"The Four Agreements" and The Seven of Swords

For the past two years or so, I've pulled eight Tarot cards every morning and then journaled about how they may be giving me insight and direction.  One of the cards that I pulled this morning was the "Seven of Swords", which comes up often enough for me to do an ever deeper dive to understand what it's trying to tell me.

In a Tarot class a couple of years back, my teacher called this card "Sneaky Pete".  It is frequently linked to deception, and at first glance my mind goes to "Ok, who's trying to deceive me?"... mostly a knee jerk reaction, I think, because it's always so much easier and more comfortable to pin it on someone else than to look within.

Most recently I've discovered several Tarot teachers who talk more about how this card speaks to our own self deception, with the swords representing the unconscious beliefs that we carry that are formed in childhood.  Perhaps it's reminding us to choose carefully which beliefs we still want to carry with us, and which no longer or never really served us.

After pulling my cards this morning, I felt the need to re-read some pages from "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz.  On page 22 he says,  "If we can see it is our agreements which rule our life, and we don't like the dream of our life, we need to change the agreements."   

I can totally relate this to the Seven of Swords!  In this quote Don Miguel refers to the deep seated childhood beliefs we form as our "agreements".  In Tarot the suit of Swords is related to the mind.  Both the passage and card are getting at the same thing, I think.

It's in leaving behind the old beliefs that no longer serve us, and to take a step further, changing them to the beliefs we wish to carry to create our new reality, where the real growth and healing occur.  This insight reminded me once again about how much I love the Tarot, and how its lessons so often intertwine with so many other systems, including astrology, numerology and philosophy.

Wishing you all a most beautiful, peaceful, and insightful day.

With Love and Light,

Linda 

" I Listen to the Wind of My Soul" Milagro Necklace

Ever since my first trip to Mexico in 2010, I've been enchanted by Milagros (Milagro meaning miracle in Spanish), which are small folk charms in the shape of hearts, animals and various body parts.  You can find them mostly in brass or tin, at the local public markets, shops and outside of churches.  People like to purchase them and take them to church to pin under the Saints, praying for particular outcomes.

I've visited Mexico many times, and I often bring back Milagros.  I've found both vintage and new ones, all equally enchanting, and have made necklaces with them on and off for over ten years.

Recently I've felt the pull to work with them again, and I'm putting together a small new collection of one of a kind necklaces.  

This first one features Ears!!  

So why would you wear ears??  It depends what they mean to you!  Maybe you're experiencing a problem with your ears.  Or... maybe you want to be a better listener, either to others, or to your own inner voice.

On the theme of our inner voice, at first I thought I'd name the necklace "I'm listening to the whispers of my soul", then I thought "I'm listening to the cries of my soul" (sometimes they really are cries)!!  But then a song I listened to many, many times as a teenager, called  "The Wind" by Cat Stevens started playing over and over in my head...  "I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul".  It made me cry so hard when I listened to that song again that I knew this was indeed the name for the necklace.  So here it is...

"I Listen to the Wind of My Soul"

The piece features seven brass Ear Milagros from my trip in 2017 to Mexico City, each hung from a white freshwater pearl, wired with Sterling Silver wire.

In between the ears are eight baroque pearls hanging from a smaller pearl, all white freshwater.

The necklace features red wine colored iridescent Czech Glass bugle beads with a gold flash,

along with clear seed beads with a gold foil center.

The necklace is about 18-1/2" long, including the sterling silver lobster clasp, and is finished with a two inch sterling silver extender chain capped with a freshwater pearl.

It literally jingles, as an ever present reminder to confidently follow your intuition.

To view and purchase the piece on my website, click here.

For a short Instagram Video featuring the piece and the song, click here.

Perhaps this piece will whisper to your soul as well...

With Love and Light,

Linda

Let My Heart Open Wide, Let it Bloom Like a Flower

Today I'd like to take a deeper dive into my "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus",  born in June of 2020.  She is the tenth piece in my Mermaid series, and the first of seven pieces I painted during the pandemic. 

The idea for the painting actually came about ten months earlier, in August of 2019.  My son was visiting Los Angeles and invited me to spend a couple of nights with him at a hotel in Laguna Beach, where I found the book "Becoming Supernatural" by Dr. Joe Dispenza.  I picked it up and started reading, fascinated by his research on the mind body connection.

The hotel gifted me the book, and it led me to Dr. Joe's "Blessing of the Energy Centers" meditation.  I was very new to chakras and meditation, and listening to this 45 minute journey through the energy centers of the body brought up a lot of emotions for me.  I was particularly taken by his words during the fourth center, the "Heart Chakra", where he spoke the words "Let my heart open wide, let it bloom like a flower".  It made me cry a bucket.

