Stephanie's Studio

                                     (Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season.  The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post  is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower.                                         ...

Witches have captured the popular imagination through television, films and books. People say: Witches are ugly Witches have warts Witches sign pacts with the devil Witches are sorcerers And then, we all know, Witches must be stupid because they fly on their brooms on Halloween, straight into trees. In reality, the word witch stems from the Anglo Saxon language and means wise one or wisdom. In days of old, witches were considered founts of wisdom and were sought out for curing diseases of the mind, body and spirit. Often outcasts from the villages in which they lived, they were nevertheless brought into the fold in times of trial and tribulation. Witches can be green witches, meaning they practice herbalism, possibly magickal herbalism and work on healing. Witches are sometimes solitary. Solitary practitioners as it sounds, practice alone rather than with a group. Witches can be a part of a larger community of practitioners and practice with a coven. There ar...

A lot of people don’t understand who Pagans are or what we do in terms of prayer. As part of the A to Z blogger’s challenge, I decided to blog about Pagan Prayer for the letter P. Pagans believe in many gods and goddesses. Many Pagans pay tribute and invoke deities connected to their ethnicity and heritage. Others like myself, who consider themselves eclectics, work with deities both connected to their ethnicity and their identity. We are spiritual, and pay homage to spirits as well as deities. These spirits are generally of the earth but may also be creation beings who helped form the universe. I am particularly fond of the Australian Aboriginal creation beings of the dreamtime, for example. These creation ancestors are timeless. They were here in the beginning of time and continue to work their wonders to this day. Many different types of traditional indigenous people pay tribute to spirits. Some religions, such as Vodou and Shintoism, also pay homage to various spirits that...

While teaching painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute, I was always drawn to the  Codex Borgia . Sadly, seldom did I actually find ways of incorporating that gorgeous, ancient, illustrated manuscript into my lesson plans. I would just go through the book of images and savor them on my own. Now I understand why it was calling out to me. It is the tool of healers, diviners and scribes--it contains prophesies. It is going to take a while, still, but some day I will understand the lessons it seeks to teach me. Now in "Mama Nature's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss" as I write, I am finding my book is being fleshed out by Aztec and Mayan deities. They just showed up and wanted in. I find myself questioning their appearance and loving it all at the same time. Pictured above is Aztec Goddess, Xochiquetzal, pronounced Sho-chi-ket-sal. Her name is in the language Nahuatl. The first part Xochitl (flower or to flower) and the second Quetzal (bird of splendid fe...

Mirror, Mirror  was a blog post, written not long ago that you all seemed to enjoy. Personally, I was so inspired by thinking about mirrors and image that I have developed a new workshop called Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. So far, this will be offered as an art & spirituality workshop with the theme of new beginnings and vision quest into the dreamed image of the self, in January 2015 and March 2015. The January workshop will be the first weekend after the New Year and will tie into New Years Resolutions. It will be held at Life Force Arts Foundation  in Chicago on January 3, 2015 from 1 pm - 6 pm. The second one will take place the weekend of Spring Equinox '15 at Aquarius Bookstore  in Kansas City, Missouri. I anticipate that these workshops will be fun and motivational. I may offer them in other cities as well. This will be a part of my new book tour for "Mama Nature's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss." Here is a description of the Spring Equinox rendition...