I’m so grateful to have made an installation again! Thank you so much to Terra BURNa for creating the space for me to try out this installation.

My Story

For those of you who don’t know, for almost 15 years, my main artistic job was as an installation artist for festivals. I used to travel around to events and create spiritual and wellness spaces. 

Festivals and transformational events have my heart. I grew up in a pretty messed-up family with extremely challenging dynamics. Creativity wasn't a valid career and self-expression wasn't encouraged. I left home young and confused.

Pretty soon after I left home I ended up getting into the rave scene. Back in the day raves were different than they were now. They were full of creatives, homemade decor, and deep connections. That scene eventually turned into the transformation festival scene and from there I found my true family.

This was a family that desired a deeper connection to the world around them through presence, connections, music, yoga, mediation, and art. I grew up in that world, and because of those experiences got deep into my spiritual practice. Through years of yoga, meditation, divination, and beautiful relationships, I learned how to manifest a life that looked like my dreams.

Because of this festival upbringing, I started traveling and setting up installations around North America. I focused on creating transformational spaces where people could enter an area and participate in a ritual or practice to help them connect to the universe around them. 

However, as all of you know, a year and a half ago everything changed. A pandemic hit the world that gutted our capacity to gather in community. My job as an installation artist went up in smoke, and I began to focus more on what you see now, my clothing and stained glass practice. 

I thought that I was fine with this transition for myself. I had been on the road for so many years and I was pretty burnt out on it. However it’s now been two full seasons off, and I find myself itching for it again. 

Why I love Installation Art

There’s something I love so much about creating installation art. It’s hard to describe what it feels like to walk into a space and be surrounded by an incredible environment that will disappear in a couple of hours or days.

For me, my art practice is the way I give back to the world. My creativity is my divine spark that I hope to share. I don't follow a major religion, but instead apply my spirituality to artistic practice, because for me art holds a place of deep meaning and ritualized transformation.

I try to use religious space as a model for spiritual practice and transformative change, taking ideas and concepts from various worldwide spiritual spaces to make something unique to a new type of spiritual practice.

I’ve found that when you create sacred spaces it immediately creates that energy for those who enter. I’ve called my installations “temples,” (see here!) for years because the intention is to bring out the energy of connection to something deeper than ourselves. 

I also believe that spiritual practice should be fluid and in touch with the world around it. Ephemeral installations fit this model. I can create something that speaks to the community I’m working with, that can change with feedback and each install. 

There’s also something so beautiful about surrounding someone with art they don’t have to pay for and can’t really buy. It’s so rare in this day and age to not have money as part of the interaction. It’s really special to be able to gift an experience and expect nothing back. 

"Trust" installation

Hanging feathers as an installation was something I had in my head for a  long time. I love the glass feathers I’ve been making over the last couple of years. Each one is so unique and I love every one of them.

At the beginning of this stained glass journey, I never expected feathers to be such a large part of what I create. But people love them and keep asking me to make more! I desire to serve others, so I’m ecstatic to keep making tools that work for people.

It was a little nerve-wracking having them outside in the wind since 45 feathers equal about a hundred hours of work. They’re all so precious, I was worried about them getting broken, or even the whole thing falling from the sky! 

But it worked amazing! The feathers were heavy enough that they didn’t swing around and hit each other in the wind. The rainbow makers bounced light all around and they looked completely different depending on the time of day and where the sun was. It was beautiful to see them outside. 

I also brought out the “Divine Support,” Winged Kuan Yin statue with Moonstone and Labradorite. Kuan Yin is a bodhisattva, a being that has forgone the bliss of nirvana to stay in the realm of Earth to support anyone that calls on her. She approaches each situation with mercy, kindness, and compassion. 

There was also an altar and a couple of shade stars from the Halcyon Temple installation, which to this day is still one of my favorites. There was a beautifully printed canvas where you could sit and watch the feathers or meditate. 

The whole thing made up the “Trust,” installation, a meditation space that was focused on the concept of being supported by the Divine. Many believe that celestial beings are around to protect us, guide us, and help us in our times of need. 

Whether you believe this or not, the idea that there is a divine order to the universe can help us relax and trust in something greater than ourselves. I wanted the installation to be a comforting reminder that there is something much greater than us, that is taking care of us, keeping us safe, and listening to us when we have no one to turn to. 

I think this first iteration of the installation was successful, although if I installed it again I would add more feathers! The thing about having art outside is that everything looks small. I would love to be able to double the number of feathers hanging in the sky. 

Thanks All! 

I do believe that art has the power to shift the universe. It's the reason that I commit myself to creation every day. By creating the world I want to see I'm helping move us towards healed and healthy spaces. 

To each and every one of you, thank you so much for however you participate in this process with me. I have been so honored by every beautiful and positive interaction I’ve had. 

I truly believe that the purpose of this life is to connect deeply and make the world a better place. When we all participate in beautiful interactions with each other, we do both. 

So much love, and maybe I’ll see you at a “Trust,” installation sometime in the future! 

Cultural appropriation has been a major buzzword of the last couple years, and with good reason. Images of drunk white people in sacred native headgear, horribly butchered tribal tattoos and racist Halloween costumes.

These images often make people who desire to be conscious feel ashamed and nervous about engaging with any sort of imagery or practice that isn’t from their exact bloodline. People desire to be respectful and because the term “cultural appropriation,” is ambiguous and confusing it tends to mean people shut down to participating in any cultural space other than their own.

But the PC behaviour of not touching other cultural space is in of itself problematic. The more we segregate from each other the greater the divide becomes between us. Less understanding and shared problem solving leads to higher instances of ethnocentrism, racism, segregation and misunderstanding.

Right now we are at a new height in knowledge exchange and capacity. With this new era of interconnectivity, shutting down to an exploration of what other cultures can teach us means losing a massive amount of learning and expansion. Our world is also in a state of environmental crisis. Having various Indigenous knowledges permeate the greater cultural sphere could help provide some necessary perspective and solutions.

Cutting out sharing culture also just lessens the beautiful diversity of the world around us. How bland would it be to only be able to eat the food that your specific ancestors cooked? How horrible would American music be today without the incredible influences Black culture brought to the scene? Without integration of cultural influences, how boring would our clothes be, how sad our spiritual practices, how lost would indigenous knowledge get, how lame would our holidays be, how limiting would be our world view?

But in order to be able to share culture respectfully, we need to understand this very confusing term of “cultural appropriation.” What it is really? What are the behaviours that are damaging, what are the behaviours that are healthy, and how can we do our best to navigate it respectfully?

Why Real Cultural Appropriation Sucks

"First they came to take our land and water, then our fish and game. ...Now they want our religions as well. All of a sudden, we have a lot of unscrupulous idiots running around saying they're medicine people. And they'll sell you a sweat lodge ceremony for fifty bucks. It's not only wrong, its obscene. Indians don't sell their spirituality to anybody, for any price. This is just another in a very long series of thefts from Indian people and, in some ways, this is the worst one yet." -Janet McCloud, Tulalip elder and fishing rights activist.

Unhealthy appropriation/ exploitation occurs when people outside of a specific cultural space can make money or gain social capital from artifacts or cultural ideas, when people who are in that community cannot. This is a complex idea, but the basis of it comes down to a power dynamic.

A good anecdote to describe this was the New Age movement in the 80s, where Native American spirituality was suddenly seen by the white population as something to be desired. There was a large disconnect between the perceived “Native American spirituality” and what was actually happening in the lives of people in that cultural group.

It perpetuated the stereotype of the “noble Native,” sharing spiritual wisdom with the white man, all the while these New Agers had no real understanding of Native people and no touchstone with their actual struggle for survival. What occurred was a huge movement of people and companies selling and profiting off of distorted “Native American “spiritual artifacts.

At the same time that Westerners were profiting off of these objects, there were still laws all across North America that BANNED Native Americans from even owning their own artifacts, let alone selling them. We were deep in the governmental process of trying to forcefully assimilate Indigenous people to a Western way of life, and denying them any right to language, land, communities and spiritual artifacts was part of that horrific process.

This transcends to today where the largest producer of “aboriginal” artifacts is China, while a large number of Native populations are still impoverished and can’t make money off of their art or artifacts. This is what super messed up harmful appropriation looks like. It is not okay.

What is Cultural Appropriation Really?

Cultural appropriation is defined as the “taking,” from a culture that’s not one’s own, of intellectual property, cultural expressions or artifacts, history and ways of knowledge. But the terms “culture,” and “taking,” are completely indeterminate, so even this definition alone can’t really define the boundaries of where cultural appropriation begins and ends. This definition bristles with uncertainty, which is why it’s so confusing.

If we’re talking about taking from a culture that’s not one’s own, that means that the line of culture needs to be well defined. But culture is one of those things that’s extremely fluid. Defining the parameters of where a cultural group begins or ends is complicated, as is connecting a particular practice to that one group.

Also, since cultural practices are formed from a bunch of influences and shared histories, it becomes difficult to assign them to one group or another. This means that the lines of where “culture,” begins and ends are convoluted at best.

But let’s simplify it and make it personal. Let’s say that each human being can roughly define the type of ideas and practices you grew up with, and that everything outside of that is another cultural space. How do we engage with those spaces in a healthy way that’s not damaging so that we can grow and expand our ideas of the world?

Culture theorist Richard A. Rogers places appropriation into 4 categories: dominance, exploitation, exchange and transculturation. Two of these practices are damaging, and two of these practices are healthy.

Dominance is the practice of desiring power over another, while exploitation is treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. Both of these actions can be seen in the example of Native spirituality being commodified.

On the flip side, exchange is the act of giving and receiving where both parties benefit equally. Transculturation is defined as, “seeing oneself in the other.” It doesn’t mean acquiring another culture (acculturation) or of losing or uprooting a previous culture (deculturation). Instead, it takes multiple spaces of cultural phenomena and merges them into something new that benefits both cultural spaces.

So How Do We Apply This?

Let’s simplify an example around what this means. Let’s pretend that someone physically smaller and weaker than you has something you want. You have four options.

-You could physically make that person afraid of you by yelling or force until they give you that object. 

-You could just take that object, sell it, and not give money to the person you stole it from. 

-You could trade them for that object with something of equal value, as long as they’re willing to part with it. 

-Or you could connect with that person, start a relationship where you equally benefit their lives and they benefit yours. And over time and relationship building the object becomes shared property because it benefits everyone.

For me, the last option feels far and the way the best, and it feels the best for the reason that it’s focused on the RELATIONSHIP. When we stop focusing on the world around us for what we can get from it, and instead we desire to make real connections and contribute, the conversation around cultural appropriation becomes a whole lot simpler.

Is there something from a space that you didn’t grow up with that you’d like to have as a part of your life? Instead of just ignoring it or feeling ashamed that you want to engage with it in the first place, or just taking it and using it however you want, why not find information from people who did grow up with it and learn from them?

I also want to be clear, that oppressed people do not owe you this exchange. If someone does not want to share with you, or take the time to educate you about a practice, that is absolutely their right. People of minorities can often get burnt out on having to educate people of privilege. However, there are many incredible activists and educators out there in many traditions who generously offer their knowledge. So do your research to find the people who have the energy to educate you.

Make sure that you approach these interactions without any type of entitlement, but instead, see what you can give them back that actually benefits the community or person you’re learning from. Make sure that it’s something that’s wanted, whether it’s a change in behaviour that supports minorities, an exchange from your life experience, practical support, money, time or friendship. Be humble. Be willing to learn.

When we do this we actually begin to expand the understanding and skill set available to us as humans. We also get to learn new skills and practices that start to benefit everyone and help heal the world around us. The more we respectfully share ideas, with humility and a desire to make the world a better place, the better everything becomes.

Try Your Best and Don’t Be a Dick

Yes, the ideas of culture and appropriation may be very complex and convoluted. But whether we’re dealing with culture or just our daily lives, it can all be whittled down to something very simple- Don’t be a dick.

If you don’t know about something, put in the energy to do your own research about it, or ask someone in that tradition who has the energy to educate you. Be kind, present, and willing to learn. And instead of asking what you can get out of a situation, why not approach it with how you can contribute to the world around you?

Want to read more? Check out the resources this article came from-

From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural Appropriation

Borrowed power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation

Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual searching turns into cultural theft.

New Age Commodification and Appropriation of Spirituality

Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality

Do you feel spiritual but not religious? Do you want a spiritual practice, but don't know where to start?  In this talk for The Simplified Life Wellness Weekend, Artist Jodi Sharp teaches you what a spiritual practice is, and gives you 5 steps for how to create your own!

In her talk, she shares history about herself as well as history about the cultural shift we're experiencing as we move from being, "religious," to "spiritual."

She'll also teach you 5 steps to a personal spiritual practice. #1- Learn from rituals that have already been given to us. #2- Tap into your intuition to see what feels right for you. #3- Get creative with it and make it your own. #4 Do something daily. And #5 how to create your practice without ignoring cultural appropriation issues.

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE TALK BELOW!

And for those of you who prefer to read:

Transcription:

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for being here! I want to thank Kat for setting up this wonderful weekend where we can have access to incredible information for free. I met Kat when she interviewed me last spring and I am so honored to be invited back to be a part of her first Wellness Weekend. It is such an inspiring initiative.

I’m also really excited to be able to talk about something that’s a huge passion of mine, which is helping people engage in spiritual practice. I wanted to match Kat’s initiative and give as much value as I could in this talk, so it is pretty dense. 

But I figured that if you were showing up to this, it’s likely that you’re a thinking and intelligent person who’s at least dabbled in this type of stuff before. So I tried to strike a balance between simplifying this topic, but also giving you something to sink your teeth into. 

So, in this talk, I’m going to speak about creating a spiritual practice and give you some steps for how to do that. I’m going to give you a little bit of history about myself and also about the cultural shift we’re experiencing as we’re moving from large-scale religions towards a personalized spiritual practice. 

I’m going to give you some skills for how to use rituals from other religions to create a spiritual practice that’s right for you. I’m going to show you how to tap into your intuition, how to get creative, and have fun in designing a daily practice. And I’m also going to tackle the issue of cultural appropriation in new spirituality, and hopefully give you some skills for how to know if your practices are damaging others.

