A History of Women Mystic Artists

I'll be presenting my class, A History of Women Mystic Artists, through the Golden Dome School's online platform on Sunday, October 17 from 4:00-6:00 pm PST. Description and booking info below!

A History of Women Mystic Artists: Ritual, Channeling & Healing

Including artists: Ithell Colquhoun, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Ana Mendieta, Betye Saar, Pamela Colman Smith, Emma Kunz, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Guo Fengyi, Hildegard von Bingen, Herrad of Landsburg, Christine de Pizan, Georgiana Houghton, Hilma af Klint, and Agnes Pelton.

This class will look at the history of women mystic artists spanning the Medieval period to the 20th century through the lens of three different themes: Ritual, Healing, and Channeling. In varying ways, each artist’s work is the record of a conversation with forces larger than themselves. Each artist collaborates with and conceives of Mystery in unique ways: for Hildegard of Bingen it was the animating force of the natural world she named Viriditas, for Georgiana Houghton it was the spirits from the other side whom she channeled, and for Ithell Colquhoun, the process of painting itself was an act of divination that connected her to spiritual forces within and without. Each artist also shared a lifelong engagement with the co-creative process of opening oneself as a channel to the unknown.

Mysticism in art — especially by women — has often been minimized, ignored, or rejected by dominant art historical narratives, and so this class seeks to foreground each artist’s relationship with mysticism as important to their lives and their works. We will chart how these artists, through their engaging and complex works, reject the pervasive contemporary notion that mystical artwork cannot also be intellectually, politically, and socially engaged.

Ritual

We will look at artists whose approach to art-making involved ritual, whether as a means to create the artwork or as an end in and of itself. These artists drew on practices rooted in specific traditions of ritual magic, invented their own personal practices, or often some combinations of the two. Artists covered include Pamela Coleman Smith, Ithell Colquhoun, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Ana Mendieta, and Betye Saar.

Healing

We will look to artists whose artworks were made either to help to facilitate healing for themselves, to directly heal others, or to engage with the therapeutic potential for healing in artwork generally. Artists covered include Emma Kunz, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Rosie Lee Tompkins, and Guo Fengyi.

Channeling

We will look at artists whose approach to art-making was fueled by a co-creative practice with the divine, whose visionary works were created through channeling. We will study their varying approaches (seances, mediumship, meditation, and more) to gain a better understanding of how their artworks emerged in co-creation with the numinous forces that shaped their work. Artists covered include Hildegard von Bingen, Herrad of Landsburg, Christine de Pizan, Georgiana Houghton, Hilma af Klint, and Agnes Pelton.

Cost is $22 and you can sign up here!

The class will be recorded and playback made available to all participants.

Agnes Pelton, Alchemy, oil on canvas, 1939

Emma Kunz in her studio in Brittnau, Switzerland, 1958

Niki de Saint Phalle, The Tarot Garden (The Empress), Italy

Introducing Talismanic T-Shirts

I started Talis in 2017 as a line of clothing for psychic protection, and since then, it’s grown to include my astrology and tarot consultation practice. As a result of this, and because of all that the ongoing Plague brought in 2020, I took a pause on making clothing. I’ve had a lot of time to think about if and how I want to re-engage with this aspect of Talis, and I’m excited to let you know how it’s evolving.

I’m returning to the original impetus for its namesake: namely, talismans. In essence, talismans are objects crafted at auspicious astrological moments in time (when the planets and signs create harmonious aspects with each other), using symbolic correspondences (color, image, symbol, material), in order to draw down the influences and energies of the astral bodies they intend to capture. I will be incorporating this aspect of astro-magic into my clothing by making small editions of unique pieces, and these shirts will act as permanent containers of the energies they intend to capture, material links to the fleeting celestial movements above.

