My Sabbath correspondences - feasts

Imbolc - Candlemas
the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord
Groundhog Day
The Oriental New Year usually falls around this date
LupercaliaLent festivities are also often in February, Shrovetide, Mardi Gras, Carnivale
Valentine's day, Vali's BlotNew Year of the Trees (Tu BiShvat)

Ostara - Easter - Spring Equinox - Pesach
Persian and Indian New Year, Nowruz
Lady's Day, Arab Mothers' Day, Purim, Annunciation, Dísablót
Lieldienas
Yggdrasil Day, Earth Day

Beltane - May Day
May Day, Calan Mai, Walpurgis Night
Whitsun, Pentecost, Green Week (falls usually in May)
Ludi Florales

Litha - Midsummer - Summer Solstice
Adonia
St. John's Feast Day, Jāņi, Ivan Kupala Day, Juhannus, Sankthans, Jaanipäev
Liða, Lissa
Mittumaari,
Alban Hefin,
Gŵyl Ganol yr Haf
Rasos
Tiregān

Lammas - loafmas - lughnasadh
The Savior of the Apple Feast Day; The Honey Savior and the Nut Savior - Eastern Slavic folk holidays, Spas - 14th, 19th and 29th of August
Festival of "St Peter in Chains"
Feast of the Transfiguration
The Feast of the Dormition
Dog Days

Mabon - Michaelmas - Autumn Equinox
Michaelmas, the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
Festival of strong will
Lord's Day
Jashne Mihragan
Chuseok
Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival, Moocake Festival, Lantern Festival
Pomona
Harvest Moon, Harvest Festival
October Fest
The Jewish Holy Days often fall around this date

Samhain - Hallowmas - Halloween
All Saints' Day, All Hallows, Solemnity of All Saints, or Feast of All Saints (Toussaint)
Allhallowtide
All Souls' Day
Day of the Dead
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night
Diwali is also celebrated at this time of the year
Allantide
Thanksgiving

Yule - Midwinter - Christmas - Winter Solstice

Imbolc

Imbolc is just around the corner, and I'm not happy with what I have achieved this year.
Again.

I don't want to lower the expectations, I want to higher my prestation.

I know I have excuses. Always.
'If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.'

My excuses are that I'm sick.
I have fibromyalgia, and it makes it hard to do anything.
I also have allergies, I'm allergic to animal hair, dandruff, mites, chitin - all the things dust is created of. Which makes acts making the dust move dangerous to me.
I also have Asperger's, which means that I need to do things in a certain way, or not at all.
And I'm married to a man with Asperger's and ADHD, who needs to have his things in a certain way, and who needs to do things in a certain way, and these ways are different to mine... so I need to adjust and assimilate and apply, and I'm not good at that.

Nevertheless, I wanted to get my Spring Cleaning done to this day, and it's not done.
I don't like it.

All I want to do is create. I want to paint. I want to play with paper. I want to make art. I want to do crafts. Anything but clean.
*sigh*

But to get some Imbolc inspiration for the last weekend, a last brave effort to elevate Imbolc from the other days of the year, go to my Imbolc board at Pinterest.

Week 5

Someone falls to pieces
Sleeping all alone
Someone kills the pain
Spinning in the silence
To finally drift away
Someone gets excited
In a chapel yard
Catches a bouquet
Another lays a dozen
White roses on a grave

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Someone finds salvation in everyone
And another only pain
Someone tries to hide himself
Down inside himself he prays
Someone swears his true love
Until the end of time
Another runs away
Separate or united?
Healthy or insane?

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

And even when you've paid enough, been pulled apart or been held up
With every single memory of the good or bad faces of luck
don't lose any sleep tonight
I'm sure everything will end up alright

You may win or lose

But to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

I think one learns a lot by copying. I also believe that one cannot do anything but one's own work. Unless one is after forging someone else's work or plagiarizing, which is something very different. We are talking about art journals. Art journals are sort of a visual diary. You should be wanting to art journal to express what's inside you, and if you do that by copying someone else's work... fine. The more you make art, the more authenthic and own your expression becomes, and the day will arrive, when you don't want to copy anyone any more, because you have your own pictures to make. But - I assume we aren't there yet, and that's why it's wonderful that the mixed media art community is so open, friendly, warm and generous and show how they do things.
One of my "ideals" is Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and here's a guest post by Carol Mahy-Merveille, where she shows how she made an art journal page step by step.

