Re-Connecting #11- The Gateway

Warning: I had to leave my childhood nickname ‘Goody Two Shoes’ aside for this post. Painting “The Gateway” was nowhere near the stretch of my comfort zones as writing about it. If you’re not comfortable reading about female genitalia, you may want to skip this one.

But why? As Becky Johansson wrote in the Goddess Conference program for her workshop “Honouring the Sacred Temple; Yonic Wounding, Forgiveness and Honouring”,

“The yoni has been reviled as a source of shame by most of the world, and we as women judged as dirty and unclean for simply having one. This sacred part of our body, the source of life itself, needs to be reclaimed and connected with so that healing can happen for our body as well for the wider world; in healing ourselves we also heal Gaia.”

So here it is – the final piece in my Re-Connecting Collection. Welcome to #11, “The Gateway”. That’s what my Team of Divine Helpers told me my trip to the UK would be and it’s now the name for this creation that was birthed through me.

It wasn’t until a few layers in and the design of the overlapping  Vesica Pisces shape that I realized I was being asked to paint a giant representation of the vulvar anatomy.

But following my time at the Sun Lover Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, it didn’t surprise me.  This sacred geometry represents, among other things, the Yoni, a Sanskrit word literally meaning the womb, the source, and especially the vulva as a symbol of divine procreative energy.  

I confess, I had to Google diagrams to get a better idea of element placement. As a heterosexual woman working in unrelated fields, I don’t have close up exposure to real ones. And high school sex-ed class was a long time ago. As you’ll read in the symbology sections, this led to some powerful and humorous moments.

“The Gateway” has become an important part of how I’m integrating the work I did in body, mind & spirit during my sacred pilgrimage to the UK. Now, it’s your turn to enjoy a visual and energetic discovery of all it has to offer.

I started my weeks of painting by massaging the holy waters from Glastonbury’s Red & White Springs into the canvas and smudging my self, the canvas, and my space with the sacred smoke of the palo santo tree. I’d invited my Team of Divine Helpers to join me, set my intentions, and remained open to receiving what wanted to emerge.

As per usual in the intuitive painting process, I started without knowing where it was going. After the first fiery layer, I received inspiration of some of the basic shapes but none of the content. This evolved one layer at a time, one day at a time.

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Visiting the Chalice Well was the main reason I felt called to Glastonbury this summer after using its waters and energy in my art for years.

I always knew that the cover of the well would make its way somewhere in this painting. I was drawn to this symbol for years before I knew what it was. I then embraced it as a visual representation of the marriage of Heaven & Earth and of the Divine Feminine & Masculine. It’s all about Oneness!

” (The cover) was “designed in the nineteenth century by archaeologist Bligh Bond. Crafted of wrought iron and wood, it depicts the Vesica Pisces, a symbol of the divine feminine, and Excalibur, the sword of the legendary King Arthur, who is believed by some to be buried at Glastonbury.

The wellspring at Glastonbury is considered to be one of England’s most Holy sites. The well itself dates back over two thousand years, and was sacred to both early Pagans and the Christians who later built an abbey on the site. Today, the well is a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Pagans alike, many of whom believe the red, iron rich water has healing and miraculous properties. …

An old legend holds that after the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea traveled to England and hid the Holy Grail on the premises, accounting for the water’s red hue. Modern Neopagans who use the site equate the waters with the menstruum of the Goddess.”  (source)

Here, I had to choose between the inside or outside cover of the Chalice Well. They’re slightly different. I opted for the inside to symbolize the open well – access to the flowing sacred waters and deep inner wisdom of the well.

If you look at the cover design, the shape between the two interlocking circles is the same as the two vertical elliptical shapes on my painting. That’s the Vesica Pisces.

Not coincidentally, I just found in my web research that The Chalice Well is thought of as a “gateway to the spirit world”.

“This oval space between the circles, this Gateway between the worlds, is called the Akashic or Etheric Field. It is the “bridge between heaven and earth”. The Etheric Field carries vibrational frequencies, sound, color, Light. When we meditate and search the Spiritual Realms we approach the Gate. When we work with Healing Energies, Psychic energies, Mysticism and Magick we enter the Etheric Field and begin to co-create.

If we but trust, and be still we can connect with the Spiritual Realms by entering the Gateway. Whether we seek healing and changes, peace and comfort or guidance and belonging, attuning to the energies of the Chalice Well will help us.”

