Plants, art, stories. Three threads braided together.
It was a few autumns ago when I picked up the first. Milkweed pods, nightshade berries, golden rose leaves, echinacea cones, and hemlock beckoned. Stepping out with a basket, my intention was to gather plants and craft imagery at the table. What happened was this:: faces emerged, women of myth and magic, women of mystery and music.
Who are you? I asked them.
Names whirled and swirled until for each of them a haiku bubbled up and I knew them for the goddesses they embodied: Demeter, Persephone, Hestia, Hera, Athena, and Artemis. They initiated me.
With the second thread, another layer unexpectedly peeled away, emerging from crafting flower essences, in the language of plants:: each personification had plants that made them manifest, the plants had their own essence, the one’s in each picture coincided with the story presented, the medicine wisdom of the tale. I don’t go out planning to make Cinderella or Bharani or Echo, the images come out of the plants in the basket and show themselves afterward, a discovery in facing who shows up, be they wee folk:: the inner children, the shining ones, the glimmers of fairy magic dancing around, or folkloric ladies old and new.
With the third thread came this::listening into heart while expressing out as art . . . inhalation exhalation . . . timeless tales available for everyone to experience artfully. A practice that is fun, relaxing, and can be as light or as serious as each person needs or wants or chooses it to be. It asks very little and returns quite a bit, while facilitating the release of attachment and expectation; after all these are plants being played with::they decompose and decay by their very nature, temporary.
The twining of these three threads spoke of bringing us into contact with nature . . . ourselves touching plants as a combination of natural beings creatively being together; with the option of gathering with friends old and new to venture into an ageless circle of story, art, and plants, where nothing is needed except you and whoever your companions are.
Greeting cards are available at my Etsy shop or contact me if you’re local.
I hope that you’ll enjoy and be inspired by what you find here.
❤
Mariam
December 6, 2017
The Coddiwomplers Cauldron 