Art Healing 3

TEENAGE YEARS/TASTE/SPLEEN & STOMACH

[mixed media: branches, dried berry branches, cheese cloth, wire, leaves, rope, twine, feathers, burlap, sage, Tibetan recycled silk cloth thread, chillis, pencil on paper. 24" x 36"]

The spleen and stomach are all about worry and worrying too much. When the spleen cannot filter all the worry the blood becomes thick with concerns and cannot clear. The digestion also becomes impaired and we get knots in our stomach that are not only emotional but physical e.g. ulcers, IBS, colitis, etc.

I believe the main worries in life begin when we are teenagers and, although we may have been through many thing prior, when we become teenagers we start to really think about our choices, our family's choices, and where we belong and fit in the world. We worry about other's opinions of us and we worry and stress over every decision. Our bodies try to find balance and push into a new stage and all of the worry builds itself in emotional distress in the emotional seat of the body---the stomach. Often as teenagers our tastes literally change and we try new things, experiment with new foods and possibly addictive substances that we need to heal from. Our younger selves can filter much of the trauma from bad habits but over time our stomach and spleen are affected by the daily.

This piece is meant for those who are suffering from worrying too much about others and life stressors and who have overworked spleens. It is meant to help heal us from our emotions that we store in our stomach and help us let go of the toxins from things that no longer concern us.

This piece has 2 dried berry branches to symbolize nourishment and sprouting life as well as four healing foods hanging in their symbolic protective white tents (scroll down to lower right image) to represent healing long houses in native cultures. The tents hold four glass tea cups that can/should be used with the herbs. The four healing foods can be used in teas and cooking: a rooibos and lemon tea, cinnamon, dried ginger, peppermint tea.

The hanging chillis are symbolic of the stomach and intestines and the 'too much heat' that affects overworked stomachs e.g. ulcers, acid reflux, etc.

The ceremonial healing layer is a circle symbolic of the core of a person's body--the stomach--with a drawing of an earth goddess to help take the viewer's worries as her own so the viewer can let go. The idea is that one burns the wood ring after a sage burning in a circle around the body and stomach. The image is burned with the two leaves to release the worries. The core 'worrier' woman image is accompanied by two yellow leaves (the color of the stomach and spleen in Traditional Chinese Medicine) to burn with the sage to heal the stomach and release the two main worries. Of course the person doing the ceremony could put several leaves in the circle to represent the worries she needs to release but generally we all have two main ones--one big one from the past and one from the present.

I am still working on the companion necklace because I would like to have a mini bottle of usable healing enzymes along with the healing prayer and I am still looking for a tiny bottle that would be light enough, functional, and also pretty. I will need one for the next project as well so will post as soon as I find them!