Self Portrait Challenge: What I Wear

I clothe myself in Mama Earth:
dried eucalypt leaves tangling in my hair,
coral in my eyes, stems of nuts and flowering buds dangling from wrists,
seaweed and mulla mulla grass wrapping their tender arms around my body.

I walk barefoot:
letting the air and the light
kiss me and cleanse me
reminding me of my beginnings and endings.

I lose myself in Her, and Her in me.
Every part of me is dust and love,
singing in a body.
I am in the trees. The trees are in me.

What I wear is My Self and My Earth:
medicine bag on my back,
radiant body, limbs, life, breath,
joy in every step.


~ * ~

I had wild photo picnics on the farm on the weekend!
Check out the pictures here!

Water Womyn

Water Womyn:
She who comes to me
when I am in the Room of Cleansing, the Room of Bathing.

She is strong, that Water Womyn,
sister to Changing Womyn,
floating me in the liquid arms,
mermaid hair unfurling,
comforting me with her eerie song
that speaks of the old places:
Atlantis, Avalon, Tipi in the Sky.

Some nights, the Water Womyn
teaches me through visions.
Some nights, she stands to the left and centre of me,
whispering in my ear
who I am and why I am here.

May your day be blessed with light,
Leonie

~ More Turquoise Journey here.
~ More Self Portrait Challenges here.

the spiral pattern

Air Self

All the ways
to see the sky
in myself:

the long vast days of turquoise summer
the soft greys of replenishing rain
the dark umbre of night emblazoned by Venus and her sisters...

and always,
the vibrancy, the possibility, the sheer expansiveness.

This is what the sky teaches me:
The world is infinite.
Everything is possible.

I relish how the sky is always a part of my paintings too...
always spreading her lovely silken azure wings around my canvas.


Magic falls from her hair,
prints on Goddess of Leonie etsy store

with love and wind,
Leonie


~ More elemental self portraits at SPC
~ More Turquoise Journey here

Fire Stories

1.
Once upon a time,
driving to work in the morning,
the light caught my hair,
and a wildfire burned there.

Behind me, Paris said:
"Miss Leonie,
your hair is glowing
like a nimbus."

2.
My name, Leonie, means lioness.
I have a blonde mane framing a face of proud cheeks,
falling to nestle on a lion's heart.
A Lioness is a Woman of Flaming Manes.

3.
I am alight from a weekend
with a dear friend,
a sister, a woman
who is my astrological polar opposite.

I am alight from two sparks igniting each other,
a white wolf standing between us,
awakening from a drumming journey
to see her gazing at me,
both of us crumpled, embryonic, on the floor,
blazed through by the drum and the didge.

I am awake with our fierce journeying,
our thirst for knowing,
our dreamings and possibilities.

I am awake with the fire of sisterhood.



4.
When I was a child,
I fought bushfires.
Our farmhouse came close to being razed a time or two.

The drill was
heavy summer days
the scent of burning grass in the air
the sight of flames
the call of neighbours
the gathering of machinery.

We would wet down great bags of hessian,
ladle large plastic tubs of water into the car.

My father and his father
would be at the forefront of the fire
and the licking fingers of flame,
playing an elaborate game of rugby with
their dozers and tractors.

The womenfolk and children
would be at the sides and rear of the fire,
putting out spot fires,
bedding down the heat.

It was something I feared and relished, all at once.
Somedays I still think I want to be a firefighter:
for the community, the tangible challenge,
the smell, the sheer physicality of spirit, body and water against earth and fire.



5.
Fire is the kundalini,
my passion, energy, actions.
Fire is the bushfire,
my transformation, alchemy, release and rebirth.
Fire is the inspiration,
my burning possibility of all that wishes to come ablaze in this world.

6.
All our lives are waiting to teach us.

Bright, Burning Blessings,
Leonie

* More Self Portraits on the elements here
* More Turquoise Journey here

Water Fairie

can you see the fairies?


I'm a water fairie, born under the sign of the Deep~Waters Scorpio.

I have mermaid hair, and a merman lover. I have mermaid friends ~ when I meet them, I know them by heart: curling masses of hair inhabited by seahorses, shining eyes that speak of the sea, wide smiles that light a mermaid's cottage...

*
On our first date,
my merman and I sat by the sea at night,
holding hands, and he said:

When I see the ocean through my eyes, it makes my spirit happy.

*

Water is the Mother of healing,
Water teaches the Way of the Flow,
Water is the embrace of Great Spirit.


with light blessings of the sea,
Leonie


~You can read more about the soul purpose of mermaids and other earth angels in Doreen Virtue's divine "Earth Angels" handbook.

~More elemental fairies at SPC

earth

grateful offering

Every afternoon, in the golden light,
she would climb the Western mountain.
Up, up, until her legs burned
and her great lungs danced with air.

There, up the top of the mountain,
above the reach of the suburbs and the world,
she would curl up among the fallen tree logs,
and the grandfather rocks.

She would breathe in the sky,
letting her eyes flight with the birds,
watching the moon rise above her,
and remembering herself as a child
of this beautiful Earth.


mountain girl (prints on etsy)

may you be healed by mama earth today ~
leonie


* more turquoise journey here
* more water ~ air ~ earth ~ fire @ self portrait challenge

Self Portrait Challenge

It is winter here:
the descent of the Goddess Persephone into the underbelly of the Earth, reuniting with her lover Hades. The story makes sense in the changes here, down in the Southern Alps, but not so much in the year-round tropics of my birthplace..
I was born in a town 2000 kilometres north of here - a town named by the Roman's name for the Goddess - Proserpine.
Born in the land of Persephone under the sign of Scorpio, choosing to pair with another Scorpio ~ welcome to the landscape of a woman on the discovery for the deep.

It is winter here:
watching the Poplar leaves turn yellow gold
the Manchurian Pear leaves a brilliant, ruby red,
then finally, they are all gone.

Only the release of disintegrating leaves,,
and bare limbs, naked and strong.
Can I learn the lessons of the trees?

Outside at night, we beckon to the moon,
planting our feet into the frozen earth,
the winter breath wind coursing past us and through us.

Only Mother Earth can teach us
such a gift as this:
That life is flow:
a constant, round river,
of leaves colouring, falling, sleeping, awakening,
bursting into bloom once more.
of leaves colouring, falling, sleeping, awakening,
bursting into bloom once more.

She changes every thing she touches,
Everything she touches changes.

May I know the wisdom and clarity
to breathe through the breath,
to love what is here
and be a part of the change.

With love,
Leonie

~ More Self Portraiters in their environment here.