It’s been quite the week! Paint. Card-making. Swearing at tech gremlins. Pain. Teaching. Worrying… even though I try not to believe in that!
Also, a fabulous, much needed visit with my oldest – well, longest – friend. You know how, sometimes, when you hang out with someone who knows you really well, and you do the deep talk thing, you both wind up learning things about yourselves?
Well, I think we both did. I did, for sure! And a few of those things reminded me of you!
Archetypes were on the list! How they work. Why they matter. The total wonder that they can be turned into #Filter Wisdom Cards and that, sometimes, they even need a tiny bit of editing. Or updating. The kind we Ericksonian hypnosis types refer to as one step re-frame with a big gold bow!
I made four of those on Friday! And, yes… you’re going to have to wait just a bit to get a peek. Soon!
For this moment, the card that came up in my #Filters group this week… I run them through my hands, in Zoom land, and a brave volunteer calls out Stop! when they feel inspired. Then we all go exploring. Meet Luther…
Here’s part of what his card, in the Symbols & Language category, says…
His question for YOU is this: What might you need to view differently along your path? Opportunities instead of obstacles? New ways of bringing hope? The magic medicine of wading in salt water? …Oh! He was, indeed, named for Dr. King. He was total good trouble… and still is!
All of this noticing and wondering and learning was, of course, going on in a particular context. The external kind, like – you know – the news. And the weather. And…
The internal kind, like how your blood sugar is doing, or what you dreamed, or the questions rolling around in your consciousness.
And, the communal kind. This one has been big for me. The Memorial Service for Dr. Walter Brueggemann happened on Saturday afternoon. You know – online. Kind of surprisingly, especially to me, I decided not to attend. You see, many of the things I learned hanging out with Walter have been filling my awareness lately. From paintings to dreams to Wisdom Cards, his rumbly voice has been present. A huge gift!
So I did a bit of last-minute re-writing on the cards and, then, I painted. There’s nothing much to see yet. Just deep intentions and underlayers and a couple of eyes that nobody seems to see, yet, but me. I know where it’s headed, though. A warrior archetype card. (The last one that needs painting!) Inspired by my human experience of the Poet archetype.
Rest in Good Trouble, Walter. And, wave at my new winged-eye archetype buddy/keeper of wisdom… May we all go forward and, “just tell the story!”
Hallelujah. Amen.
ps… the coppery part of the painting is, indeed, my new scrunched plastic bag technique!
pps… love to have you do the annoying pop-up thingy and get on the list!
When you way warrior I think spiritual warrior, wondering if that’s what you mean?
Great question, Gwen! Thanks!!! There’s a bit of a story… I decided I wanted to include Maiden-Mother-Crone archetypes in the Symbol/Language cards. And I wanted to find a way to make the language “big enough” for a variety of card users. That brought Warrior to mind. My first thought – well, dream! – was Aslan, the Lion, from the “The Chronicles of Narnia”! My next thought was Boudicca &/or Matilda of Tuscany… both women spiritual and actual warriors who fought to keep their people – especially their women – safe from violent, repressive historical invasions. Kathleen McGowan’s “Magdalene Trilogy” books are great sources for Boudicca, Matilda, Joan of Arc, etc. So many stories!