In the feminine divine tradition, the Goddess is the spirit of creation; She who spun the universe and all it contains into being. As women, we are Her embodiment on Earth, driven by the same urge to create, heeding the call to channel our energy into endless recreations of Her aspects in ways that satisfy our inner most yearnings. In these very yearnings reside the power to call forth the Goddess in Her many manifestations; to invite Her to come out and play with you.

My favorite way to coax the Goddess into showing Herself is through transformational art. What, exactly, is transformational art? The simple answer is all art is transformational for the artist. Like any experience, one is changed in the process whether or not such was the intent, and even if the artist is oblivious to the change.

Creating transformational art with purposeful intent, however, is about digging down deep into your soul to find the muse within, the guiding spirit we all possess. I personally believe this guide to be the essence of the Divine – which for me is the Goddess in all Her many aspects.

By sharing my interpretations of the Goddess Muse in this and future posts, I hope that I will inspire readers to engage with their own muse and better know the Goddess.

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La Luna Madonna and the Gifts of the Goddess

The height of summer is my favorite season. Living in the northern hemisphere, at the northern most point of Wisconsin, in the U.S., I treasure the few months of nights when temperatures are warm enough for me to bathe in Luna’s soft glow.

This summer, I have been enjoying a new addition to my back yard and to my night rituals; a studio, the proverbial room of my own.

My haven is nestled up against the fenced perennial garden. It is a fitting spot for the little cottage which, having arrived pre-built on the back of a semi-hauler, seemed to spring up overnight much like the flowers of the garden it flanks.

A studio needs a name but those I considered seemed uninspired and I found myself at a loss. Until the evening I looked out from the back door of my house to see a half moon poised at its zenith directly above my studio. Half Moon House it would be.

At full moon, my back yard is awash in the subtle glow of Luna’s fulsome light, with plants and flowers seeming lit from within. The arrival of the dark moon gives forth to shadowed nights when star studded skies take center stage. The half-moons are in between times. Not wholly bright, but neither dark, their light hints at things not fully seen. It is a magical time, alive with the Goddess’s mystique.

It was on such a night that La Luna Madonna appeared on my canvas. Earlier in the day I’d randomly laid down blue, yellow and red watercolors, letting them blend as they would on the paper. Usually eager to be in my studio painting, inspiration was not forthcoming. I worked the brush on the paper, making lazy circles in the puddles of watery pigment.

And then She came peeking out, barely able to be seen in the glow of Her own half-light; the Goddess in transition. No longer a maiden but not yet a mother, the new life in Her womb barely begun. Her secret joy witnessed by the waxing half moon.

I switched to acrylics and painted long into the night. Not surprisingly, flowers bloomed on my canvas; hard to keep them at bay when their heady scent slips into my studio on any light breeze.

Hearts, an often frequent symbol of my muse, fought to make their way onto the painting for I didn’t feel they belonged. Finally, I obliged with one large heart, but it wasn’t right. I darkened it, I lightened it, I embellished it with dots and then lacework. It was beginning to look like a child’s valentine.

I still believed it did not belong there, but I didn’t want to paint over it. Mostly because I had no idea what I would paint over it. I tore a heart from paper, laying it over the one I had painted, wondering what the point of that might be.

I tore another heart, and then another, arranging the three so that they touched – from heart to heart. Still, I wasn’t done. The muse was telling me more; more hearts, big and small.

Then the muse spoke to me. “Heart to heart My blessings flow, as far reaching and eternal as moonlight’s glow.”

She will give birth to the God and in celebration She shares her joy with the world, gifting all with blessings of love, compassion and peace.

In my following of the wheel of the year, and the aspects of the triple Goddess, I can sometimes get bogged down in stereotypes, caught up in thinking of Mother Goddess as the nurturing, experienced, grounded mother. I can forget that She is also the exuberant young lover, in awe of the life created in Her womb, jubilant with expectation, fearful of the unknown. The La Luna Madonna reminded me that there are always in between times – transitions.

My midlife transition is not unlike La Luna Madonna’s. Like she, I am moving from one aspect into another, from the full light of Mother, into the waning half-light of Crone, birthing my Self through creative expression of the Goddess within.