Aphrodite-Eve
11 X 15 watercolor,
1984
spiritual trailblazers
the story of this painting
.
Adita Eva 'the
Very Beginning,'
the original Eve
had no spouse except the serpent,
a living phallus
she created for her own sexual pleasure.
Some ancient peoples
regarded the Goddess and her serpent as their first parents.
Sacred icons showed
the Goddess giving life to a man,
while her serpent
coiled around the apple tree behind her.(1)
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The
story of this painting
The child in the
garden. In wonder she examines the tiny rosebud that becomes the full
blown rose. Unfortunately mom or dad or someone along the way, starring
at a bloodied figure on a cross, says reverently, 'child this
is the rose.' The garden rose is cut from the earth, rose-blood pours
out its stem as it's placed in a vase of water at the cross's bloody
feet.
Every once in
a while as I walk the path of my life, I'll round a corner and the
child in the garden will come running joyfully back into my arms.
She usually appears just after the climb has become so rugged, so
difficult that I almost give up. In continuing on she finds me, welcomes
me and pulls on my arm to come and rest in the beauty of her garden.
When this happens I begin to reflect on the many hands that have shaped
the clay of this body, painted my mind with ideas of reality, glazed
my eyes and ears to the point that the music I hear and the pictures
I see are ghosts of their reality, and fired me into a rigid conception
of form. She has me look into the clear glassy surface of a morning
glory pool, and the face I see is hers. The mask I was wearing lies
at my feet.
In this painting
I try to reclaim a positive image of woman as a sexual powerful being,
rather than imbibing the potent potion of our culture that dreams
her into being as the harbinger of original sin. Here her body emulates
the curve of the earth and playfully offers a dance with beauty and
grace. Her energy opens in vulnerability for she knows you may fear
her, your mask grown heavy in playing your own role. Her lips suggest
biting your man's tiny nipples and tickling your creativity. She'll
reveal many realms for she treads in every domain and juggles with
the elements, offering what seems to you only a small plate of food.
Do you understand that within her mystery she held you as the universe
holds this planet, nurturing and sustaining your every need. Can you
let her revel in the touch of her own body and not require to possess
it. Eve please come back to the garden.
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.
.
"To the Secret
Rose"
Far-off, most
secret, and inviolate Rose,
Enfold me in my
hour of hours; where those
Who sought thee
in the Holy Sepulchre,
Or in the wine-vat,
dwell beyond the stir
And tumult of
defeated dreams; and deep
Among pale eyelids,
heavy with the sleep
Men have named
beauty. Thy great leaves enfold
The ancient beards,
the helms of ruby and gold
Of the crowned
Magi; and the King whose eyes
Saw the Pierced
Hands and Rood of elder rise
In Druid vapor
and make torches dim;
Till vain frenzy
awoke and he died; and him
Who met Fand walking
among flaming dew
By a grey shore
where the wind never blew,
And lost the world
and Emer for a kiss;
And him who drove
the gods out of their bliss,
And till a hundred
morns had flowered red
Feasted, and wept
the barrows of his dead;
And the proud
dreaming King who flung the crown
And sorrow away,
and calling bard and clown
Dwelt among wine-stained
wanderers in deep woods;
And him who sold
tillage, and house, and goods,
And sought through
lands and islands numberless years,
Until he found,
with laughter and tears,
A woman of so
shining loveliness
That men threshed
corn at midnight by a tress,
A little stolen
tress. I, too, await . . .
W.B. Yeats(2)
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1.
Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p.288.
Definition of Eve
2.
Yeats, Mythologies, p. 145
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