Celebrating Mother Earth Through Goddess Energy

Judith, , , , ,

I’m going to be honest here about femininity and things like “goddess energy”. It’s never really been who I am. I’m female, yes. I’m a wife. I’m a mother, and now grandmother and great-grandmother. Yet I’ve never truly embraced “the feminine concept”. Even as a child, I was the rough-and-tumble “tomboy”. I’ve never liked “girly” things. No ribbons. No lace. No fancy dresses or high heels. The only jewelry I wear is my wedding ring.

I’m sharing this because I want you to understand how odd it feels for me to be working with the ideas of “feminine energy”. It’s like listening to a foreign language — interesting, but what does it really mean?

Let me backtrack a minute and explain. I recently enrolled in a “daily practice” class at Creative Bug taught by Lily Sol. Maybe you remember those weird, “funny faces” we drew with our eyes closed. Maybe you remember me mentioning the disembodied facial features we drew, the sketchbook pages we filled with noses, eyes, mouths.

One of the reasons why I enrolled in this “daily practice” at Creative Bug is because the concepts are so foreign to me. I wondered if — somehow — by doing this daily practice — Goddess Sketchbook: A Daily Practice Inspired by Feminine Energy — I might find a connection to that energy.

After those “warm-up” exercises, we finally, we began putting the pieces together, and day by day we worked to create a Mother Earth Goddess. I was so hesitant and so unsure about what I was doing! But I followed along.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the “collage paper” we made. In some respects, it was challenging because I wasn’t completely sure how we were going to use this paper, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. This, you know, is always a stumbling block for me. I still struggle to understand that there isn’t necessarily any right or wrong in art.

That said, here is a look at the collage papers I put together. One was to represent leaves; the other, flowers.

I felt like very much like a foreigner while doing this… a stranger in a strange land, trying to connect with “feminine energy” and not really understanding anything.

Once we’d completed our collage sheets, we created our “earth goddess”. I struggled again here. First, we considered words we associated with the earth, and then we were to use those words and ideas in the creative process. Mostly I just tried to draw along with Lily Sol, the instructor. My goddess drawing in no way reflected the words I’d written on my page — misty, cool, calm, rain, nature, sky, light, birds, clouds. The colors I imagined seemed completely inappropriate for an “earth goddess”, and so I more or less copied what the instructor was doing, yet of course, my style was much different from hers.

We colored our goddess. We created a background. We cut and pasted — oh, what I mess I made! — and then did more cutting and pasting to give our goddess a crown of leaves and flowers, all cut from our collage sheets. We made a few more embellishments, and at last, our Mother Earth Goddess was done.

What am I to make of her? I really don’t know. Does this colorful collage in any way represent my thoughts and feelings? What does this creation say about feminine energy or about the earth? I have no idea.

I do know that as odd as this all felt and despite all the uncertainties I faced, I did enjoy this, and I find that I’m drawn to the image. She’s not beautiful. She’s not truly reflective of any of my thoughts. She’s not dressed in the colors I really wanted to use. Still, she’s interesting. She is bright. She’s definitely colorful.

When I look closely at her, I see a patient expression. She has her eyes closed, and she seems to be saying, “It’s all right.” She’s willing to be whatever I wish her to be. Is that some part of this strange feminine energy I’m trying to find? I don’t know. I’ll probably never understand goddess energy, but that’s all right. I am finding a creative energy through this process, and I am enjoying it even if I don’t understand it.

 

 

19 Comments

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  7. That’s an interesting perspective. I would imagine, learning to appreciate feminine energy from without is easier as a more or less traditionally masculine man than as an unconventionally feminine woman. For me, it’s in exercise in loving opposites, mating yin & yang. Different river, different canoe for you. Good share.

    Something of a conversation about that has blossomed in the Demeter, Fed poem you had commented on.

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    1. Several years ago I worked quite a bit with the “femininity” concept in art, which resulted in some very interesting pieces. It was an opportunity for me to explore a lot of thoughts and emotions and to also develop some awareness of HOW various thoughts and emotions can be expressed visually. Hmmm… this is giving me ideas and inspirations for creating some new pieces. Because of my current vision impairment, I’m considering doing art that’s a bit more abstract, and also more intuitive. Who knows where this might lead! LOL I’m feeling some creative energies here. 🙂

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      1. I could be cheeky and say round is a shape. Earth is round, so I make of her a round, or fat Goddess. Seems feminine to me.

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      2. Maybe, for me, Mother Earth / Mother Nature is so many different things that any attempt to “draw” the concept would be limiting. I love your drawing, and definitely you’ve captured one aspect of an “earth goddess”, and yet how many more aspects exist?

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      3. Probably lots. The Wilding Woman is another I’m fond of, but Fat Goddess stays close to heart. Sometimes I mix them up. There’s some more of Ye Olde Fed Goddess in the Demeter poetry on my sight, additional poetry and pictures in comments.

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      4. I’ll spend a little time browsing your site. I haven’t been doing a lot of reading lately, for many of the same reasons I haven’t been doing much art. Little by little, things are starting to settle in to place for us now. I’ve got an appointment with a different retinologist, my daughter has a new program of chemotherapy outlined, and we’re hopeful that we’re seeing some improvements with our little feline leukemia kitty, who is now getting B12 injections and steriods. The cantankerous old man (my father-in-law) has become more difficult than ever, but to the point where my husband has had to walk away from the situation (temporarily) and other things are moving lower on priorities. So now I can relax a bit, maybe soon see some vision improvement, and get back to a lot of things I enjoy.

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      6. My husband and I have always felt extremely blessed in our lives. We still are. We certainly do have challenges we’re facing at the moment, and sometimes it is overwhelming. Still, we are blessed, and we appreciate all good thoughts. Thank you.

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