~Alters~

 

These past weeks have a been a hub of change over here, starting with my new craft room, and then moving onto the bathroom–we had mold all over the ceiling and so it has now been scraped off and a new coat of paint added along with a new vanity and shower which makes the bathroom look sparkling and new!

So yesterday as I stood looking out of the window into the winter wonderland that visited us Friday night, I realized that it was indeed time for the autumn alter to be changed and a winter one to be created.

I love alters and have them all over our home, they make our space sacred and remind us daily to check in with ourselves.

Yesterdays creations though, ended up with not one, or even two, but three new alters!

The first alter- is our family alter which changes with the seasons, and is a family affair that involves an outing of some sort in which we carry back loot from the woods and surrounding area.

The birds get fed, and offerings are made and the we set to work creating a wonderful new alter. This year though as I cleaned off the mess of leaves that covered our fall alter I reflected on my home town in Ontario and the colds days that I spent as a child.

I remembered the silence and warmth of snow, and and the starkness that winter can be in that part of our beautiful country.

And so this years winter alter is sparse {for us anyways} and where it would be covered with pine cones and holly and berries it has been wiped clean and there only a few scatterings of special things that go on every year–so far I love it–but the kids will require a place for their devotions and so I will have to make yet another space/alter where then can lug in the pine cones and goodies from outside!

My next alter is also one that has been around for some time, but I had never quite given it it’s own place or home and this is my Bee alter!

For two years I have moved pots of sacred honey and comb around the house, placing them on my permanent alter and any available ledge where I could gaze at them, but yesterday since I was on a roll I made a permanent one in our family space and I am quite happy with it!

After, I played my Bee Drum and dedicated the alter, I have to say I miss the bees, but they are all tucked in for the winter and hopefully the snow has not left them too cold!

And then….

For Solstice last year my sweet Sohrab gave me a stunning alter which I had been coveting for some time.

This alter was moved around the house quite a bit over the past year, and finally found it’s home in front of the fireplace. Well as you can imagine this place could never be permanent and so yesterday I made it a home and dedicated it to the divine feminine.

It now sits right beside me as I write this post, and I can easily gaze upon it for inspiration–how fortunate I am!!

Stirring the Cauldron of Creativity…..

As a child my parents had a large cauldron in the front yard of our farmhouse and I played with it everyday pretending to be a witch and making magical brews. So when we moved away I was filled with sadness at having to leave my most treasured play toy behind. In fact I was so sad that years later I went back for a visit and had my photo taken with it.

These days the cauldron is yet again on my mind, as it invokes a magical feeling that most folks can not explain. Except knowing that most images of cauldrons contain some sort of magical brew in them and often have a witch stirring the pot.

Interestingly enough though, there is a deeper reason for this ancient symbol that evokes a feeling of magic in us, and this is because cauldrons go back into our history deeper then we would ever imagine…..

It has been said that the Goddess and her cauldron is the center of all feminine power, and that the cauldron symbolizes many many things including the lunar calendar, the womb of  our mother goddess, and the great circle of life death and rebirth. It is also said that true spiritual transformation and initiation can only come through being immersed into the cauldron of her belly womb.

In turn when the initiate comes out of the cauldron, she is transformed and filled with creativity and an inner sense of strength in herself.

In her book Journey to the Bard my teacher Yvonne Owens, says: “In shamanic trance, immersal in a cauldron signifies rebirth. The old self is melted or boiled away, and the essential self emerges, full of magical, spiritual power.”

“It is at this moment that the shaman{magician.artist or Bard}begins to re-sacralise their experience of life.”

I am feeling this inner strength and newness now, as I move into yet another part of my life, and wonder if perhaps it is a deeper ancestral call to tend the ancient fires as I begin to delve further into the ancient art of smithing, and the use of fire for my creations.

It is said that the Celtic goddess Brighid’s fire is tended by nine female Druids, and that these fires were said to bring about divine inspired creativity to those that tended them.

This intrigues me deeply as I was given a sacred name many years ago at my first vision quest, whose meaning keeps unfolding to me year after year, and has everything to do with tending these ancient fires.

What also has also captivated me, is that Brighid is also the patron goddess of the art of smithcraft, which is an ancient alchemical art, and one that that has me firmly in her grips right now!

It is the ancestors will, and my intent to re-animate and to bring back to life some of the ancient goddess symbols through the creation of sacred jewelry and alters made of metal, which is fitting, as I have dedicated myself to the divine feminine

There is so much to create and and my cauldron is bubbling!

What are you tending to in your cauldron?

 

Making room for holy work.

Well it is official, last night all my dreams were of soldering, filing, sawing jewelery and creating, and I woke up exhausted but happy, so I must be doing something right!

I can’t believe that it has been 7 weeks since I started learning how to “smith” my own jewelery and I even have a few loverly creations to show for it, as well as a new room upstairs to work in!

I have been busy as a bee these days making custom pieces and slowly preparing for the 2nd annual Shamanic conference happening here this May where I will have a table, as well as attending, and I am really looking forward to it!

The antler pieces in the above photo are something that I have been working on for a long time now as they started out as a full rack that my brother sent me last year.