Somehow I knew this was going to be key for me.  Let my heart open wide.  Love.  Beginning with Self Love.

Let it bloom like a flower.  Which flower?  My mind went to the Lotus, a beautiful blossom that literally emerges from the mud.

In meditation I began to picture myself as a Mermaid holding a lotus, a pink one to be exact.  I was wearing pearls, a symbol of beauty formed by adversity.  And I was naked to the world, standing in my truth, as are most of my Mermaids.   

I started to see so clearly my own inner healing work that needed to be done, and journaled the following: "...the thought came to me that maybe I should look at a year in Tucson, as a retreat of sorts, one where I could focus on creation and self exploration.  I could come back to Cali later if I choose, once I know my retreat is over."  While I yearned for this time alone, I didn't have a clue how it could happen.  I tucked both the painting idea and the retreat idea away and slugged along in what was gearing up to be yet another one of my dark nights of the soul!

About six months later, in March of 2020, the world shut down, and it didn't take long before I began to receive the gifts of the pandemic.  I was still not alone, and still not in Tucson, yet I moved to exactly where I wanted and needed to be at the time, namely confronting the same unresolved issues!  It hit me like a ton of bricks!  So much healing still needed to be done. The words began to echo in my head once again... "Let my heart open wide, let it bloom like a flower".  The first gift of the pandemic... seeing what needed to be healed.  Love.  And the first is Self Love.

The second big gift of the pandemic was time.  With all of my events shut down, I was given focused time to paint.  And paint I did!  Working in Acrylic and Fine Art paper on Ampersand Claybord, my "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus", 24"x18", was born by the end of June.  It was only later that I began to understand just how important this painting would become in my own development. 

Symbolizing my "Higher Self", she was the first to arrive so that she could lead the way.  As the summer of 2020 progressed, along with a record heat wave, so did my meditation practice, and my spiritual awakening.  The next painting to arrive on the scene to assist me was my "Protector", and I will write about him next!

If my journey towards healing and self love resonates and you would like to have your very own print of "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus" on the wall to remind you of the importance of self love, you can click here to see my print options.  It would be my honor to inspire you in this way!

With Love and Light,

Linda

I'm on a Podcast!

Happy Spring!! Dear Art Loving Friends, Ever since the pandemic, it's been a goal of mine to have a conversation about "Art and Channeling".  When I finally said it out loud to the Universe in my recent "Bold Journey" interview, the power of intention worked its magic!! I met Omar Angulo recently at an event, discovered he's an actor and songwriter with a spiritual podcast, "In a Good Way", and that he was interested in this topic as well.  The rest is history!  We recorded our interview on the Spring Equinox, neither one of us realizing when we first spoke and chose the date that it would fall on this beautiful day of renewal and rebirth... the first day of Spring. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink (whatever makes you happy) and spend a little time with us as we chat about my painting process, some of our experiences with synchronicity, the connection between art and the subconsious mind, and much more.  You can access the episode here.  It's my sincere hope that it inspires you in some way!! A heartfelt thanks, by the way, to all who came to Frogtown for "Girl Dinner".  It was a great evening, and a big WELCOME if you are new to my list. I'd like to leave you all with a question today.  Have you had any experiences where you felt you were channeling from a higher source while creating?  I would love to hear about it! With Love and Light, Linda "Spring Mermaid", 11"x14", Mixed Media on Claybord, 2014 lindaqueally.com pearls here prints here Follow me on Instagram artbylindaqueally

Thoughts on the Pride Flag Ban in Huntington Beach

Surfers are near and dear to my heart, and I see them as Mer People.  During the three years that I lived in Long Beach, I spent many days in beach towns in Orange County observing and photographing surfers.  I found it to be so meditative.  Sitting on either the shore or the pier, I listened to the rhythm of the waves and waited, while they sat on their boards... and also waited.  

Then a wave would rise, and they would too, riding it to shore if they were lucky and the wave was just right.  I saw them as being in tune with nature, at one with the universe.  With nothing to focus on but the sea, I believe they quieted their mind and reflected on the bigger picture.

How could these same people be so in tune with nature yet so out of tune with their fellow man??  What happened to love and compassion for another being, regardless of whether they are like or unlike yourself??  

This spiritual, meditative sport seems riddled in contradiction to me now.

I was looking for one of my surfer images for this post, and this one hit me like a ton of bricks.  I'm going to call it "Distortion".  

