When my siren appears in my new novel, "Out of the Blue," it is not certain whether she is an angel, young woman, demon or spirit. I have had a long term fascination with water and everything within it--real, from the spiritual realm, folklore, mythology and tales stemming from the imagination. I also love thinking about the possibilities presented by angels. This particular siren that has called to me, is far from angelic. She is of the very old type, not a mermaid but more of a bird woman. What does she want, I wonder. She looks like La Sirene from the Vodou pantheon, being light skinned but not white. Today, I wait for her elusive spirit to return. I am conjuring her, so that I can carry on telling her dark tale in Chapter 2. If any of you out there in the blogosphere have any interesting tales about encounters with Sirens or La Sirene, I would love to hear from you.
Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden. Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit. The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts. Mysteries ca
Hi, Stephanie! When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of living in the water. It overwhelmed me, frightened me, gave me shelter. Now that I'm an adult, my water dreams are my "problem solving" dreams, where I always come to discover myself better.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear more about your story! See you tonight at Novel in a Year!
Angie, thanks for stopping by and sharing your wonderful insight about water dreams. I see this story of sirens and blues to be about finding and expressing the authentic self through voice. See you in class!
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