So, let’s get to it! 

Why We Need To Be Engaged In Creating Our Own Spiritual Path

So in the last couple of years the term, “Spirituality,” has become separate from the idea of Religion. During most of the history of our planet, having a spiritual practice was synonymous with being religious. But we’re suddenly at a tipping point where, with each generation, people are moving away from organized religion. 

According to a study by Pew Research Centre in 2012, one-fifth of the US public and a third of adults under the age of 30 are unaffiliated with any religion but identify as being spiritual in some way. What generation you’re in drastically affects your opinion. For those who desire a spiritual practice, those who are older prefer religion, while the younger Millennials drastically skew toward being unaffiliated.

What’s interesting to me is that people aren’t giving up on spirituality altogether. About 25 years ago I remember watching a few key voices pushing for atheism, but I quickly watched the disillusionment of nihilism turn people towards finding a greater purpose. That same study states that even among the 4% of people who register as American atheists, a full third say that, while they don’t believe in God, they do consider themselves spiritual, and in some cases, even religious. So why the shift?

Well, it used to be that religion was what gave us guidelines for morality, and functional rules of living, as well as a sense of connection to something greater. Our religious inclination was passed on to us by our parents and solidified by the community we lived in for our entire lives. 

But with increased travel and access to information, we’re no longer surrounded by only one voice. If you’re listening to this talk, then you have access to the internet, and that means you have all of the written knowledge of the universe at your fingertips. On top of that, our community is no longer linked to where we grew up. Most adults now move several times in our lives, and because of the internet, we can find a community that better aligns with our values.

Also, because of broadened communities and new information, it’s difficult to pass over the problematic dogma that exists in most major religions. Many large religious spaces have issues with things like patriarchy, racism, and nationalism. Since we’re living in a time where we can connect with and understand people who aren’t exactly like us, people are starting to move away from ideas that are outdated and hurtful to others.

So why are people deciding to have any spiritual practice at all? Why not just move away from religion and be done with it?

Well, science tells us that people who are spiritual measurably have better lives. Spiritual people are proven to be more optimistic, have a sense of purpose, have higher self-esteem, and more nourishing relationships. All of these aspects inherently make individuals more successful and have a higher quality of life.

Because the fact is, even with the gifts our era gives us, we live in a more emotionally challenging environment than our ancestors. Our ancestors’ worlds used to be much smaller, which made stress much more manageable. When a problem occurred, it was generally in their physical space, which allowed them some capacity to try and solve it. 

But as all of you know, that’s no longer the case. We now live with constant information about all the terrible things that are happening globally, with little capacity to do something to help. We no longer get to leave our work at work, because we’re always reachable and that makes us always available. Our multiple social media accounts leave us open to an exhaustive amount of human interaction while making our relationships less meaningful and fulfilling. We are being failed by all of the things that are supposed to give us a sense of hope, failed by our religion, our jobs, our family structure.

We have a near-constant bombardment of problem solving and negotiations, which leads us to need stimulants to keep up, while at the same time having to numb out our stress with food, tv, and intoxicants. Our spirits are begging for a break, for balance, for rest. 

But one of the most amazing human qualities is that we evolve. We continue to let go of things that don’t work for us, and move towards things that do. And one of the things that is bringing back our sense of hope, purpose, and peace, is this new era of spirituality. 

For the first time, each person gets to make up a practice that’s personal and truly fulfills our individual needs. In most cases, we’re no longer ostracized for not practicing our local religion but can find others of like mind to teach us and support us. Because of our vast access to information, we can make something that’s ours, and people are finding massive hope in that. 

About Me

So before I get into some of these strategies, I think it’s important that you know a little bit about me and my background. 

I work as a professional visual artist, as you can see by my probably overkill surroundings, and I didn’t always know that spirituality was my passion, in fact, most of my life I’ve completely resisted it. I floundered around trying to figure out what my purpose and message were. 

It’s only in the last several years of my life that I realized that there was this solid silver string that tied everything I touched together. My upbringing, my education, and my art have all been focused on one essential thing- trying to create a new way where I could feel connected to something greater than myself. 

When I look back at my art practice, everything I ever made was putting forward a vision of an idealistic world that is deeply connected through a sense of spirit. I resisted the truth of my purpose for so long because I aligned spirit with a place of pain and disconnection. I needed a huge amount of healing to get to where I am today, and now I realize that all of that experience was grooming me to support others on their journey to a new type of spirituality.

My story is that I grew up as a part of an abusive and fundamental religious culture. My father was a Baptist paster, so my upbringing was extremely focused on the challenging way that my biological family practiced their doctrine. To say that my particular Christian bringing was unhealthy would be putting it mildly. 

When I was growing up, the roles that I was allowed to have in life were extremely narrow, especially in regards to my gender as a woman. I had a set way that I was supposed to live, and any deviation from that caused serious and violent repercussions. I grew up believing in a spiteful and vengeful God. A male deity who punished more than he loved, who judged more than he cared for. 

Before we go any further, it is important to note that I am a huge advocate for religious freedom. I feel that religious spaces, even fundamental ones, are important in making up our wonderful and diverse world. And I do believe that for some people, being a part of organized religion is healing and supportive. I think that anyone who chooses religious beliefs should be allowed to do so and practice however they need, as long as it doesn’t elicit violence on others. And I want to be clear that the type of skills I’m speaking about today, do not exclude those who are religious.

But what I do want to convey is that my experience with the space I grew up in was incredibly noninclusive and damaging. It not only focused on personal disempowerment, but I took extreme issue with its treatment of women, the environment, as well as its nationalistic and racist tendencies.

In dichotomy to this spiritually narrow upbringing, I had a culturally vast childhood. My father was an interim pastor, which meant we were shuffled from place to place every few months. I currently reside in Montreal, Canada, which is the 57th city that I have lived in, with places that have spanned North and Central America, Europe, and Asia.

Something that type of lifestyle gave me was a lack of attachment to a particular cultural space. Each new place gave me some new piece of identity that didn’t always link to what I had known before. The societal rituals and cultural norms changed from place to place, and I became a bit of a hodgepodge person, with a made-up idea of what normal was supposed to look like. 

When I left home at 16 my transient lifestyle continued and completely affected the idea of what community means to me. Because my location was continually changing I never had a community around me that anchored my identity. This allowed me a type of freedom of choice around the type of people I was in touch with. 

Rather than having to make friends with whoever was in my vicinity, I was exposed to a large number of people with who I could then choose to stay in touch. The idea of traveling or moving to engage with the humans I chose as my community became a logical part of my life.

This connected me into a community of people that I have based a large part of my art practice around, the space of transformational festivals. These spaces are full of other individuals who also lead a mobile existence and are willing to travel to find other like-minded people to connect with.

A transformational festival is a co-created temporary space that focuses on a community-building ethic, and a value system that celebrates personal growth, social responsibility, creative expression, and spirituality. Although many of these spaces may look similar to things like music festivals, they’re distinguished by such features as seminars, classes, ceremonies, installation art or other visual art, the availability of whole food and bodywork, and sustainable environmental policy.

This was the community that by my teens I had sought out and then came of age in. Rather than growing up in a traditional community located in my vicinity, my peers and influences were others who were focused on the creation of a new type of cultural space. Between this community interaction and my lack of attachment to culture or physical place, the world around me became one that I could design and create from scratch.

Because of all these spaces, there is now a fluidity to my beliefs and life practices. While the dogma of religion has never sat well with me, it did give me a sense of connection to spirit and the great mysteries of our world. I see ritual and religion as valuable in allowing humans to connect to each other and the world around them. But I don’t stop at that dogma. 

Now I feel an allowance to cherry-pick different types of symbology or cultural practices and make them into something that feels personal and unique. My lack of attachment to culture or place has created a practice where I feel that I can choose which rituals and symbols hold universal truth for me while discarding religious practices I feel do not resonate.

The themes in my art practice now focus almost entirely on the creation of new types of religious spaces and objects. I see this massive evolution of people who desire to explore the universal truths of spirituality, rather than established religion. 

In my art, I experiment with taking established rituals and religion and creating something new. Practicing as somewhat of a religious poacher, I take ideas and concepts from various worldwide religious spaces and make something that serves a new generation.

This skill-set is what I want to convey to you, hopefully, to help you feel more freedom around creating your own spiritual practice. Even if you are committed to a specific religion or practice already, I still think these skills are important for you. Everyone is different, and it's essential to create a life that really resonates with you, rather than following a cookie-cutter that doesn’t quite fit. This is how we live our fullest lives. 

Getting To It

So, enough about me, let’s get to it! What is Spirituality, REALLY?

Spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit as opposed to material or physical things. It gives you a feeling that there is something greater than yourself and that there is more to being human than our sensory experience. That’s really open, right?

That means that it can incorporate a vast number of beliefs and practices. You can believe in an all-knowing deity, you can believe that aliens birthed us here, you can believe that electromagnetic force connects us all, you can have no idea what our origin story is, but believe that we’re all interconnected in some unknowable way. Science shows that it does not matter WHAT you believe, the benefits come from HOW you practice your belief. 

Three keys give us the benefits we’re looking for. 1. It gives you a sense of being supported by something greater than yourself. 2. It gives you a sense of purpose. 3. It decreases your stress and makes you feel more hopeful and joyful.

So if you look at these factors it means that your spiritual practice can look like almost anything and we’ll get the benefits we’re looking for, And I’ll reiterate those benefits that science says we get- a greater sense of purpose, fulfillment, and connection, better relationships, health, success, and vitality, as a whole, a better quality of life.

No matter what you chose to incorporate into your life the point is that it’s meaningful to YOU. My deepest desire is that you walk away from this talk with the belief that you can design whatever practice works for yourself, and stop listening for all of the things that we’ve been told will make us happy. 

So if we can design anything we want, where do we start?

Look At The Universals

Step #1 in designing your spiritual practice is to look at the universal truths in religion. That’s right, I’m going to bring us back to religion. 

Although I’ve just been talking about all of the reasons humanity is moving away from organized religion, I want to encourage you to not discount religion completely. The thing is that religions were made from thousands and thousands of years of our ancestors testing what worked for them. Not only is this ancestral experimentation extremely valuable, but we’ve also been genetically encoded with things that feel good, safe, and comfortable for us. 

If we ignore these lessons from religion as a whole, it’s easy to get either completely overwhelmed with the vastness of possibility, or stuck in the idea that we have to be completely unique, and both ideas can push us towards nihilism and despair. So, let’s use what we’ve been given as a jumping-off point.

One of the best things I can suggest is to start to look for some of the universal truths between religions. If you look at the core practices of any religion, they all have different ways of expressing the same thing. All have practices of contemplation, community, prayer, self-expression, clearing bad energy, grounding, mindfulness, and acts of service. 

So, when you’re looking to add a practice into your life, you can start with a broad idea of what you want more of in your day. I’ll list those things for you again so you can think about it or write it down- contemplation, community, prayer, self-expression, clearing bad energy, grounding, mindfulness, and acts of service. 

So for example, let’s say you want more time for rest and contemplation in your life. Start to do a little research about how different religions practice that. There’s Shabbat (or the day of rest) in Judaism, Anussati meditation in Buddhism, Dhyāna meditation in Hinduism, contemplative prayer in Christianity, the ‘tree of contemplative practices’ in Islam, etc. You can literally pick a religion, and google “ that religion + contemplative practice,” and you’ll come up with dozens of examples. 

Read through whatever rituals call to you (I’ll talk about how to use your intuition to do that in a minute) and pick a couple that you feel called to try. You’re going to use your intuition or gut feeling to pick which ones you’re interested in.

It’s valuable to take a ritual exactly as it has been given and get good at it before you make any changes. I used to have an art teacher that said,” Picasso could paint a perfect apple before he invented cubism.” The point is that we need to fully understand something before we change it to something more suited to us. 

Set aside time to experiment with whatever you want to try, and give it your full effort. Don’t just do it once. Everything feels strange when we first try it. If you’re trying to create a daily practice, then do it every day, unless of course, there’s a specified time frame for it in the original ritual (like having a day of rest once a week)

The point is to be present with your experience of this ritual. If you can practice with people from that tradition who are willing to teach you, even better. Give each thing you experiment with your full and fair attention. 

After each practice, write down what the ritual made you feel. Suss out the things that felt good and the things that didn’t quite feel right. Use your intuition to help you figure out what parts you want to keep and what parts you want to let go of or change.  

Tap Into Your Intuition

This brings me to step #2- using your intuition.

So, here’s a little story about intuition that just happened this week. I was supposed to be giving this talk live on zoom today. I’d been prepping for this for weeks and I was completely prepared for a live talk. But I’m in the middle of travel right now, and we’re in a new cabin this week. 

Now, by all appearances, the internet connection I have here is stable. We’ve been streaming movies and doing things on the internet with no problems. My logical brain told me that I would have absolutely no problems being able to give this talk.

But on Thursday I had this nagging little voice inside that told me that I might not be able to do a live zoom call. So, I decided to set up a test call with Kat, and wouldn’t you know it, we couldn’t get it to work for the life of us. 

Because I listened to my intuition, I was able to record something in advance so that I could be with you here today. If I hadn’t, my talk would’ve been one terrible hour of technical difficulties and the inability to share my message with you. THAT is what listening to your intuition is for. 

However, intuition is one of the things that tend to be beat out of us at a young age. I was a very sensitive child. I saw and felt things that couldn’t be explained with logic. When told my parents about these things I experienced, I received extreme repercussions for believing in something that wasn’t “real.” I was punished for having an “overactive imagination,” or for “making things up.” Because of that, I shut down down that still small voice. I grew up hardened with a belief that feelings were bad and that I couldn’t trust my gut.

I was lucky that I encountered people in intentional communities who taught me that my intuition was a valuable asset. They helped me see that anyone can wake up their intuition, even if they’ve numbed it out for a long time. 

