Stephanie's Studio

If you look over to your right on this blog and scroll down through "Popular Posts" you will come across one I wrote several years back about my  Pagan Retreat in Appalachia . That experience took place at Cerren Ered in a rather secluded location in the Smoky Mountains. It is pretty much off the grid. I found peace and respite in that magickal place. With a well fed soul, I made art, danced to my heart's content and connected with 'salt of the earth' folks. There's something about being up at a high altitude that makes the heart rest well, to say the least about invoking the spirits, while also inspiring creativity. Last week, I shared some thoughts on meadows in the post  Meadow of Dreams . In addition to traversing the meadow that lives in our primordial mind during meditation, we also visit the mountains through that practice. This journey towards all that is mystical and powerful in the mountain, is echoed in hatha yoga as we take on Tadasana (mountai...

It wasn't long ago that the furthest south I'd been was Maryland. Then about 11 years ago I met Jannette who lives in the Knoxville area of Tennessee. Jannette is a warm and sunny person who worked very hard with me as the editor for "Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones" and more recently on "The Big Book of Soul." Yesterday, I was looking in an old sketch book with Nepalese handmade paper in it, when I discovered this lovely landscape of the sacred grounds at Cerren Ered in Cosby TN. Cerren Ered , a pagan community in Appalachia, is home to many pagan festivals, it holds a camp ground, magickally charged trees and natural formations, a bubbling brook that seems to want to speak to you, and for a touch of whimsy, the infamous castle. I went there at not such a good time in my life. What I found was a natural environment that has a strong spiritual energy, almost every where you walk and I made the nicest friends ever. I spent as much time as I could sky cl...