Callieach as Creator

Spirit Woman Stories: Callieach as Creator

The sleeping woman stirs…

Earth Spirit, a woman, Callieach of

Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales and the Isles.

She weaves the landscape, pours the rivers;

Molds the mountains, controls the elements;

Spirals with the seasons, the Callieach.

Reborn each spring

Child, woman and then elder, the first trinity;

Callieach, of the Earth, eternal, ever changing…

Stones of Callanish, sacred dance to the maximum of the moon as it pauses;

 Callieach the last shrine in the wilds of Scotland, Glen Lyon

Seeds left to be rekindled bringing the past into the future as we remember the

Beautiful and sacred Earth, some call Callieach.

 

How we see ourselves as we move into our elder years: The Grandmothers

With the children of our children, our own lives expand, as do our hearts. As we reach out to those tiny hands, embrace the small frames; we experience anew everything in all its freshness through loving and curious eyes. We can’t but want the world to become a better place for them to grow into.

Abby Arquero, Cochiti Pueblo, has nine grandchildren under nine years of age. I asked her about her role as Grandma. “Unconditional love,” she says, “and it is seeing everything from a different perspective.” I’m an honorary Grandma to hers as she is to mine. Those little ones are all joy! To think of her Grandchildren and my own, images of hugs come to mind.

My friend Patty Morris, just became a Grandmother last week. A tiny new one takes a place in the next generation. Can we not but think of the passages in the fabric of the life of our families. Victoria Scott said shortly before the birth of her first grandchild, “…and life will never be the same…” In truth, after they come into the world the redefine our lives with their precious presence.

We cannot but celebrate this.

The dearth of imagery in western culture of this important stage of our lives reflects the lack of respect for woman in their later years. The emphasis on youth and materialism degrades the authority of senior femininity. In truth we are at our most intelligent and influential. We have time, wisdom, identity, leadership; the strength of the love that comes with age that provides positive power in the family and community. And there are a lot of us in this generation.

Check out my Grandma series of images at Truesdaleart.com and add to the discussion….

 

 

 

 

Art Process: How I approach the canvas

People often ask me where do my seemingly endless ideas come from. I am almost always working on several projects at once. These visuals usually have a sequence in a series that are variations on a theme. Currently these are the treads I am working from:
The great Earth Goddess Callieach (Scotland, Ireland and England) whom I encountered last fall in Scotland. I'm thinking to integrate her into the cycles of both the seasons and life. This idea was generated from a previous topic which was not "finished" to my satisfaction. So I will look over older sketches and give them more substance before painting four pieces that interlock in some way. I will approach images by first identifying old concepts; which will become concrete with more information and/or research. Intuitive knowledge plays an important role as well, this wonderful and powerful spirit woman has been living in my unconscious for years. In fact, the sketch I did of her in Fife, was similar to one I did in my early 20's while living in intercity Detroit. I do believe in genetic memory! And this is my cultural heritage. I'm also working on an original prints of these images. On my easel is the painting from this drawing.
Other images I am continuing to develop are Everyday life which I will blog on shortly and Waterways, that is, how the waters are the world are connected and the sacred tree.
Next blog, I will continue to delve into how I process images from seeds of thought and the many origins of ...
 My Portrait is by my talented daughter, Maia T. Scott

Solstice

Callanish

Blog for solstice 2013

Facing the west close to the Atlantic, on the island of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides is the stone circle of Callanish. Sitting silently for 5000 years, the luminous pale stones seem lit from within and worn pearl-like without. They communicate still over thousands of years to the people from all over the world to see the structure built as a cross long before the introduction of Christianity.  It is a circle to the four directions built by the indigenous tribe of Western Scotland to align with the maximum and minimum lunar cycle.

It is easy to envision the phenomenon of the standstill of the moon every 18.65 years when the moon is full, the dance of the ancients within this sacred space. It is said that it is the moment, as the full moon rises over the distant “Sleeping Women” mountain, of rebirth. The woman sleeping is the venerable Callieach; the multifaceted and complex personification of the magic of the feminine manifested on Earth in Nature, in women.

The stark landscape of the lonely and windworn place brings visitors to cross the barrier of eons to see through the eyes, those that struggled to create a rich spiritual life in the face of extreme physical odds. The ancient people must have had a meager life from the moody sea and the rocky, peaty terrain. Still they left us a measure of their reverence of life and joy; love for the Mother of us all, the Spirit of the Earth, in the monument to Callieach, at Callanish.

Next blog is on the Spirit of the Earth, the ancient female, Callieach. The beginning of her stories….

Toni Truesdale