We all have different natural inclinations, but all of us can feel our intuition. It is that still, small voice that tells us something that either adds to or contradicts what our logical brain is saying. Our brain has two systems in place. The first one is effortless and quick. It the thing that helps us react quickly to decide what feels right or wrong for us. Our second system is more deliberate and analytical. Both systems are essential in helping us live fulfilled lives. 

There was a study in the journal Science by Dr. Antonio Damasio which showed that specific brain regions can anticipate reward and punishment. I won’t get into great detail about the experiment, but the gist of it was that subjects had different card decks that gave them either monetary rewards or punishments. 

There were regular subjects and subjects with brain damage to the area where decisions are made. Their palms were wired with a machine that detected changes in the electrical conductance of the skin, which is thought to reflect types of emotion that don’t reach conscious awareness. 

The subjects had to pull cards randomly and blindly from decks, but unbeknown to them, the scientists had set it up so there were “good decks,” and, “bad decks,” which either rewarded you more or punished you more. 

After a while, the subjects without brain damage started showing anticipatory reactions to having to choose from the “bad decks.” Their palms began to sweat when they reached for the undesired cards, and they began playing advantageously before they even knew what was happening. Their “hunches,” were able to be scientifically measured as helping them.

One of the researchers, Dr. Kosslyn stated that "Emotion apparently is not something that necessarily clouds reasoning, but rather seems to provide an essential foundation for different kinds of reasoning,″ So how do we tap into this type of emotion and use it in deciding what’s right for our spiritual practice?

The first thing is to BE QUIET. We cannot hear something when we’re not listening. Get still and try to feel what’s going on in your body. 

One of my favorite ways to practice listening to it is to give myself two options. I sit still and I focus on one option. I try to be present with my environment, giving my intuition all the information it needs to inform my decision. 

I see what comes up for me, if the option I’m focused on is wrong for me, I’ll often feel a little cold, a feeling of resistance in my body, or slight feelings of nausea. In general, the feelings will be uncomfortable. If the option is right for me I’ll generally feel a little bit of space and openness in my chest, it will feel exciting and nourishing. 

If you’re not used to feeling your intuition, start with choices between things that are simple. If you start with giant decisions your logical brain and stress will take you over very quickly. When I first started learning I used two different crystals, deciding which one I wanted to carry with me that day. I’d hold one in my hand and see the sensations it would give me, then hold the other and see if it felt different. 

When you’re deciding on things that are right for your spiritual practice, learn what you can about the practice. After you have all the information, quiet your mind and see what bodily sensations come up for you. If something is right for you, you should feel a feeling of space. If something is wrong, it will feel uncomfortable. If something isn’t right for you, try not to judge that intuition. Just let it go and move on to something else until you find a practice that feels truly joyful.

I want you to focus on that feeling of joy. Not everything needs to feel easy or simple, but anything you do daily should be making you feel holistically better, not worse. If you feel depleted after your practice, instead of a sense of grounding and openness, then that practice is likely not right for you. 

Make Something Your Own

Step # 3 is to get creative with it!

Once you’ve found something that feels in alignment with your intuition, go a little deeper. The whole point of making your spiritual practice is so that it’s YOURS, so it’s time to get creative and play with it. Again, this is after you’ve given it the time and attention of practicing the initial ritual as it was taught to you. Once you feel like you’ve got the hang of it, play with it! 

When I first discovered meditation I only knew what I saw around me. People who meditate are supposed to sit still on a cushion in absolute silence. They’re supposed to look peaceful and not move a muscle for as many hours as you can stand it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I do practice that type of meditation, and I get something out of it. But what works better for me is to MOVE.

The first time I discovered this I was sitting on my meditation cushion in the middle of my living room. I was really in the present moment and I started following what my intuition was pulling me towards. Within minutes I was up on my feet and I was waving my arms all around and making my body all squiggly. I was humming and wiggling around, I probably looked ridiculous! The thing was that I was more in the present moment than I ever had been before. It was so fulfilling that I ended up doing it for almost an hour without even noticing the time. By the end, I was laughing out loud and completely in joy. 

I still regularly do my wiggle meditation and it helps me get grounded in the present and my body. But I probably never would’ve found something that works for me if I had gotten stuck in how mediation is “supposed,” to be practiced. In my books “supposed to,” is a dirty word. What I care about is what WORKS.

I also find the practice of journalling my experience helpful. When I’m experimenting with something new I like to write down how I’m feeling after I’ve done something. It not only makes me have to verbalize my experience, but that way I can go back and look at whether something was successful or not. But at the end of the day, the only rule of mine is to follow my bliss! If something feels aligned I’ll keep doing it. If I feel like it’s not serving me I’ll release it with love. 

Do Something Daily

#4 is to do something daily.

Once you’ve found spiritual things you want to integrate into your life, commitment is the key. They call it a practice because you’re not going to get the maximum benefit the first time you do it. Think of it as exercise- you don’t get abs the first time you do sit-ups. The benefits are- The stronger you make your spiritual muscles and the more consistent you are, the more benefits you will get. 

Make an upfront agreement with yourself and write out your intention. We can’t achieve our goals unless we know the steps to our outcome. Decide for yourself how often and for how long you need to do something to get the benefits from it. Write down when, where and for how long you will do something, and stick it somewhere you’ll see it. Writing it down ensures that we can’t lie to ourselves about our commitment. Once you get into the habit you don’t have to do this step, but if you don’t have a stable practice yet, having that visual reminder will help. 

I like to do my spiritual practice in the mornings. I find that mornings are when I’m the softest and most open to my intuition. But even though I work for myself, it’s often hard to block out that time. We live in a culture that starts at 7 am and hits the ground running. I have to turn down some clients and jobs that want me on that timeline. It’s not always easy to make that choice. What makes it easy is when I see the results from my consistent practice. When I take that time it sets the tone for the rest of my day. I’m more focused, kinder, and more relaxed. It also gives me the added benefit of not having to struggle to fit it in as my day gets busy. 

While a morning practice may not be for you, I do encourage you to pick a timeframe and stick with it. When we say,” I’ll get to it later,” we rarely do. 

Also, be kind to yourself. You probably won’t be consistent right away, it takes time to build a habit. If you miss a day or two, forgive yourself, let that go graciously, and move on. The same as if you try to integrate something that doesn’t really work. The goal is to be fluid and make something that fits your life. If something isn’t working for you, send it off with light and love, and try something else. “Where focus goes, energy flows.“ The more you show up with intention, the more it will show up for you. 

I remember when I first started pulling oracle cards I approached it with a feeling like it wouldn’t work. I didn’t give it very much attention or weight, and because of that, my practice was flaky at best. Instead of approaching it with what I could learn, I kept trying to prove to myself that it wasn’t working. The shift happened when I decided to be open, and do it every single day no matter what. I sat with what the cards were saying, I looked back at it what I’d been told from days before. The consistency and trust were when the miracles started to happen for me. The synchronicities and patterns began to emerge because my practice and learnings became linked to a bigger picture every day that I did it. 

Now pulling cards is one of the cores of my practice, the fulfillment and support I get from that practice is consistent. I feel a deeper trust in a benevolent universe because I see the web that the cards paint for me. Every day I get to be blown away, laugh or learn something new about myself because I’m giving that practice consistent attention. 

4 Step Check-In

Okay, we have our first four steps. #1- Look at the universal truths and learn from rituals that have already been given to us. #2- Tap into our intuition to see what feels right for us. #3- Is to get creative with it and make it your own. And #4 is to do something daily. 

While all these things will take your attention and time, they should be easy and fun! If you start to feel tightness and expectation around any of these steps, it means that you’re starting to focus on ego instead of spirit. Reframe to make sure that the end goal of this practice is joy and a better quality of life. All of this should be reducing your stress, not adding to it. 

Cultural Appropriation

And now it’s time to move on to a topic that’s not quite so joyful or fun, and that’s the important discussion of cultural appropriation. I encourage you not to check out of this part of the talk, because while this conversation is uncomfortable for a lot of us if you’re able to wrap your mind around it then it will decrease your stress overall. 

I really should’ve titled this talk “4 Easy Steps and 1 Not-so Easy Step, because, although creating a personal spiritual practice for yourself is super easy, the political and social climate that we’re in right now makes one part of this equation very difficult. The fact is that when we start to talk about cherry-picking from cultural and religious space, we need to talk about the ginormous issue of cultural appropriation.

If we’re engaging in spirituality to live better lives and be better people then one of our biggest points of focus should be to care for others. With our increased availability of information, we are unable to escape just how badly colonialism has ravaged our world, and we need to make sure we’re not still on that path.

So, I want to try and break it down for you so hopefully, we can make some emotional space around it so that we can feel a little bit more free exploring some of the fun stuff. 

Let’s Address Cultural Appropriation

So, most of you, if you’re in this talk, will be familiar with the conversation around cultural appropriation. And if you are familiar, I’m sure you already know that this issue is extremely complex and exhausting to think about. But we must normalize these discussions and try to tackle these issues because this has to do with why we’re engaging in spirituality in the first place; which is to be better individuals. And we can’t be better if we’re content with harming those around us. 

Avoiding this conversation is also something I see as being detrimental to people creating a deep spiritual life. When I see people get confronted with this, I often watch them shut down exploration altogether, and miss out on the teachings that are available to them. It may not be comfortable, but incorporating cultural appropriation conversations is essential in creating a rich spiritual life. 

So, what is cultural appropriation exactly? This is one of my main areas of research because I make art that uses many cultural symbols, and I want to make sure I’m using them in a way that’s helpful and not harmful.

Cultural appropriation occurs when people outside of a specific cultural space can make money or gain social capital from artifacts or cultural ideas when people who are in that community cannot. 

This is a complex idea, but the basis of it comes down to a power dynamic. 

A good anecdote to describe this was the New Age movement in the 80s, where Native American spirituality was suddenly seen by the white population as something to be desired. There was a large disconnect between the perceived “Native American spirituality” and what was actually happening in the lives of people in that cultural group. It perpetuated the stereotype of the “noble Native,” sharing spiritual wisdom with the white man, all the while these New Agers had no real understanding of Native people and no touchstone with their actual struggle for survival. 

What occurred was a huge movement of people and companies selling and profiting off of distorted “Native American “spiritual artifacts. At the same time that Westerners were profiting off of these objects, there were still laws all across North America that BANNED Native Americans from even owning their artifacts, let alone selling them. While Natives could get punished for having a spiritual item in their home, Caucasians could happily buy and sell these objects with no repercussions. 

We were deep in the governmental process of trying to forcefully assimilate Indigenous people to a Western way of life and denying them any right to language, land, communities, and spiritual artifacts were part of that horrific process. This transcends to today where the largest producer of “aboriginal” artifacts is China, while a large number of Native populations are still impoverished and can’t make money off of their art or artifacts. This is what super messed up harmful appropriation looks like. It is not okay. And this is only one example of many, many harmed cultures.

While we may not be personally responsible for the atrocities that led to the world’s current racial climate, those who are white are still benefiting from this history. And while I did not commit the crimes of my caucasian ancestors, I am responsible to help clean up the mess. Any privileged person, or thinking, caring citizen, needs to rise to meet this issue with a desire to heal it and not continue hurting others. 

The problem is that we’re right in the middle of a cultural shift. We’re trying to not continue harming persecuted cultural groups, but at the same time, we’re entering a revolution where, for the first time, almost all global knowledge is available to us, and we desire to use that cultural knowledge to us evolve as a species. The ways forward through this appropriation minefield are on a spectrum of opinion, which of course leads to a huge amount of disagreement.

This problem is so vast and complex, so it’s really hard to know how to approach it in a solution-focused way, and not just get bogged down with problems and guilt. I know that I have to continually grow my understanding around this as the conversation evolves and that I will never be successful in understanding every single person’s experience or viewpoint, but all I can do is humbly try.

Why We Need to Talk About This

But here is why we need to address this on our spiritual path- we all want to view ourselves as good people, as the hero of our own story. And learning that we are hurting others, even if it’s unintentionally, brings up a lot of shame. And what happens when we feel shame? We generally have one of two responses- we either ignore the fact that the behavior we’re doing is hurtful and continue doing that behavior OR we shut down completely and we never want to do or think about what we’ve done wrong again. 

The most common response I see when I watch others get informed about cultural appropriation in their spiritual practice is that they shut down, and never want to touch that “bad,” behavior ever again. A great example is the practice of smudging. 

For those of you who don’t know, smudging is a spiritual practice from particular Native populations where a sacred dried plant is burned and the smoke is used to cleanse something. Many of you will probably have seen or even personally done this practice with sage or palo santo. 

So, this is one of the things that has come into conflict in the last couple of years as a point of harmful appropriation. But it’s a very convoluted dialogue, even among Native Americans as to whether it’s, “okay.” or not. And when there’s confusion, there’s no clear answer, and so people feel this sense of shame, they shut down, and they never touch it, OR ANY behavior like it again. The shame precludes us from using a tool that could be beneficial. 

And this is why it becomes a problem because history tells us that using air or smoke or fanning to clear energy has been around many historical cultures. And that means that it’s a very powerful ritual that still carries energy and has the potential to be an effective spiritual practice for a lot of us. 

So when we shut down and don’t explore powerful teachings from our ancestors because we’re feeling a sense of shame, then we’re losing out on a practice that could be very healing for us. 

So the goal is, instead of shutting down when we’re faced with these conversations about cultural appropriation, instead to meet it with presence and humility, to do our best to hear and care for people who are suffering, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

So, I’m going to try and simplify this for you a little bit, and hopefully, give you some tools for how to deal with it.

What is Cultural Appropriation?

Cultural appropriation is “taking,” from a culture that’s not one’s own. This can include ways of knowledge, intellectual property, cultural expressions, and artifacts. But the problem with this definition is that the terms “culture,” and “taking,” are intangible ideas at best. So this definition can’t define the boundaries of where cultural appropriation begins and ends.