Week 4

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life,
You were only waiting for the moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
All your life,
You were only waiting for the moment to be free.

Black bird fly, black bird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird fly, black bird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

It is too easy for me to forget the main thing with this blog - faith. I get enthusiastic over things like the practical and artistic, and forget that She is the reason for this blog.
I want to add more practical spirituality in my life. Even though I'm very intuitive and have a wonderful relationship with Mother, I like the idea of religion and religiousness.

I believe spirituality is very important in life.

So - Faithbooking

What is Faithbooking?
Scrapbooking on the theme "faith". Creating a scrapbook about your faith and life with God.

Examples of these life moments:
- miracles in our lives
- things in our lives that remind us about God
- times when we were aware of God's influence in our lives
- times when we heard God's voice
- times, events, situations where our faith and God made a difference
- expression of faith, spiritual journey, values
- capturing Life Lessons
- witnessing
- quotes with special meaning to us, quotes with God's voice
- special prayers
- blessings
- anecdotes of God's presence in our lives

I learned about this from Christian women on-line, and one thing that bothers me very much is that ALL of them are talking about faithbooking as something you do to teach YOUR relation with God to your offspring and descendants. And I find that very self-centered.
These people go so far as to interrupt their worship service to snap a photo just to be able to record their going to church for generations to come.
To me that is something very NOT spiritual. On the contrary. What they are saying with that is that recording one's spiritual life is more important than the spiritual life itself! It makes their spiritual life a theater act. Just like with Project Life.
CREATING MEMORIES. STAGING and EDITING LIFE.

Perhaps I should. 

Week 3

I was thinking about the Inner Critic...

I want you to go to Willowing and friends at Ning, and join.
Then head to the "Free Classes", and take the "Art, Heart and Healing" class. Do the first assignment.

It's a bit the same as "What Does Your Heart Say?"

Now, after my "Catastrophy", I have been reading a lot about things like that. And I am starting to think that the "Inner Critic" is really badly named.

I have Asperger's, and that means I am working at "taming my inner lizard".  My lizard is really fast and strong, but sort of deaf... but the idea of that scaredy cat (or lizard) being a real lizard makes it easier for me to take it easy and not give those impulses as much weight.

So I thought of changing the image of the Inner Critic. She's sort of an overprotective mother... or guardian. The voice is there to protect me from getting emotionally hurt. If she manages to keep me safe, packed in cotton and Styrofoam in a unbreakable box with extra shock absorbers, she knows I will be safe. Unfortunately, she can't do that. So she will always be yapping and whining and muttering and trying to get me into the box in every mean she can come up with. And she has noticed that fear mongering works best.

Here's a couple of articles that give you suggestions on how to tame your inner critic
- by Mike Robbins
- by Dan Buettner
- by Laura Markham
- by Amy Morin
- by Bonnie Wise

I suggest you think about every one of these suggestions and how it applies to your inner... hmm... overprotective guardian? :-D, and make a page in your journal about each one, to help you remember

P.S. Also something wonderful for you: Julia Cameron; the artist's way video course

Week 2

I like astrology, and in astrology the life is already divided into 12 houses, areas of life.

Houses 1-6 are "under the surface", that is, not visible to most other people.
Houses 7-12 are "above the surface" that is, public, visible.
The houses are loosely paired, so that there's
the 1. house; ASC, ascendent, Aries' house and
7th house; DSC, descendent, Libra's house. 1. house is about me, 7. house about others, you.
2. is Taurus' house; and it's all about things like property and heritage, and so is
8th house, the house of the Scorpio. The difference is that Taurus' house is about private property and the kind of heritage that shows in your genes. Scorpio's house is about public property and the kind of heritage lawyers take care of.
3. is about friends and learning;
4. (IC) about home and belonging to a family;
5. about creating; as well off-spring as art, it's about fun and love and leisure time and hobbies.
6. is about everyday, things you do everyday, work, cleaning, wearing clothes, health and sickness etc. etc.
9 - opposite to 3 - is also about learning, but this time it's about academic pursues, higher learning, spiritual learning, expanding and widening the horizons, traveling in both reality and imagination
10. (MC) is about career, belonging in a public "family", a tribe, a village
11. - opposite to 5 - is the house of friends and the things you do with your friends in public. Like clubs and societies.
12. is the house of fears and shadows, subconscious and secrets.

