Several years ago, I took a drawing class. The teacher was a bit of a curmudgeon but very encouraging. I have never been good at drawing and took the class out of curiosity to see if I could produce anything of any value. The first lesson I tried and felt inadequate, but my teacher simply said “keep going”. Over weeks of coaxing and practice I started to love the process and the sense of empowerment that came with slowly improving my technique. My teacher told us that we should always carry a means of drawing with us, wherever we went: day trips, doctor appointments, it didn’t matter. He felt that drawing was an excellent way of fixing in the memory a moment and he was right. I don’t always follow his advice but when I do, I am amazed at the development of a conversation between myself and the thing I am drawing. In so doing, when I am in the natural world there is a sense of unity and relationship which as a Pagan becomes a kind of spiritual practice. This is why I often see intuition and our creative selves as also our spiritual self that opens us up the divine. Below is a piece called Spell Cloth #2 that I discuss in my most recent vlog. I started it at a time when I needed to figure out some things and I used the process of sewing to help me meditate and clarify my intentions. It was effective and a joy to do. There was no plan for the cloth to look a certain way, it was a spontaneous sewing project that became a way of accessing my intuition and receiving guidance. My drawing teacher was also a botanical illustrator of considerable skill. When he discovered that I am British he told me that people love the British gardens for their beauty but also because the weather is often cloudy, which intensifies the colors of the flora and fauna, whereas bright sun tends to make colors look a bit washed out.
Today there will be a solar eclipse, and I wonder what, in that briefest of moments but be intensified in the sudden dark...
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I'm Liz Watkin I explore witchcraft through embroidery and embroidery through witchcraft!
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