The Song of Songs

I've been laboring for the last few weeks, working to give birth to a seed that was planted over 15 years ago. For a number of years in the 90's, I spent a great deal of time meditating over the passages of The Song of Songs in Scripture, contemplating the Bride and the Bridegroom and bridal love for God. A small group of "Lilies" met weekly listening to teachings and discussing what this love looked like and how we might obtain this great love for God, knowing full well that God loved us this completely.

Over the past few years, I've wanted to do something with the Scriptures from The Song, some kind of images, but didn't have a clue. Then a number of years ago I became fascinated with Mary Magdalene--yes, I saw/read The Da Vinci Code, but my interest was more than that. I was going through my own dark night. I was in a crisis of belief, and meditating on Mary's loss of Jesus, and his return to her in another form gave me hope. She became very important to me as an archetypal "wise woman"--one who had lost everything, and come through her own crisis of faith even stronger. I journaled with her, dialoged with her, prayed with her, and simply considered her love for Jesus. I pondered deeply the diverse meanings of resurrection, and what it meant to me personally. Mary got me through that dark night. She also had to lay to rest her understanding of Jesus and wait for something new to "raise from the dead". She kept me hoping that my loss, my crisis of believe, would lead me to something more of God, not less. And it did.

I've read Cynthia Bourgeault's book on Mary Magdalene twice since my sabbatical last December, and it's really moved me in a number of ways. The Lilies had a little saying all those years ago--"It makes my heart burn." Cynthia's book on Mary and The Wisdom Jesus "made my heart burn" for the first time in a very long time. And after nearly 10 years, I found myself immersed again in The Song. It's been delicious. And my creative juices have been flowing.

Many thanks to Cynthia Bourgeault, Leslie Hershberger and Jan Richardson for seeds of inspiration. I think I have enough ideas to paint for a lifetime right now--a whole series called The Lover and the Beloved. I don't know how far I'll get--I tend to run out of juice rather quickly sometimes, but as long as my heart keeps burning, I have a series of paintings swirling around inside of me just waiting to be born. This is the first one--it won't be the first of the series, but the first one finished.