Here's "10 areas of your life that may need a boost"

Think about these 12 areas of your life and how you could improve them. 

This week's homework is to get your natal horoscope chart and find out which planets you have in which houses and where the houses are.
Especially the planets in your 12th house are important.
Make your chart part of your Self Searching Journal.

 This is my "heart's message" page. The message of my heart was "Let Go". So I chose the Word for this year to be "Free". This is also my self-portrait, even though it doesn't look like me :-D

Week 1

I would like you to create yourself a Pinterest account. If you have one already, get another one, just for this project.

You will need the following boards:
* colors (one for each color)
* Soul Flower
* My Childhood
* This is me
* The Perfect Place
* Art
* Quotes

* colors
One board for each color, at least one for neutrals. You might want to have blacks, whites, greys and browns, or grey from black to white; brown, beige and cream. Or what ever you like.
If you don't like some color, don't have a board for that color.
If you think purple, violet and lavender are different colors, have a board for each of them.
Pin pictures that are of your favorite shade of that color. Not just orange, but the exact shade of orange you like. You should be able to open any of these boards and just sigh of happiness because the color is exactly right.
Also, have boards for your favorite color combinations. Like I have "yellow, grey, black"; "red and aqua"; "blues and gold" and "peacock". 

This exercise will give you your natural color palette, and it's highly probable that these colors actually work amazingly well with you. It's a better way of doing it than any seasonal color analysis, because the seasonal color analysis was based on the fact that people intuitively use "their" colors in their paintings, artwork. You use the colors in your art that you like, that pleases you best, you use the color combinations, etc.

* Here's another little exercise I want you to do.

Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing for a while. Calm down. Relax.
Imagine there's a green plant growing inside you. It's the flower of your soul. It's just leaves at the moment.
But there's a bud. (or buds). They are still tightly closed, green, but growing. They will burst open at any moment. Let them grow and swell, feel the urge to burst... Imagine yourself sitting inside that bud, in total darkness...
Now, the bud opens.
What color is the flower?

What shape, what scent, how does it feels? How do you feel, sitting on this flower, surrounded by it, surrounded by it's color and essence?

Make an art journal page of this flower.

Then go on and create a Pinterest board for this flower and its color. Pin all the pictures that give you the same feeling as your flower and its color.

This flower is your * Soul Flower, and its color is your Soul Color.

* Now, another exercise like that.

This time you should meditate about your childhood.

I want you to find as many photos of you as a kid, as you can find.
Pick your favorites, and scan them, and pin them to the next board:

* My Childhood

I want you to fill this board with images that remind you of your childhood, not images of vintage items, but pictures that make you feel as if you were 10 again.
Pictures of the environments you lived in.
Pictures that have your favorite colors, shapes, animals etc.
Sure, pin vintage images, if they make you feel like you're 10 again, like your favorite toy.
Pin YouTube music videos to give your board a sound. Was there a special song or sounds of wind in the willows that you associate with your childhood? There's most likely a YouTube video that has that sound.
You should feel like you were 10 again every time you open this board.
(Go ahead and make it "secret", if you don't want photos of you as a kid to be openly available to all. And if you don't want to post images of you on-line, save the photos for your journal, and try to find a picture that looks like you as a kid, to play your stand-in.)

* This is me

Fill this board with ANY pictures, that make you feel "this is so ME!". 

NOT picture you like
NOT pictures that show the "you" you would WANT to be
NOT pictures that show what you believe others think of you or expect of you
NOT pictures of your roles
NOT pictures that give an impression you would like to make
NOT dreams, wishes, hopes or expectations.

