Practical woo in a trifecta of art forms
I bring to you some much needed hope and optimism in these dark times. Luminescence is a celebration of the light of spirit in orange, blue, turquoise, green, and yellow! Finches, jays, bluebirds, and buntings sing freedom to your foundations. Each artwork is a pattern collage bearing colored pencil drawings of song birds mounted on canvas or panel ranging in size from 8x8 inches to 20x20 inches to fit any empty space on your walls. Bring home a reminder that the most important aspect of resistance is optimism. If little birds can be resilient, so can you!
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New Trifecta Coming in November!
A new trifecta called Sparrow’s Descent is currently in the works! Follow the adventures of a golden crowned sparrow as she embarks upon a quest to find a red apple in which it is rumored the juiciest worm resides.
A trifecta is an art series, book, and puppet opera all created around the same theme. The story of Sparrow’s Descent is a parable about incarnation that follows the model of the Western Occult chakra tradition. The sparrow travels through every color of the rainbow down from purple to red as she decides to take on a body on earth for no other reason than to taste an experience unavailable in the spirit world.
The puppet opera will illustrate this journey to the music of J.S. Bach. Juliana Brandon will sing the cantata Non sa che sia dolore while puppeteering at the same time. This puppet opera is simultaneously part of a larger project called Shadow Bachs which endeavors to create a puppet show around all 9 of Bach’s solo soprano cantatas.
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What is "practical woo?"
Practical woo is a term I coined a long time ago that (unknown to me at the time) is related to the idea of practical magic. While practical magic is about using spellcraft and other magical arts to fulfill mundane earthly needs, practical woo includes much more than the working of spells. In fact, I very rarely do spell workings.
There is a big psychological component to practical woo that includes things like meditation, tarot and oracle cards, conversations with spirits, as well as rituals for empowerment. While tarot cards are most often used for divinatory reasons, I use them mainly as psychological tools to help me clarify and think more deeply about my own thoughts and feelings.
The term practical magic is often defined in relation to high magic, or ceremonial magic. High magic aims for communion with the divine, a search for a mind blowing experience of wholeness with all of creation, and is performed with deep reverence. Usually high magic is too intense to be practiced daily, but practical woo is a way of life.
How does practical woo tie in with my artistic practice? I consider myself to be a symbolist artist, which means that my work speaks through symbolism.
Symbolism is also how your subconscious speaks to you and how the divine prefers to communicate as well. This means the line between the psychological and the spiritual is very thin if it exists at all. Because my life has been built upon a kind of occult foundation since birth, I tend to see symbolism in more spiritual terms.
This symbolist system works its way into my puppet operas and books as well as into my visual art. Many of my books are memoirs of my meditations and conversations with the spirit world that I elaborate upon to make them intelligible to the public.
I love working with the symbolism so often found in music, especially the music of the 18th century when it was most in vogue, and so the imagery of my puppet operas works with a combination of music and text to enhance this symbolism. Since so much of the vocal music of that era is also based in the Christian tradition, I love extrapolating a more universalist and esoteric interpretation of that symbolism into my own puppetry.
It is my dearest hope that the use of spiritual symbolism through my arts can help to nurture your divine inner child, so you can continue to grow into realizing your divine purpose upon this earth.
You can learn more about Juliana Brandon here.
Art, puppets, and practical woo straight to you!
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