:: The Hierophant ::

If you have ever had a reading from me, and had The Hierophant turn up, then you know that this is a card that I have had mad beefs struggles with.

For years, The Hierophant represented so much of what I resisted in the world: authority figures, pillars of tradition, organized religion and dogmatic structure. Some of my disdain could be chalked up with the ignorance and arrogance that accompany youthful conviction, but some of it was also born out of personal experience and confirmed biases resulting therein.

I won’t lie, a part of me still flinches a little when this card appears to me, but I have been working with the energy of The Hierophant for years and have come around on this stern-seeming taskmaster. For me, The Hierophant has come to represent a form of surrender and an invitation to engage in a much deeper learning by embracing the generational knowledge that is forged (and forgotten) by time. The point isn’t to futz around trying to re-invent the wheel, but rather to learn the rules, inside and out, so that one can effectively break them when necessary.

The Hierophant appears to us as is an invitation to cultivate our deepest inner knowledge, to accrue the wisdom of the ages and become our own teacher and guide. To embody the Hierophant is to engage with our shadows, integrating our darkness and meeting it fully with grace and compassion; holding the keys to Heaven and Hell and knowing that where we direct our focus and attention directly creates the reality which we experience.

For me and my art practice, the lesson of The Hierophant first meant attending art school and completing an MFA program in painting; pursuing gallery and museum exhibitions, applying for grants, and residencies; and choosing subject matter and art techniques/expressions that I hoped would appeal to art collectors. Through this gateway of tradition and establishment, I was able to uncover a more meaningful (to me) purpose for art - art as a means to communicate lost, esoteric teachings, a magickal expression and our connection to the divine. I can clearly see my patterns now, and understand why it was necessary for me to learn and be active in the traditional art world, so that my decision to turn away from it would be an informed one.

My Shadow aspects came in droves when I first accepted this lesson, all my fears and shame came to the surface like a dam breaking.

My inner voice taunted me at first,

‘Are you afraid to paint mermaids and faeries and dragons because none of your peers will take you seriously (at best) and or think you are batshit crazy (at worst)? Well good, because you are going to paint mermaids and faeries and all the ‘girlie’ magical shit you loved so much as a child and you will like it, best stock up on pink colors because you are going to be using them ALL THE TIME.’

Which is exactly what did. I accepted the challenge of digging into my own six-demon-bag and integrated the ever-living shit out of my shadows.

The keys to Heaven and Hell are in my hands and In this way, art has become a form of deepening my connection to the unknown mysteries. My homework has been to understand, accept, and implement this principle of the power of my mindset - that where I direct my will, creates my reality - so it is imperative that my intentions are clear.

Heaven and Hell, we are meant to experience and learn from both. The art which I channel carries lessons on the wings of faeries, the horns of demons, and the scales of dragons. I don’t have to understand why I am painting them, I only have to bring them forth from the unknown and onto a page.

:: More on Channeling ~ A Bridge, a Mirror and Hollow Bone ::

I was recently interviewed by a mentor of mine about my creative process. This was a tremendous honor for me to be asked to do this, and in spite of being nervous about speaking on video, I felt like I could talk and talk for hours. (In fact, I can because I am a Gemini)! Though we spoke effortlessly and nonstop for ninety minutes, I have extreme esprit de l’escalier and eight hours after it was over, I remembered many things that I wished I had said about channeling and creativity.

*Luckily, I have this journal that three of you read, so I am using this as a place to discuss what I missed and left out, if you are interested.

My dear friend Amy (who has an incredible podcast about the creative process called The Starling Creative) introduced me to this quote by neo-expressionist painter Philip Guston:

“When you’re in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you - your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics…and one by one if you’re really painting, they walk out. And if you are really painting, YOU walk out.”

This has been so true of my experience while channeling my art. When I am in channel, ‘I’ - my ego, my hang-ups, my judgements, my victories and failures, the collective accumulation of my art education and experiences as a painter - are not present. This is very much an, ‘Elvis Has Left The Building’ situation. My intuition always cues me in when I need to get quiet (or get moving) to listen and receive messages - and once I am in channel, even my intuition makes an exit. In this state, I am able to receive visions and travel to other worlds and dimensions. Pretty trippy!

