Cocooning

Elemental earth is rooted in the mineral kingdom. Our tactile sensory experience acts as antenna to the moment, the here & now.

When we are cocooned by the embrace of the earth, we are in a similar process to that of a caterpillar, re-imaging a transition into a new life. Dr. Bruce Lipton writes about it eloquently here:

"To better understand the opportunity hidden in today’s crises, consider the tale of another world in transition. Imagine you are a single cell among millions that comprise a growing caterpillar. The structure around you has been operating like a well-oiled machine, and the larva world has been creeping along predictably. Then one day, the machine begins to shudder and shake. The system begins to fail. Cells begin to commit suicide. There is a sense of darkness and impending doom. 

From within the dying population, a new breed of cells begins to emerge, called imaginal cells. (aka YOU!) Clustering in community, they devise a plan to create something entirely new from the wreckage. Out of the decay arises a great flying machine—a butterfly—that enables the survivor cells to escape from the ashes and experience a beautiful world, far beyond imagination. Here is the amazing thing: the caterpillar and the butterfly have the exact same DNA. They are the same organism, but are receiving and responding to different organizing signals. 

That is where we are today. When we read the newspaper and watch the evening news, we see the media reporting a decaying caterpillar world. And yet everywhere, you and other human imaginal cells are awakening to a new possibility. We are clustering, communicating, and tuning into a new, coherent signal of love."

I, like perhaps your self, am being forced to re-structure my business due to this lockdown. It appears that a better scenario to keeping the perfumery/school space is to instead incorporate them into a new home space.

What awaits me is a complete mystery, except for change. Like the larva in the cocoon, what I know has been ground up, the machine of how I normally move through the world has stopped, and there is a definite, undeniable sense of impending doom.

In this moment in time I am living in a rental home where the lease ends shortly, same with that of the perfumery/school. The coincidence of the two leases ending together point toward yet another move. In the past three years I have moved five times, with living out of boxes becoming the new normal.

Finding a decent rental in Santa Fe feels like scaling a giant mountain in the clouds. The scenario may be changing a bit now that AirBnB'ers are struggling, a small silver lining within this chaos, we shall see.

Ultimately the lesson is to stay flexible and not get caught up in what I would want, or a sense of comfort and joy.

Re-birthing a New Vision

Intending our collective human mind today may ingest, incubate and hatch the symbolism of the "egg" as an archetype for libration. The origins of the word Easter are found in the ancient Saxon Lunar Goddess known as Eostre and Norse Goddess Ostara. In both these traditions, as well as those of the Greeks and Egyptians we find the symbolic use of the egg and a theory of the Cosmic Egg as the source of all creation.

In August of 2003 when Greg and I attended the Visionary Art workshop titled Old Masters, New Visions in Austria. The egg is referred to as the Hermetic Vase, a vessel of transformation. As we used the whole egg to create the under painting in the workshop, we experienced a deeper meaning to the symbolism of the egg as it became a conductor of light and transformation. In turn, I was transformed and had the insight to create "Illuminated Perfume", weaving all my talents into one inspired vision.

“The shell must break before the bird can fly.” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

This forced isolation can be looked at symbolically as an incubation with the cracking open of the collective mind, an awakening and ascension. At least that's how I am choosing to look at it, the alternative of a canopy of GGGGG above our heads and forced vaccinations with micro chips implemented by Mr. Gates of doom is too painful.

Here are a few words from Jung on the topic of the egg:

“In alchemy the egg stands for the chaos apprehended by the artifex, the prima materia containing the captive world-soul. Out of the egg — symbolized by the round cooking vessel — will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis.”

Fred Bergen, an "instagram" friend mentioned a recent episode on NPR's Science Friday, titled The Luxury Ostrich Eggs of the Bronze and Iron Age Upper Class. Auspiciously Greg and I had placed an ostrich egg on our altar this morning, which in my meditation turned gold, with a reference to me apply gold leaf to it. After listening to the segment I found the idea of carving into an egg, or as we do in todays modern era, decorating eggs, this is yet another fitting archetype to dive into—decorating, carving a new reality for our "selves" and the world.

The “flowering” of the landscape is another way to perceive the symbol of transformation. The opening image, titled The opening image is titled Hermaphrodite with the World Egg, is a color pencil on paper piece by Laurie Lipton, look closely as it bears similarities to the Rebis image below of the hermaphrodite contained in the alchemical egg.

These alchemical images have created a yearning within me to cycle back to drawing and painting, perhaps that will be part of my alchemical rebirth. Here is a story from my old art blog of H2 illuminated, an image I created back in 2002 when I was still illustrating. The final image can be viewed here.

Renewal

Renewal and vitality have arrived on the navigational winds of Spring, mainly due to the unseasonal rain we were graced with last week. Here in this terrestrial ecoregion known as the California chaparral we tend to get our biggest rainfall in the Autumn. The City of Angels this past Autumn was abysmally bleak of elemental water.