Because if we’re taking from a culture that’s not our own, that means that lines of culture need to be well defined. But we all know that the lines of culture are extremely fluid because individuals are fluid. Add to that the fact that cultural practices are formed from various influences from other cultures and change over time. And then add to that the phenomenon of Multiple Discovery, where cultures and individuals from around the globe who have no interaction, come up with the same ideas at the same time. This means that the lines of where “culture,” begin and end are complicated at best.

So, since we can’t rigidly define culture, let’s try and make it personal. Let’s say that each human being can roughly define the type of ideas and practices you grew up with and that everything outside of that is another cultural space. So if you didn’t grow up with it, it’s not “yours.”

But then we progress. And as an adult in this internet era, we are going to engage with millions of ideas that we didn’t grow up with, and those ideas are going to expand our horizons and help us evolve. So by all definitions, most ideas we encounter will come from someone else’s cultural space. This is why the issue of cultural appropriation is so exhausting to think about. How do we engage with those spaces in a healthy way that’s not damaging so that we can grow and expand our ideas of the world? 

One of my favorite culture theorists Richard A. Rogers places appropriation into 4 categories: dominance, exploitation, exchange, and transculturation. Two of these practices are damaging, and two of these practices are healthy. So first off, we need to move away from the idea that all cultural interaction is damaging, and define which is which.

Dominance is the practice of desiring power over another. Exploitation is treating someone unfairly to benefit from their work. Both of these actions can be seen in the example of Native spirituality being commodified. People desired to subjugate Natives, while at the same time they desired to profit from their spirituality. 

On the flip side, exchange is the act of giving and receiving where both parties benefit equally. Transculturation is defined as, “seeing oneself in the other.” It doesn’t mean acquiring another culture (Acculturation) or losing or uprooting a previous culture (Deculturation). Instead, it takes multiple spaces of cultural phenomena and merges them into something new that benefits both cultural spaces.

Let’s simplify an example around what this means. Let’s pretend that someone physically smaller and weaker than you has something you want. You have four options. 

-You could physically make that person afraid of you and force them to give you that object. 

-You could steal or mimic that object and sell it for a profit. 

-You could trade them for that object with something of equal value. 

-Or you could connect with that person, start a relationship where you benefit their lives and they benefit yours, and in that process, the object naturally becomes shared property because it benefits everyone.

If we take Roger’s theory and apply it to our lives, cultural appropriation comes down to the intention that leads to action. And this makes it a lot simpler because you can sit with yourself and ask sincere questions about how you are engaging with ideas.  

The first question- “Does using this idea or object give me a sense of power over another individual? Am I trying to make someone else feel small?” In the case of those listening to this talk, most of us will probably answer no to this question. If we’re seeking a true spiritual path, the feeling of power over another will likely feel icky and unappealing. 

The second question- “Am I monetizing OR gaining social capital from this idea or object when someone from the culture it came from cannot?” This one actually may apply to many of us in the spiritual arena. If we go back to the area of North American Native spirituality, there are many people who did not grow up in that tradition, who are currently making money off of traditional Native practices or objects. 

Remember, this applies to social capital too. For example, if you’re posting something on your Facebook or Instagram and it’s gaining you followers, you are gaining social capital from it. 

If we simplify this, it means that if we are using a practice in our private space, we are not making money or gaining social capital off of it, so it is not exploitation. But as soon as you try to turn that into a job or sell those items, you need to become a lot more aware of exploitation issues, and should start doing some research around how to do that in a respectful way that’s aligned with that tradition and supports that community. 

So, two questions- “Is this giving me a sense of power over someone,” and, “Am I gaining capital from it?” If the answer is “no,” to both those questions, Roger’s would say that it’s not unhealthy appropriation. 

On the flip side, when you engage with these ideas, is there an equal exchange between you and someone else? Do both sides benefit when you share ideas? If you feel this sense of equal exchange, then give yourself some space to relax and enjoy the shared knowledge. 

To take that even further, the option of transculturation feels far and away the best, and that’s because it’s focused on the RELATIONSHIP. When we stop trying to consume the world around us for what we can get from it, and instead we desire to make real connections and contribute, the conversation around cultural appropriation becomes a whole lot simpler.

So let’s bring this back to the conversation about creating a personal spiritual practice and focus your exploration towards connection. When you’re exploring new spiritual ideas, there will likely be something from a space that you didn’t grow up with that you might like to have as a part of your practice. 

Instead of just ignoring it or feeling ashamed that you want to engage with it in the first place, or just taking it and using it however you want, why not find other humans who did grow up with it and get them to teach you about it? See what you can give them back that benefits them, whether it's something from your life experience, another object, money, time, or friendship. Be humble. Be willing to learn. 

When we do this we begin to expand the understanding and skill set available to us as humans. We also get to learn new skills and practices that start to benefit everyone and help heal the world around us. The more we respectfully share ideas, with humility and a desire to make the world a better place, the better everything becomes.

That’s It That’s All!

Okay! So there it is our 5 steps to a personal spiritual practice. #1- Learn from rituals that have already been given to us. #2- Tap into your intuition to see what feels right for you. #3- Is to get creative with it and make it your own. #4 is to do something daily. And the whopping #5, how to do it all without hurting others. 

Thank you for sticking with me through all that! I was fully expecting to be able to have a question and answer period in my live talk, but I did end up needing to prerecord. But I would love it if any of you want to reach out and keep this conversation going with me.

The best places to find me are either on my website at jodisharp.ca (spelled) or Instagram @jodi.sharp.art. I love talking about this, it’s a passion of mine, and I love connecting with new people. So please don’t hesitate to reach out! I would love to hear your questions and comments.

Thank you so much again to Kat for creating this incredible experience! It has been such a wonderful weekend. I hope you all enjoy the speakers coming up, and I do hope to hear from some of you soon. 

Thanks! 

Feathers are one of the oldest universal symbols. There has always been a magic to them that makes people believe in the impossible, and in doing so, connects us to the world of spirit and transcendence. 

When I started my stained glass meditation line, I didn’t intend for feathers to be such a big part of my offerings. But over time I got asked to make them more and more. Clients connected with the symbol of the feather in a deeper way than other symbols.

When something deeply resonates with you, it’s important to follow that feeling. Your personal spiritual practice is all about you and whatever intuitively helps you connect to the universal truth around you. When it comes it your personal life, you don’t need to justify why something feels good to use when you’re using it in a private way.

However, something that can be helpful is to learn more about WHY a symbol resonates, and through research and learning, you can deepen your practice and truly utilize the power of the symbol. 

Feathers Throughout History

Feathers have been an important symbol for most communities around the world. Humans have long been enchanted by the creatures that have the freedom to fly through the sky, so most cultures have some sort of mythology around the feather.

It’s hard to do justice to all of the various tribes, religions, and nations around the world because there are so many variations and it’s not fair to lump them all in with one another. Each community uniquely uses feathers, but the general connecting thread seems to be that feathers designate status and a connection to a magical power. 

Feathers are generally worn, kept in a sacred place, or ingested. Historically, those who could access the power of feathers were often trained in doing so or had enough status in the community that they were allowed to be the keepers of that magic. 

In ancient Greece, specific birds held the power of the gods, and using the feather would help you call them. The peacock is one good example, an animal that was created out of Hera’s watchman, the hundred-eyed giant Argus. The peacock is also sacred in India, where it is worn and ingested to combat various illnesses and gain strength.

In ancient Egypt, the feather was the ultimate symbol of judging worthiness. To be admitted into the Field of Reeds, (the Egyptian version of heaven), you had to pass a trial by Osiris, the Judge of the Dead. He would weigh your heart against The Feather of Truth. Anyone whose heart was not as light as this feather would not be admitted into the afterlife. 

Many tribes in South America would use the feathers of birds in their traditional medications, as well as wearing them on their body after gaining them through spiritual rites of passage. There are also tribes with hunting rituals, where a community member is sent out into the forest on a quest to capture a specific bird to gain the power of that animal. 

In the United Kingdom, many clans would use feathers to signify authority within the clan. In Scotland for example, clan chiefs were allowed to wear three feathers, chieftains could wear two and armigers could wear one. Anyone who had not gained status in the community through legitimate means wasn’t allowed to wear feathers as part of their garb. 

In European pagan traditions, the feather is also a source of power and connection with a magical realm. In several traditions, the colors of the feathers are important and designate different types of powers that come from that feather. Feathers are kept on altars, or burned or ground into mixtures to use in spell casting.

In Africa, feathers have been used as self-adornment by many tribes to designate status and power. The most colorful plumes were hunted as decoration and a show of strength to other clans. The ostrich feather in particular was used to designate luxury and vitality. When colonialists arrived in Africa and saw the use of this feather it was sought after and became synonymous with luxury in the West, with massive detriment to African ostrich populations and the clans that used them.

In North America, many different tribes of Natives use feathers as religious objects. In certain tribes, a warrior was awarded a feather when he was brave in battle. In other traditions, feathers that naturally fell to the Earth contained the bird’s energy and were seen as a gift from the natural world. Each type of feather represented something different.

An Important Check-In

Before I go on and tell you about why I create feathers, I do need to address something extremely important, and that’s the issue of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is a very complex and difficult topic, and if you would like to engage deeper with what it is, I’ve written a more in-depth blog post HERE. 

I’m bringing this issue up because as someone who currently lives in North America, I’m well aware that for many people here, the symbol of the feather deeply connects with the tradition of the use of feathers in Native spirituality. Although my use of the feather symbology does not connect to this tradition, many people will assume that interaction because of where I’m located in the world.  

I want to talk about cultural appropriation because everyone needs to understand the horrible impact of our colonialist history. This topic is extremely complex, but the more we try to have humble and present conversations about why it’s so damaging, the closer we get to healing. 

In North America in the 80s, caucasian communities were deep in the governmental process of trying to forcefully assimilate Indigenous people to a Western way of life, denying them any right to land, language, communities, and spiritual artifacts.

At the same time, the New Age movement began to see Native American spirituality as something to be desired and began producing objects that badly mimicked their tradition. During a time that Westerners were profiting off of these objects, there were still laws all across North America that banned Native Americans from even owning their spiritual artifacts, let alone selling them. 

While Natives could get punished for having a single feather in their home, Caucasians could happily buy and sell these objects with no repercussions. And while I may not be personally responsible for the atrocities that led to the world’s current racial climate, those who are white are still benefiting from this history.

I want to be clear that I did not start making glass feathers to mimic a Native tradition in any way. I am not trained to use any type of Native tradition involving feathers, and my experience with the feather as a symbol did not come out of it. Although I am not trying to profit from those traditions, I do want to take this moment to acknowledge that as a person with white skin I have the privilege to engage with things in a way that others still do not.

While I did not commit the crimes of my caucasian ancestors, I am responsible to help clean up the mess. As a privileged person, and as a thinking, caring citizen, I will always ensure that I try my very best, while humbly admitting that I will likely always fail. 

At the same time, I don’t want to shy away from these loaded symbols or topics, because I think that there are incredible things to be learned from these universal tools. While it’s impossible to get through this life without accidentally harming others, I think it would be even more detrimental to not engage with powerful facets of spirituality because we are lost in our shame. 

Why I Make Feathers

I was a super quiet kid who grew up in an abusive and fundamental religious home. While certain traditional religious spaces may be very healing for people, the particular space I was raised in was dysfunctional and damaging. 

Because my home life was very challenging, I tended to be in nature as much as I possibly could. I knew nothing of spirituality except for an angry and violent God, but when I was in nature I felt connected and okay. I would spend as much time as I could be fascinated with the world around me.

Feathers in particular held me in complete rapture. When I would find them on the ground I would hold them in complete awe, staring for hours at the spines and colors. I was blown away by the idea of flying away from my lot in life and would constantly imagine myself with wings.

I became fascinated with birds of all kinds and I began to believe that crows were following me to protect me all the time. (Maybe they were!) Every feather I fell in love with got added to my collection, along with all the rocks I was obsessed with. I had no idea why at the time, but both of these things held great power for me.

I had always felt connected to the world around me, nature was one of the only places I felt a sense of peace and being part of something greater. As I grew I started seeking out traditions that I could practice that would deepen my spirituality and sense of connection. 

Along my journey, I spent time learning in a Wiccan coven. Wicca is a nature-oriented religion with practices derived from pre-Christian religious beliefs. Originating in the United Kingdom, its tenants are ritual magic, respect for nature, and worship of a goddess and other deities.

My experience in that particular space ended up being just as rigid and problematic as many other traditions. There were some practices I could not in good faith abide by, but there were others that resonated with me powerfully and I still use today. 

The allowance to worship nature as a deity in this tradition was massively healing for me. It connected so deeply with what I had felt as a child and validated my feelings that nature could be just as holy and nourishing as any other form of Deity.

This context of new spiritual creation underlies the entirety of my art practice. The belief that we are capable of making space sacred through our attention and presence has lived with me through all my creations and is now the central focus. 

I feel that for me art and religion are synonymous. They both provide a way of understanding ourselves and comparing our experiences with others. Both focus on creating a vision and greater connection to the world in general, and it is through this connection that I hope to make a difference in the whole.

How To Use Your Feather

For me, the feather will always hold the same type of power as I felt as I child. It connects me to a magical realm and makes me believe in the impossible. I still pick up and keep feathers I find in nature, and I love that I get to re-create their energy in glass. 

Every culture had its way of engaging with the energy of the feather, but the linking factor is that the magic of the bird gets felt through the feather. Even though we are in an era where we can understand and master the power of flight, we should still let the magic of the symbol help us feel connected to this miracle. 

It is important that when we engage with this symbol that we are aware of its historical implications, and that we are conscious of the ethics of the objects we have in our spiritual practice. Items that are obtained through damaging other cultures, produced with unethical labor, or through harming creatures, will carry that energy into your practice. 

So when you feel a connection to an item that resonates with you, meditate on the type of energy you receive from it. Does this feather give you a sense of calm, of power, of possibility? If it comes from a specific bird, research its qualities and what you can learn from it! If it comes from a cultural space that’s willing to share their practices with you, connect with people from that culture who can teach you!

