Sustaining the Essence of Our World

Greetings and best wishes and blessings during this 2022 Winter time. The image that holds the energy of this blog space is of the Egyptian Goddess Bast that I envisioned back in 2003 after I had returned from Egypt.  She was the last of the 13 images of the particular Egyptian pantheon group I produced and presented in my exhibition at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose California, 2004.  

Many folks had suggested I do a collection of 22 paintings for a tarot deck.  And that would have been grand on one level if I was guided to do so.  

At the time in my life I was on a journey of personal discovery and I entrusted my travel to the guidance of the universe and to the tutelage of the particular archetype that wanted to be embodied in my life at the time. Each god/goddess that I produced beckoned to me to their particular initiatory experience.  It was only after I experienced their story in my own life was I able to bring them forth into the world.  And when their story was to be told through my expression of art, I created it immediately at the moment when I was aware that I was to do so.  

Each painting is 6 feet by 3.5 feet.  Each painting took me 3 days to do.  There were a couple out of the 13 that were a process.  But that is another story.  Regardless, when I was able to get to the canvas, I always completed the piece within the duration of 3 days.

Therefore, the thought of going through the process 22 times, was not very inviting then,  even to this day.  The in-between experience of painting and being summoned to the process, for me, was much more grueling from a physical, emotional and psychological perspective.  I believe it was a once in a lifetime purposeful experience that changed my mind, emotions and my entire philosophical treatise about my life.  Again, that is another story that I am working on to share for a future time.

Bast is not a winter energy.  I find she relates well in late summer, and early fall when family and communal life come back together to regroup.  However, she is calling me to speak and to refer to her now at this time of the year.  

Perhaps she is working to complement her energies with that of late winter?  Pisces closes our winter season and is the direct opposite of Virgo.  Pisces rebels to conformity and organization in one's life for the sake of freedom and anarchy at times, with escapism at the forefront of consciousness. Before any growth comes, there must be a moment in consciousness to let loose and have no attachment as to the outcome of what that experience will be.  We must hold such a consciousness in order to create.  I do understand this wisdom that Pisces alone can teach. 

But we are not anywhere near the potential of spring.  We are in dead winter where any structure we have built in our lives can hold us up, and we can be grateful for it.  Like the community regrouping in late summer early fall, we hold the essence of that regrouping and familiarity in our memories and in our senses.  When we don't have any structure, or something that is familiar and pleasurable that our senses can gravitate to, we long for it.  Hence the difficulties during the holidays when the new year looks so bleak without promise. 

When I was working on the exhibition pieces, I knew I had to wait for Bast until the very end. Why did I know this? Because what she was and what she had to offer me, I wanted more that anything in my life.  However, I was not ready or prepared for her initiation. I was on a walk-a-bout for four years and I wanted to be at home somewhere.  I wanted to settle down.  I was tired of the constant traveling.  

It took me over five years to have all my initiations granted to me, and all the 13 paintings complete.

'Prior to painting Bast, I made a journey in January 2004 to the center of Mexico to visit the temples of the Sun and the Moon and to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  There was a moment when I looked up at the night sky and saw the planet Venus at the tip of the waning crescent moon.  I knew then I was ready to paint Bast as I had a clear vision of how she wanted to be portrayed.  

My description for Bast when she was exhibited, and what I know of her:

I grew up in an environment that was stern and very much like a hot kitchen in bus-i-ness and industrialness, like a restaurant.  My mother actually became a restaurateur later in life.  I worked in marketing for restaurants and also later was a sous chef for a couple of years.  As an eldest child I am used to taking on a bit of responsibility, but never had been able to come to a place within me where I could feel comfortable in relaxing and taking time out to enjoy the experience.  However, Bast had been seeping into my life since I was a teen.  At the time gardening was a chore but for some reason, I became enamored with essential oil fragrances that in the long run held me attention and appreciation to the Earth.  The love of essential oils in my life was long before they were in fashion.  They were real to me.  They were comfortable and allowed me to relax into myself when I wore them. as opposed to perfumes that were much more expensive and irritated my skin as well as my consciousness.  Developing a relationship with essential oils allowed me to submerge into my feminine nature and find extreme joy in being a woman and being with women.  

On one retreat 28 years ago I was introduced to pure essential oils that changed my life.  I have whole heartedly incorporated them into my life.  At the time of their height in my life I was a practising priestess at a Temple and shared my essential oil creations during ceremony.  Since, I collected oils throughout the years, and at my return home from Egypt after purchasing large quantities of absolute oils there, a priestess sister insisted it was time for me to do a ceremony to create an astrological line of essential oils.  It has been 20 years that I have continued to produce the astrological blends every season.  

The oil is the gift from the life force of the plant.  Its essence is its signature in its purest form.  Sometimes all that is needed for me, is to inhale the essence to be in a moment of balance and its beauty.  

Giving a reading.  Half the booth where the oils were are not pictured

Recently I attended the Healing Festival and Psychic Faire in Chico, CA.  I hadn't been doing such events for many years. However, restarting my business and the long isolation urged me to attend.  

It was such a joy.  I met so many incredibly, like-minded and hearted folks.

They well appreciated my oils.  Many customers returned with friends introducing them to me and the oils.  

I don't know if it is just for me, but the oils speak for themselves. They are love, and I take the time with my love for them every season in ceremony and practice to reintroduce them into the world. 

It is a commitment and that it the gift and lesson that Bast brings to us.  I pray we can sustain her essence and quality through the winter to emerge with her blessed presence within us in the next season.  

Blessings 

Visit my website shop for seasonal oil products, readings, classes, workshops and more.  

See Bast on Etsy.

Check up on my Facebook page for announcements on my future line I created in Hawaii that I am resurrecting for this spring 2022.