It's a total stretch I know (!) but I was stuck by the similarities in composition, form and color between the recent photo of the Carina Nebula in the Milky Way taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, and my 2001 painting entitled "Desert Spirit." I'm not sure what the connection is, but it's amazing how the work of the imagination, and the creative process, can sometimes mimic or access cosmic realms, dream worlds, and mystical spaces. ​

Commentary on social media:

"I totally see it!  Beaudelaire would call this « correspondences ».......I love your painting, BTW!"   L Caroline Bergeron

"I agree completely with what you have shared regarding imagination and accessing other realms and worlds. The comparison here is strikingly beautiful."  Patricia Ballentine

"What Patricia Ballentine said!  Cosmic bodymind!"  🌀💙 Louise Hewett

"I see the similarity. Beautiful!"  ​Deirdre Howie

"Your subconscious/conscious connecting with Cosmic Mind."  ✨❤️✨
Rosemary Robertson

"It's atavistic.​" Andras Corban-Arthen
​

The Green Lady is a revered figure in neo-pagan movements, the ancestral arts and nature spiritualities worldwide. She also has monumental importance as a living entity, especially in today’s era of climate disaster and massive change. Since Roman times, and from the Gothic to the Renaissance age, art, sculpture and classic iconography have depicted carvings of the Green Man and Green Lady, surrounded by leaves, buds, stalks, stems, vines, fruits, volutes and flowers, often with plant life growing from their faces.

Found on the façades of churches, on capitals, keystones, cornices, porches, tympanums, frescos and baptismal fonts, The Green Lady functions as a doorway to the “world between the worlds,” and functions as a sovereign being overlooking the limitless realms. At the interface between the human and the divine, The Green Lady is a reminder of our primal essence, and shifts us beyond linear mind. Appearing in diverse forms - often enigmatic and bizarre - the primordial icons of Old Europe have been kept alive through the long years of colonization and Christian oppression. A shapeshifter that moves between the worlds, The Green Lady represents the “wildness” of the human spirit, that can never be tamed by Empire or monotheistic religions.

In pre-Christian times, The Green Lady was found in shrines and temples devoted to Mother Earth and diverse Goddesses worldwide. She is both immanent and transcendent, and specific to culture and place, can manifest through earth-emergent Goddesses such as Gaia, Demeter, Ceres, Cybele, Nerthus, Anu, Danu, Mari, Asase Ya, Parvati, Spider Woman, Pachamama and Muzzu Kummik Quae (among others). In animist societies, she is the fundamental “Green Spirit of the Land” who evokes the Green Goddess and “Natura” aspects of fecundity, abundance, renewal and rebirth. She is the essence that kindles the growth of new life in the spring, the rejuvenating powers of nature, the nurturing power of the feminine, and the principles of universal love.

Our era calls out for a renewed recognition of the force that not only animates life, but is the spark itself - The Green Lady redolent with abundance and renewal, and the values of reciprocity, balance and care. She encourages us to open our hearts to the land, to find our ecstasy in wild nature, to support sustainability, and to honor the sacred harmony of Earth Community. Embracing art and iconography depicting the spirit of The Green Lady renews our connection, gives us direction and purpose, and fills us with wonder and awe. What the Green Lady would have to say to us today, as we face the multiple challenges of ecocide and cultural erosion?   

​Beloved Daughters of Earth, in perilous times know that your destiny is to be the guardians of the Green World, and to know that I love you, as I love the seedlings that have been nourished by the snow. You may hear my words and rise up, like your tree mothers the mighty Cypress, Oak and Redwood in radiant form. All women who walk and laugh and dream on this Earth are intimately connected to the wisdom and grace of the Green Spirits of the land. You remember, don’t you?

Your awakening is like the blossoming of a field of wildflowers after a scorching fire. You shine as you move back to our eternal connection, to our shared blessings in the green realm, and to the healing of the deep places in your heart and soul. You are hearing the soft chimes and fluted notes of my heart-song, that vibrate in the corners where luxuriant woodlands meet. Caressed by the blossom-scented breeze on a warm summer’s night, you follow the trail of the fireflies’ pulsing to where ancient seashells glow in the moonlight, and your profound ecstasy is complete. You are overcome with joy and wonder, and you overflow with praises to the Earth! 

In the transcendence of the past, you aligned yourself vertically to a remote and eminent being. Now, as you return to a horizontal earth-bound vision, you see yourself as an integral part of the Sacred Earth, the source of all life, our true spiritual home. A multitude of plant and animal beings, earth spirits, tree sisters, devas, and ancestors surround you now, all affirming that there is no greater or more beautiful sacred divinity than our lush and verdant globe.

You know deep in your being that I, The Green Lady is waiting for you, don’t you? After all your seeking, you will find that everything you need to follow your bliss, has already been provided for you. Your joy will come alive when you enter the living myth of the land, and allow the Green Mystery to weave its magic within you, in the form of words, images and healing gifts. 

Blessed Daughters, return to the land, and delve into the green matrix of our co-creation. As you receive and embody this wisdom, go into the forest, woodland or field, set your roots down deep, and plant yourself firmly into the Great Heart of the Earth. Allow the innate senses of your animal body to open wide, and your vision to capture the perfection of branch, leaf, petal and sky. Organic perfume will caress your soul and your skin will tingle with the spray of the wind. Your heart will open wide, to the awareness that this is the perfect place and perfect time, in the Sacred Circle of All Life. 

