Mythic Musings on the Journey Known as Codex
I was raised, as a child and as a theologian, in worlds devoid of images. Images were for others and “we” were not like them.
Words were my first art form. Useful. Approved. Occasionally even eloquent.
Quilts came next. The liberated sort, full of wild colors and wonky lines that began teaching me to trust my eyes.
Bone broth came after that. A huge container. The very best ingredients. Energy. Time. Lots of time. A new kind of embodiment.
Then, in my wandering, I tumbled into Intentional Creativity ®… and eventually into the arms of Grandmother Moon, the in progress nickname for my most surprising journey, Codex.
The path has been both Wilderness and Promised Land. Sometimes in the same moment.
One day, just as we were about to begin, Shiloh asked me what kind of images graced the hallowed halls of the seminary I attended. I was shocked to hear myself reply, “Old, dead, highly educated white men.”
It was true. (A bit less so now, but that’s a story for another day.)
When I look at the painting now titled The Co-Creative Soul, I see a quilt, for I have picked through generations of scraps, like baby dresses and old aprons, and added the words of my own code: Word, Remember (which also means Remind!), Create, and Steadfast Love, all a bit mysterious, in the Hebrew.
Grandmother Moon, who appeared first, needed her partner, Grandfather Sun. She needed a visionary eye and a huge heart and a red thread.
Symbols appeared and disappeared again, leaving their energy and allowing for change.
Finally, in these last few days, I – and perhaps you, as well – appeared in the gaping empty space at the bottom of the canvas.
Hands, which are also power in Hebrew, raised in thanksgiving and praise for the eye of my soul, which has been waiting to be recognized for so long.
I have painted an understanding of Co-Creation!
And then, written on the back of my discoveries, another scrap collected from the recent musings of Shiloh Sophia, during the days of the fires.
My work in the world is to wake the sleepers to degree that they are ready to wake. Period. The way I do that is through Intentional Creativity. Full Stop. Full Start.
There is a bit of tending to do yet, and some rainy teal prayer drops to make for souls in California, but today I take this new expression of a very old, very big calling as language for my work, too. And my heart is changed. Again.
(slb 10/29/19)
Amen. Amen. Selah.