We use symbols that have been used for eons because they do hold power. The feather is a powerful symbol. If it’s something that resonates with you, I encourage you to begin to research ways that the use of feather magic can be right for you! 

Object focused meditation can help you reach a state of presence faster. As children, we were trained to keep our mind from wandering by giving it a job to focus on. Object focused meditation makes use of your previous training by getting your mind to focus on the item in front of you.

A stained glass meditation is a beautiful way to add this practice into your life! Once you’ve purchased one, here’s what you do with it.

1. Open up your box! Each item has been carefully handmade through an intricate creation process. I've made each bespoke piece out of artisanal glass and crystals, and no two items will be exactly alike. This meditation object is unique to you! 

2. Once you have opened up your box, you will want to clear the energy of your new art. Although all sun catchers and jewelry have been reiki infused with their intention, it has likely traveled a long distance to get to you. This may add energies you don't want. 

Clear your item in any way that feels natural to you. You can run your art under water (yes, it'll be fine!), let it sit in brown rice, set your art out in the moonlight, smudge it, or use sound, (or any other way that feels intuitively good for you.) 

3. Take some time to infuse your object with your intention. Hold the item, set it on your third eye or corresponding chakra, or place it in a crystal grid. Focus on why you choose this particular item, and what energy you want to bring in by having it in your life. Thank the item for helping you bring in this energy.

4. Next, you'll want to put your meditation object somewhere sacred. If you received jewellery, you can hang it on a chain or cord to wear it. If you have a hanging suncatcher, choose a place where it catches the light, and you can easily look at it while meditating. 

5. Sit down to meditate and get comfortable. Rest your eyes gently on your art and start to follow the lines and colours of it. See how the light glints off of it, look at the different patterns in the glass. Every time your mind starts to wander, bring it back to the object.

6. Repeat all steps as necessary! Your art collects energy the more times you use it. So clear and infuse your object whenever you think it needs it. When we care for our meditation objects and crystals, we not only change their energy, but we remind ourselves to care for our spiritual selves as well. 

Need something comfy to meditate in? Check out intentional clothing HERE.

Currently, the world is in a state of difficulty, and one of the only solutions we have is for everyone to stay in their homes for the sake of public health. There’s only so much Netflix you can watch before you start crawling up the walls, so here are a couple of creative things you can do it mix it up while you wait this out.

  Purge Your Home

You're home now, so why not spend some time making it feel terrific? I'm sure that there are corners of your house that haven't been touched in years, so now's the perfect time to do a purge and deep clean. 

Go through each area of your house and touch every object that's there. My rule of thumb is that if I haven't used it in the last two years, or I don't have an idea for its use in the next six months, I'll donate it.

Once you've removed everything that isn't useful, rearrange the space to make it feel fresh. Go around the whole house until each area feels useful and exactly how you want it.

Write Appreciation Notes

We're all feeling the burden of isolation right now, and everyone could stand to feel a little extra love. Instead of writing emails or social media messages, switch it up and go old school.

Get a pad of paper and take some time to write a letter to each person in your life you care for. Write down all of the things that you love and appreciate about them. Good memories you have of them, how they make your life better, how special you think they are.

Even if you're not able to mail them right away, just the act of physically writing down beautiful things about others is guaranteed to make you feel better about the world. And once you can mail it, you can bet that it will make those people feel special that you took that time.

Deck of Pain

Want to stay fit even though you're at home? Here's something we've been doing every day; it's called "Deck of Pain." Anyone can do this as long as you have a deck of playing cards.

Since there are four suits in a deck, choose four exercises you want to do that day, e.g., sit-ups, push-ups, squats, and jumping jacks. It's great if you choose four things that target different areas of your body. Assign each exercise to one of the suites.

Flip through the deck of cards one by one, and do the corresponding number of reps and type of movement the card designates. For example, if you choose a 4 of hearts, and the heart suite is sit-ups, you do four sit-ups.

Face cards count as reps of 10, and for Aces, we've been holding Plank for 2 minutes. We change up the movements daily. The whole thing should take about 30 minutes, and by the end, you'll have done about 70 reps of each exercise, and you can feel like a rockstar for staying fit during quarantine! 

Pictionary Telephone

Pictionary Telephone is a game that my friends and I used to play in person, but it can be done remotely. The first person writes down any sentence they feel like. Like, "The iguana ate a giant bug." They send this to the next person in the chain.

The next person quickly draws a picture describing the sentence. It's often hilarious because not everyone is great at drawing. They send the drawing to the next person in line.

The next person writes a sentence describing what the drawing is, and sends it on. Then the next person draws that sentence; then, the next person writes it out, etc. This goes on until it makes it's way back to the original person who wrote the sentence.

The final sequence is then shown to everyone. The results are HILARIOUS and are guaranteed to make you laugh. No time you play it is ever the same, and it's a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

Start Something You've Been Putting Off

We all have that one thing that we keep saying we'd like to do but haven't touched yet. Starting your first novel, taking up beadwork, planning your garden, learning a new dance move, redecorating your living room, wood whittling, learning Spanish… Now is the time people!

It is hard to be forced to be home. So let's find what we can get excited about during this time, instead of just sinking into the couch and watching the 100th episode of that show you're binging.

Not only does creativity reduce stress, but accomplishing goals will help you feel like things are going to be okay, and that there's a future though all this. By using this time to be productive, we'll be that much more prepared to rebuild and support the world around us as soon as we're able to leave our homes again.

In the last week, the coronavirus has escalated from a serious issue to a world pandemic. Governments are implementing never-before thought of travel bans, isolation practices, and extreme measures to try and control this thing. If you're not feeling at least a little bit afraid by now, you're in the minority. 

I'm currently stuck in Utila, Honduras, a place I never thought I'd be during a global crisis. While I'm on a relatively safe island with pretty good food security, the situation keeps getting scarier. The regulations are getting stricter with each passing day, and it's a big unknown around how badly this will escalate.

At this moment in time, the Honduran government has cut our island off from the rest of the country. The grocery stores have been picked over, with no news of when they'll send more supplies to us. Paper mask and glove-wearing military personnel are roaming the island, enforcing an 8 pm curfew, and dispelling large groups of people. You can go to jail if they catch you drinking, with fines if they find you in groups of over 30.

Although this island grows a bunch of its food and we might be completely fine (even way better off than some places), it's hard not to get caught up in patterns of fear about all of the terrifying things that could happen during this. However, being afraid doesn't help anyone; in fact, it makes things way worse. So what can we do when we get stuck in fear?

Take Time To Process

Nothing ever got solved by pretending it doesn't exist. What's happening right now is a big deal, so take the time to sit with it and feel whatever you're feeling. It's okay to feel freaked out or worried for a bit, as long as you don't let those feelings control you.

Take the time to think critically and get educated about what's going on. Stop listening to hype news that sells headlines by telling you how awful everything is. Read the science, listen to people who are experts, and do what they recommend.

However, once you've gotten educated and prepared about the situation, let it go. You control your thoughts; your thoughts don't control you. Once you know that there's nothing left you can do, there's no point in stewing about what may or may not happen. Letting your thoughts spiral is the best way to lose touch with reality, which can cause behaviors that will make the situation worse. At the very least, for yourself, if not others.

Move Your Body

When we get scared, we tense up, telling our sympathetic nervous system to create adrenaline and cortisol. The point of stress is to get our bodies prepared for fight or flight when we're in danger, and the biological response to stress should be a burst of energy that burns off stress hormones.

However, when we're in situations like this, our body doesn't get the chance to respond to our feelings of fear. There's no tiger we can run from, this virus is invisible, and stress won't help us fight it. So we close down, we hunch up, and our body creates even more hormones to compensate. The cycle that this creates makes our bodies feel even more uncomfortable and helpless.

The great thing about this is that almost any form of motion can remove these hormones from your body. I know we may all be stuck inside, but instead of just fear-watching tv, take the time to move. Do yoga, dance around, learn tai chi, follow a workout video. Doing anything at all will increase your sense of well-being, pump up your endorphins, and help remove your fear.

Help Others

When we feel afraid, our focus gets narrow, and we can only think about what's best for ourselves. That's fine if we're dealing with immediate danger (like the tiger), but bad when it comes to sustained issues. Problems like this require long term problem solving and community participation, so we need to get our brains out of fight or flight.

One of the best ways to move your brain out of its fear is to think about others. Start to focus on what someone more disadvantaged than you might need in this situation and then brainstorm ways you can help. Doing this not only will make your community better, but it will also make you feel less afraid.

Doing good is proven to help reduce stress and increase feelings of well-being. When we nurture others, it positively affects our physiology and releases oxytocin, the natural cure for fear. When we help others, we're also helping ourselves, and the whole community benefits as a result.

Be Grateful

The science behind gratitude is pretty compelling. People who have regular gratitude practices are proven to have more positive emotions, feel more engaged with and happy about their lives, show more compassion, experience less stress, sleep better, and have more robust immune systems. No matter how rough your current situation, there's always something to be grateful for. 

Gratitude is an affirmation of the world being a good place. It reminds us of all the beauty in the world, and all of the benefits we receive on a daily basis. It helps us block our natural tendencies towards negativity that ruins our happiness. When you're in gratitude, it's pretty impossible to experience feelings of resentment, anger, or fear.

It also helps us realize where goodness stems from, which is often our community. It strengthens relationships because it makes us understand how much other's support us. It reminds us to acknowledge other people, which in turn makes us feel more connected and benevolent to the world around us.

One of the best things to do when you're experiencing fear is to take some time to be grateful for what you have. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, turn your thoughts to all of the ways you're supported and okay. Spend some time writing them down or tell them to others. It will naturally remove the stress from your body, making you calmer, better able to problem solve, and happier about your situation.

Get Creative

We're currently in a situation, unlike anything we've experienced before. In all likelihood, this pandemic will not only lose us lives but also bankrupt many of us and tank world economies. It's hard not to get overwhelmed when thinking about the possible outcomes.

Since we've never experienced this before, we're going to need to use creative problem solving to figure out solutions where conventional thinking has failed. It's time to play, dream, and imagine. It's time to innovate and move the world in exciting new directions. Imagination is the key to solving this, and it needs to start with everyone.

Spend some time thinking about what you want your future to look like. Draw it, write it, talk about it. Be positive; get excited about the potential. Don't limit yourself but think as far outside of the box as you can imagine. As an artist, I play with this all of the time, and it's one of the skills that help me turn the impossible into reality. I know that I can create anything from thought, but it has to start with the dream.

One of the greatest things about using your imagination like this is that your brain doesn't actually differentiate between your thoughts and your experiences. It is one of the principles of positive visualization. When you let your imagination joyfully run wild with potential, excellent physical responses follow. When we play with possibilities, we make ourselves happier with the potential of creating real change.

We Can Do This

I know that it's really scary for some of us right now. It's hard to be locked in our houses, hard not obsessively to watch the news. It's going to take some real self-work to be calm and productive about this. However, I do believe that the best way to get through this is by taking care of ourselves and remaining a community.

The whole world is our community right now, and we need to have each other's backs. If we do the work to dilute our fear and help each other, I believe that we can come out of this stronger.

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.”

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness.

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify."

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

Wilder Publications; Reprint edition (2008)

There are a lot of people I've met who think that travel is a young person's game. It's something that you're supposed to do when you're 20 and figuring out yourself, but after that, you're supposed to stabilize and settle down. However, travel isn't just about having fun. Science proves that it's healthy for you in a variety of ways. 

Decades ago, public thought didn't grasp the link between diet and exercise making you healthy. Researchers are now saying the same things about travel adding to lifespan and capacity. As these benefits become more widely studied, t's not too far-fetched to imagine a time where doctors will prescribe a trip as a necessary part of a healthy life.

1. Travel Makes You Physically Healthier

You may not feel very healthy when you're throwing up in some foreign land from some lousy food you just ate, but travel substantially boosts your immune system. When you travel, you expose yourself to new bacteria that help you create stronger antibodies. When you move between different locations, you force your body to adapt to thousands of new bacteria, which will make you stronger in the long run.

When you're on the road, you're also proven to be less stressed. Studies have found that after only three days, travelers feel more rested, less anxious and in a better mood while increasing their overall activity and fitness levels. Some studies also show a compelling connection that in certain groups, this change in stress lowers the risk of heart attack and disease. These improvements don't immediately go away after returning home either but will add to lifespan and overall wellbeing.

Travelers are also more active and less stationary on trips. Because there has already been a buy-in to get to your new location, people are more motivated to get out and experience it. You're likely to walk more than you would at home, try a new sport, or engage in a physical activity like hiking or swimming. It's also more likely that these things become a part of your daily experience while traveling, and you're less likely to do sedentary actions like watching tv.

2. Travel Exposes You to Healing Properties

When you travel, you tend to visit sites that you don't have access to at home, and many of those have healing properties. Soaking in the mineral-rich waters of a hot spring, swimming in the salty waters of the ocean, or even just getting out into the sun can expose you to things that will add to your overall wellness. Getting outside exposes us to many properties that can heal, uplift, and rejuvenate. Health and Wellness Tourism has even become a huge part of the travel industry, with a resurgence of people pursuing health-related amenities. Resorts and spas have surged in popularity, as well as activities like yoga, fitness, and lifestyle retreats. Whether that's the focus of your trip or not, you're more likely to participate in a wellness activity while you travel than you would be at home.

3. Travel Creates New Neural Pathways

When you explore, you naturally have to problem solve and adapt to more situations. You have to meet new people, encounter new languages, deal with other cultures, and solve new problems. Neural pathways are created due to environment and habitat and are sensitive to change. When there are new sounds, smells, languages, tastes, and sensations, you're telling your brain to be more aware and to spark new synapses.

When you put your brain in different experiences, it is proven to increase your cognitive flexibility, creativity, ability to make connections and integrate ideas. It's has been shown that those who work and study aboard are more open and emotionally stable. So the more you engage with new environments, the more activated your brain will become, and the more likely you are to stave off brain degradation and disease.

