November: Full Stop
We have a confession to make: Sometimes, we really have no idea what an image we make means. We’ve been at craft fairs and art openings with you, our thoughtful audience, asking us questions about why things are the way they are in some of these paintings. Sometimes we spin out a creative answer, recalling the inspired conversations and clear associations we shared before making the image. And, sometimes, we honestly believe you would do a better job telling the story by telling us what you see.
This month’s image and spell came to us fully formed and highly insistent. At some point, late in our process, we discovered that the preceding spells in this year’s calendar could be read like a telegram, one long, wise sentence instructing us on how to survive this unusual year. Once we associated the year’s spells with a telegram, the phrase “full stop” came up immediately: Period. End of sentence. Then the image came without hesitation or question. We obediently painted it, sat back and thought, “Whelp, let’s see what this is all about.”
The day before November 1st, with the US election about to happen, in the midst of all that we are still in the midst of, we looked at this spell and thought—let’s wait a few days, surely it will become clearer. But alas, my friends, it has not. And, we’re almost into December now—so, we offer this spell to you as the mystery that it is to us, as well.
About this Spell
One thing we know is that sometimes change can happen all at once. Life, as it was, is no longer; something so familiar has come to a full stop. Another thing we know is rainbows are really full circles, we just can’t always see that from where we are. From our perspective, on earth’s surface, we usually see them fade away somewhere in their arc, but this is a false stopping. In truth, a circle has no end.
These weasels know something we still don’t know. They are trying to tell us. They are holding a portal open for us. What are they telling you? What do you know? Working with mystery means making this spell your own. What is completely different in your life this month? What has stopped? What has not yet started? What hasn’t stopped yet that needs to? What is more whole than you’re able to see from where you stand right now...
Meditation on Full Stop
For this meditation, please find a comfortable place to rest. Let yourself calibrate to an experience of being, rather than doing—simply notice how the breath comes, and gravity settles, and thoughts pop up and drift away. There’s nothing you need to do right now to make meditation happen. If you’d like to, you can imagine time as something that has substance to it, subtle, but something you can see and feel. See if you can make an opening in time so that this practice can fit inside it. Let yourself slip into this pocket in time, fitting yourself into this practice, feeling time and space around you holding you with a sense of reassuring presence. Perhaps you feel intuitively where the time for your practice runs out, as though the space itself starts closing up. Or perhaps you’re able to spend an extended amount of time within the container you’ve just imagined, getting used to its reassuring presence, really learning to feel a sense of yourself belonging to these moments, living inside them, at home in the mystery of it all.
About the painting:
Corina: I just want to say that the phrase “weasel rainbow” has entered our vocabulary now for anything that comes to us that is compelling, demands our attention, and defies easy description. When things get weasel rainbow, we know there’s something powerful going on and we know we won’t have easy answers just yet.
Jocelyn: This spell has been a favorite of mine since its inception. It means something to me that cannot be told easily in story or metaphor. It’s just right. I remember Corina saying something about seeing weasels and rainbows for this spell and I was like, yes, absolutely, please draw that for me to paint. And then, earlier this year, when I found out I was going to have a baby this Fall, I realized I’d be a new parent this month, sleeplessly, blissfully tending to this brand new human--and again, it seemed just right. This is a portal image, and I hope it works some magic on other people, too.
This month:
We are offering a holiday sale on our Etsy site! You can get a 2021 calendar and a Portable Fortitude deck together for only $40 + free shipping. Since we’re without craft fairs this year, we’re so grateful for your online orders!! Thank you thank you thank you.
As always, you can follow our shenanigans at @abacuscorvus on Instagram. And you can find out what each of us is up to by following @corinadross and @jocelyncorvus