The Vesica Pisces is also a symbol of:

* Joining of God and Goddess to create an offspring
* Symbol for Jesus Christ
* Halo in medieval art
* Vagina of the feminine- Yoni
* Flower of Life Mandala
* Sacred Geometry of harmonic proportions

At first, I thought I’d be placing the Chalice Well cover design in the smaller orange Vesica Pisces shape (the vaginal entrance), but was redirected to painting it at the site of the clitoris. Divine marriage, gateway to the etheric world, source of ecstasy …. I can understand why it was meant to be placed in this most sensitive spot.

When I told a friend that I’d finally been guided to travel to Glastonbury, she told me that my dates coincided with the Sun Lover Goddess Conference. I immediately bought a ticket, figuring it was part of my discovery process of why I was inspired to be there at that time.

For over a week, hundreds of women & men dressed in sun colours delved deep into the realm of the Goddess. What an intense experience I’m so glad I said “yes!” to.

Every day, sometimes more than once, we sang and danced the “Blessing Song” written for the conference by one of its ceremonialists, Sally Pullinger.  As we got to the lyrics “bless you”, we’d extend our hands sideways to meet with our neighbours’. Then, with “bless me”, we’d turn with hands in prayer position. As a few turns were involved, we got to join hands with the neighbours beside us as well as in front & behind.

“Goddess of Sun, Fire, Passion and Love
Heat from below and Light from above
Bless you, Bless me, Bless you, Bless me
Bless you, Bless me, Bless you, Bless me
Goddess, Goddess, Sun Lover Goddess
Shine your Love into the World
Goddess, Goddess, Sun Lover Goddess
Shine your Love into the World.”

I spent a lot of time singing that song while painting the Sun Lover Goddess. It was only once the painting was finished that I noticed how the white dotted arched shapes mimic that of the hands extended and the higher rays of the hands in prayer. Love it!

That’s how it often happens. It was also after I’d intuitively cut the stencil for the basic sun shape (much like we cut paper snowflakes) that I realized that the magenta shapes in between the shooting rays looked like an embrace from the Goddess Herself. It’s a top view of the breasts and two arms around a big gold dot, representing the light within me & you.

In the Goddess tradition, the sun is Mother to the Earth.

Here, she is giving birth to our beloved planet, surrounded by ivy, symbol of loyalty, fertility and eternal life.

You’ll notice that this time, I placed the island of Newfoundland in the centre. That’s where I live. This view of our planet also shows the UK.

One day, while reading the book “Anna – Voices of the Magdalenes” (sequel to “Anna- Grandmother of Jesus”- two books I brought back from the Chalice Well Garden), my brain waves were somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.  That’s when I saw in my mind’s eye a crimson ring with the healing energy symbols of the Karuna Reiki training I received in Glastonbury before the conference.

At first, I painted these around the smaller Vesica Pisces, part of the labia minora. But then, after following up on a hunch about the appropriateness of revealing these sacred symbols, I decided to cover them up with another coat of crimson red, the colour of our moon blood and of the iron-rich Red Spring water at the Chalice Well. The energy is still there even if the symbols aren’t as visible anymore.

Ha ha! I got a belly laugh from this one. My Team of Divine Helpers have a sense of humour!

When I first reviewed diagrams of the vulvar anatomy online, I thought to myself ” I won’t be including the urethra.”

Was I wrong! About 5 minutes after receiving the vision for the lion spout from the Chalice Well Garden, it hit me that I’d be painting gushing waters out of the urethra.  I may have been slow to make the link, but I still get a giggle from it.

Upon further reflection, including the lion’s head was also perfect for 2 other reasons.

First, I’d spent a week admiringly gazing at the 2 giant lion heads on stage at the Sun Lover Goddess Conference. Second, I spent all of August 8th (Lionsgate) cloistered at the Chalice Well Gardens.

Here’s what Donna Virgilio, my tour guide to Tintagel-Cornwall the day before, wrote about the Lionsgate Portal, when the sun in Leo aligned with Sirius.

” This is a time of healing, awakening, and opening of the heart.

The Lionsgate Portal is open from July 26th to August 12th, sending beams of high vibrational energy to planet Earth. The zenith energies are at their peak on August 8th.

In numerology, the 8th day of the 8th month is a highly spiritual and charged time. The number 8 represents infinity, the infinite soul that we are and the infinite journey that we take. It represents the “forever conscious” part of our soul; the soul that has lived and will continue to live long after and long before this incarnation.

