Stephanie's Studio

I know it's cliche, but OMG (meaning, Oh my goddesses) I'm so happy today. After a lengthy and energized discussion about race, at the family dinner table Sunday night, I woke up and finished my 6th book on Martin Luther King's Birthday. In fact, the last section is called "Woke." I will be sharing more on this soon-to-be-released title soon, but wanted to share this incredible news with you today! I say incredible because it took about 14 years to put this book together and go through my personal journey - which is still very much a work-in-progress . The book is "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss." It should be released sometime this spring or summer!

I was pleasantly surprised to have this semi-abstract relief sculpture returned to me this week. She has been gone for a few years. She had gotten lost in the shuffle of everyday life. To be honest, I had forgotten about her. I made her quickly in an hour long workshop. Made from self-hardening clay, and then painted, I call this tiny piece that can fit in the palm of your hand, “Pregnant with Possibilities.” Her most prominent features are the three yellow orbs, supported by folded, drapery-like structures accompanied by small wings. The main emphasis is the central orb, which is the belly. The belly, symbolic of the universe, is in a state of constant flux. It holds magick, mystery, power and potential. Prominent, the belly is fully present and of the now. At the top you find the head. Between the legs there is another orb, crowning and about to be released into the world, with all the magick it holds. This relief sculpture of my inner-self, is abou...

One of the more gripping books I read last year was " Mud Woman " by Joyce Carol Oates (Read the  Author interview about the boo k ). You'll have to read about this book or read it and see what you think. I would love to hear back from you. I am not going to write a book review here. I wrote one on www.goodreads.com.  As a brief summary, the book begins with a brutally abused girl, left for dead in the muddy silt flats, who rises from that mud and becomes one of the most powerful women in academia, only to eventually return (metaphorically and psychologically) back to the mud. It is a riveting read, especially for women and all lovers of mythology. "Mud Woman" is rich with myth and folklore. As you know, I have also been doing a lot of research for my new books (the novel and nonfiction work). I have been investigating mythology and folklore as well as the history of the goddesses. Mud Woman, or Dirt Woman, as she is more frequently called, has reached ou...

Would you shun abundance and financial prosperity? For a long time, I did. Why? Two words, 'starving' 'artist'. Need I say more? Lately I have been consorting with numerous gods, goddesses and spirits across cultures, time and space, as I write "Mama Nature's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss." Enter Lakshmi. Few engagements with the gods, goddesses and spirits make me as joyful, complete or fulfilled, as invoking Lakshmi. Some of the a fore mentioned deities and spirits can be fickle or even down right temperamental. Lakshmi, on the other hand, always comes through. Yesterday, I gently coaxed her out of her space, and into mine with a soft oil-based candle and sandalwood incense. Light and the scents she prefers draw her out. She appeared, resplendent; charming and friendly, yet in possession of breathtaking, glowing beauty. I posted previously about luck charms, and this is a further engagement with good fortune work. Lakshmi is the very emb...

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...

                                         (Sandro Botticelli Reproduction "The Birth of Venus") Sexuality, sensuality, conception, birth, transitions, the hearth and home, beauty, destruction, change, crops, protection, inspiration, harvesting, the sun and moon, water, fire, creating and death. What do they all have in common? There are goddesses intimately connected to these important aspects of our lives. Yesterday I had an inspiration in relation to the goddesses. I decided that every chapter of my new weight loss book will begin with a tribute to a goddess appropriate to carrying out the work of that specific chapter. Each will have her own altar, correspondences and a creative project such as an amulet, that can be made in her honor. Male deity will also play a role in these chapter headings. With several gods and male spirits leading off chapters, though the main em...

Thank the Goddess! March has arrived. Only, here in Chicago, we are expecting quite a lot of snow--again. A while back I wrote for a journal called "Seeding the Snow." It's such a delightful concept that I had to title this post after it. With March, we are asked to think about renewal, growth and change. We can even go so far in our notion of transformation as to consider rebirth. Mother Earth will be coming into full bloom in no time at all. If we follow her rhythms closely, by taking her lead, this coming month offers us some very special gifts. March is about planning ahead for a harvest to come, sometime in the future. It is the time of the dreamer. We can also use divination and oracular skills to project out, gaining glimpses of where these seeds will best take root. We get to plant our dreams, and as it warms up, there is the opportunity to cultivate, till and weed them, until they are just right. But in many of our areas, we will need to do our seed...

Like many pagans, I am very much in the mind/body/spirit conversation. Notice though, that body is positioned right in the middle of that triangle. Often though, body is left out of the picture for many of us. I am all too guilty of being of the mind and spirit while leaving my body to do it's own thing. This has led to me becoming overweight--a heaviness that drags down my mind and spirit. Over the past few years I have also been ill, making me uncomfortable within my body. We are the bards and the scribes, the storytellers, myth weavers, healers and spell casters. A while back, I developed a workshop, Healing the Healer. It was telling that there was an abundance of interest in it. As healers we all know that we have a tendency to project our healing energy out into the world and at times that leaves little space for internal healing of our selves. I have a book called "365 Goddess" by Patricia Telesco. Everyday she invites us to be inspired by the magic and ins...

Friday, the day of Goddess Venus, is a day of love.  I find that my creativity flows best on Fridays. It seems to be a day of getting in the zone and a day of process flow. I know a lot of people seem to blow off Fridays but I think its informality in the workplace adds to its tendency to aid productivity. Realizing you have done just about all you can do before calling an end to the week releases pressure and inhibitions allowing true creativity to take root.  I have long been an admirer and worshipper of Venus.  I seek her in the mindset of the days of old when she was a revered as a symbol of the divinely feminine. Within the femininity of Venus lies fertility of all sorts and with that there is power. This ATC I made last year embodies the mystery, symbolism and power of Venus.

Yesterday, with ego bruised from my failed technical experiments with walnut ink and stamping, I spent some time away from the studio and instead worked in the kitchen.  I was making one of Barefoot Contessa’s recipes for baked chocolate pudding.  It called for some fresh vanilla bean.  As I peeled away the seeds and pulp of the bean I was put in touch with the magickal allure of the Goddess Gaia.  It was over a decade ago that I discovered Goddess Spirituality.  Over a short time, I came to realize the power that the divinely feminine goddesses would have on my life. For nearly a decade I wrote a column for “Sage Woman,” magazine and this column was a vessel at the time for my spirituality, now that shift has moved more towards the garden, artmaking and writing books and articles.  I mention the garden because I see and experience the Goddess and goddesses in nature most prominently.  When I hold and smell any of my favorite herbs I am immediately...