Changing the Look of my Blog and my Evolving Mandala

The other day I started playing around with the design of this blog, and once again was unable to return to its previous  look, so hence it new look.  I actually like it better now, it feels more airy and open.  So hence welcome to the new look of this page.  Blogger has some new features, and I am eventually going to try to add some extra pages.  But this is enough for now.  All this technology is too much for me, and I need to take breaks from the computer.  

One of the ways I have been retreating and renewing myself, is by the ongoing work on the mandala that I began at our Summer Solstice Mandala retreat.  I have decided to share its process, from the beginning drawing to the place I am at right now.  It is now completed yet, but getting closer.  

Here is the beginning drawing.

With the scale of light being developed.

Color, color and more color.

This is where I stopped drawing at last evening.  I wish I had left more black, but I seem to have a tendency to fill in all the spaces.  That is something I keep reminding myself to work on, not only in my mandalas, but also in my life.  Creating these images, always bring up a metaphor for me, that guides me on my personal growth issues and process.  This mandala is all about honoring, health, growth, new directions and beginnings, as well as loving all the sprouting seeds in my life.  I will post the finished mandala another time.

Let Your Goodness Blossom

Its been quite a while since I have posted on here, being swept up in the polarities of this season.  Trying to find balance btween them and find the center  of my own sense of peace and good will.

I have been receiving some wonderful inspiration from Lynn Jericho's Inner Christma s guide and website.  If you to have been longing to find balance and equilibrium seasonal needs for spiritual fulfillment and the material too muchness of this time of year I recommend her work heartily.  She offers a free pdf on her website of her inner Christmas Guide.

"  Reflecting the natural world, the soul seasons transform at solstices and equinoxes.  The light and the dark aspect of our inner lives move from attention to ourselves as earthly beings to attention to ourselves as spirituals beings and returns.  In summertime's light and warmth, our souls embrace our intense perceptions of the world.  But in the dark cold silence of early winter, our souls turn inward seeking the Spirit."

Many blessings to all... follow your instincts for goodness, let the magic happen.  Happy Solstice.

4 Elements Mandala Workshop

Our Mandala Workshop focusing on the Four Elements was a lovely, inspiring day for everyone who attended.  The Cosmic Cowgirls Studios was bright and vibrant.  Some of these photos give a sense of the colorful walls filled with the art of Shiloh McCloud, founder of the studio.  We felt invigorated by the surroundings, and inspired as well.

Here is Diana Rose helping us in the morning with set up putting prismacolor pencils at tables all around the room.

The walls show off the paintings of many Cosmic Cowgirls...our altar is in the center of the space, surrounded by tables forming a circle, so we all can sit and view each other as we drew.
Getting ready in the morning as participants arrived.
Here is Patricia and Diana Rose.  Patricia and I have been facilitating the Illuminated Mandala Retreat days for over 10 years.  We are both Certified Facilitators of Judith Cornell's Healing Mandala Process.

We work in circle  paying attention to the center of our beings opening to the light within and the compassion of heart energy.  I love seeing the winged heart hanging over the window in the background.

We begin with small black and white mandala's practicing the scale of light, imagining our pencils to be light wands that connect with the divine light within and bringing it into form on the procreative dark ground of the womb of the paper.


Here is a small mandala done as a Healing Mandala for Harriet Wadeson, one of the grandmother mentors of the field of art therapy, with color added.


In the afternoon we began our larger pieces, focusing on the Four Elements and our associations with them as well as how the elements of earth, water, fire and air resonate in our bodies and our lives.
We always give participants permission to do whatever they are impelled to these workshops, and it is always a gift to witness what evolves and the personal healing the occurs as a result of the drawing process, meditations, visualizations and personal intentions for the day.




Each mandala is as unique as the individual who creates them.  At the end of the day we share the inner stories that unfolded as a result of the process.  It is such a blessing to do this work.

