Slab-built and hand-sculpted clay torso with beads and feathers, Rainbow Serpent, by Tammy Vitale of Tam’s Originals

For pictures of work completed this last week, click on the photo album listed in the left column titled:  New Work.  If you then click on the individual pictures, you get a nice, larger view of the work.

For an explanation of the work, visit my May 29 blog at myspace.

What I didn’t post there was any information on the title of this particular piece, only that it is based on Australian rock art.  Here’s more:

"Most often, the rainbow is recognized as a snake, the rainbow serpent [which points up that I have been mispelling "serpent" everywhere, so count that as recognized but I’m not going back to change it everywhere] of the north and South American Indians, the Australian aborigines, the Dahomeans and their neighbors in West Africa, the ancient Persians, and other peoples.  The great snake of the underneath, the rainbow serpent of Yoruba, is, like many other mythological serpents, an earth god…The rainbow serpent is of great importance – as creator, culture hero, fertility god, Great Father – in Australian mythology and ritual.  Through him for example initiates are reborn after being swallowed." Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, Maria Leach, ed.

Here’s some interesting serpent lore to go along with the male imagery in the above Dictionary’s definition:  "The male serpent deity became the phallic consort of the Great Mother, sometimes a ‘father’ of races, because he was the Mother’s original mate.  In some myths…she allowed him to take part in the work of creation or to fertilize her world-producing womb.  When the serpent-creator turned arrogant and tried to pretend that he alone made the universe, the Goddess punished him, bruising his head with her heel and banishing him to the underworld…the serpent was worshipped in Palestine long before Yahweh’s cult arose…Seraph, the Hebrew word for the divine fiery serpent, used to mean an earth-fertilizing lightning-snake, and later became an angel.  The seraphim were originally serpent-spirits, like those of the caduceus created by Hermes…Some Jewish Gnostics early in the Christian era maintained that the post-exilic Jehovah was no god, but a devil, the usurper of the original Kingdom of the Wise Serpent.

"Much Gnostic literature priased the serpent of Eden for bringing the ‘light’ of knowledge to humanity, against the will of a tyrannical God who wanted to keep humans ignorant.  This view of the Eden myth dated back to Sumero-Babylonian sources that said man was made by the Earth Mother out of mud and placed in the garden "to dress it and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15) for the gods, because the gods were too lazy to do their own farming…

"The Hypostasis of the Archons showed that the serpent was a totemic form of the Goddess, apparently taking pity on her doomed creature [humans] and seeking to instruct him [sic] in the attainment of eternal life:  ‘The Female Spiritual Principle came in the Snake, the Instructor, and it taught them, saying, ‘you shall not die; for it was out of jealousy that he said this to you.  Rather, your eyes shall open, and you shall become like gods, recognizing evil and good.” Then ‘the arrogant Ruler'( God) cursed the serpent and the woman.  Some Gnostic sects honored both Eve and the serpent for their efforts on behalf of humanity.

"The present form of the biblical story is obviously a much-revised version of the original tales of the Great Mother and her serpent."  Barbara G. Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

I find myself slowing down with studio work.  While I did two full kiln loads this week, it was mostly routine work – mainly the word tiles which are so popular.  I need to mail out two batches this week.  I suspect I need to up their price by a few dollars, too, for postage and energy costs, not to mention time costs.  I can’t figure whether I should keep making the smaller work, which sells, or the larger work, like Rainbow Serpent here, which sells but more slowly (and which I love making).  Well, I’ll take that back.  I can figure what I will do (keep making what I love), what I really can’t figure is where I’m going to put all this work.  I am considering starting to hang them outside in the garden – they are fine for that (except for wind storms, and hurricane season, as every paper I’m reading tells me, is upon us).

I think the head hamster (you know the one, the one that runs and runs in it’s little circle thing in you head) is making me tired thinking about art and making a living, about fixing the house for moving (great strides yesterday in the yard), about GayGay and how she’s doing (daily reports at myspace.)  Sometimes it is good just to keep up with what IS in front of you, and let the rest take care of itself.

Thought for the day:  "In the Western tradition, we were taught many things about the nature of negativity and the nature of sin, but we were never told that one of the greatest sins is the unlived life.  We are sent into the world to live to the full everything that awakens within us and everything that comes toward us…There are many people who do not live the lives they desire.  Many of the things that hold them back from inhabiting their destiny are false.  These are only images in their minds.  They are not real barriers at all.  If you allow yourself to be the person that you are, then everything will come into rhythm.  If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings…The shape of each soul is different.  There is a secret destiny for each person." John O’Donohue, Anam Cara:  A book of Celtic Wisdom

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