4. Travel Creates Meaningful Social Experiences

Humans aren't meant to be isolated creatures. A crucial part of our physical health comes from having meaningful social connections with others. When we don't have functional interactions, it increases the chance that we'll feel sensations of loneliness, depression, and pessimism. When people stay home, they are more likely to do similar actions every day, which lessens the change of getting out of unhealthy patterns of isolation.

When you travel, it forces you into situations where you have to connect with others. Even if you're alone traveling or backpacking, it puts you into scenarios where the only way to solve specific problems is to meet people and make new friends. You will also be encountering other travelers who will be in a similar state of openness to connection. Engaging in this process will increase your confidence in human interactions.

Travel also deepens the connections with those around you because peak experiences make for more intense and lasting memories. It will also make you less biased as you connect with others who are different than you and increase your skillset for communication and conflict resolution. All of these things are lasting skills that will improve your quality of life, even after your trip is over.

5. Travel Broadens Your Perspective

Travel helps you broaden your view of the world and yourself. By putting yourself into new situations, you have to learn to live outside your comfort zone and find the beauty in different circumstances. While this may make you uncomfortable at times, it allows you to transform how you understand the world.

Studies even prove an increased chance of epiphanies while traveling. There is also an increased ability to problem-solve issues we otherwise have been stuck on. When you're in the middle of a problem, it's often hard to detach yourself from it enough to come to any resolution. By separating from a familiar environment, you gain psychological distance from a situation at hand. Getting away from where you live is important because it's often the only way you can achieve a new perspective.

Travel Helps You Live Longer and Better

With all of these aspects combined, travel is one of those rare things that not only increases your life expectancy but also increases your quality of life. When you take a trip, even if it's short, it boosts your immune system, heart, brain, capacity, connections, and mood, keeping your body healthy inside and out. All of this means that travel increases your chance of living longer and having more fun doing it.

Want more travel content? Follow me at @jodithesharp for daily updates! 

To live in this world 

you must be able 

to do three things. 

to love what is mortal; 

to hold it 

against your bones knowing 

your own life depends on it; 

and, when the time comes to let it go, 

to let it go” 

-Mary Oliver

Photos from a grieving ritual, performed Montreal, 2017

So this weekend, a good friend of mine unexpectedly passed away. A key member of my community, it was a shock to all of us to lose him right now. One of the things that I keep hearing people say is, "how do I deal with death?" Many have no idea how to handle his passing. For many people I know, it was the first close friend they lost.

It's not the first friend of mine who's passed, and certainly won't be the last. It doesn't get more comfortable, but I think that it's often even harder than it should be because we come from a culture that's terrible in dealing with death.

As a western culture, we like to ignore that death exists at all. Until it confronts us, we go through life with the perspective that our loved ones and we will live forever. And when death happens, it blows us sideways because we'd forgotten all about it as a possibility. We become wholly distraught and at a loss for how to handle it.

But death is the only real certainty of life. And building a skill-set around how to deal with it is an essential part of being human. Everyone deals with grief in their own way; it's never going to be easy or comfortable. Here are a couple of things that I've found have worked for me.

Give Yourself Time

In dealing with death, there is no timeframe for your grief. After first losing someone, the pain may be constant, or it may come in waves of intensity. Let it happen when it comes, and be gentle with yourself.

If you need to take a couple of months off work or away from people, do it. If you need to go on a spiritual journey to Tibet for four years to handle it, do it. If it only takes you a week before you feel a sense of stability, that's okay too. There are no rules for how long any of this should take. Let the way you feel guide how much time you need to dedicate to sitting with your feelings. 

Let Yourself Feel It

It will hurt. It is supposed to hurt. It is a big fucking deal to know that a soul has left your waking life. You will miss them. You will be surprised by the finality of it and the hole that they've left.

When you're alone or with people who can support you, do whatever you need to do to realize your emotions. Yell, scream, cry, punch a pillow, laugh, write, stare into space. Any feeling you have is valid. Don't keep it inside your body. Feel your emotions. If you don't give yourself time to feel them, they will come out in times where you may not be in a supportive space to handle them. 

It's Okay to Need a Break

There will be times when the grief is too much to handle, and you can't sit with it anymore. At this point you may need to turn on a tv show, or go out for a drink, or go dance and laugh. It is okay to need to numb the pain at times. It's okay to take a break from the heartbreak.

It's common to need to take a minute, and then it's common to feel shame around needing that time. There have been situations where I've gone out and had a good night and then felt so much guilt about trying to be happy when something so tragic has happened. But speaking from experience, that guilt is not useful. Sometimes you need to cap the pain and remind yourself that even in tragedy, the world is still a beautiful place. 

This pain may be with you for a long time, you need to find sustainable ways to feel it and still live. Your friend wouldn't want you to live in misery for the rest of your life, so take the time to enjoy your life if you need it. It's okay.

Be Around Others Who Are Feeling the Same Way

If you're feeling this distraught around the loss of someone you loved than other people are feeling it too. It's easy to feel like you're going through this alone, but you aren't. Coming together as a community during this time is essential in staving off the hopelessness.

Make sure to share your memories and joys about the life lived. The soul you've lost may be gone, but their memories are not. Tell the people around you how they positively impacted your life, how they made you feel joy and love. Look through photos and feel the gratitude for the connection that you had. By honouring their life you extend their impact. In this way they will still be with you for as long as you have memories in your head. 

Rituals Are Useful

You may feel like the stuffy form of funerals doesn't do life justice, but don't discount the healing that rituals can have. The point of a ritual is to acknowledge the impact of that soul and release some of the pain. The goal is to help start to bring closure to that loss.

There are many traditional rituals around death. You can look at them and see if something resonates with you, or you can make up your own. The goal is to do a set of actions that brings you into remembrance of that unique life. The focus of the ritual is to let go of some of your intense feeling around the loss. A feeling of releasing them into the unknown, and coming to a sense of peace is the ideal outcome. You can do whatever you need as often as you need it to try to get to a sense of peace around it.

Do What is Right For You

No matter who you are or who you've lost, you are allowed to grieve in whatever way works for you. Do your best to stay in touch with what you need, rather than doing what you assume grief is required to look like. You may feel these feelings for a long time, or even in waves throughout the rest of your life. It is good to feel whatever you feel however you need to handle it. 

The Point of Death

It is important to keep things in perspective as well. Because at the end of the day, death has an essential job. It reminds us that life is fleeting and that every single moment is precious. The goal shouldn't be to live forever but to create memories and contributions to the world that will be meaningful.

My friend knew that. He contributed to his community deeply, he loved his friends and family so much, and he was always up to living a full and vibrant life. Even though these feelings suck real hard right now, I wouldn't trade my friendship with him for anything.

Death is a part of life, but I always want to keep in perspective that death makes our lives meaningful. I will use this incident to feel so much gratitude for my connection to this person, and as a reminder to make sure I live life to the fullest.

I’ve gone through a lot of transformations in my life. I have lived enough lives for seven people, and each new direction and trajectory has taken a lot of work, focus, and commitment. The process of my life has been full of twists and turns, change, re-organization, and temporary chaos.

When I look back on my life, there’s one thing I often forget about transformations; the amount of pain I feel during them. I often see past transmutations as the divine plan and growth that they were, but I rarely remember just how much pain I was in at the time. But when I go through the next stage of change I'm reminded that pain is a huge part of the process, and it’s easy to question why so much agony is necessary.

There’s a reason that the symbol of transformation is the butterfly. There is a massive amount of struggle the butterfly has to go through before it metamorphizes into that beautiful creature we love.

It is a long and painful process, but not without reason. When a caterpillar enters its chrysalis, its entire structure has to be broken down and turned into goo so that the wings that were forming on the inside of its body can break free. The molecules of this soup are then reformatted into an entirely new framework that looks completely different than it was before. This process can take up to 21 days, which in the span of a butterfly's life, is a very long time.

The final emerging process takes hours and if you were to watch it you might feel the desire to help the butterfly out with the last steps of getting out of its shell. It looks so uncomfortable and you might think that it would be helpful to spare this poor creature the slow and tedious pain.

But if you were to do that, you would be removing the creature before the vital fluids in the chrysalis finish forming the wings. The process of breaking free gives the wings the final shape and strength to fly. If you took the butterfly out prematurely, the final result would be a creature that’s deformed and crippled, not able to fly or go out into the world as the beautiful butterfly it was meant to be.

Much like the butterfly, any sort of personal transformation has to take the same steps.

Firstly, ideas and beliefs you thought were “truth,” have to be completely broken down. You have to let go of a dream, a way of being or a connection, often without knowing what’s coming next. You have to let your past desires become goo, and this process will always run the gamut of emotions. The ability to let go of something that was so valuable to you in order to accept a new and different vision will often cause a lot of pain. It’s important to feel the grief around this because if we’re not honest about the real difficulty, we shut down to the world around us and can’t be open to the next phase.

After breaking down your past beliefs, you need to then go through the process of growing something; of breaking those new wings out from somewhere deep in your body. You need to create and attach to a new idea for your life. This will take a lot of experimentation, seeking and discomfort as you go through the process of figuring out what’s right for you.

The final process will be breaking into your direction. You’ve decided what you want, but you’re starting at the beginning of something new. This will take commitment as you learn a new skill, engage in a new relationship or start implementing a new belief. It will be a lot of hard work at this stage, and you may be tired of the work and pain you’ve been going through. But if you don’t push through this last process, then just like the butterfly, your new dream will become crippled and malformed. But if you really commit to this new process, this phase will be where you make your new direction strong and viable.

At the end of all of this pain and hard work, you get nature's true gift; you get to fly into your new direction open and free, more beautiful than you were before.

I’m not sure why nature has decided that metamorphosis needs to be so painful. Maybe it's a way to ensure that those who level up really want it. All I know is, if you don’t fully engage with it and be present and open during the stages, then you’ll be missing out on the next incredible shape your life will take. And I don’t know about you, but I would like to fly.

Follow me daily at @jodi.sharp.art

“Everything is created twice. Everything you ever see first has to be a thought before it can become a thing.” -Mary Morrissey

The Hidden Code For Transforming Dreams Into Reality | Mary Morrissey

Every day I do a divination practice of pulling cards. It consists of pulling several oracle cards in succession, and then sitting with how I can apply their meaning and insight to my life. Not everyone will resonate with divination actions and that’s totally fine. But the practice of sitting with yourself in self reflection at least once a day is invaluable and I would encourage that for anyone. These things are also a great metaphor for what we experience.

Today the message I got from the cards was particularly pertinent to where I’m at and I feel like going down this thought rabbit hole may be useful for others out there as well. Especially as we move into a New Year. (Pulled from the new Kim Krans Archetype Deck) 

The first three cards I pulled were “Agape,” “The Starborn,” and the “Gnosis.” These are all cards that tell you that the thing you really need to be focusing on is your true destiny, as well as connecting to something greater outside of yourself.

For me, my true purpose is making art, but each individual will have a different calling. I also believe that the whole point of me making work is to connect myself and others to the divine. But this could be read as anything that has a greater purpose outside of ourselves and our own ego. To have these three cards in a row was really like, “Hey, listen up. Focus your true purpose. Tap into something greater than yourself.” 

The fourth card I pulled was “Venom.” In the hero’s journey, venom is the thing that sidetracks from the true purpose. The hero is meant to be completely focused on their goal, but eventually, some monster or something comes along and drags the hero down into the muck, and then they have to spend a whole bunch of time trying to heal their wounds and find some magic cure for what bit them, etc, etc. It basically means a whole bunch of life distractions that knock you off course from what you truly should be doing. 

But if you push through that venom, then comes “The Threshold.” The place where you have extracted the venom from your body, you get back on track, and through that committed focus to your greater purpose you accomplish your goals and level up into the next great adventure.

This story is as old as time. A person knows their true path. A person commits to doing the hard work of achieving their goals and in doing so making the world a better place. The person gets sidetracked by the crap of the world. 

Unfortunately, this is where most of our stories stop. We get so mired up in the little dramas of our lives that we forget all about why we’re here in the first place.

This type of “snooze” can go on for months, years, sometimes our whole lives. We get so caught up in the minutia that we start to forget what our purpose is altogether. We start to make our drama mean more than our goals.

But right now it just turned 2020. It’s not only a new year but a new decade. What a perfect time to take a step back and realign with our core purpose.

One of my favourite tools for this is vision boarding. It’s where I take a giant poster board and divide it into a bunch of sections that I want to pay attention to. For me those sections are Work, Home, Relationships, Travel, Money, Health, but for you they could be anything. I like vision boards because I get to cut out a bunch of photos, which works well for me since I’m so visual. But you could do this by writing things down as well. The key is to really take the time to

suss out what you actually want from each of the areas, and make some physical record of that. 

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to see if stuff I’m picking is actually in alignment with my true path, is whether it makes me feel lighter, or heavier. If it makes me feel heavier than I know I’m committing to it out of obligation rather than joy and pure purpose. Even though the things we have to do to achieve our goals may be really, really hard, the end goal should always feel exciting and completely worth the process. 

When I’ve spent enough time sitting with these things (sometimes that can be days or even weeks), I put the final product somewhere I can always come back to when I get stuck in the venom of life. This helps me keep on track and pushing towards the things I truly desire. 

At the beginning of this monumental year, I highly encourage you to prioritize the time to realign with your actual purpose. Your future self will be so glad you did.

How To Achieve The Life Of Your Dreams | Jon and Missy Butcher

Need a guiding tool to help you go even more in-depth? Right now these guys have a whole life plan course that’s free online (as long as you complete it! You loose your $500 initiative deposit otherwise) I’m going to start it this week. If you’re starting it too, reach out! We can chat.

Enjoy hearing me talk about divination and art stuff? Follow me on Instagram @jodi.sharp.art for daily updates.

One facet of my art practice is by bringing craftsmanship into people's homes in the form of interior design and custom art. I can do almost anything, from concept design and consultation, to insertion of custom art and feature building, to full renovations and rebuilds. (For a list of the skill sets I have to offer, head

HERE

.) The work it takes to make an area full of art and intention is a lot, but at the end of the day there is nothing like being able to exist in a space that truly speaks to who you are. 

