Master of the Universe,
I am here to entreat You that anyone who has angered or irritated me, or done me dirty,  be it through bodily injury or provocation, injuring my honor or anything else of mine, through force or desire, doing unintended harm or out of out and out corruption, whether it be through speech or action in this incarnation or another (the word used here is GILGUL, which comes from the root for circling or spiraling), do not make me the cause of their punishment !!!

On the other hand,  if I screw up royally, I ask that it be erased through Your great Compassion, just not through torture or really bad illnesses.

Now, I think that's fair and quite a positive way to transverse to dreamland.


When it comes to circlings and spiralings, I love the Kaddish that sings of going from world to world to world.  My dear friend Jacob Goldberg a"h spoke about accessing the simultaneously existing worlds spoken of in the mystical tradition at any moment that our hearts were open and available to their realities (and our minds didn't object).

Kaddish

Sleep well and happy travels!

copper mixed media
sacred mixed media
hebrew blessing art
kabbalah art
phoenix art

Evolving Mitochondria?

Flight for Life - a love song;  24.5"x23"; etched copper with fretwork backed in mica

This weekend I heard an illuminating interview with biochemist Sondra Barrett, author of Secrets of Your Cells. Her perspective (via the microscope and microscopy) is a validation of much of what I have long suspected regarding the cellular source of the symbolic images that arise as imperatives to be made visible in the sacred copperworks that emerge from my studio. 

Here are some of her ideas:

"Could the idea of creative triads originate from our biology?
Just think, the genetic code is  made of 3 letters;
as we develop embryologically, at 3 weeks we are 3 layers;
and of course, we have a triune brain of 3 layers as well – brainstem (survival brain), limbic (emotional) and cortex (thinking brain). Our heart has 3 layers. 
We see squares and pentagons, hexagons, too.  And from a  molecular perspective, we don’t have life until we have the hexagon, six-sided molecules  ..."

In light of her revelations, illuminations like Flight for Life - a love song are all the more intriguing. 

Through the Flames; 20" x 16.5"

It all started when I looked into Through the Flames and saw four more spinning energetic forms withing the flaming cave - just like the hovering (angel?) only they were without wings. 

They then all lined up in kind of a chorus line - two on either side of the one with wings.  As I watched they all seemed to be intensely focusing down. What I saw was what appeared to be ray lines (strings?) extending toward a single invisible source. I continued to watch to see what they were all focusing in on I finally saw that it was a BEE!

So, I gathered all of the pieces in the appropriate sizes and began to lay them out, only now they didn't want to be arranged in a chorus line anymore with the bee as the focus below. Instead they arranged themselves in the form you see here (I took this photo with the piece hanging in a window to see the light coming through the mica):

The story that I tell myself about it is that there appears to be a conference going on.  Either the BEE has called it or the "ANGELS" have.  The BEE. of all creatures, is all about communication.  She could certainly report on many aspects of life at this moment - the weather patterns, alterations in vegetative life, the timing of flowers, the balances and imbalances of nature. The bee is within a hexagram, the signature form of the hive as well as the Holy of Holies.  Remember that Sondra Barrett says "we don't have life until we have the hexagon."

One of the "ANGELS" has donned wings. It has been given the assignment to go into some kind of action.  The position of the wings is different from the hovering of the "angel" in the cave. It's definitely ready for take off.


As a devout gardener, my concern for the welfare of the bees of our world and their apparent demise is not being reflected here. There is a feeling of benevolence, albeit something that requires action.

This may all be a figment of my own imagination, but I'm not alone. When it was finished, Julie told me that she had just had a waking vision of something very similar, only it was taking place within a tree trunk.  Karin was amazed because she had seen the same cast of characters several years ago only with the wings folded in.  She remembers making a drawing of it. But it was Zoe  that came up with the most extraordinary insight.  "Shahna, it looks like something is happening within the mitochondria." 

So what do you think is happening?
Please do Post A Comment under the calendar listing below.  Hope to see you at the studio tour!

courage art

flames art