YES pictures that FEEL LIKE YOU.
The real you.
You are after the essence of you. Your energy. Imagery that resonate within you and fit your inner esthetics. You should identify yourself in the images and moods. What you associate with yourself.

Don't try to find specific pictures, but search with key words that describe you.

If you were a landscape, what would it be?
If you were an animal, what would it be?
If you were a cat, what kind of cat?
If you were a dog, what kind of dog?
If you were a bird, what would it be?
If you were a fairytale creature, what would it be?
If you were a fairytale humanoid, what would it be? (I mean mermaids, fairies, trolls... humanoids.)
If you were a flower, what would it be? Which color?
If you were a tree, what would it be? Which season?
If you were some other plant, what would it be?
If you were a color, what would it be?If you were a melody, what would it be?
If you were a time of the day?
If you were a book, if you were a holiday, if you were a city, if you were a stone, if you were a number, if you were a word, if you were a letter, if you were a season, if you were a month, if you were a decade, if you were an era, if you were a dance, if you were a painting, if you were a house, if you were a Goddess, if you were weather, if you were a natural catastrophe, if you were...
you get the idea.

If you were a force of nature, what would it be?
If you were a superhero, what would it be?
If you were a piece of furniture, what would it be?
If you were a country, what would it be?

Why? What does the specific item/thing means to you? Your personal symbolism associated with this? Which words would you use to describe this?

Now, make a page on your journal of "you as..." You as a cat. You as a tree. You as a... 

ALSO, WRITE WHY - as the comment, text, description, write on it WHY you chose the picture. What in it is "you"? What is the emotion you are trying to convey?

* What is your favorite dance to dance? Movements don't lie. You can't pretend to like to dance something you don't like. 
I happen to believe dance is important. I believe everyone should dance. Even if it's in your own living room in darkness with closed curtains and when you're alone at home. Dance.
Even if you think you "can't". Not everyone is fit to be a professional dancer, but all can dance.
It's like with singing. Everyone might not have a nice voice and be good at using it, but everyone can sing. We all know how. (And we should do it as often as we can, even if it's in the shower or in a closet, when you're alone at home... :-D)

* Favorite scents
1) Perfume
Do you have any perfumes? Which and why? Do you use them?
Is there a perfume that smells amazing on someone else, but not good on you?
What components make up the scent of your favorite perfume?

My "signature" perfume is Lolita Lempicka (Lolita Lempicka). 

"Lolita Lempicka fragrance is based on licorice. Beautiful anise note is a perfect match to licorice and violet. The intensive green ivy note is fresh and optimistic. The almond is in harmony with woodsy iris and sweet vanilla, united with heliotrope and Tonka. It was created in 1997."

"main accords: sweet; soft spicy; powdery; floral; woody"

2) Other scents and smells
Which smells make you instantly happy?
For me it's the smell of a colonial ware store. In Finland there were these stores, still in the 70's, that sold things like coffee, tea, cocoa and spices, dried fruits and other such exotic speceries. Oh, and sugar. (Spiceries). These shops smelled amazing - candy, spices, coffee... I could have stood in one of these stores for ages, just breathing in the amazingness...
Also, freshly baked goods... that's one reason why I'm a baker.

Literature.
Think about all the books, stories, poems, song lyrics etc. you have read or heard.
Think about your emotional response, the resonance, the wisdom you perceived.
Which books have been important to you?
What are your favorite books, poems, stories etc?
Who are your favorite writers?
If you were a character, what kind of character would that be? Or who would it be? Is there already a character that makes you identify yourself?

* The Perfect Place

Close your eyes, breathe, relax, calm down.

You are somewhere. It's the best place in the world. It's the most beautiful place in the world. It's the spot on earth you wish you could live your whole life on, and where you plan to die and be buried one day, so that you will spend the rest of eternity there, it's just so perfect!

There are no limitations of time, space or money here, if your perfect place is Taj Mahal on Bahamas, that's the place. If your perfect place is the library of Alexandria before the fire, in Canada, looking like a log house, then that's it. If it's Rivendell placed on Pandora (Avatar), then that's it. I mean - no limits.

