February: May I Experience This Completely
Our first reference for this phrase came from a Pomegranate Doyle podcast in which she interviewed Larry Savides. This month’s spell is about staying present, especially when something hard is happening. It is about building your capacity to transmute intensity by trusting in your capacity to tolerate it. This month’s image asks us to become crystalline—to hold ourselves with precision inside the form we inhabit while life streams through us. This image reminds us to bring what’s outside, in—to accept and reflect different angles and perspectives, to make something beautiful out of the chaos of our hearts.
About the spell:
This phrase is a mantra. Repeating it again and again brings your attention to the full range of your emotions. Can you welcome each impression evenly regardless of its quality? This is a spell for increasing your awareness, and it’s especially potent during hard times—moments that feel dangerous, times of great uncertainty, and times of great pain. Your strongest feelings fuel this spell, and your courage keeps the lamp lit in dark places. The magic of this spell comes from the alchemical process of transmuting something muddy into something crystal clear, and shining.
A meditation for staying present to your experience:
The first time you try this meditation, it may serve you to find a quiet place, free from distraction. Over time, though, you can do this anywhere, any time. Begin by bringing your attention to the place where your body comes in contact with the ground—the very bottom of you in whatever position you find yourself. Embody gravity. Visualize the deep mass of the earth drawing you and everything around you IN. Feel this planetary force holding you in place, revealing the contact you always have with your environment. Relax a bit into that place of contact with the ground.
Next, bring your awareness to the physical sensation of inhaling. Consider that, every time you breathe in, you defy gravity. Gravity is steady, but willing to collaborate. Every breath demonstrates the co-existence of support and constancy with expansion and freedom. You get to have both. With this structure intact, you have the tools you need to grow past pain. As you breathe in and out, let everything you feel be significant and transient. Become the sensing bridge experiences use to cross over.
The more you practice this meditation during times of ease and comfort, the more accessible it becomes during moments of pain, numbness, despair, grief, and rage. As you steady your attention on that feeling of being a bridge, allow the heaviness and intensity of your sensations to drop down to the earth. Let your pain be cared for. Then bring in the the freedom of the open sky and let your pain be touched by freedom.
About the painting:
Corina: My sister and I like to challenge each other. I asked her, our resident colorist, if she’d be down to paint a crystal--which is just this wild assemblage of planes that refract light from everything around it. She was down, and we both agreed the image should be simple and precise, while leaving room for a certain kind of dreaminess. The crystal we used belongs to our mother, and to get the exact right kind of light and color coming through it, we ended up placing it on the open page of an oversized art book--I think it was a close-up detail of an iridescent art deco vase. So the spirit of that artwork subtly infused this one.
Jocelyn: My sister shared the idea for this image months before I started painting it, so I had time to get intimidated. But I loved what I believed it could become if we could pull it off... Crystals have contour, but they are also transparent, which means I had to paint its inside and outside at the same time. For this image, I tried to accommodate two painterly tendencies at the same time—my loosy-goosey expressionism and my painstaking realism. To me, this painting represents the hard won gifts of collaboration—both within myself and within my collaboration with my sister.
This month's offerings:
GALLERY SHOW
We have a show up at Arcana in downtown Durham, North Carolina! Safe Passage features a selection of framed giclée prints from this year’s calendar, and will run through March 12th.
15% OFF FEBRUARY'S PRINT
This image is for sale for the whole month of February!
Buy a print of May I Experience This Completely and get 15% off, using the coupon code EXPERIENCE.
STAY STRONG
This is the last month to take advantage of Corina’s offer, Discounted Readings for Comrades, short and focused readings on how to stay strong for the struggle ahead.
NOT ALL POWER IS CORRUPT
This March, Jocelyn will be sharing 5 weeks of loving, subversive, and empowering messages about how to rearrange your relationship to power, shifting away from its destructive manifestations and towards its constructive and creative essence. Follow her on Instagram to get the download! @jocelyncorvus