This is a difficult thing to describe though, as art is a visual medium and trying to provide explanation in the construct of verbal language can neuter it and rob it of it’s magic. The closest thing I can relate it to is the shamanic process of communing in the spirit world through mastering states of trance. I learned of a teaching called the Way of the Hollow Bone, in which a healer becomes a clear, pure conduit for Spirit. By shifting their state of consciousness with trance, they are able to remove their ego/identity, thus becoming an open channel for Divine energy. This is similar to the way in which I create channeled art. When I am in channel I become a bridge between two (or more) worlds - receiving and relaying messages from the realm of imagination and the Unknown. Of course, my hands, eye and the skills they produce together are the tools used to bring this information back to us, but my rational mind is completely removed from the process.

After being initiated into the Akashic Records, my guides told me to visit the Halls of Amenti for seven days in a row - and to bring a gift. Each day was different, and each day I received a tool from one of my past lives that I could use during this lifetime. During one of my visits, Hathor appeared to me like a universe of stars but shaped like a woman. She blessed me by taking my hands, and I watched as my own hands transformed, filled with the blinking light of the cosmos.

Journeying and achieving altered states of consciousness are very important aspects of my spiritual and creative practice, but I am not in a trance-like state when I am channeling art. I am conversational. I am able to weather interruptions and take breaks. If someone - I’m not naming any names here - were to run into my studio with no pants on, yelling ‘the toilet did something to ME’ whilst my bathroom floor floods, I would not only notice, but would spring into action immediately. When I am working in my flow, I am able to hum along without fatigue because I am not using my own energy to create. That said, I am human and as such occasionally find it challenging to remain in channel (thanks, brain-raccoons), so there are times when I drop out and just need to walk away. When this happens, I take a moment to meditate or go for a walk - for as long as it takes for me to get out of my my head ( and my own way).

Channelled during the Harvest Moon, paying close attention to what I sow and reap. Our monsters bring vital lessons as we evolve and shift - we may be tempted to ignore them, hoping that they will just go away - but they are here to help us, so pay attention when they show themselves to you.

I do have a specific technique I use to get into channel that I learned from a teacher of mine, and it is one which I have used reliably for some time now. However, as I have said before, I believe everyone has the ability to channel and I don’t believe that there is only one way to connect to Spirit/Source/God/The Universe/(use the name that resonates with you here). I also believe that the right teacher (or teachers) will appear to you when you need them…and really good teachers will want you to become your own best guide. I am always happy to share the names of those who have taught me so much, but I will say that this is a deeply spiritual and personal decision and my advice will always be for you to first trust your intuition when you ask for your teacher to show up for you - they always do.

If you are here because you have seen my art and it stirred a response in you - be it positive, negative or some curious place in between the polarities - you are likely responding to a keycode of remembrance, a sigil or symbol which resonates with you, a calling and blessing for you on your path, or perhaps a mirror in which you see yourSelf. My channeled work is created to reach the eyes of those who are the addressee’s of a message from the Divine, to aid in a shift in consciousness and assist in the alchemical transformation of initiation and awakening. Of course, you may also just see it and like it, and that is great - but I invite you to look more closely and discover what kind of mystery is being revealed to you.

My drafting table (and altar) :: organized chaos

::: Creativity during a pandemic ~ channeled art ~ finding flow :::

~ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is nothing like having to social distance under a federally mandated quarantine during a global pandemic crisis while under the thumb of a corrupt, military industrial complex regime to really kickstart your creativity.

~ In March of 2020, my calendar was chock full of public events and gigs that I was so excited about. Additionally, I had started a collaborative project with an incredible writer and tarot reader - a dream project - and had begun a personal project that I had wanted to get off the ground for two years. I finally had a schedule full of the kind of work I love to do, as well as the ever-illusive, external validation which I no longer chased - but appreciated. Of course, we all know what would become of all those plans - my story isn’t unique or special in that regard - no one had a March (or April, May or….let’s just say the whole year so far, really) like the one they had planned.

