This Sunday: The Art of Transmutation #2 with Ari Kuschnir and Schuyler Brown
Join us Feb 16th from 12-1:30pm EST to get inspired and make some more alchemical art!
Dear Friends,
This Sunday,
and I will co-host our second event in the Art of Transmutation series. We hope you can make it! It’s a warm, welcoming space where all are invited to explore the regenerative power of creativity in these dark times.We’ll share art we love, talk about esoteric transmutation practices and rituals, meditate, exercise (yes, we’ll get the heart rate up), and make some art! Pre-registration is required.
Sunday, February 16th from 12-1:30pm EST
Bring your water colors or colored pencils, because this week we’ll play with the tantric art practice of making “cosmic eggs.”
What are cosmic eggs?
Ari and I became interested in this tantric art form a few years ago when we came across this incredible book, Tantra Song.
The book is filled with mysterious, captivatingly simple, and evocative images. As objects of meditation. They depict higher states of consciousness, deities, cosmic laws, and esoteric truths that can be accessed through their contemplation. Presumably, the artists (who remain secret and anonymous) have already achieved these states and they make the art as a transmission. Or maybe they are practitioners, too, working towards these unexcelled spiritual goals.
The author of Tantra Song, a French poet, Franck André Jamme, gained rare access to the Indian artists who make these paintings and began exhibiting them in Paris in the 1990s. In the catalogue for that show he wrote:
The thought has often occurred to me that, perhaps rarely in the universal history of painting, have works at once so mysterious and simple, yet so powerful and pure ever been produced—a bit as if, here, man’s genius had been able to assemble almost everything in almost nothing.
We love this art and from time-to-time we make it ourselves. The simplicity and tactile nature of the materials make it a refreshing reprieve from the digital world with its pixelated animations, unnatural colors, and warp-speed barrage of images. This art can be made on any kind of paper. In fact, the artists in Rajasthan use old ledger sheets and scrap papers. The “imperfections” are included, which is a very tantric way of seeing the world. Ari loves using water colors. I enjoy colored pencils.
Specifically, the motif of the cosmic egg is an ancient one that appears in many world mythologies and creation stories. In many cultures, the cosmic egg is what pre-exists the Universe or the Earth. It is the very essence of potentiality and manifestation. We all know this about the egg…it contains infinite potential and then, when it is fertilized, it creates LIFE. Cosmic egg stories are fun to look into and we may share a few on Sunday.
We like to fill our eggs with visions we receive in prayer and meditation. We don’t always know the meaning of the symbols that come through, and that’s part of the fun. They are a mystery even as we’re creating them. Just like we explored two weeks ago in the practice of making nature mandalas, we don’t ruminate or plan these works, they are meant to be spontaneous, un-self-conscious, automatic and imaginative! We encourage free-association and keeping the process loose in order to let the subconscious mind step forward, to release images long-held, and even to become a channel for images, signs, and symbols from guides and higher intelligences.
Tantra is an alchemical practice and it’s ultimate focus is world creation. The guiding principle or intention with the cosmic eggs is about birthing the world we want to live in—and birthing within us the consciousness that can MAKE that world REALITY. Making tantric art, especially cosmic eggs, is an easy, fun, and accessible way to invite the soul into a regular practice of world creation and manifestation.
This is such an important skill in these times. So much of our consumerist media and culture is designed to atrophy our agency and imagination. Many of us have become more passive than is healthy. Humans thrive through creative self-expression, communication (being heard and received, receiving the truth of others), communion with inspiration and the muse, storytelling. All week, I haven’t stopped thinking about Kendrick Lamar’s revolutionary Super Bowl performance, which ended with the banger, Turn this TV Off. He means it. Lamar is always encouraging his fans to be smart about how the culture is a tool for control.
So, let’s turn this TV off and jump on a ZOOM together to invoke the muse and each one of us create a cosmic egg for the world we want to see now. Maybe together we can make a cosmic omelette!
The Art of Transmutation #2 ~ Cosmic Eggs
Sunday, February 16th
12-1:30p EST
Suggested fee $30 (free to paid subscribers)
Venmo: @ElizabethSchuyler-Brown
We look forward to making art with you!
Ari and Schuyler
What a beautiful practice! I'm sorry to be traveling this weekend and unable to attend. I hope you will host another cosmic egg event soon.