Out of the bosom of the Air
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we move towards December’s coming of winter. We equate winter with harshness, cold and stillness. Indeed, it’s the time when the blossoms, trees and world have gone into hibernation, rest and retreat. But to many cultures, winter represents potentials building within a cyclical womb.
In the last ever panel of one of my favourite cartoons (Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson), the two main characters embark across a snowy scene with their sled, marveling about the gleaming snow. “It’s like having a big sheet of paper to draw on,” muses Hobbes, to which Calvin replies, as they head off into the sea of white, “A day full of possibilities, it’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy…. let’s go exploring!”
Life is full of beginnings and endings, and though we fear endings, an end represents a beginning. When I painted this scene of a tree standing in a winter landscape, I had the idea to leave half of the image blank and white, “it’s like having a big sheet of paper to draw on,” an untapped potential… something ripe and ready for creation in the right time.
Debunking Some of the Myths About Astrology
I was recently contacted by a high school student who was working on a class project about Astrology.
She was given an assignment to interview someone who studied and / or practiced astrology professionally, which ultimately led her to me.
Although her questions were geared more toward the reasons people “believe” in astrology than about it what it actually entails, they were respectful and insightful enough that I was inspired to indulge her.
The following is our interview in the format it was presented. Due to space constraints, it’s only a small sampling of the many myths we were able to debunk. But we’ll be looking at more of those in the coming weeks. For now though, here’s the interview in its original form.