Friday, March 13, 2009

Visceral. Oracle. Tangible.

When I got home from work yesterday, I pulled out the 7 books I have on the subject of visual journaling, marking any pages by Juliana Coles. For an hour, I sat outside with the showing-up-again hummingbirds, two bees, and an overabundance of BIG mosquitoes enjoying our yard irrigation -- I looked at each page, looked more, glanced at them sideways, thought about them, turned to the next, went back, absorbed what seemed to be the 'techniques' without concentrating on images or color, then I focused ON the images, the colors, then I read everything I could make out on each page.

... got up, went into my studio, and came back out to pop the top on a Bud Light.

Sat still in the very windy but staying-light-longer late afternoon, sipping my beer, dodging one of the bees who had turned inquisitive (must've been the Bud).

Finally, I opened my new Cloth Paper Scissors magazine to the article by Juliana Coles, and read all of it, mainly focusing on the prompts. One of the prompts said to 'ask the Oracle' ... and I got stuck there, because my familiarity with oracles is pretty much the word used in mythological stories I've read, and more recently, Carolyn Myss on a CD program saying that the oracle is used to request wisdom on a world event scale, not a personal one. So I wondered. I made a mental note to do a little personal research.

I finished my Bud Light, went inside, fixed something to eat, watched 20 minutes of TV drivel, got in the tub to read, went to bed early.

DREAMED OF MY LONG-TIME FRIEND [AND PERSONAL SYMBOL OF WISDOM]: THE WHITE FISH.

Visceral.
Oracle.
Tangible.

The words which awakened me this morning, 5:01 a.m. Only in my head, they were all in bold capital letters. VISCERAL. ORACLE. TANGIBLE. In bubbles coming out of white fish's fins, streaming behind him. He wasn't white so much as glistening, shimmering, golden and aqua.

I got up and followed the bubbles to my studio, opened my journal, and made this page. The moth fried itself on my studio light moments after I finished writing, fell onto the page exactly where I taped it down.

I got goosebumps all over my body.

9 comments:

Georgina said...

I knew it! because you always answer my msj.
I've miss you too. But I'm here again, after a hard year. I'll write you an email this weekend, trying to explain what I'm doing and why I was out of bloggerland all this time. (I said trying because I dont know if my english help)
Hugs!
Georgina

PD: do you have Facebook?? and Flickr??

Holly said...

Things with wings...isn't it wonderful! Thanks for sharing that story...and the page that goes with. Uz the best, gurl.

beth said...

OMG...that moth is a symbol for something...BUT WHAT ???

OH I know...it means you're supposed to FLY to my house for a visit !!!

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT

sam brightwell said...

Gutsy (honesty/not-for-audience), real (you), raw (unfancified). So so very tangible. I feel like I'm there in the room with you.
I'm excited, for you, and about seeing more. It has left an imprint on my senses.

Mark and Patty of Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego said...

Dragonfly by Patty Mooney

A dragon of a dragonfly
beats his green wings
against the lightbulb outside the window.

He is behaving like two moths
who compete for the glow.
Being God, I switch off the lamp
and observe my kingdom
from inside the bright kitchen.
The dragon flings himself,
shunned lover
at the window screen
clinging quietly for a moment.
I speak gently:
"Who are you at my window?
What have you come to teach me?"
He is the most barrel-chested
of any dragonfly I have ever seen,
all emerald-green like Oz,
and in a perfect tizzy to impart something.
But what? What?

lee said...

very goose bumby....and interesting. Wish I could sit on my steps with a bud light without my mittens and ski coat.

mel said...

Moths - creatures of the night (Dark, Shadow); symbols of transformation; death of the moth = end of an incarnation?

Just my musings on the subject....

This is a VERY visceral page..made more so by its source!!

Delicious! *rubs hands together and cackles with glee*

Carla said...

Thud. I think I'm speechless...

Cam said...

You tuned in to some kind of wavelength there, didn't you??

That is so awesome! The little hairs are standing up on my arms and neck...

Makes me want to grab a glass of wine and see what takes flight around here...