Our dad has been a hunter for as long as I can remember, which makes sense as we grew up in a small first nations filled town called Sharbot Lake in Ontario, where our high school was usually half empty at hunting season!

Anyways, our father always hunted once a year and then we would eat the meat he brought back year round, usually it was deer, but once he shared a moose with several other hunters, and that was quite-well, unusual!

This was the first time he had brought back a set of antlers, and I really wanted to honor the deer who sacrificed their life blood, antlers and meat for our family{even though I did not eat any of it} by using them for spiritual tools and allowing the animal to know shamanically how I would be doing this.

The day I started to saw the antlers was a powerful one, and it literally took me all day,  of praying, smudging and journey work, to visit the spirit of the animal. I consider the time I spent sawing these antlers holy work, and it took all I had that day, but I am glad, because these antlers will be made into very sacred tools.

On the jewelery front I have been full to brimming with ideas and creations from my class!

One of my first small projects was a pendent for my sweet Zahra for her birthday, I made this for her in our first “etching” class and it was simple, but sweet.

Most of my time though has been taken up with creating two rings, one me and one for my sweetie Sohrab.

My ring is very special to me as it has a Fire agate set in it that symbolizes this work{using the fire element to bend and shape metal, and the spirit name I was given on my first Vision quest.

The ring still needs to be tumbled so that it shines, but so far it is mostly done!

I still have several pieces on the go, but they are so rough photos would look silly, however I had to post  photo of the piece below, because even though it is not even close to being done I am in love with the patina!

Yes it has been a beautiful autumn, and even though I can feel the cold seeping in, I am grateful for the many sun soaked days we have had this year!

Many Bright Blessings

Nikiah

Learning to Smith Jewelrey-Blow torch included!

For some time now, when I am out and about and wearing one of my jewelery creations I have been asked if I actually “Make” my own jewelery.

At first I mis-understood this question and answered ‘Why Yes-thank you” Only to meet an astounded gaze and the other person stutters out–”wow–you MADE that pendent!”

At this point it hits me and I realize that the other person is not admiring the “design” of the piece, but rather the skill it took to make the pendent I have used, and I have to tell then that no unfortunately I did not create the pendent.

There is a special skill in being able to take metal and fashion it into a thing with meaning and beauty, and I want to learn how!

I love the idea of alchemy, of working with metal, bending, melting, and forming it into a creation of your own making.

So tonight I fed the troops dinner, and excitedly drove myself down to Van Tech school for my first ever Jewelery making class– for beginners!

The class was filled all sorts of creative types, and there were surprisingly more men then  I had anticipated as well!

Our teacher, Dominique has been making jewelery for over 20 years, and  her skills made everything she showed us to do, look incredibly easy.

For the first 2  hours she spoke, showing us examples of what we would be learning to make in our 8 weeks together.

We then were taken around the HUGE classroom and she demonstrated the basic techniques of jewelery making we would need, along with how to use the tools.

This is truly an ADULT class–as the lesson on using the Blow torch took about 15 min’s and then we were all given full permission to use it whenever we wanted!

Yup we were taught the basics for 2 hours and then given some metal and told to design something simple- um ok!

I choose a simple crescent moon design-in celebration of my love of the moon of course!

And here I am working away!

And Voila-after a few hours of learning the ropes and figuring it all out!

Next week I will drill in the holes for stringing, then file them down so they are smooth, get out the blow torch to solder them together and then heat them so I can get a pretty “patina”!

So far so good!

Inspirations from Venice

This past summer as we worked and ate our way through 5 countries in Europe and the UK the internet was a little less then reliable, and so my promised blogs about adventures stopped after 2 countries to my disappointment.

Since then I have been trying to figure out how to share some of the adventures and inspiring photos I took “well after” the fact, a task much harder then I imagined!

What I am finding now though when looking through my photos, is pure inspiration that is flying into my art and cooking here at home.

So it came to me–inspiration, through and through is what I wanted to share from the beginning so why stop now–photos capture more then I could ever say!

Below are some inspiring photos I took in Venice, a small country with one of the most fascinating histories I have ever read about!

AND this year for the first time in 900 years there was the first ever Woman Gondolier instated–now that is inspiring!

I wish had met her while I was there, oh well, I did manage to find this photo on the internet of her though! True Inspiration!

Image Inspirations….

and

Listening to the goddess at the Chalice Well..

The Chalice Well and gardens are considered to be a holy place located at at the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England. And a place that I could not miss seeing while I was there.

According to Wikipedia:

“Archaeological evidence suggests that the well has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 gallons per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give water a reddish hue, as dissolved ferrous oxide becomes oxidized at the surface and is precipitated. Like the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities.

 

In addition to the legends associated with Glastonbury, the Well is often portrayed as a symbol of the female aspect of deity, with the male symbolized by Glastonbury Tor. As such, it is a popular destination for pilgrims in search of the divine feminine.”

The gardens are stunningly beautiful and very well kept. I noticed in the gift shop that they had “Chalice Well Honey” so after little asking around and I found out that they keep bees in the back gardens, which I thought was wonderful!!

 

We gathered water in little bottles to drink and take home….

And sat quietly listening to the water rushing over the stones, and in a quiet moment all to myself I placed my ear close to the well listening for whisperings,

I was not disappointed…..