Tea with the Muse

Freedom

by Shiloh Sophia

The unsolved mysteries

of the heart are always present

It doesn’t matter how many times

we have been loved or been hurt

Still, the heart is a grand mystery

We cannot control it

we cannot make it

do what we want

We cannot predict what

it will feel or see

But there is one thing

we can do

We can listen to our heart

and what it has to say

We can listen to the hearts

of those around us

We can be a healing presence

from one another and the earth

We can practice

falling in love with mystery,

in the infiniteness of not knowing

When we stop trying

to figure it out

we can find freedom

If we listen to our heart

our heart will listen to us

This is the journey of a lifetime

and our heart is the guide

How blessed are we

to be able to listen closely

and lean into love

The Perfect Studio

The Perfect Studio

has a door that closes 

There’s enough room there

to not have my back to the door

the kitties are present

There’s a big table

to spread out and make a mess

marked with years of creativity

Of course, there’s a comfy chair

that is big enough for me

to sit cross-legged

or even better,

a chaise lounge

A rug that’s colorful

that I can get paint on

and splash as I choose 

Bright leafy green plants 

to surround me and

keep me company

A candle that smells good

An altar that changes

every time I come in 

A chocolate stash

A fuzzy robe covered in paint 

A tall bookcase

filled with inspiring images and stories

A wall of photos of people I love 

A sign for the door that says:

The MUSE is in,

so don’t come in

Yet also people who respect that sign

and people who can come in

for tea because I like them

but only when they are invited

There’s a teapot

with tea seaping that smells so good

that my lover made

and a handmaid cup from a friend 

There’s a jar of local honey

from people that I know

and bees I am sure to cross paths with

on my morning walks

There’s music that makes me dance

There’s lots and lots of paints

and pens and pencils and charcoal

and places to play

There’s a stack of empty notebooks

awaiting my pen and story

There’s a window for seeing far

And when I get up really early,

seeing the stars

There’s always a jar of water

awaiting my brush

It’s an invitation and a blank canvas

or one that’s ready to be painted over

And of course TIME

Time to spend there, here

Intentional Creativity time

I want to have tea with the Muse

as I choose

What about you?

What kind of studio is perfect for you?

Shiloh Sophia

Dear Ones,

The photo above is our ‘film set’ and while I paint there when I am teaching, it isn’t my personal studio. I feel so grateful to have so much space to work in, but I also share this space and rent this space - and I can’t close the door - or make a mess and keep it messy.

This has been a strange phenomenon for me - to have all this space to manage and use to teach in but not have it be personal space that I don’t have to share. I have moved my studio at our campus likely 40 times at least in the past few years - and this particular set up just happened because we converted the actual film studio into a dorm. My actual studio here we rented to another artist. While I am super glad she has it, I don’t have it and I miss it. So I am just coming to terms with this feeling - of not having a room that I can mess up and keep messy that no one can come into with a closing door where I can paint and be messy and be a mess. #hotmess seeks room for rent lol. A film set is not a personal studio. This feels important for me to just acknowledge so I can move on. And since we rent the space I try to ‘un-shiloh’ it on a regular basis, which again means I am continually moving my personal space and items around. I know, I know many people don’t even have one place to paint, so is it really a problem? Get over it I say, but then I am not being honest. I need a big open space and place to work and dream and invent. Because the companies I run and the offerings I create come out of my own mind/heart sacred studio space which is mapped to the physical space where I work things out. So today I am just owning this need for a closing door so I can see what else wants to come forward. To be able to dream into what I would really like.

Sometimes I get up really early and go paint in the classroom or the gallery - but I always have to clean it up and make it nice again right away. So am I really asking for a space to be messy? To cry? To experiment while not making product or on the camera? A place I can have a private slumber party? I don’t know. I just know that writing this down was important for me. I have so much - I truly do. And something is needed and I am just exploring that. I also feel that sharing it may spark something in you too - about what you need. Even if you can’t create it right now - you can make a perfect studio list and honor it. Intentional Creativity is this - being intentional about writing this poem and sharing this and it moves energy - and creates a clearing for something new to emerge. I feel better already. I started writing this in New York and finished it this morning during cafe’. Blessings dear one, and may be get to the studio…

Shiloh Sophia

p.s. the above film studio photo has a quilt from Sumaiyah and a painting by Sue in it and I am finally making the wall behind my chaise lounge personal with photos. I will not move them….I will learn to occupy in a good way.

p.p.s. I am also wondering if my next studio will be around pottery - I have spent years potting in the past and I miss it. Maybe I am seeking something else. Musing on it.

