I actually began with the women in the background. I had no idea this foreground image was even going onto the card. Even when I spoke from the images with my group, I didn't really understand the card until I began writing this morning to try to gain more clarity. I let both the women in black and the woman in the spider web dress speak. This is what they said. First, the one in black on the right (the one I started with):
" I am one who walks the course, the route, the path laid out for me by my ancestors, my culture, my world. The work is hard, but it is sacred, and I have company; I do not do it alone, and this is crucial. If I do not isolate myself, if I remember that the work is sacred and for the community and the children, my garment becomes a comforting wrap of belonging. Black gives me a sense of anonymity if I choose to be anonymous. I am one of many. It is also an acknowledgement of grief, for women's work is full of grief. We know that the work is vital and at the core of things, even if men have demeaned it. We have had to assign our own value to it. So, we stand tall and carry the burden in golden and silver pots. We understand its worth and our own."
And then, the woman in foreground:
"I am one who weaves the web of life, wears it as an extension of my body, and dances the dance of life in it. Webs are beautiful, fragile and patterned to be inclusive. Each life occupies a node, a juncture, and all are part. I protect and hover over the world, seeing the beauty, the pain, the sorrow. The dance is one of joy and acknowledgement. It is also a message to those embodied to do what I do - dance the joy, the pain, the sorrow, and dance with the joy, the pain, the sorrow. See and know that you are not alone. The women tread a difficult path, but they do so with grace. What they bear is golden. This card's name is Belonging."
I even gave the background a voice, which I don't remember ever doing before:
"We are the ones who are rock, memory and the snowy high peaks of rarified air. We hold much beauty, terror and trepidation. We are now in the sunset time, reflecting the red hues of the dying light. It is a liminal time, a time between, just as life is liminal, a time between leaving the Mystery and entering the Mystery, Even we will leave, in time, though we endure for much longer than you. Your lives are brief. Make the most of them."
So grateful for this process - it's so much fun, so easy to be creative, and goes so deep.
(I am very grateful to the artists whose images we use to deepen our own awareness.)
No comments:
Post a Comment