We will also see the sacred alignment of Venus and Jupiter. This is luscious!

Venus is the planet of love and Jupiter is the planet of abundance, and together on 8/8, they make magic! This is truly special energy and such a gift from the Universe!

These two celestial God & Goddess are aligning in what astrologers call a trine, and this is a harmonious, wonderful aspect that will really help to strengthen the loving, heart-centered energy of the 2019 Lionsgate Portal.

Under this energy, it is going to be easier for us to open and expand to love, beauty, sensuality, compassion, abundance, and all the feel-good emotions that come along with it!”

I must have spent over 4 hours layering and glazing the water, eventually adding sparkly 3-D paint. As you’ll see, this sacred water pools at the bottom of the vaginal orifice before going underground and emerging again in the lake & stream that pass between the dancing flames.

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At first, I envisaged the dancing crowds of the conference adorned in sun coloured clothing, celebrating the Goddess in nature.

As I painted them, I understood that we, humanity, dance our days as the sacred flames of creativity, love, purpose & passion. Not only are we witnessing and celebrating the birthing represented in “The Gateway”, but are part of the ongoing process, generation after generation.

Sparkles of mica (the energy of love & compassion) were added to the figures amidst the stained-glass-window look of the scenery around them.

We Are The Creative Flames! Let us join together to co-create the world we dream of living in.

I knew that my Team of Divine Helpers wanted me to paint a figurative representation of the marriage of the God & Goddess, Divine Feminine & Masculine (within us & the world) at the top of the labia majora, near the mons pubis.

I procrastinated for days because of my lingering limited thinking about my ability to paint human forms. The ideas gestated until I got myself out of the way enough to receive a vision of how to encircle them around the Chalice Well cover. The initial inspiration happened while sitting on the bus thinking about totally unrelated things. It was like an instant download that had me take a deep audible breath!

That last part of the design is so far from what I’d envisaged and drawn on paper first. I had to remind myself several times that there are no accidents in intuitive painting. I had to be gentle on myself and my painting, loving its awkward teenage stage as we figured out what it wanted to become. In the end, I’m loving what is because I let go of attachment of what I thought it would be.

Although my post-UK painting is finished, Glastonbury isn’t finished with me yet.

First, there are many references to it in the fascinating Anna books I’m reading.

Next, while the varnish was curing, I was at my friend Leslie’s house for our weekly business mastermind meeting. During a dancing break (yes, we know how to have meetings!), I felt called to open the glass door to one of her many display cases to pick a card from a deck I hadn’t noticed before. What was it? The cover of the Chalice Well! On it was written, “Follow your heart and be true to yourself. There are no limits”. Leslie had no idea she had this card!

A few days later, I was watching “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” on Netflix. It’s like a James Bond meets Get Smart movie. One of the controversial scenes involved inserting a tracking device inside a woman’s genetalia at the famous Glastonbury Festival. It happened inside a luxurious sleeping tent, one of the many topics of conversation between myself and a man wearing a kilt on the bus from Glastonbury to London. He lived in Glastonbury, but grew up about 3 blocks from me in Ottawa, Canada. We’d started chatting while waiting for the bus and then he asked to sit with me for the ride. When the bus started getting busy, I’d suggested he look at the seat number he’d been assigned when he purchased his ticket online so we could give it to the person who’d say he was in his/her seat. We were both surprised to find out he was already in it! It’s all very very interesting.

Oh, and this may be too much information – but why stop now. After reflection, I’ve  been assured that this last tid bit will be helpful for someone. They say that where attention goes, energy flows.  Well, after weeks of intense focus on the vulvar anatomy and energy work in and out of the studio, that’s not the only thing flowing. It truly is meno-pause, not meno-stop. After at least 21 months since my last period, I’m experiencing my menstrual flow again. It happened on the day I brought my painting to NL Canvas for scanning so it could be made available for prints – the last step in the creative process. Have I reversed the effects of aging like in the book “Anna”? Maybe not, but despite the Internet’s advisement to get this checked out, I feel strangely happy about this not-coincidence. I certainly don’t want to get pregnant like the 73-year old that my housesister told me just had twins, but I know there’s meaning here. There’s a sense of rejuvenation to it…

“The Gateway” may be the end of my Re-Connecting series, but it’s definitely not the end of the mystery.

Layer by layer, our lives also evolve as we listen to and act upon Guidance. I’m sure glad I did!

What’s calling you?