This last project was a long one, but hands down my favourite yet! An incredible woman who wanted to take her personal space from a basement full of storage and difficult memories, to a full floor that would deeply resonate with who she was as a person. It was just me working on the space alone and the whole project was treated like the transformational process that a home renovation should be. There was lots of talking and dreaming and processing. The intention was that she would be able to come home and and feel completely like herself. The keywords were "juicy, playful and sensual," and the colour palette was like a Costa Rican sunset. What an awesome place and intention to start from! 

I think that it's essential to have your home space match your heart space. It is the place where you spend the most time, where the things around you truly soak into your skin. When you're surrounded by things that uplift you and make you feel bright inside, then coming home replenishes you and nourishes you. But if you're surrounded by things that you feel indifferent to (or worse, make you feel bad), then that's the energy you're going to be carrying into the rest of your day. 

First, we needed to clean out the rooms. The dark basement was full of storage and a full purge was in order. We made a lot of coffee and worked together for several days to go through each object and decide what things should be carried forward. Stuff holds a lot of energy, and it was important that the things kept were in alignment with the new feelings she wanted to have in her life. 

When the basement was fully cleared we needed to decide on the priorities for the rooms. Of course there would have to be a bedroom, but everything else had to be decided upon. Although the whole floor was meant to be her personal space, she also has a son and wanted to make it available for him as well. Because of this we thought that a modular design would be ideal, so that every room could have multiple uses.

The first room was to become a modular lounge with boho cushions that could be made into couches or laid out flat to become a fun roll around space. One wall would get painted with magnetic and dry erase paint so that she could draw on her wall whenever she felt expressive. The goal for this room was to have a relaxing and sensual space for dreaming, rest, and sometimes hosting.

The pressboard bookshelf got ripped out of the room and a wall was built to replace it. 

My FAVOURITE part of this room was the feature wall that I got to build. I painted the whole wall in a gradient from yellow to orange to pink. 

Then using wood moulding I made a design that sticks out from the wall just a little. It made the whole wall look like a giant art piece as soon as you enter the room. 

It was actually relatively easy to build compared to a mural, but it really made the room feel like it was full of art. 

Add to that a low table, a fuzzy carpet, a bunch of boho couch cushions, tons of blankets and fuzzy pillows, with just a few cute designed objects (and a wonderful little lamp designed by

Dylan Toymaker

), and voila! A sexy, cozy, juicy multipurpose lounge. 

I love this space so much. I don't think I ever would've thought that such a bright colour palette could also be so calm and sensual! 

The next area was going to be the workout room / crafting space. The focus of this room would be beautiful storage and an inbuilt fold down table to be used for craft days. When the table was up the whole floor would be available for workouts. The room need to feel calm and meditative, but also useful. 

First off the whole space needed to be painted. It was was full of dark wood panelling that made everything feel small and a bit oppressive. I loved the texture of the wood and didn’t want to remove it, but adding a few coats of bright white made it feel fresh and new again. Two of the corner walls became a calm mint green. 

In the corner I built a floor to ceiling shelving unit. The open shelves would show her beautiful book collection and make sure that whatever she was storing was intentional, since she’d have to look at it every day. 

The fold down table could be sat at with floor cushions. It had small shelving built in behind that was the perfect size to store craft paints, brushes and cutting boards. Whenever her and her son wanted to craft they would be able to open up the table and make a mess, then close it up again to keep the area clean. 

My favourite thing about this room (and possibly the whole house) was the mural I got to paint on the feature wall. She wanted to have something that fully represented her as an individual. A piece that she could meditate on during her spiritual practice and feel grounded by. 

We started with dozens of mood board images and from there picked out the type of shapes that were resonating. She really wanted to go for a feeling of femininity and balance with a focus on circular shapes and symmetry. I made half a dozen different sketches and we honed in on the ones she liked and the ones she didn’t. A few more redraws and we came up with something that really resonated. 

Then the fun part- painting! I love painting murals. I find the whole process calming and engaging. 

My first degree was actually a bachelors in painting, but I haven’t made paintings as a part of my studio practice for years. I mostly work in glass and installation art these days, so when I get the chance to paint a mural I get to do something that was one of my first loves. 

This piece was particularly special because it had such a deep meaning for my client. It felt magical to work on, like painting out another woman’s power. When this piece was finished she actually resonated with it so much that she decided to get it tattooed on her body. To me, making something that another human feels that strongly about is the absolute highest honour as an artist. 

The mural really completed the room. The white and green of it tied that whole room together, and the gold made it feel like a sacred and cared for space. The same gold got painted on the edges of the bookshelf to really make everything feel special. 

The end result was this stunning and practical space. It felt really special, but also was super useable and set up for exactly what she needed it to be. 

Next, the bathroom. 

The bathroom already had good bones, it just needed a few special things to really draw it together. The sink, toilet and shower were all still modern, but the room lacked a theme and some design. 

We decided to go for a Moroccan themed room, in purples and greys with low and sensual lighting. 

There needed to be some storage created, and we found this beautiful wooden wardrobe on Kijiji for a great price. I painted some details in purple and gold to really give it that moroccan feel. 

The metal toilet seat got switched out for a wooden one to match the wardrobe. I painted a dot mandala on it in the room colours to really make it special. 

The wall also got a matching mandala. I love painting details directly on walls in a bathroom. It means that your bathroom can feel full of art without you having to worry about your art collection getting water damage over time. 

Finish the whole thing off with a Moroccan lamp, matching wooden towel and toilet paper holders, and a couple of cute design elements and this room is good to go! It’s amazing just how quickly a room can transform just by focusing on a few ket pieces. 

One more room to go! 

The bedroom was the last to get the juicy, playful boho theme. Three walls got painted different colors of pink, with the wood panelled wall getting painted white. 

We reoriented the room so that so the room could have a more zen flow. She could see her eraser board wall from her bed and have bedside tables on both sides. We found adorable side tables from a local Montreal wood worker. 

Her comforter was already perfectly on theme and she found a cozy carpet to warm up the floor. She had these lamps with marble bases that I really liked, but had boring white lampshades on them. Through a bunch of Pinterest searching she found these lampshades made out of string that we both loved. 

I had to make them from scratch, including soldering the lamp frame. Tying off the string took forever, but the result was amazing.  The final result was these adorable boho lampshades that matched the colour scheme of the whole room. 

Most people don’t realize just how long handwork takes. Generally when we buy objects the labour we’re paying for is unfair wages to individuals overseas. Because of this we have no concept of how much time it actually takes to make the beautiful objects we want to surround ourselves with. My desire is that we pay what things are worth, we buy less, and we cherish the the things that we own. I’m so grateful when I get to work with clients who commit to ethical production. 

The final touch was another Pinterest idea that she had come across- painted sticks. My partner and I went on a nice walk to gather small driftwood sticks from the shore of lake Ontario. Then came the fun part of painting little designs on them with all of the colours we had used during the renovation. 

The painted sticks then got hung on the wall with string to hang jewelry on, as well as getting placed in different areas as a design element. The result was fantastic and made the bedroom feel arty and cute. 

I am SO grateful for all of the fun things I got to do and explore on this project. But even more than that, I was grateful to go on this transformational journey with this incredible woman. It was such an honest and intimate experience getting to create a home in alignment with how she wanted to express herself in the world. The zone you inhabit is powerful, and being able to come home to a place that matches your soul is essential. Helping this storage basement transform into a place of rest and expression and care was such a beautiful journey. I loved every minute of it.

If you were inspired by this journey and are looking are looking to create a transformational space but need help with management, inspiration or fabrication, I have well over a decade of experience and education available to assist you or your team. It all starts with a discussion of the infinite possibilities available to accomplish your goal! Head over to 

jodisharp.ca

 where we can start our conversation.

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I’m part of a community of people who call themselves Burners, a group of individuals that attend and participate in Burning Man and related events. This is an article written specifically to that community and may not relate to others, as it’s about one of the 10 Principles that Burners follow as an ethos. 

The 10 Principles are a set of guidelines that are in place to help the community stay sustainable and ethical in its practice. The intentions of them are noble and I fully stand behind them, but today I want to discuss the specific principle of decommodification and how it’s practiced.

Our current world is flooded with commercialism. Ad Campaigns, influencers, big business and a constant message to buy more stuff. The principle of decommodification had the explicit purpose to keep that message off the playa and create a more sacred space where we could shape our own identity.

On the playa (or other regionals), you’ll find no sponsorships, corporate branding, or exchanging of money. Everything that is brought is a gift once it’s on site. This helps change our social practice from transactional to pure unattached interaction, an experience we’re not able to have almost anywhere else in our lives.

As stated by Larry Harvey in 2004, “In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.”

This is an INCREDIBLE goal, one that I fully and completely stand behind as a principle. Unfortunately as a practice I’m watching it be more damaging to parts of our community than it’s intended to be, and that’s what I want to address.

Photo by Owen Wiltshire

To understand where I’m coming from you have to understand a little bit about me. My full-time job is as a professional artist and I’ve been working with the Burner community and others like it for well over 15 years. I am extremely passionate about this community. One of my life passions is to help create solutions specific to this community, as well as bringing the spirit of this culture into the world on a daily basis. Because of this, I’ve headed several organizations and initiatives, some of which have turned into sustainable businesses in the default world. 

One of the businesses I’ve been a managing partner in for the last five years is a company called Archimedes Design. Archimedes was started by my two business partners who had been on the playa for many years running a theme camp. They wanted to see if they could build better structures that would go up faster and offer more shelter specific to the playa environment.

By the time I joined them we resolved a dome design that solved for a bunch of problems. A 26’ dome that could go up in under 30 minutes, pack down smaller than the trunk of your car, parts that could be switched out and fixed so you never had to throw your gear away, fabric that could be easily switched out for art and designs, all that offered you ideal shelter in the desert.

It was something made by Burners, for Burners, and we were in love with the solution we’d come up with. We wanted to make it sustainable to create so we made it into a business where we listed the product as cheap as possible, made all the parts ourselves by hand, made the plans open-source, and we were willing to teach and work with anyone who was interested. But of course, we still had to have a price tag on it. Materials aren’t free (although quite frankly, we completely donated our time for about the first two years). We were passionate about sharing this and just wanted to get it out there.

But then we faced our first dilemma- how do we talk about this solution with a bunch of other people who don’t want to talk about it? This created my first real experience with the problems of decommodification.

Because we didn’t want to step on the toes of this specific principle, we were very careful about how we handled talking about this product. For the first couple of years we were only doing word of mouth, handing out cards to specific people who asked, etc. And yet the backlash to us handling it in this way was still HUGE. On average I would say about 2 out of 10 people would inform us that we shouldn’t “profit,” off of Burning Man (and let’s be clear, we weren’t even breaking even for the first while).

I have had random people chew me out when they watched me handing a business card to a stranger and they weren’t even part of that interaction. I have had my skin torn off on forums for even mentioning that I sell a product that could solve the problem in question. I have gotten emails from strangers who’ve seen photos of the domes in the desert and have chewed me out for using the playa as a background to sell my stuff. 

It got so bad that by year three of the company we stopped selling to Burners entirely. We stopped giving Burner discounts, we stopped making it open source and we stopped trying to have any conversation whatsoever about selling these domes in that community. We completely switched markets because of the aggression our own community showed us over trying to make a sustainable solution that was literally built for the playa.

This, unfortunately, is an experience I and others like me have had again and again. I meant to write this article last year when I saw a forum explosion about how the Burner artists in the Smithsonian were becoming too commercial. I meant to write it this spring when the Manish Arora show was verbally hacked to pieces by the local community because it showed at Paris fashion week.

But I’m writing this today because yesterday my link to my new clothing line got posted in response to a specific question about it on a Burner Facebook group, and I immediately got an email and two Facebook messages informing me that I was breaching the decommodification principle.

So let’s break down this principle and how we use it because I think that the way we are currently applying it does more damage than good to our actual community.

Photo by Michael Holden

Let’s look again at Larry Harvey’s quote. In it, he talks about protecting our culture from exploitation and focusing on participation rather than consumption. Those are two excellent points I’d like to break down. 

Protecting our culture from exploitation 

I actually wrote my Master’s thesis on transculturation vs. cultural appropriation/ exploitation and one of the things I learned was this- Unhealthy appropriation/ exploitation occurs when people outside of a specific cultural space can make money or gain social capital from artifacts or cultural ideas when people who are in that community cannot. This is a complex idea, but the basis of it comes down to a power dynamic.

A good anecdote to describe this was the New Age movement in the 80s, where Native American spirituality was suddenly seen by the white population as something to be desired. What occurred was a huge movement of people and companies selling and profiting off of Native American spiritual artifacts.

At the same time, this was happening there were still laws all across North America that banned Native Americans from even owning their own artifacts, let alone selling them. This transcends to today where the largest producer of “aboriginal” artifacts is China, while a large number of Native populations are still impoverished and can’t make money off of their art or artifacts. This is what harmful appropriation looks like.

So if you translate that to our space we can use the example of companies or influencers who are not a part of and don’t contribute to the community. Exploitation happens when they come in and use images of that space in order to sell product, while (and here’s the key component) the actual artists and designers who exist as a part of that environment cannot.

So, if we’re harassing our own community members who are trying to make a sustainable space from their practice, we are actually contributing to an unhealthy power dynamic that keeps our own community impoverished.

The balance of power is shifted however when actual community members begin to make their contributions to the world sustainable. Interactions where community members can intake money as a resource, which then can get put back into the community, closes the loop, and retains power in the culture. Then, instead of members having to work for corporations and companies that are of a different ethos in order to fund their “gifted art habit,” the member can instead start to contribute to their community and the attached culture full time.

Participation rather than consumption

Participation is part of a complex eco-system that takes a lot to sustain it. There has to be a framework built that meets our basic needs as well as creating all of the art and happenings that we can engage and interact with. The art, theme camps, events, gifts, etc, are what make the Burn such a magical place, but we need to be clear about one thing- creating all of that takes a lot of STUFF. (Extra reading about Burning Man and Capitalism)

While we’re on playa we like to forget about all of the objects we had to buy to get there, and I fully approve of creating a Temporary Autonomous Zone where we can imagine living in a transaction-free environment. I agree wholeheartedly that there should be no sponsorships or logos and that space be made a pure as we can make it. But let’s talk honestly about the before and after.