I am of course talking about the vote yesterday in Huntington Beach to take away the right to hang a rainbow flag outside.  How could a country that prides itself on freedom of speech have gone so far in the other direction?  I hang my head in shame for Huntington Beach right now, who has chosen to drive yet another wedge between humans.  

What will it take for us to learn that LOVE is the only answer?  It's time for each one of us to focus our energy on our own journey, and lovingly and peacefully let others have theirs as well. 

With Love and Light,

Linda

 

 

"Beneath the Surface" in Frogtown for Women's History Month

Every Picture Tells a Story Greetings Art Lovers! When I purchased a blank 48"x48" stretched canvas back in 2009 only to discover it wouldn't fit in my car, the universe gave me a hand in the form of a friend who just happened to be shopping there and could drive the canvas home for me.  I then got to work on what would continue to be my piece with the most interesting history to date. "Beneath the Surface" was born in 2010, and I loved the finished piece but it still didn't fit in my car.  It seemed I was always looking for someone to drive it around for me!!  The universe took note and again gave me a hand, this time introducing me to a company that rents Art to movies and television. Becoming one of their favorites, my painting was featured in their showroom from 2014 to 2019, appearing in numerous shows, including NCI Los Angeles, Going Under, New Girl, Reverie, Lethal Weapon, 10 Days in the Valley, Libby and Malcolm, Training Day, Criminal Minds and Lucifer.  It was rented a total of fifteen times, with its biggest claim to fame being "Big Little Lies".  Appearing as a backdrop for Nicole Kidman in S2, E4, she exclaimed to Meryl Streep to "Get the *#$% out of here!!", as an evil Meryl explained "We need to do what's best for the boys". Ah... the drama of it all!  What a classic scene. Several arranged car rides after its run there, in 2022, it witnessed a storage break-in where it was not harmed!  Facing yet another move, I finally took it off the bars and rolled it up. Recently unrolling the painting for the first time in a while, I flung my arms to the heavens and exclaimed "If this painting could talk, what a story it would tell!!  This painting needs a home"! And then, you guessed it, the universe gave me a hand...  This history laden painting will be on display and available for purchase at an event in honor of International Women's History Month Come and meet the painting, the myth, the legend that is "Beneath the Surface" at... Open to All!!  Bring your Brothers, Partners & Pals!  Free Admission, Art, Live Music Food by Just What I Kneaded Wine by Justine's Wine Bar This is a popular event, so I encourage you  to preregister here. I'm offering this unique piece of Art that has rubbed elbows with the stars at $1850, unframed... perhaps you're just the person it will whisper it's story to. See You There! With Love and Light, Linda lindaqueally.com a quick little unrolling video here follow me on Instagram artbylindaqueally

Just Back From Mexico

Hello Friends!

I’ve just returned from a wonderful seven week road trip in Mexico, and this is what I noticed...

Just as I make art because I'm called to do it, I travel for the same reason. It's my soul's purpose! It's how I learn and grow. And if you read my latest interview with Voyage LA’s “Bold Journey” magazine, one of the things I talked about was maintaining balance between our spiritual and physical natures.  You can read the article here.  

When I’m at home in LA, my “foot in the physical plane” means selling at events, while my “foot in the spiritual plane” means making art and being a seeker.  I spend a lot of time alone and can be a bit "woo"... you can find me in La La Land.

But the pedal really meets the metal when you put this human in a car with another human for seven weeks, on a 4000 mile road trip in a foreign country, where we will also meet up and spend significant time with even more humans. Welcome to full blown planet earth mode! Time to put all that woo into practice on the physical plane.

Believe me, you can spend all the time in the world watching youtube and reading books about practicing love and compassion and facing your shadows, but the true test of how far you’ve come in your spiritual awakening is when you bring those principles out into the world and see if they stick.  

Then if you're still triggered from time to time (and you will be), ask the question “Why"?  

I did a piece in my sketchbook when I found myself facing that question one morning in Magdalena, Jalisco, noticing that I'm still often afraid to own my power. Bam! It's so important to remember that the real growth always comes not by pointing the finger at someone else, but by looking within. It's so powerful!

So today I just wanted to talk about how important travel is to me, calling and teaching me to become the best version of myself. How it pushes me to my limits and helps me step into my power (sometimes kicking and screaming)! HA! And to encourage you to do the things that you feel called to do as well, trusting that even if you are pushed to your limits, you are doing the work to uncover and embrace the hidden parts of yourself, so you, too, can shine like the sun.

This, my fellow seekers, is the good stuff.   This is our soul’s journey.  

With Love and Light,

Linda