Woman if the Wisdom Tree

Woman if the Wisdom Tree

Woman of the Wisdom Tree by Ilene Satala

This painting was inspired by the deep energies of the ancient past and its reflection upon the Divine as feminine in nature. The people of the earth 50,000 years ago, and up through time, saw the Spirit of Nature as a Great Mother. She was the all-pervading force of the earth and the cosmos. She birthed the world and all of its animals and plants, making humanity the stewards of Her kingdom.

Nature was imbued with Her powers, so Her presence was felt in sacred locations and aspects of nature. Thus all was alive with Her essence. One could communicate with Her spirit through sacred nature. Water, rocks, mountains, plants, and the earth itself were Her oracles.

Divination and prophecy could be discerned if one could but understand Her ways in nature. Everything became a repository of Her energy; energy that could be found in concentrated areas, making them holy. Like a treasure chest, the right person could open these objects in nature and learn Her secrets.

Trees were part of this network of Holy Wisdom. Speakers of the old world, called priests or priestesses congregated in sacred groves of trees to sit and learn what Nature herself had to teach. There are many stories of the Oracles of Trees, and the idea of the Tree of Knowledge grew out of these very old traditions. This idea stirred a creative spark in me to paint a painting that addressed this concept.

When I began this painting, I had the idea of a tree growing from the mind of the Great Goddess as an aspect of the old idea of wisdom coming to us in a tree form. Initially, I was excited about the painting, but as I continued to paint, the communication from the work stopped speaking to me. I tried several methods to get the energy going, but it simply faded away. The half done painting seemed half alive, and I put it aside to work on other ideas.

For two months I looked at it at the back of my studio, wondering if it would ever talk to me again. Finally, it occurred to me to ask a question of my creative powers: What do I need to know to finish this painting? Who do I have to become?

That day I was drawn to my favorite used bookstore. On the floor, in a pile of books, I saw the book called The Great Mother by Erich Neumann, who was a Jungian analyst. I snatched it up and began to read. I was amazed by the amount of information and the images that were in it. Three quarters of the way through the book, I started reading about the Tree of Wisdom, and many of the thoughts I had had about the painting began to come together for me.

I was like a women possessed. I painted for three days in a kind of reverie. I let the communion of the Goddess herself speak to me again. Her green body became even greener, and I thought of Hildegard of Bingem, who taught of the idea of Veritose. The greening of life and nature is our vital energy of living life. I painted the ancient goddess images across Her body, which were both mountain and trunk and cosmos. Using the old sacred color of blood that is also a symbol of life energy, I drew my favorite images to clothe Her.

I tattooed Her skin to reflect the markings that were made on priests and priestesses in the ancient ways. Thus, when you met them you knew you were in the presence of Her servants of wisdom. Her face grew dark with the designs… Dark like the fertile earth… Dark like the color black of the Cosmos, that represented “seeing” into the future. Her hands moved up to support Her crown, the tree itself. They seemed to support the birth of the tree through Her thoughts, Her mind. The roots grew downward as Her hair, source of nurturing. Her arms sprouted with leaves and life. She wore a bracelet of a golden living serpent, symbol of transformation. The transformation is through the shedding of the old self (skin) to make room for the new self. Through all of this, the eyes of the Goddess look into us, ever sharp and clear and knowing. I imagine Her inviting us to partake of Her wisdom. I hear her say: Grow with me and open to my spirit.

The Goddess comes back to us to remind us of so many things we have forgotten. She reminds us of the tree-wisdom of growing toward the inner light like the sun. We need to reach for heaven, yes, but we also need to ground our roots in our bodies and in the earth. She speaks of Sophia and the feminine spirit. We need to bring forward the qualities of nurturing the energies of life, creativity, inspiration and divine guidance. She tells us to open our minds and let new thoughts grow out of us. She reminds us to transform and be rewoven in Her Garden of Life. These are some of the things She taught me as I painted Her. My inspiration is to pass the wisdom on to you.