The first of these talisman shirts captured the Sun in Leo. Much like taming a dragon, pursuing one’s creative work in the world often feels like a quest for the buried treasure that exists just beyond the fears, doubts and anxieties that emerge along the path. These fears and doubts are like ogres at the threshold of a bridge that one must negotiate with to cross to the other side. Even when experience teaches us to trust our intuitive hunches on this shadowy path, it can be hard to continually take new leaps, when every time somehow feels like the first big jump. The Sun in Leo provides an infusion of bravery, but not for the sake of bravado alone — it’s a bravery to meet the inner fears so that one may take those meaningful risks, however big or small. It provides an influx of creative energy that simultaneously connects one deeper to one’s inner creative compass while also flooding the spirit with a brightness and a desire to radiate outwards.

Because these pieces are hand-printed within very tight windows of time (ranging from a few minutes to a couple hours), they will be made in limited quantities and priced higher than my regular inventory, which I’ve also brought back to my web store. Auspicious sky-weather being what it is, (rare and infrequent) these talismanic pieces won’t come out at regular intervals — only when the moment is truly ripe for the picking. Each piece of clothing will also come with information on the election, suggestions for ritual use and incorporation into your own life.

Click here to purchase and read more about the Sun in Leo shirt.

The Art and History of Talismans

Lecture recorded for the Golden Dome School on 4/10/21, register for the class here to view the playback!

Talismans exist at the nexus between art, magic, astrology, ritual, adornment, cosmology, theology, divination, psychology, philosophy and folklore. Before the Scientific Revolution, these disciplines were intimately connected in esoteric literature. Astrology and science, magic and medicine, prayers and spells — unlike today, the boundaries between these practices were loose, and studying (or practicing) the talismanic arts is one way to re-enchant one’s personal connection to the larger, fluid cosmic whole today.

This class will be both a theoretical as well as practical overview of talismans, and primarily, their connection to astrology and magic. We will cover the origins of astrology in ancient Babylon and Egypt, the co-evolution of magic and medicine in the Corpus Hermeticum, the codex of magical spells in the Greek Magical Papyri, and the work of three Medieval and Renaissance philosophers: Al-Kindi, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, and Marsilio Ficino. Recounting this history will take us through the deep recesses of the esoteric past, including...

Ancient Babylon, where the careful observance of the nightly movements of the seven visible planets and stars became the basis of time-keeping, astronomy, astrology. Observance turned to ritual, ritual turned to myth, and the zodiac as we know it today was born.

Ancient Greece, where the Greek Magical Papyri emerge in the 2nd century, a codex of magical spells, formulae, and rituals, with instructions for creating amulets and talismans like the one seen above. Everything from prophetic dream invocations, to love charms, to magical pest control is covered in this mysterious collection, which helped to lay the foundations for Western Esotericism.

Ancient Mesopotamia, where we find a collection of “Incantation Bowls” — talismanic pottery created by ancient Jewish mages with spells written in a spiral script, often meant to trap the demons drawn inside. These bowls were discovered buried underneath homes of those who commissioned them, which is why they are preserved in rare form today.

Byzantine Europe, where the talisman of Charlemagne, which is purported to have a piece of the True Cross enclosed within it, survived many changes of hands. Allegedly, a bone fragment of Charlemagne's right arm was added to it in 1804, when the Bishop of Aachen in Germany snuck it in as a thank-you to Empress Josephine, (wife of Napoleon) for the safe return of certain relics which had previously been confiscated during the French Revolution.

Medieval Europe, when centuries of magical texts reached European hands through the translation of ancient Greek, Hebrew and Arabic texts into Latin. This contributed to a flowering of occult art, including this fresco depicting the 36 decans of the zodiac (middle frescoe) in the Palazzo Schifanoia, in Ferrara, Italy.

19th century Talismanic manuscript

ABRACADABRA Charm from Ancient Greece

Participants will also receive a practical guide to talismanic creation... Details below to sign up!

The Art and History of Talismans

Where: The Golden Dome School's online class portal

When: 4/10/21 at 5:13 pm

Registration link: here (participants who can't make it live will receive a playback link)