Showing posts with label Devi Bhava. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Devi Bhava. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

More progress, and more about rose petals and Devi Bhava


"Mary in Amma in Kimberly", (still in progress), egg tempera on panel

After some consideration I decided to remove the shadow from Kimberly's left, in order to show the rose petal shower in an open, (as opposed to a shallow), space.  I hope this will help me to create a feeling of the petals also going deeper into space by showing the petals smaller as they go back in space.  At times I've also changed a petal entirely, in one instance three times, to get the feeling going that I want, and I feel I'm finally getting a rhythm going on this part now.


Having experienced Amma's Devi Bhava petal shower for myself, it is hard for me to describe the blessing feeling that it gives a person, but I can tell you that I wish I knew more about it's mysteries!

I had mentioned in a previous post that while Devi Bhava includes petals from ALL the flowers which are given to Amma during darshan, I chose to portray rose petals for Kimberly's Devi Bhava experience for several reasons. Kimberly is a quite a rare individual as a professional healer in her life. She performs many kinds of healing, beautifully so, across several healing modalities, and it is one of her practices to always have fresh roses in the treatment room where she does her work. A spiritual teacher common to both of us once told us that angels love to be present where there are flowers, but in particular where there are roses. Roses are also Amma's 'theme' flower. Yet, as I'm still adding rose petals to this painting, has anyone noticed there is just one flower petal that is a little different?

Thursday, August 11, 2011

"Mary in Amma in Kimberly" in progress


egg tempera on panel in progress
I'm again in the midst of adding more petals to this painting which now has an official title:  "Mary in Amma in Kimberly". Devi Bhava is a special evening darshan which celebrates the Divine Mother and the divine feminine aspects of God. Beginning with an Atma Puja for world peace and including the chanting of the 1000 names of the Divine Mother, and darshan from Amma as the Divine Mother, Devi Bhava concludes with Amma showering flower petals on everyone present as a final blessing. While the Devi Bhava flower petal ceremony traditionally includes flower petals of all kinds, I have chosen only rose petals for this painting because roses are not only Amma's theme flower, but also the flower that Kimberly loves most.
Although it's a bit long (approx. 8 minutes), I found on YouTube this sweet link about Amma's Devi Bhava. For those unfamiliar with Devi Bhava, the film shows only snippets, but perhaps it provides a glimpse for you of what this all night darshan encompasses: What is Devi Bhava?