The Four Elements

Unfortunately, I did not take photos of many of the completed mandalas.  By the end of the day I was a bit exhausted and since  our timing went over a bit, everyone was ready to move into the rest of their evening.  But these images give a sense of the ongoing process and the day.  I have begun a mandala and will post it's progress on later blog posts.  Most people don't complete in the day.  Drawing mandalas and  working with prismacolor pencils is a slow and meditative, dreamlike experience that  often take a while to unfold into completion.   The next Mandala Retreat Day will be in September right around the Autumal Equinox, I will post the dates here, when we have settled on exactly where and when we will facilitate it.  Blessings to All .  Enjoy the Summer!!!!  

Mandala Workshop REFLECTIONS

Summer Solstice is upon us and this Sunday we are facilitating  the Summer Solstice Mandala Retreat Workshop.  In honor of this   I thought I would post some of my Summer Solstice Mandalas,   as  well as one of  Mary Oliver's most powerful poems.  

Through the ages  there have been traditions and rituals upheld during this 

time, from the Native American Indians to the Nordic and the Celtic people.  Awed by the great power of the sun, the amazing Mandala in the sky, the cycles of the seasons, the earth we live on and the great circular womb of creation, civilizations celebrated the first day of Summer. 

In ancient times, it was considered a time of fullness, worldly blessings and celebration.  Not much has changed for us as we live outdoors, celebrate with friends,  connect with the bounty of the earth with all of  its beauty and  savor life.  I love the experience of stopping   time when I draw mandalas.  When we transition from season to season,   honoring this change and  reflecting on my life  cycles, in always enhanced when I create mandala's in community with others.  This Sunday we will pay homage to Earth, Water, Fire and Air,  the Four Elements in our Mandala Workshop.  I look forward to seeing the that  art will emerge from this day, I will post images next week.

       

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

 

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

  

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

Mandala Workshop coming up....gearing up

As we approach the Summer Solstice, Patricia and I are gearing up for our next Illuminated Mandala Retreat Day.  We will be focusing on the 4 elements in this mandala workshops, as well as honoring the change in the Seasons and the onset of the summer.  

The following images show the progression of one of my mandalas, to give a sense of the evolving process of this wonderful way of creating mandalas.  We are facilitators of Judith Cornell's Mandala Process, and incorporate her powerful healing technique with our own style and person centered focus for creating art.  

This workshop will be held at an interesting and colorful art studio in Healdsburg called the Cosmic Cowgirls Studio.   I love that metaphor, having your feet on the ground and your spirit in the sky.  The studio space is bright, colorful and visually entrancing, filled with a very positive healing energy.  We are excited over the prospect of spending the day there drawing healing mandala's with others.  

We have been on the search for the perfect retreat space for our workshops.  Since we stopped using Mountain Home Ranch we have been trying out a variety of new spaces for our day long retreats.  So we are anticipating a unique experience and lovely day at this studio a few blocks from the Plaza in Healdsburg, California, the heart of the wine country by the way.

If you have ever considered doing this workshop, this is the perfect time.  Come join us in Healdsburg on June 21st.  Please check out our Creative Arts Studio website for more information.  This process is a wonderful way to set intentions for a new cycle, place attention on the healing energies of the mandala, as well as learn how to draw in a unique and easy way in a supportive and safe setting.  Hope some of you can make it!!

More FLOWERING MANDALA'S

I am posting the rest of the photos that I took at the Mandala Workshop.

I love watching as they evolve into such beautiful pieces of art.

Each so unique and expressive of the artist's flowering essence.

I am hoping every one sends me the completed images so I can post them here 

for the world 

to view.

The process of creating them was a meditation and a joy for each person.

The practice of creating mandala's helps us to find our center in a graphic way.

 Creating mandalas is like creating a map that allows us to orient ourselves to our 

own inner balance. 

Here we are working from the flowers in my studio. What a lovely day it was.

And so for me it is time to move onward, and complete the mandala I began that day.  I will post its progress at a later time.   





Our next Mandala Retreat Day will be on Saturday June 20th, on the Summer Solstice.  Our focus will be the Four Elements.  Get in touch if you are interested in joining me and Patricia in this wonderful meditative and healing art practice.