Shiloh Sophia by Jonathan McCloud @the MoMa and Fur Breakfast by Meret Oppenheim Le Déjeuner en fourrure Au the MoMa

#letthemusechoose Tiny Portal: Choose one of your more abstract paintings or an under-painting layer. Look at it with a soft gaze. Imagine that one part of it suddenly becomes a portal door and lights up! WOWZA there it is! Honor this arising. Be surprised....(Muses love to surprise you)

One word of advice - the Muse does not want to be dominated in any way - but if you are in a particularly tender or tempermental place you can request - 'only loving or kind messages to appear' - no one can guarantee compliance - but it does set the tone. Muses can have a bad attitude at times. Okay so let's continue....for some of our Muse Choose I ask you not to read the whole thing first, for this one, go ahead and read it and then begin.

Ready? With a heartful intention to see or hear something fresh from your Muse - invite your imagination to OPEN the tiny door slowly and see what is waiting for you there.

How does the door open - try to watch it - does it swing? Pop? Flow? Glow? What do you find? Is it a note? An image? A symbol? The first line of a poem? A new tool? A dare? An invitation? An oracle reading? What has the Muse left for you to find?

Once you see it/know it/hear it - ask more about it. Why this message and why now? Journal as you choose. If you don't see something or hear something just hover there in the "not knowing" and then choose to reveal something from within your subconscious space and place it there. This works too!

Share the painting you chose or the tiny portal and what you saw, if you want, with us in the imusea app (search for the app in your appstore imusea). We learn by doing and also by sharing. Sharing helps to shape the content of what gets revealed and strengthens the portal practice. Even if the message you got is odd or you don't know the meaning yet - attempt to 'trust' it enough to be with it without needing to change it.

Over time we develop a pathway of trust with our inner world and our subconscious via the hand of the Muse will continue to show us more and more. If we doubt too soon and with exasperation we ask - WHY the f-ing yellow banana? Why did I hear that bell? I don't want to see that old symbol again etc..... then the trust doesn't get to grow. The Muses might be testing us. They do that.

Instead consider deep curiousity and surprise - WOW the yellow banana again - tell me more! OH that bell, where is that sound coming from anyway and how does it feel in my body? AH! That symbol must be something special - let me draw it out.

(If you are new - come post and join us in the imusea app and share your image and what you discovered)

In Intentional Creativity we work this way with imagination development. By intentionally using our own paintings as the mythical landscape to journey through. The power of suggestion aka "tiny portal" coupled with the personal tangible image and the anticipation that the Muse will really communicate this way with you - is a practice. For some of us we have been developing the faculty for years - and for others of us it is new.

This is a core aspect of our practice here and I invite you to really try it.

Ciao!

Shiloh Sophia

This is a tiny portal from was a painting exploring communicating with the ancestors. I opened the white curve and it shimmered. Behind it was an image of my mother's hands. She was in my dream last night. The message is to be close to her today in my spirit.

The muses, the graces and the flurries are stirring things up again and they are feeding my my own medicine.

“An average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.” da Vinci

“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” da Vinci

We went to see a da Vinci exhibit in the Blue Ridge mountain territory. These quotes really struck me as both true and harsh. Did he really mean “classes”? Perhaps not like today.

I know that part of my sacred work is to invite seeing and encourage deep feeling. So on this rainy day I invite you to look outside and see, with me…to choose to be one who sees.

With ♥️ and rain,

Shiloh Sophia

I am thinking of you today....

My mom taught me that I had choice. This phrase "the great adventure' inspires my life and this painting by the same name.