Created to create ~ there is power in connection to the material and the ethereal. Watercolor on paper by Jane Elizabeth Almirall, 2020.

~ I started social distancing early in March, and when Kansas first went into lockdown later in the month, something strange happened. It is not easy to admit this, but there was a part of me that felt relief that my public work engagements would be postponed. I was exhausted and running on fumes and had very much over-extended myself in early 2020. Perhaps it was me coming from a lack-based mentality, I never wanted to say no to an opportunity out of fear that it could be the only one I’d ever get…and now I HAD to cancel things. It took all the pressure off of me and gave me a chance to catch my breath and prioritize my time in a way that previously felt unavailable to me.. I learned how to work with my creative flow.

~ I want to acknowledge something here, and I share this with empathy and sensitivity for those who have had an extremely rough last few months, which is that my situation at home is both unusual and very fortunate. My husband and I already worked from a shared studio at home for the last few years, and thankfully he has been able to continue working and supporting us. For the most part, my working schedule and studio hours changed very little - the biggest challenge was having my children home from school - but I was able to work around their new at-home learning routine with my studio hours (luckily, I paint with watercolor - a medium which requires that you work in layers, so lots of little breaks) and shift my tarot readings from in-person to remote and online. That said, there were some big things which changed for me, resulting from the removal of distractions and my favorite procrastination strategies. The isolation pushed me into a realm of imagination, creativity and self-exploration I had never been to before.

The shadow aspect of the divine feminine, destruction is necessary for creation - breaking down old paradigms, habits and narratives - seeing past illusions. Watercolor on paper by Jane Elizabeth Almirall, 2020.

~ I started intentionally channeling my art in 2017, but I had no control over when, where or what would come through to me - and I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. A dear friend recommended that I get some instruction in this area, and in January of 2020, I took an intensive channeling workshop with Dr. Matt Turner of Be Love Healings and learned how to focus and direct my ability to channel. A word on that here -everyone has the ability to channel. I believe as children, we come into this world fully in connection with channel, but many of us lose touch with that tool (for one reason or a lot of reasons - shame and fear are usually involved) and when that happens, like an unused muscle, it atrophies. After reconnecting to my own ability and gaining some techniques for using it with purpose, I saw the lockdown as an opportunity to strengthen my ability and be of service with it.

~ In order to do this, I had to stop what I was doing and get still. The thing about creative work that I got wrong for years, was that I always approached it in a very masculine way. That is, I felt like I had to be constantly producing and making things - actively working - or I didn’t feel like I was ‘doing’ anything. Additionally, I didn’t feel like I was worth anything in a society that prized grinding productivity (along with having a number of side-hustles) unless I was working my proverbial dick off. What I misunderstood, was that for creativity to flow, there needs to be a balance of both masculine and feminine energy (like Yin and Yang). The feminine energies in creativity require rest and stillness, to better facilitate being in a receptive state. In order to tap into the cosmic consciousness and channel, I had to put myself in a state of receiving - once I figured this out, I found I wasn’t getting burned out on work anymore. It literally took a global pandemic and nationwide shut-down to force me out of my antiquated and skewed beliefs around what working as an artist (and difficult-to-pin-down-with-a-label practitioner of esoteric offerings) should be like.

Rest and being in a state of receiving for this expecting sylph. Watercolor on paper by Jane Elizabeth Almirall, 2020

~ I am so grateful for the timing of these things, which gave me the space and tools that I needed to remove my own judgements, meet my fears head-on, and get right with myself. I learned - after years of believing that I was lazy, flighty and…too mercurial - that I actually have an excellent work ethic, when I love my work, and work in my flow. So, while I was bummed to cancel all of the beautiful events that were planned for March, I am thankful for being put in a ‘time-out’, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to rest otherwise - and I would have missed a vital lesson. Taking the time to rest and make space to receive changed the way that I create for the better. Channeling art, tarot readings and creating from a place that exists outside of myself is so fulfilling and joy-bringing - i’m excited every day that I get to do work that I love.