"Nimue", a white hart, and a goat?

"Nimue"

16x20 acrylic on masonite

2012

Tammy Mae Moon

I finally got to finish this up this week.  I have been working on it in spurts for weeks now.  My original plan was to paint Nimue, one of the names for the Lady of the Lake, and a white hart.  While I was working on her a goat appeared, and I really had no idea why at the time.  It wasn't until I really started to think about the symbolism of the goat that it hit me why he was there.  I figured I had better do some "splaining".

First, Nimue is a goddess that has always intrigued me.  We know that she was one of the ladies of the lake, and that she was an enchantress.  Supposedly she used her feminine ways to seduce the great wizard Merlin into teaching her all of his magic, then she used this magic to entrap him in a tower, or in some stories a hawthorn tree.  Some of you may remember one of my older works from 2009 "Merlin and Nimue":

 You can imagine how the Patriarchy loved this tale of an evil temptress destroying the powers of the greatest wizard.  One who really studies the writings of the courtly love era, the Camelot myths, certainly will understand the story differently though.   The writers of these Courtly love tales believed that all women were to be honored as the goddess, and it was through the love of the goddess that man transcended this world and became immortal.

Merlin would have been able to predict his own death, and yet he willingly hung out with Nimue. In one tale Nimue changes him into a hawthorn tree. The hawthorn tree to the ancient Celts was the symbol for the chalice itself (the Holy Grail). It held the divine secrets of everlasting life. Therefore Merlin became one with those divine secrets by way of Nimue (the goddess).


Now the white hart appears a lot in Camelot myths too.  Usually it is the hunt for the white hart that leads the knights into the forest, or the Otherworld.  It represents the legendary beast of the chase and represents both heavenly and earthly love and is similar to the symbol of the unicorn in medieval lore.  It represents innocence, and the goddess of the land.  It leads you into the Otherworld where you will be forever changed.


The goat has been a strong symbol through out history.  It was sacrificed routinely by ancient cultures so it represents sacrifice.  But it is also represented by strong virile, wild male gods like Pan.  Of course we have all used the phrase "horny old goat".  Goats represent that wild, sexual, masculine energy that drives the world to procreate.


So these two animals represent two facets of Nimue.  That innocent, pure feminine goddess of the land, and that wild, evil, sexual temptress that she has become and the goat represents the sacrifice of the land.  In between these two animals is a healthy large heart.  The heart of the goddess being fed by opposites.


So there is some of my thoughts on this one, at least the ones I can form somewhat coherently.

Fragile, WIP

This is the latest piece. I am thinking it will be called "Fragile", or "I Feel Fragile Today". The above pic shows her with the graphite sketch and the first touches of color. I am painting her to symbolize what I think a lot of people are feeling right now. We are submersed in a bunch of Pisces energy right now, culminating during the next new moon when many planets including the Sun will be in Pisces. We are all feeling fragile and extra sensitive right now. We are also going through a major transition right now and trying to realign our systems to anchor in this new energy.
The butterflies are a symbol for this transition and they are going through her in a sense without her even realizing it. She is also submersed in water to her waist to symbolize the emotions of Pisces. Here is what she is looking like with a bit more color.



I need to work on a commission now and won't be able to finish her for a few days. That is going to be incredibly hard for me, but she will just have to wait.

The Seeker, finished

This is the "The Seeker" finished. The seeker represents the beginning step of the initiate as she steps onto the path of ascension. She wears the hermetic symbol the Seal of Light over her third eye region. This symbol alone represents the totality of our initiation into a state of perfection. The circle represents all energy and the ultimate expression of unity in the Cosmos. The square represents the crystallization of energy into definite form and the idea of perfect harmony. The trinity is shown by the triangle. Finally, the inner circle represents eternity.

At a deeper level of initiation however the three geometric solids equate to the alchemical solutions of Mercury, Sulphur and Salt. These represent not only chemicals but the spiritual and invisible principles of Soul, Spirit and Body and the three lights, Stellar Fire, Solar Fire and Lunar Fire. To those in possession of 'the key' this symbol, or cipher, is thought to reveal the 'alchemical' formula for discovering Man's essence and transmuting him in stages into a state of perfection - a reflection of God (definition of hermetic seal from http://cosmiccipher.blogspot.com/2006/10/symbols-ciphers-divine-proportion.html).

She wears this symbol, and yet she has not seen it yet. It guides her from her third eye, but she is not consciously aware of it yet. Behind her is a forest that she seems to have just came out of, and yet behind her is the direction she needs to proceed. The two giant egg shapes represent her own hidden potential. The bird and the feather are representations of gifts from spirit that will help guide her along the path.

She is excited to begin the journey, but she is not quite aware of the gifts she possesses. She is the seeker, much like the fool in tarot. The hermetic seal is also repeated in the way the two trees form a square, along with her own triangular shape, and the circle of her face. In a sense, this potential of transmutation is always with us, and all around us.

I really enjoyed experimenting with this piece. I had so much fun with the drip effect. It is definitely a process of letting go for me and letting it just happen. I am looking forward to working more with this technique.