She Who Seeks: September 2023

Friday 29 September 2023

September Full Moon Altar: Asherah

This month's full moon altar celebrates Asherah, a Middle-Eastern Earth Mother and Fertility Goddess who was worshipped 3,000 years ago in ancient Israel (which was then polytheistic). She was the consort of Yahweh and was designated as the Tree of Life. Asherah was especially popular in folk religion, but there are also many references to her in the Hebrew Bible. Her statues were included and honoured in King Solomon's Temple.

Like many Mother Goddess figures, the typical Asherah statue shows her offering her breasts to nurture and sustain all life. She wears a sacred headdress very reminiscent of the one worn by the even older Goddess of Willendorf. But the most striking aspect of Asherah is her tree-trunk-like body -- no curves or big hips for her -- her body is a visual representation of her status as the Tree of Life. In ancient Israel, she was often represented by poles called "Asherah pillars." I bought my Asherah from Sacred Source about 15 years ago.

Beside her on the altar is a photo of Gustav Klimt's iconic painting of The Tree of Life (1909), symbolically composed of the sacred spiral of life. A section of this painting is reproduced on the display cabinet in which I keep 90% of my Goddess statues collection. The other 10% are outside the cabinet in various places throughout my home. It's hard to get a good photo of the cabinet because the back is mirrored. Unfortunately for proper display purposes, my goddesses are crowded very much cheek-by-jowl in the cabinet, but they are safe from breakage there and do not require dusting.

[Photos © Debra She Who Seeks, 2023]

Wednesday 27 September 2023

Good Deeds

Monday 25 September 2023

Somewhere Way, WAY, Over the Rainbow

Earlier this month I took a fused glass art workshop. I had no clue what the process would entail, but I was ready for adventure!

On a flat, clear, rectangular (6" x 12") glass plate, we glued down pieces of cut stained glass in our chosen pattern or picture. I was keen to make a somewhat abstract-looking rainbow. Some pieces of glass I cut myself using a glass cutting tool and others I just picked out of communal boxes of glass scraps.

Not ever having done anything like this before, I soon discovered that it was like making a mosaic or doing a jigsaw puzzle. Here's the thing, though -- I hate jigsaw puzzles! I'm too impatient for the care and attention they require. Therefore, I used quite large pieces of glass to make the whole process go quicker. And I wasn't too picky about trying to make the rainbow look "perfect" either. I quickly let go of any expectations or need to control the outcome. Pretty friggin zen of me, right?

To fill in the spaces between the cut glass pieces, we sprinkled a coloured ground glass/silica mixture called "frit." Most of the frit I used was very fine powder but I also went berserk with some larger frit to add texture to the piece.

After the workshop, the leader took our completed glass plates to her commercial art glass studio, where she fired them in kilns to fuse the glass and to bend the flat plate into an ess curve so the piece could stand up on its own. We got the finished pieces back in about 10 days.

Here is mine in all its chaotic fused glass rainbow glory!

And here it is with sunlight streaming through it --

Okay, okay, I know it's a dog's breakfast, but . . .

Actually, I don't mind it as a "first attempt." Who knows if I'll ever make another fused glass piece again though.

[Fused Glass Art and Photos # 2, 3 and 4 © Debra She Who Seeks, 2023]

Saturday 23 September 2023

Going to the DOGS

This month's dog-themed post

is brought to you by

PUGSY

the new canine companion

of my sister's gnome,

Teerlinck the Tenacious.

Don't you just love Pugsy's

little pink hoodie?

Awwwww, so cute!

Thursday 21 September 2023

A Tolkien Blog Party

This is my post for A Tolkien Blog Party hosted by Hamlette (Rachel) at The Edge of the Precipice book blog.

[CUE SCARY MUSIC]

I Was A Teenage ~~Werewolf~~ Book Snob

"No way," I said to my older brother who recommended The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a great read. "I'm not into that weirdo counterculture stuff like you and the other hippies are."

"No way," I said to my school friend who recommended The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a great read. "I'm not into silly fantasy stuff about elves and dwarves. Fairy tales are for kids. I prefer to read about Real Life."

But in the mid-1970s in university, I finally succumbed. I guess I had nothing better to read, so I thought "Okay, why not? I'll give it a try."

You know what happened, of course. I was hooked instantly and forever on this marvelous epic tale of Good and Evil and everything in between. I devoured all three huge novels in a frenzy of reading. And when I finished, I was left with that bereft feeling you get when a unique and profound book has come to an end. What was I to do now?

So of course, I immediately turned around and read the trilogy again. I read it for a third time about ten years later, when I was out in the workforce battling my own Saurons, Orcs and Gollums.

Those were the days when we had to rely on our own imaginations to picture the beloved Lord of the Rings (LOTR) characters. Merchandising was pretty scarce and no internet existed to connect the fandom. I had this classic 1976 poster by Jimmy Cauty on my wall and bought the occasional Brothers Hildebrandt illustrated calendar, if I could find one.

I went to Ralph Bakshi's terrible 1978 animated movie of the first two novels in the trilogy. It left no lasting impression on me. But Peter Jackson's early 21st century LOTR film trilogy established for me (and everyone else, I suspect) the definitive appearances of all our favourites. I enjoyed his Hobbit trilogy of films as well although, in my opinion, the story was unnecessarily padded out and enhanced with new characters and storylines -- i.e. milked for every last possible penny. One long movie or two shorter ones would have more than sufficed to bring that novel to the screen.