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The Reflection

12/29/2020

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One of my mentor teachers reminded me that all mirrors are distorted.  In deep reflection on this past year, this past season, and in light of the full moon in Cancer, I look to the sky and ask Grandmother Moon to show me what needs to come into the light.

No mirror or experience of being mirrored by humanity can accurately show you what you long to see. This year I was reminded of the pain and longing that comes from this place.  A place of desire.  To be Seen.  Heard.  Felt.  In isolation and far away from my chosen family I grieve.  Knowing that Spring will come again.  

Sitting here in a place of reflection.  
Here is what came to me. 
​I offer this as an aesthetic response to the end of this solar year of 2020...
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The Earth below my feet
Covered
Quick sands
Fast currents

Each day a familiar cycle
Repetition disconnected from reality
Speaking into the vastness

Eclipsed moments

Tracking every step 

To find my way back

To this steady rock

I stand here now

Witnessing the tides turn

​...Once again

Reset
Repeat


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Seasonal Offerings

12/14/2020

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Welcome Winter.  Welcome Wisdom.

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Too soon to tell what the season ahead will bring.  Everything with 2020 has been ungrounded and unprecedented it seems. The gift?  Using creativity and intuition to step forward into the unknown.  This winter I imagine opportunities and challenges like any season and like most of 2020 as a whole. 

I don't usually like to promote items or do promotions of any kind due to my struggles with capitalism.  Late stage capitalism is destructive and negligent to all of Creation and lies at the root of oppressive systems.  For anyone who is just getting to know me, long before 2020 I have made a commitment to working/living from a social justice stance, looking at systemic oppression from an intersectional lens.  In my work I have found that it is embedded into my ancestry, my values, and now shows up in each and every course I teach, each and every practice I hold, into my choices, considerations, and will be until change is steady, sustainable, and real, which may not be in my lifetime.  It will also continue to be a process that I am in as a person with passing privilege in many areas of my identity.  It makes for difficult conversations, but all ones worth having.
​

This year I see the benefits of extending my offers from a Spirit of giving and within a practice of gratitude.  For the season ahead, I offer you dear reader opportunities to access discounts to fuel creative fires and curiosities.  In the week ahead until the Solstice begins on 12/21, you will see new offerings pop up around basic astrology readings and other one time session options.  You will also see  discounted artwork. 

All items and services in my a shop can be reduced 10 % more than marked with the code ISEEYOU for any purchases over $26

Additionally, in honor of today's New Moon and Solar Eclipse, in the phenomenal sign of Sagittarius, I offer you this reflection and guided meditation.  This in effort to keep your inner fire burning as we come to the end of darkness and welcome back the light with the Winter Solstice.  Access the 40 minute recording below.  I recommend having a post integrative process of some type whether it be journaling or moving.  Please enjoy and be well. 


sagnm2020.m4a
File Size: 28536 kb
File Type: m4a
Download File

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Scorpio Season Arrives:  The Darkness

10/23/2020

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The darkest time of the year is here - the point between the Libra new moon and the Scorpio new moon.  I wake to mornings that feel like midnight and float through stormy days that feel like medicine for my soul.  This morning I woke up feeling hung over from art making.  The piece you see here is what came through me effortlessly last night.  I've written a poem to pair with it.  One that may need some space before I reveal it.  It's one of those tender ones that feels almost like magic.

I have been thinking a lot about the importance of tending to the darkness.  Befriending that which raises fear.  These days I am in my own healing place, wrestling with old relationships-the outdated, the out grown, the ones that need to be grieved.  Something I keep circling back on is the grey areas.  This is a space that calls me.  The non-duality of our being.  The place where everything is nothing and nothing is everything.  

Years ago I was honored to work with Aama Bombo from the thirteen grandmother's council.  I received a healing from her as part of our exchange.  For some reason I am holding her in my heart today and I am feeling the depth of the connection we had in that moment.  From this I am reminded of a few profound truths:  1).  that we are all connected to the same source, 2) it is impossible to heal in isolation, and 3) all things/beings come to pass.  I offer this to you as you navigate the darkness this season.  Miigwetch for stopping by. 


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Libra Season:  As Above So Below

10/16/2020

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Happy New Moon!  Libra mirrors themes of balance, justice, and advocacy.  For me there is a shadow of mediating too much, which often shows up as indecision.  These days I can hardly make up my mind when it comes to small and big changes.  In those moments I am called to rest, reflect, and witness.  New moon energy gives an opportunity to pause and welcome reflective energies so new intentions can be manifested. 

This new moon in particular I am feeling the winds change and the weight of the storms edges surrounding my experience.  

In our Anishinaabe tradition the wisdom of the season is within the western direction, where we honor the abundance of the harvest, embrace gifts of the mystery, and welcome grief as we descend into the darkness, preparing for winter.  At the onset of Autumn I went to Lake Michigan to sing prayers and ask for guidance.  I released many tears and came back with the message to wait.  I still don't know what I am waiting for, but I know that I have been called to tend to the water elements.  So each day I try to find myself in a moment with water.  This morning it was the frost lingering on the grasses and my sister and I took a walk with my daughter.  Something about the simplicity of the sun meeting the frost gave me a brief moment of presence.  There I was able to remember connection is one path to wellness.  So my intentions will likely follow this path as I set my new moon altar later this evening.

How are you being called to the present?  What small moments help you see possibility?  How does the moon guide your path?