Now, close your eyes again, and place yourself comfortably on a seat... what kind of seat? How does it feel? Is it a comfy arm chair, a throne, perhaps you are sitting on the ground, or on a swing hanging over a waterfall?
Where is this seat? What else is in the room - or space, if there's no room. What do you see, hear, smell?

Describe the landscape, describe the house (if there's any), the dwelling, the rooms, the gardens, the park, the town or city this dream home of yours is.

What time of the year is it?
What time of the day?
Is it warm, cold, snowy, rainy, sunny, cloudy? What's the weather?
Is there water nearby? Trees? Meadows?
North, south, east, west?

Are there other people there? What are they to you?
What are they doing? They are behaving as you'd like them to behave, their actions bring you joy, it makes you happy to see them.
If you get unpleasant feelings, write it down, for future reflections, then change what they are doing, and if that doesn't help, remove them from the place. NO-ONE WILL EVER KNOW.
This is YOUR place, YOU decide who's there and who's not, not some conventions, needs or expectations.
You will be able to have the husband you have always wanted, the kids, the parents, siblings and other relatives; or no relatives? The lover of your dreams. Lovers. Real people you know, celebrities, imaginary people... anyone goes.
The friends and neighbors you have always wanted, everyone in your dream space is exactly as you want.
Or everyone is an animal.
Or there's no-one else there, except you.
Or you and a lot of animals.
You see - it's YOUR dream place, YOU decide. EVERYTHING.

Now, what do you do in this amazing place? How does your life look? What do you eat, drink, what are your hobbies?
What is your job? Do you have any, or are you so rich you don't need to work? Or otherwise supported, by magic or God or fairies or what ever? Are you someone's mistress? Or muse? Are you perhaps a princess? Or queen?

What do you wear?

* Art

Fill a board with artwork you like and artwork that you think is you, and artwork that looks like you. That's three kinds of pictures.
Pieces of art you love is easy.
Pieces of art where the subject looks like you, maybe a bit more difficult, but still easy.
Pieces of art that show your essence, that show your spirit, that ARE you... that's difficult.
Because it's not what you think others think of you, or what you think you should be, or what you would like to be. (Even that is OK, because our dreams are unique to us. You can't fill a whole board of images of what you would like to be without who you really are sneaking in and influencing the result :-D) It's pictures that describe your inner world, pictures that share your energy.
But - if you can't find pieces of art that are you, at least pin artwork that you like. You can remove pins later. Maybe you like a painting a lot, but after having seen it together with all the other paintings you love, you might not think it fits with the others. And then the question is, of course, is this the real you, or the others?

Don't forget to write in the description WHY you like it, WHY it's like you

Also, don't forget that this isn't just about paintings and pictures. Architecture, landscape architecture, arts and crafts; design, jewelry, furniture; sculptures, street art, calligraphy, installations, music, theater, dance... "art" is a  W I D E  concept.
Look at the ornaments, patterns, texture, surface, colors, shapes and lines, forms and techniques, styles and eras.

* Important, meaningful quotes

I am sorry for not having "a Bible", because there's an ocean of Bible based activity on-line.
I with my own, eclectic spirituality, need to write my own Bible.
I do that by collecting quotes that mean something to me, from all possible sources.
Look for quotes that make you respond physically. Quotes that make you cry. Quotes that make you so happy you find it hard to breathe. Quotes that make you smile. Quotes that give you that fuzzy, warm feeling inside. Quotes that remind you of that Mother loves you, and created you to be you. That there is no-one else in the world who could be you, every one of them is lacking something essential, the things that make you different from all the others on this planet.
You are special, you are unique, you are important.

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Those boards are going to be your main source for this year.

Now, start your art journal. There's tons of material, tutorials, instructions, examples and inspiration on-line, if you feel unsure about this. (You can collect them all to one board on Pinterest, to have at hands when you need them.)

art journal every day: getting started
Here's about how to collage
Art journaling 101

This is the first page of my art journal. I'm following The Documented Life Project, and this was the project for the first week of January 2014.