2019
I made this shrine for myself in the May 2019 Shrine workshop. The top figure is a Black Madonna, symbol of a down-to-earth goddess. The other figures are guardians. Like most pieces I make, it was based on intuitive choices from a collage. During the time I was finishing the piece and getting ready to photograph it, I was reading Dancing in the Flames by Marion Woodman, a Jungian analyst. In it she discusses the earthy goddess archetype and the horned wild man archetype and how these two must unite symbolically in the psyche for wholeness. Well, that’s my simplified version. But anyway, there they are in this shrine! It was an odd moment of startling synchronicity and one of those times one realizes there is so much more going on than is apparent in conscious awareness.