November Update: Every journey starts with the first step

UPDATE: November 8, 2016:

The land behind the studio is leveled, the outline marked, and the bottles are starting to add up.

Bottles ready.

Most importantly, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is a long term or potentially never ending project. As a healing space, it is already working its magic for me in being a work in progress

I had a wonderful time at the rock store picking out rock for each of the directions of the medicine wheel; ultimately realizing I didn’t want to spend the money on it. Part of the spirit of this project is repurposing materials so I’m back to the drawing board for adding color to the wheel.

Carolyn and I have done some talking and December will bring her out here to get me started on the ceramic medallions for each person being commemorated.

There’s plenty to work to be done on it in the meantime and I’m quite content with it being unfinished and ever changing.

View from above with outline

UPDATE: November 22, 2016

The previous owners of The Number Nine had a sweatlodge set up behind what is now the studio. The told us they had gone to the Dakotas and been trained by the Lakota in the proper ceremony and we both did sweats with them. When we moved in I consulted

It’s happening!

with a friend of mine who was in a native american women’s training program about dismantling the firepit and the sweatlodge. She gave me a ceremony to do it and stressed that the rocks used to heat the water could not be used for anything and needed to be buried. We had someone come with a bobcat and bury them but didn’t do a very good job as some of the rocks have resurfaced and been exposed for a while.

Today I took care of that. I made a pit in middle of the outline I’ve made for the medicine wheel and buried them. I added some clear quartz crystals and a bag of Ric’s ashes mixed with his brother’s and father’s ashes, his mother’s hair, and ashes and fur of three of his cats. I said the native american prayer and chanted my own magic words

Basalt column in the center.

over them all while burining sage, copal, and incense. After sitting quietly, I finally buried them all and mounted a basalt column on top. This is the anchor of the wheel around which all spins. The rock is a piece of basalt that Ric got from the local rock sculptor. It even has a lovely sound when you tap it reminding me that this wheel needs to speak to all the senses – not sure how to do taste but we’ll see how that resolves itself.

Sweat lodge fire rocks with Rics ashes. RIP dear one.

The November full moon bathed another batch of bottles and they even received a bit of rain water. I’ve taken to putting a penny in each one before closing it. A penny for your thoughts! I needed to come up with a way to protect the tops which I think are the most vulnerable to the elements and the perfect solution came to mind. I’ll be sealing them with beeswax. It was Ric’s last medium to use and he left me a huge stockpile of it! I’m looking forward to working in his studio on that process.

I’m feeling more and more like this is my healing space. The making of it, dreaming about it, solving problems, the heavy lifting, digging in the dirt, moving rocks –  all calm my upset over the state of the world. It grounds and centers me and ties me to Ric’s spirit. He always made art in response to passionate feelings.