However you spend the season, the new moon, or the days ahead, I wish you wellness as you embrace the changing winds. We need community more than ever to endure this level of upheaval and uncertainty. Please vote, please send prayers for good changes to come, and take good care of each other.

"Libra:  As Above So Below", Mixed Media Collage, prints available.  Read the accompanying poem here.  
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Somewhere a Star is Playing

9/5/2020

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I made this piece in honor of the strange gifts that come through grief. Only certain things can be born out of grief...Things I realized when I looked back and saw the inevitable ways that grief changed my life, me, or my relationships.  What comes through the cycles of death and rebirth are not always obvious, but there is a chaos that yields magic among some of my deepest burdens. It has not changed the way a loss feels, but it gives me light, a spark in the darkness that looms.

It's important for me to remember that all beings are connected and all of life operates in cycles.  The collective grief is abundant these days.  As the last days of summer bring us to a harvest season, I am asking myself to be mindful and observe the abundance.   When I feel too much, to pause, breath, and trust that this will pass.  I know that there are times I won't want to fee it all.  I know that there are time I will be pushed beyond my limits.  I also know that art, food, community, and movement are all good medicines to support me along the way. I hope this finds you in your own dance among the waves of grief and abundance. 
Wishing you wellness ✨💫⭐️✨⭐️💫✨
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
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Virgo is Upon Us - The Harvest is Here!

8/25/2020

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Virgo has arrived and so has our North American academic season.  I don't know about you, but I already feel the need to ground and collect and the semester has not officially begun for me.  

This season I have the honor of returning to CIIS and will be joining Lesley University as well. Being an adjunct faculty member of 2 extraordinary Expressive Arts Therapy departments is a joy and privilege.  One I do not take lightly.  One that I feel my Ancestors shining down with pride about.  Even with perspective and support, as I get into detail mode I begin to feel the strain of what does not come naturally to me.  I look to my traditions for guidance and remember the gifts of the season.

This season is a transitional one as we move from the height of Summer into Autumn...One that is full of abundance, as well as danger like wildfires, the pandemic, racial injustice, and all this on the heels of an election that will determine so much of our stability and sense of wellness.  My wish for this Virgo season is for all beings to find the grounding energy needed to stay well.  Stay organized, stay humble, stay safe.  

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Leo Season

8/20/2020

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Leo Season is here and gone like that.  I am late to the circus, but fashionably so.  The issue is still available here.
Hoping the New Moon in Leo this past Tuesday was an opportunity for you to reflect on yourself, love yourself, and find compassion for the process you are in.  Creating a life worth living is hard work.  May the Virgo season ahead cultivate the wellness and growth you seek as Summer light fades into Autumn's harvest.

Here is a write up I shared earlier this month about Leo and the artwork I made in reflection of this moment...

Happy Leo Season! May we continue on with fierce love and courage in the process of dismantling oppressive systems, unlearning racial biases/behaviors, and connecting with one another in the spaces between opposition.

This piece was inspired by my reflection about the archetype of Leo within a patriarchal society that is undergoing massive (necessary) strife and change.

An astrology teacher I met with once on my birthday some years back told me that the archetype of Leo was “bastardized by the patriarchy” into being seen as an egotistical, selfish, if not a narcissistic symbol and that has taught the collective that caring for yourself is wrong. What a narrow a view...what a toxic message to shadow all the importance of tending to the self while ignoring the goodness that Leo energy offers.
I am starting this season off by acknowledging the big cat energy within me that is courageous, beautiful, fierce, and full of love, generosity, gifted with the art of protection, loyalty, and an abundance of creativity.

This collage is set within the South Dakota landscape of the sacred Black Hills of our Lakota relatives. 4 lion skulls replace the faces of former leaders who enacted much violence on the bodies of land and people. Knowing the truth about history is critical to our collective healing.
💖✨stay courageous out there. So. Much. Love.
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NuMotive EMOTE: The Cancer Edition Now Available

6/23/2020

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Once again NuMotive brings us a complete and total stunner full of heart.  I am fortunate to say that I will be contributing regularly each edition!  There is a summer bundle available.  This edition I share a piece, "Calling Home", which features this print and a piece of writing that captured the feels of the moment for me during this time.  120 pages of art, magic, meditations, intention, and wisdom plus discounts from contributors.   
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Prints available!  8x10 on archival matte paper 
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Now Contributing to 'NuMotive' Mag

5/30/2020

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Gemini Edition:  Duality now available

Happy to announce my collaboration with Ultreia Vida for the launch of their E-Zine 'Nu Motive'.  Gemini season has already begun, but it's not too late to get the goods.  What is NuMotive?  An E-Zine with multiple modalities of art and creative contributions that align with the zodiac sun sign.  Astro calendars, nutritionally focused meals and cocktail recipes, visual art, playlists, poetry and more!  Each solar shift will bring a new sun sign and a new edition.  Next up is Cancer:  Emote, launching June 20th.
Check out Ultreia Vida on Instagram for more information on the community behind the Ezine.  

Prints of Gemini are available here!! 
​Limited edition.  Price includes tax and shipping fees.  
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Monthly Offerings

5/26/2020

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As the pandemic continues to bring major changes to life and lifestyles, I am continuing to offer free services each month.  Please visit https://www.jilltherrien.com/offering.html for details.  Wishing you and yours the support you need to stay grounded at this time.  
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