Diving for Light

For today I've pulled “Diving for Light” from the Sacred Rebels Oracle. We see a beautiful dressed and coiffured lady, who has taken the leap and plunged herself into the waters of her subconscious. She has wheat in her hear and seahorses as adornments. For me it says that she is still awake and aware while being guided on her spiritual journey.

This card calls us to find our inner Light deep inside us, in places where we will expect to find them the least: In the dark corners of your heart, in the shadows of your soul and the cobwebs in your mind. The places you've “forgotten” all about but still have a strong grip on you during your daily life. Each difficult experience and period of your life brings also gifts beside the grief and the hurt they carry. All too often these gifts get overlooked because we are so busy trying to coop, to forget or to repress.To discover  them we have to find the courage to dive deep, to accept the darkness, embrace the pain and gather the gifts.

Yesterday I felt inspired by Kerry’s post on Neopagan Priestess where she told us she was inspired by me talking about mandala’s.  Right there and then I picked up a piece of paper and started drawing too. First I drew three concentric circles and a few lines as guidelines but  I found the courage to skip the drawing of a “perfect” mandala with pencil and started right away with paint and crayons and colored pencils. It was so much fun to do . 

Feeling creatively blocked is kind of a dark place for me. Not feeling good enough, feeling unsecure and afraid of failing is always lurking in the corner of my mind. I feel like I have dived deep and found a little fearless gem by making this mandala. J

Painting intuitively with watercolors

In this post I would like to share how to make an intuitive painting with watercolors. For me it is a very relaxed way to paint because you have very little influence on the final result. The  technique  I’ve used is called: wet in wet. This means that you paint with wet paint on wet paper. The paint washes over the paper and is going its own way. You can of course guide it, but you can’t paint detailed shapes.

I have made this painting in three stages:

I've dripped and pressed the paint on the paper and moved the drawing board back and forth so that the paint could find its own way. This time I've even turned it around because it made me think of a forest.

      After the painting had dried fully, I've  put another layer of paint over it. But now I was looking more consciously for shapes and lines. This can be compared with the interpretation of a tarot card; I search for images and meaning in my painting that are waiting to be highlighted. My “forest” could use some branches and trunks.


 In the final stage I picked up my pencils and added a few touches in my painting

I want to stress, this way of painting is not about the end result but more about the process, It looks to me a lot like meditation. You are completely present in the moment. Is relaxes me and gets me in a flow. I always find myself humming while I’m painting like this, so it will surely do me some good. Perhaps you like to try it for you self some time. J

My painting of Strength from The Hidden Realm Tarot

Yesterday I was inspired by my daily Tarot card the Five of Vessel - Ecstasy from the Wildwood Tarot to make art today. Due to my neck injury (which I am happy to say is gradually improving) I haven’t been painting or drawing for too long. So I've set  some time aside today for myself to play with my watercolors and pencils. I took the picture of Strength from The Hidden Realm Tarot painted by Julia Jeffrey as an example to work with. Although my skills aren't comparable to Julia’s I am very happy with the result and even more happy with the wonderful time I've had. I was humming and singing and painting and it felt like heaven. For today no tarot cards but some pictures showing the process of my painting adventure

First a drawing

Then some paint

A little bit more paint..

Followed by pencils

Finished!!