Unification of souls
For my monthly and yearly Major Arcana tarot card for contemplation was the “Lovers” and i have been wondering about this in context of my life and also about unifications of nature which has been expansive and creative.
Perhaps when people are given this card or people talk of “lovers” they imagine Romance. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about recriprocity and what better to imagine symbiotic and mutual relationships in nature. Look at Algae and Moss creating Lichen but Lichen as a mutual of trees and rocks. when thinking of trees we have to now include mycorrhizal fungi in which the tree feeds it organic material. We see mutual relationships of wolves and ravens ; cattle and birds ; aphids and ants ; barnacles on whales.
I think of this as a Romance , a joining which empowers each of them.
i read that “symbiotic interactions can drive coevolution and shape species diversity” .
There are things in my life which have enhanced my life , evolved my way of being and deepening my experience creating a richer , deeper and broader reality. Things which came to me when i desperately needed something. Nature and Painting : both of these interplay with me , influence each other, in which what i do takes new shapes. You could say painting is not a living thing but i think it as consciousness which when i paint i create something entirely and uniquely new.
These have created a romance with life itself.
Our family , friends and pets also carry a deep love of connection which creates something strong , a beautiful force of love and compassion which helps us be ourselves. We go into this world feeling stronger when we know we are backed by love.
This Earth loves you , holds you and includes you. It was last Tuesday when i was sat in the Forest in the morning with cold breath and chilly fingers feeling of joy and connection that just being there gave me. I was for some time sat with a hot cup of coffee discussing with the forest how i could show something in an authentic way , in my way, and time escaped me exploring textures and shapes.
I think of a force of attraction to ourself which we including myself discard due to our life conditioning and culture. Being in wonderment of ourselves and our innate ability to make something unique is powerful which has been robbed by commercialism and our materialistic culture defining what is good or bad.
We can fall in love with our art regardless of other peoples preferences. We can fall in love with making art. We can fall in love with ourselves making art.
In my little Tarot book it mentions “lovers” as enabling the unification of opposites. In this world of individualism and identities we often clash with opposites as we feel threatened by alternative beliefs and being forced to submit to others. Leaning into with , listening and compassion of people that are different to us creates a world of understanding. How you experience this world is relevant even if you cannot explain it better than the other.
A unification of ideas and shared experiences builds a better reality.
Sharing ideas and art is the reciprocity of life.
Bull Crag Peninsular
I managed to go from hardly any photographs to an abundance within a week which is great as photographs tell their own story of place much better than my words can. It was the coldest day and a sprinkle of snow had settled over night leaving this place like a magical wonderland.
Along the paths adjacent to the reservoir are so crisp and whereas a week ago i was struggling to show something the snow had framed the sparse remaining plants as gorgeous. Even a dangling leaf takes on a new meaning and the blue grey light of the morning created a wonderful background.
As you wander along the Peninsular its not all frosty as the forest protects the interior and you will find saturated trees with partially still green ferns resting alongside moss creeping upwards. But today was about the frost. I absolutely adore resting snow on tree branches and twigs , it is nature drawing monochromatic lines creating different negative spaces which i get lost in as my mind makes up unseen things as i gaze at them for a while.
Although we have had frosty mornings it hadn't crept too far into the Forest so i was delighted to see the spongy moss have a light dusting highlighting the tops of once before trees claimed by the moss which gave such an ethereal feel to the forest and the areas of ferns brought out something quite special with the birch tree areas , it felt like the trees were remembering a time long long ago before man was here.
All this inspired me to seek more shapes in the landscape which felt mysterious as they belong in a Fairy tale and for the first time i wandered deeper into the wooded areas as i caught glimpse of something which caught my eye. My imagination raced thinking of these shapes of sleeping entities watching patiently for their time to come when strange beasts roamed this land.
Hareshaw Linn
I was contemplating whether another place would be better than to spend a year here mainly due to its size but that was my limited thinking of my melancholy talking which unsettles me enough to sabotage my plans. But , i had decided that this year i would master this “throwing me of my centre” and no matter how my mind screams at me i will stay true to its path.
There is so much to see and fall in love with here. Although only a mile and half long it is perfect in every respect and the only thing it needs is a mindful eye being curious and falling in love with everything. To become the woodlands friend and allow it to trust me to show me much more.
A favourite of mine is after a storm , please do not venture into a woodland during one , as leaves , twigs and catkins are dispersed across the woodland. I love to find these dangling on a host branch reminding of impermanence of life but also that this generates something new , somewhere new and we should embrace it as we learn from these transitions.
The woodland floor has beauty in its chaos which most people will just trample over or walk passed without noticing and this is something i wish to show people that we have been programmed to perceive somethings as beautiful and others as nothing. We have to be brave in leaning into what we really love because we are too insecure to show it. be bold and stand out as yourself. The photograph below invites you to develop what you see as beautiful and when you begin to see it your depth of connection to nature and yourself will deepen and change forever.
Bakethin Nature Reserve
The nature pond is still now , calm and quietly nourishing itself ready for the madness of spring and summer. It is months of meditation of letting itself be and out of this life emerges. As someone with Aphantasia i feel this pause before i go painting in the woodlands , it is letting it be but without needing to think about it, and once sat down something comes from my depth which quite often astonishes me to how that just became. Trust the stillness and silence !
My friend , Robin , once again came to say hello and popped up in different places. I wonder sometimes whether thats my Mum just saying i am here for you. Robin was marvelling in my choices and hopped on places to show me to photograph.
Once i let go of needing to take photographs for blogs and social media and began opening up my limitations of what to investigate my innate wellbeing became uncovered and nature connected to me and i remembered that in unification of souls it is mutual because there is love not duty.
I love the textures of these tree with moss and lichen draped over the branches and creeping up the trunk and think what must the forest look like 10,000 years ago after the ice age and no human interaction.
In the Wild , Painting
Out of emptiness
emerges
love
christopher Evans
Top left : Watercolour on 140 x 210mm sketchbook
Top Right : Watercolour on A3 Canson watercolour sketchbook
Bottom Left : Watercolour on 330 x 500mm Tela Oil Paper
Bottom Right : Watercolour on 500 x 650mm Tela Oil paper