​The great overlapping circles of elementals and plant spirits have offered to bring you out of the illusion of discord and separation, and into the realm of wholeness and love. Like the rosy petals of a flowering memory-orchid, you will open wide to receiving tenderness and revelation. We will recover the green magic and mystery together, as we work to re-enchant the world! Give your heart completely to the land, as Earth Community returns your affection and loyalty.  It is this force of Love, that will heal and empower us all.

As you co-existed peacefully with the Earth for millennia, you will expand once again into your true nature and potential as a fully-realized Wise Woman. And when you are ready, Beloved Daughter of Earth, let your ancient spirit find a modern voice! May you invite others into the sacred circle, may the green places be the lens through which the perennial blessings of myth, magic and transcendence appear, and may you honor and protect the Earth in all you think, say and do. Our souls live in the Earth, and the Earth lives in our souls.

                "Ancestral Tree Mother" ​by Pegi Eyers

                                          MOTHER TREE
The concept of the "Mother Tree" arises from ancestral knowledge that has existed for millennia. It recently become popularized through the scientific research of biologist Dr. Suzanne Simard, who discovered that forests have hub trees or "Mother Trees" that are large, highly connected trees playing an important role in the flow of information and resources in the forest. Mother Trees are symbiotic with intelligent and intricate mycorrhizal networks that support the tree in communicating, sending warnings and chemical compounds to other trees, specifically their young. These complex relationships contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery, and have far-reaching implications on how to heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.

The aspect of a Mother Tree nurturing her young has an expansive connection to global forests that nurture life on our planet, providing air to breathe, offering nutrients to the oceans, regulating weather systems and the hydrological cycle, providing home and shelter to humans and other-than-human beings, and cooling temperatures on the land.

The wellness of the trees and forest ecosystems connect to our own wellness. We must stand for the restoration and regeneration of our global forests, visioning and working together to ensure they will continue to thrive for the Seven Generations to follow.

The Mother Tree also represents our connection to our matriarchal ancestors – those who are there to support us, send us messages, share their wisdom, and provide us with guidance on our life’s journey. This is reflected in the works by women artists in "Mother Tree" that connect with matriarchal ancestral support and their own ancient root systems. "Mother Tree" inspires and supports the participation and holding actions for our global forests that are so vital at this time~!

​                                      JURIED ART EXHIBITION
                      Women Artists Creating for the Trees
​                                    >view gallery online<

The online exhibition "Portraits of Resilience" at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) runs from April 13, 2022 - August 14, 2022.  My work "Ancestor" is part of this rich collection of media and themes, that offer diverse responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It is a triumphant act to be resilient in the midst of a pandemic, social and political upheaval, and economic and financial uncertainty. The purpose of this initiative was to showcase artwork, and to share how we’ve been resilient together over the pandemic experience. An archive of emotion and resilience, the exhibition includes photographs, paintings, textile artwork, illustrations, collages and sculptures, all expressing themes of solitude, pride, dystopia, community, nature and creative release." Melissa Smith, Curator

​Yes, the genius of Leonardo is the mobility of La Gioconda's facial expression, and how each viewer can "read something" into the painting, but we should always acknowledge the real person behind the portrait. Lisa Gherardini was grieving from losing one child at childbirth, and another as a young infant, and refused to comply with social norms by taking off her black dress (mourning attire) even after many years had passed. She was also a reluctant participant in the excesses of the wealthy class in Florence at the height of the Renaissance, keeping her modest accoutrements and personal needs to a minimum. She was *not* a typical noblewoman, and centered her own individual expressions of grief and suffering above social mores, which was idiosyncratic at the time.

In the portrait as captured by da Vinci, she transcends her sadness for a fleeting moment, and yet her smile does not fully blossom into a true expression of happiness. There have been thousands of curatorial essays and tracts written on the Monna Lisa, and millions of opinions, but the actual individuality of Gherardini is rarely honored. As modern empowered women today, we have the bandwidth to relate to the *authenticity* of Lisa Gherardini's reality, and not the interpretations, myths or theories.

What is also fascinating is how Leonardo never gave the painting to the Gherardini family, even though it was a paid commission. La Gioconda remained his obsession until his final days, and his truest masterpiece. The process of the Monna Lisa's travels with da Vinci through Europe, and his re-working of the painting over 17 years, is beautifully outlined in the 2021 best-selling novel The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli.

The Science Behind Mona Lisa’s Smile: How Leonardo da Vinci Engineered the World’s most Famous Painting
By Walter Isaacson in >The Atlantic< 

Wisdom Across the Ages was a symposium and juried art exhibition  presented online by the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) from July 16 to 18, 2021.  The panels, keynotes and featured artists  honored Dr. Marija Gimbutas, the Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Old Europe.  In the mixed media category, "Ancestral Mother" by Pegi Eyers was exhibited along with works by many other prominent matrifocal artists and artisans, working within the genres of Goddess Feminism and Matriarchal Studies.  Wisdom Across the Ages can be viewed online at smugmug until the end of December 2022, and a sampling of the work from this superlative exhibition appears below.  Enjoy ~!