It is the children just coming from the spirit world, and the old people, soon to return, that are closest to the Sacred.

When I can, I like to reuse old canvas that I collect or am given by friends. The canvas I had planned to use for "Grandmother" had blown over in a strong wind, which tore a big hole in it. I thought I'd have to throw it away. In my meditation I heard, "use it anyway, this will be a painting about trust". I bought some canvas material and cut out a circle to cover the hole. The night before I began "Grandmother", I had an amazing dream. I was wrapping sage I had collected at a Sun Dance Ceremony up in Southern Oregon.

When I awoke I wrote down my dream as I have been doing for years. I am a dreamer and pay careful attention to the subtle and sometimes not so subtle messages that are gifted out of the dreamtime. I felt it was a powerful symbolic medicine dream. I was sure I hadn't any sage left from Sun Dance and so I didn't believe it to be prophetic, although when I woke up and went outside in the morning to begin my painting, underneath the flagstone table I use to paint on, magically stacked perfectly neat and standing alone was a pile of sage. Awestruck and amazed I knew this sage was appearing somehow out of nowhere and my dream had been prophetic. Spirit was giving me a message for me to wrap the sage and use in the painting.

That first day I started her, two girlfriends came over, I'd invited them to paint with me. I like to have painting parties to share, have fun and encourage my friends' creativity. Excitedly I shared about my dream and the sage. We knew it was going to be a powerful day and a powerful painting. We began by sitting all together and speaking from our hearts about how we feel about women's power and how that affects everyone on the planet. We spoke about the feminine fully re-emerging into the world, as well as in our hearts and minds. We spoke about historical prejudices and how we have in the past adopted these prejudices as our own just as our mothers and mothers mother had before us. We spoke of our hurts and our prejudices about men and how this vicious cycle has the world caught in a vicious dream. One girl began sharing very deep buried emotions of rage that were the result of a violent rape that had occurred several years before. She hadn't spoke of this with us before and in our sacred, safe space, she was allowed to fully reveal her rage and her shame.

Her openness to share her rage and come forward set the healing in motion for all of our own tears of rage in understanding. We spoke about transcending these emotions and breaking the chain we have all been victim to for centuries upon centuries. We recognized the importance of our role as women healing the women and the necessity to then use our reclaimed ancient power and wisdom to help heal the men. Creating again harmony and balance in our world today that is in so much need of this beautiful healing spiral.

We prayed and used some of the sage I'd found, burning it and using the smoke to clear and Bless ourselves, the area and our canvas's. I began with using orange and yellow paint, colours I myself have tended to avoid in the past. In the Chakra system, the colour orange is the sexual Chakra and the colour yellow represents the solar plexus, our personal power. I've had an aversion to yellow and orange for a long time, and I wanted to use these colours to help heal my sexual abuse wounds from the past.

"Grandmother" came forth as we painted and continued to share our feelings. I cut the hole in the canvas a little larger to make a bed for the wrapped sage, which I then placed in the centre of what is now a shield and a drum. I used blue corn meal that had been blessed on the Alter from the Sweat Lodge on the land where I then lived. I put it around the shield I had created from the loose canvas. I used loose tobacco leaves over her vaginal area, a plant sacred to the Native Americans for it's ability to bless and protect. Later I added white and she became a beautiful pastel grandma.

A few weeks later, when I thought possibly she may be almost complete, in my meditation before I began, I received a strong message to lay black paint heavily onto the painting. Now many people had already seen her and shared how beautiful they felt she was. I thought, "What will they all say? Will I ruin her by making her dark? Was I always making my paintings seem dark? Will they think I'm dark too?" Self-judgments perpetuated themselves inside my mind creating fear. I silenced my mind again in meditation and again I heard, "Trust! This is a painting about trust!" So as I continued to tell myself to trust, I randomly slapped the black paint onto the beautiful pastel Grandmother. As I did this I became so excited because I saw many tribal people emerging through the black. They look to me as though they are celebrating the return of the Goddess, and I knew the trust I was following was a powerful blessing Spirit wanted to show me. Spirit wanted for me to bring out onto the canvas, not just a pretty painting of an older woman, but a powerful ancient carrier of Light, blossomed and wise, bringing healing to our planet.

In ancient cultures, animals are recognized as totems, that is, they signify much more than they do in our culture. I painted an elephant, which is seen as a symbol of great sexual power and ancient wisdom. It helps you reclaim your most primordial royalty. The snake brings about transmutation of the fire medicine and helps us transmute thoughts and energies that do not serve us any longer. The snake has long been a symbol of death and rebirth. Every time a woman bleeds she sheds another layer, like the snake shedding its skin. It is an organic death process that is natural to the female. When she reaches the end, the core, she no longer needs to shed, her wisdom has come into full bloom.

Dragonflies remind us that we are light and can reflect the light in powerful ways if we choose to do so. It brings the brightness of transformation and wonder; colorful new vision. It speaks to me of the sexual fire above the hips and connecting to that creative force and passion. It gives us the power of light to see through illusion. Beyond our gender we are all just Light, One with God, with each other and ourselves.

Grandmother marches, holding the shield of protection with the wrapped sage in the center. She is the Goddess of Earth, Fire, Water, Air she is here to remind us of what is truly real. Her shield also acts as a frame drum. Among one of the oldest known musical instrument. Their rhythms helped the Shamans and seers attain the sacred trance state necessary for healing and prophecy. In ancient days before the advent of Christianity, when the women were drummers, drumming their prayers to the rhythm of the Earth, our Spirits were strong. We knew who we were. She holds the space for us to remember once again. She uses a tree branch to create the heartbeat of the Mother calling out to all her children. Her body is tattooed with spirals of God and Goddess, male and female bringing us all together as One. Together we embark on a quest where the feminine is Sacred once again, where we live to our fullest potential, where we Love each other and live in harmony.

Cher Lyn