Then, just when things were looking pretty bleak for the Spring blooms and forage for the honey bee, the rains came. Unseasonal and quite welcome, we were graced with April showers. The rain seems to have woken the garden fairies or perhaps washed the dust out of my eyes to perceive them.


All the different native sages in the garden have finally started flowering, while my beloved Apiana (bee) sage and Matilija poppies are starting to grow tall. The wild woodland roses I moved up slope in the Autumn are super happy in their new location. I can tell because they have lots of new siblings from underground runners. The new location, away from the sandstone rocks and Eucalyptus roots has allowed them to stretch their legs. Fingers crossed for some of their beautiful pink flowers later this Spring.

Like last year at this time of year I am seeing lots of volunteer plants most likely due to the increase in visits from the pollinators and local fauna. As instructed by the Theodore Payne Foundation I leave the seed heads on the plants for the birds and trim them off later when they are empty.


In the last year I planted more native sages, some pretty white roses, a helichrysum from Australia (pictured above) and cistus down among where the roses were. Its take the roses some time to get acclimated, unlike the natives that although slow growing adapt perfectly to the difficult clay terrain.


Meanwhile, I have been re-shooting some of the photos of the ever multiplying illuminated perfume collection. Although anyone and everyone seems to call their perfumes "natural" these days, despite what they are made with, I am incorporating a more natural Darwinian feel to some of the imagery. Weaving all my artistic talents to more fully illuminate our natural, botanical world.

Photos ©Roxana Villa

Eleven for Eleven

This evenings post is inspired by Jan at Poppytalk. Taking her lead and words from...here's my personal New Year's focus (resolution) list! What are your plans for 2011?

No. 1: Remember the artist within


No. 2: Nurture the Muse


No. 3: Bee Here Now


No. 4: More LOVE all around

Paper Doll Valentine Ornament by Old World Primitives

No 5: Yoga

Ballet top by TreeHouse28

No. 6: Breath Deep



No. 7: Hawaii or another tropical isle


No. 8: Create beauty inside and out


No. 9: As Joni Mitchell says...Get myself back to the Garden


N0. 10: Pick up the phone

Photo by F2images

No. 11: Align with flow

Photo by Mingtaphotography

Circular

Feels great to be back. Website, blog and twitter account are all healed. Lots of great lessons learned and relationships formed. So, the attacker, and we all have a pretty good idea who SHE is, didn't gain anything...in fact she probably lost out. Especially in the karmic department. When I began my path in the Natural Perfume world I was pretty naive and trusting of people. Rather quickly the veils were lifted and I realized "this isn't Kansas anymore" and natural perfumers sure act differently from my fellow professional artist buddies. A fact that is reaffirmed every year at Comic Con in San Diego. Despite the animosity within this wacky field I choose to stay and focus on my contribution to this aromatic art.

The image that graces this blog post is of the Ouroboros, an ancient symbol of a serpent consuming its tail. Circular in form, like alchemical processes, the snake kills and gives birth in the ongoing cycle. In the book Alchemy & Mysticism Libavius states that: "The Ouroboros is the symbol of the second fixing after putrefaction."1 Okay good, glad the putrefaction phase is complete!

When turbulence like the last few days appears, afterward I like to take a look and assess what lessons have been learned, so here is a list:

• Stay calm and centered in the eye of a storm. It does no good to get all twisted up, unless you can channel that energy into something else. Just a few hours after the incident I got some REALLY GOOD news, so I was able to focus on that. By shifting the energy of what was transpiring on the outside I was able to shift the energy within myself.
• Web hackers are really hard to pinpoint and track down. Even if you have an IP number, IP stands for Internet Protocol, a super clever hacker won't leave any traces by rerouting their IP number. Most likely the gal that attacked me, and several other perfumers, hired a web hacker in another country.
• Make sure you have a hosting provider that is willing to work with you with safety measures to protect your site. If you have a blog, create log in security features. My hosting provider sucked big time, they are completely useless and thus I've moved to a new one that will take responsibility if I am attacked.
  
• Back up your site and blog often so that if it does go down it can be put up again fairly easily and quickly.
• Change your passwords often and make sure they are STRONG.
• Install an SSL certificate to all essential sections of your website.
• If you have a shopping cart feature follow the security measures.
• If your website and blog are attacked and you have a twitter account, remove the links from your profile ASAP until the sites have been restored.
• Having an alternate website where customers can shop, like Etsy, is a Godsend. They might be able to cripple your website for a small amount of time, but I doubt they'd be bale to take down a megalith like Etsy.
  

Do you have more hints and suggestions? We'd all love to hear them.

Other good news, while I was creating a treasury on Etsy the path of creative ideas opened and I was taken down the river of inspiration. Can't wait to share with you all.

1 Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob, page 302