The Awaken the Goddess Meditation Deck was the beginning of my journey as a visionary artist. I had been part of a group studying Peruvian Shamanism through the Medicine Wheel, when I got sick with a severe sore throat that wouldn’t go away. I was worried that I might have something very serious.
One day at my art studio I began to draw and image and this was the gateway to this deck emerging. When I finished the drawing I knew it was only the first of many and they came fast and furious over the next two months. So fast and at such times that I wasn’t able to capture them all in paintings. By the time the series was complete I had 44 paintings. When the paintings were complete, my sore throat went away. I believe this was the opening of my throat chakra, which is often closed in many people.
This was the beginning of a deep journey that would transform my life as a person and as an artist, and would awaken me consciously. At times it was painful, at times it was joyful and in the end it would leave me stunned and amazed.
I met the late Ron Mangravite, an expert on symbolism and esoteric mystery and director of a Modern Mystery School, at a salon held at Dr. Jan Adam’s home. When he saw my images he assumed that I had studied esoteric symbols in great depth and began talking to me about them. I had no idea what he was talking about because I hadn’t studied this subject. It was hard from him to believe that I didn’t know what I had done because, according to him, I was using such an incredible “mixed bag” of symbolic, cultural images that one could not know unless they had done years of esoteric study, so it was amazing that they just sprung from my inner world.
What looks like simple drawings are provocative images that take one deep inside. They might be mistaken for a tarot deck is described this way by Ron,
” What we know as Tarot, was initially, a series of drawings illustrating an initiate’s true identity, discovered during a deep inward journey,” he said. “These drawings, in the form of a deck, were presented to the master teacher to show what the initiate had truly discovered. The master teacher could tell immediately, by looking at these images, whether or not the initiate had discovered his “truth”. this is what allowed the initiate to graduate and have the right to say ” I know my identity. That is why I am pleased to announce that Katelyn is an initiate of consciousness.”
I was stunned when Ron told me I was an “initiate of consciousness”, which he said was quite rare in our culture. I was just following my inner inspiration where it was leading me. In a subsequent conversation about my new art work, I asked Ron if I could study with him. He told me that there was nothing he could teach me that I didn’t already know. I write this with the utmost humility because this was 19 years ago and I still haven’t quite taken it all in.
The meditation deck came about when a friend who owned a book store saw them and said she wanted to support me to bring the images into the world. She started a publishing company and produced the Awaken The Goddess Meditation Deck for me. We had a big celebration when they were done and Ron flew in from North Carolina to speak about them.
I have some of this first printing available for sale. When they are gone they will no longer be available. If you are interested in purchasing a deck you can find the information by following this Awaken The Goddess
katelynmariah
Medicine Woman Art 