When I go to the Burn, my standard cheapest possible budget is about $1500. This is just my personal budget and doesn’t include any of the art or structures I build. So let’s say that part of that is travel, tickets, and food and that about one-third of that is buying things I need/ want to survive on the playa. So let’s say I spend $500 on goods. Tents, water containers, gear, clothing, etc. This is an extremely conservative number compared to a large majority of people I know who attend.

So at this basic smallest number of $500, let’s multiply that by the 80,000 people on-playa yearly (not even counting regionals) and we suddenly have 40 million dollars spent on products just for Burn week. That is an unbelievably large amount of buying power.

Now, let me ask you this- how many of you shopped at places like Walmart or at any other large scale company with horrific values and sweat-shop labor and predatory business practices? How many of your costumes came from online shopping and cheap labor in Asia? How many of you bought one-time use goods for your Burn that you threw away immediately after?

So if we honestly want to talk about consuming less so that we can bring Burner values into the real world, let’s talk about how much we are voting with our dollar. When we spend money at these places we buy cheaper goods, which means we have to buy them more often. When we spend money at these places we are devaluing people from around the world who work in horrific working conditions to give us an abundance of cheap crap. When we shop at these places we are giving power to companies who are profiting off of our culture, rather than making our own cultural economy sustainable.

The markup prices for most big business is anywhere from 70-90%, whereas the markup price for most art is generally 10-20% That means that when you buy a product from a corporation, a tiny percentage is actually going to the people that made it, the rest is pure profit to the corp. When you buy from an artist or designer, the majority of the cost goes directly to the labor that’s creating it, and if there’s any profit, more often than not it gets put back into the art process. The economics of art-making are actually incredible, and one of the only models that keep the majority of the money circulating within the community. This is how community models can be made sustainable.

On top of that, when people spend more money on objects that they find really special, they tend to buy fewer things. They tend to use those special pieces year after year instead of throwing them away or replacing them. For me, this is the best-case scenario, and the only one that truly embodies how I feel about the values of decommodification and anti-consumption.

So, before you rag on someone who posts a link to their latest project on Facebook, maybe ask yourself these three simple questions- 

1. Is that person from and contributing to our community?

If this is a person who has been shaped by and has helped shape our culture, then they have a right their personal ideas that have come from their engagement with that cultural shape. If these are people whose ethics are in check and truly just desire to make their ideas and art sustainable, maybe try supporting them instead of making their life harder.

2. Are they disseminating their ideas in a respectful and content appropriate way?

No one likes spam and I think it's essential that we address when people are pushing something without actually contributing to a conversation. But if someone on a Burner page asks, “Hey, I want to buy from some local designers, any suggestions?” then I shouldn’t get flack when I respond with mine and my other designer friends websites.

3. Is it ethical?

If the way this person is producing art or products is harmful to people, the community or the environment, then we also shouldn’t be helping support the dissemination of their products.

I want to be very clear that being a full-time artist is in no way a lucrative career. It is an extremely hard path and not for the faint of heart. It is what I do because I am so committed to bringing the values of art and community into the world at large. I want the culture I love about Burning Man to exist year round and everywhere. I would absolutely give away everything I made for free (and often do) if I could do that and still eat. In fact I price my stuff way cheaper than I actually should because I’m committed to trying to make it available to as many people as possible. 

What I want is to feel supported and cared for by my community in my goal of making art more available to the world. In order to make that sustainable, I have to sell some of it. When people make me feel bad about selling my stuff then I have less energy to make art and contribute to my community. When this community attacks me for trying to make my art practice sustainable, it makes me feel like I should take my art and go play with people who are actually exited about what I do. In my mind this is exactly the opposite of what a community should do for each other. We should be encouraging each other in our endeavours and our expressions so that we can continue to grow and thrive together.

It’s always so wonderful to watch communities come together to build something magical, and the latest rendition of taBURNak! was no exception. 

TaBURNak! is the Montreal Burning Man Decompression and this year was it’s ninth edition. 

Started by a tiny community of Burners who had come back from Burning Man an wanted to find others of like mind to connect with, this event has grown year over year. 

I was one of the event and art coordinators for a majority of years of this event, and its been so beautiful to watch this community grow. 

Photo by Yannick Carlier

Photo by Yannick Carlier

When I first connected with this community, there were almost no Burning Man theme camps that were based out of Montreal and only a tiny population who had ever been to playa.

 Now, thanks to the growing excitement of the community, we have a local regional Burn, we have several strong theme and sound camps, art teams and a solid group of humans who have gone to “Mecca,” and other regionals. 

There was so much excitement over this year’s rendition of taBURNak! that we were able to have an entirely new group of people running the event. We had a team that was organizing the event for years and, although we loved it, we were tired. It was so inspiring to be able to hand it over to an entirely new crew of individuals who felt the inspiration to carry it on. 

They knocked it out of the park! It was so beautiful to watch this stellar event get passed on to a new generation of Burners. 

“

We Are All Stardust

,” made its last appearance at this event and it was so amazing to watch it be filled with people all night long. 

I love that I got to bring this installation back to its home city before retiring it to make something new for this next season! 

Thanks to the amazing team that pulled this off and all the incredible burners who attended to rock it out with family. Can’t wait for the years to come!

Photo by Owen Wiltshire

One thing that a lot of people don't know about me is that one of the largest chunks of my income is though commission art. Commission art is where someone approaches me with their own idea and I design and create it the way they visualize it.

For me this applies to paintings, stained glass, murals, sewing, sculptures, tapestries, event backdrops, installations and even interior design. I actually love commissions. I find it so much fun to work within someone else's parameters to bring something to life that they were seeing in their head. 

But I realized the other day that a lot of people don’t realize how the commission process works. They’d love to ask an artist somewhere to make them something personal, but have no idea how to go about it. So, I thought I’d write up a little bit about how my process works using the example of the most recent commission that I did. 

1. Start with an idea.

This commission was for an incredible badass of a woman. She had gone to the desert and had a deep and meaningful spiritual experience that had shown her the goddess part of herself that she’d never connected with before. 

When she returned she asked me to make a portrait of her as the fulfilled, powerful, engaged goddess she was. This was the core of the idea that we started with.

2. Decide on your budget.

Before you start on anything at all, it’s important that you know how much you want to spend on your art. This will help the artist immediately define the possibilities of the project. This can help nail down the size, type of materials, amount of detail and timeframe for any project. 

Any artist that’s used to working in commission art will have an idea of how quickly they can produce something using certain types of materials. Although the creative process will always have curve balls, knowing how much you’re willing to spend is essential before starting the process.

When I charge out for commission art, I charge around $25 an hour (depending on the project). So with whatever budget the person starts with, I’ll immediately have a rough estimate of how many hours I can put into the project, minus a general idea of how much the materials I’m working with cost. I ask for at least 50% payment at the start of the process, and the final payment at the end.

3. Make an agreement

There should be a written agreement at the point of initial payment that details the commitment between the artist and client. An email for this is fine. It should include things like agreed upon budget, what you’re hiring them to do, timeline, final payment, and any specific requirements that have to be met.

4. Choose your symbols.

Every individual has certain symbols that resonate. There will be things that have come up in your life, or that you’re just drawn to. 

For this piece the symbols the client wanted included were the desert, the peyote cactus, a flowy dress, and a rabbit. From listening to her talk about it, I brought in extra idea of the snake, the moon, and sacred geometry. 

5. Make a mood board.

There will be images out there that you love and ones that you hate. Comparing your ideas to things that have been done before help me get a sense of the type of aesthetics that a client is drawn to. For this process I search online and find things that I think match what we’ve been talking about and I ask the client to do so as well.

All of the imagery goes into a shared folder and we have an in-depth conversation about each image. We talk about things they love, things they don’t love, textures they like, colours they’re drawn too, etc. 

By the end of this process we should’ve narrowed down a particular style, types of line work, colour palette and feeling. 

6. Make a sketch.

I tend to make my sketches digitally, but many artists will do also this by hand. The sketch will be the first place that the artist creates a full composition of what they’re intending to do. From this sketch the client can see the full idea before any work has been done in the actual material. Since the sketch can be easily modified or changed, it’s essential at this point to get really specific about things you like or don’t like.

 The re-sketching can happen as many times a necessary so that the final sketch is signed off on by the client. Then the real work can start! 

7. In process client feedback

Communication is key! In any creative process there will be choices that come up during the work that I want to make sure the client is happy with. Although I want to make sure this process isn’t too convoluted, I do want the client to feel involved in the process. I’ll send periodic photos of the work in process with notes about what’s coming and things I want their feedback on. This makes sure that they’re not surprised by anything along the way.

8. Sticking to the budget.

When I’m doing a commission, I’m very aware that there are some aspects that will take more time than others. I order these things in terms of priority so I make sure that I can create a resolved piece in the time budget allotted. 

With this particular piece I made sure I created a painting that I was happy with within the budget. But by the end of this process there were still things that I would’ve loved to add. So the images get sent to the client with a list of things I wanted to add in, like a more fleshed out background, more sacred geometry, painting on the side of the canvas, tattoos on the body, etc.

With this particular painting the client was excited about the extra ideas and encouraged me to keep going. We re-negotiated the budget and I went back to work on the painting.

9. Revisions and Final a-ok

When I feel that the piece is done to where I want it, I once again send photos. If there are any extra adjustments wanted at this point, this is where they happen. But by this point any adjustments should be minimal. Then I need my hard and final “YES I love it!” 

10. Delivery!

When I delivered this piece to this particular client she said that I helped her see a part of herself that she’d never seen before and that now she could look at it every day and be reminded. That’s exactly the feeling you want to have achieved by going through this process. If that’s not what art is for, I don’t know what it is! Such a wonderful experience! 

And there you go!

That’s what it takes to get an artist like me to create something completely specific for you.

If you ever have a desire for something you want to be created, just reach out and we can have a chat about it. Start a conversation with me at jodithesharp@gmail.com.

“Observer” is a sculptural installation made by Jodi Sharp and Mike Everson that showed at Nectr 2018 in Quebec. Based on the concept of the observer effect, this piece was only fully engaged through the participation of the viewer.

We arrived at Nectr in the middle of the night having never been there before. It was pouring rain for most of that day and we had to haul in our gear through troughs of mud.

 Luckily by the next day the weather cleared up and we were able to set up in the sun.

 The dome went up quickly and easily.

 The sculpture however, was a pain. I had made it out of cheap materials as a last minute option and I wasn't overly happy with the results.

 All the electronics worked though, so at the very least we would be able to test our idea.

We worked well into dark, but at last we had a working art piece.  

In “Observer,” the participant enters an unlit dome with a single lit platform in the middle.

When the participant steps on the platform it triggers a reaction in which three sculptures hanging from the ceiling light up and begin to move.

As soon as the participant steps off, the dome darkens once more.

In physics, the observer effect is the theory that simply observing a situation or phenomenon necessarily changes that phenomenon. This is often the result of instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner.

This idea that observation affects reality and the possibility we may construct our world with our perceptions, brings up much philosophical debate around the idea that there is no reality other than that which we create.

This piece brings into discussion the idea that our participation and observation could create realty.

“Observer” will be revamped in more durable material and will show next at taBURNak! 9 in Montreal, Quebec.

“We Are All Stardust,” is my current installation that has been touring Canada during this year’s festival season. My first ever fully printed custom art dome, the purpose of this project is to recreate a sense of childlike wonder and world-building.

Participants are asked to enter the dome and pick a fabric star that speaks to them. They label it and pin it somewhere in the dome. In the dome are notebooks where they can make up information about the star that they have labeled.

They are asked to name a planet in their newly identified solar system, identify the type of lifeforms, languages, rituals, etc. There is space in the notebooks to draw and dream. Each new participant not only names and creates their own idea of a solar system, but is able to find the stars and read about the planets and worlds that other people have already created.

The intent of this project is to get people to think about the universe outside of our individual worlds. Instead of a project being introspective and self focused, it is getting people out of the “reality” of their lives to dream that anything is possible.

The response by individuals who have seen this on the circuit this year has been truly magical. Having a custom printed dome creates a space that completely envelops the viewer. Instead of the dome being the infrastructure that holds the art, the dome itself becomes the full art piece. The effect is enveloping and adds to the viewers capacity to sink in and experience the art.

Although I’ve wanted to do this for so long, and I find the final effect of the custom printed dome stunning, the process of creating this work was quite a bit more than I originally bargained for.

To start with, domes are compounding spaces, meaning that each time you make a dome bigger you exponentially increase the size of your panels. The sheer amount of material it takes to cover a dome is so much more than it would take to cover another structure.

When you count up the the number of individual “windows” in the dome that need to be covered in fabric, you’re talking about 18-20 openings. While that is a large amount of material, the interesting part becomes that each one of those spaces has to be treated as its own separate art panel. Rather than thinking about the interior of the dome being one full printed piece, you have to look at the orientation and connectedness of each panel individually. Each separate panel has to be photoshopped, orientated and sent to the printers and tested. This expounds the print, R&D and setup costs.

The file sizes of these pieces are also huge. Because you have to create an image that’s the size of the panel in order to have high print quality, it takes the tech or artist a large amount of time just to be processing the files. It took forever for my old little laptop to handle these pieces, making the time this work took so much more than I bargained for.

While the beauty of a fully printed dome is sometimes worth the price, the cost of all of these things put together was almost prohibitively expensive. While I loved the look of having a custom printed art dome, It will probably be a while before I take on a print job at this scale again.

One thing that was really amazing about it though, is that, contrary to so many sculptures, once this piece was printed it was an absolute breeze of an art piece to install! Because the dome itself was the art, I didn’t have to worry about little parts of pieces, or building something extra on site. It was great!

The feedback from participants was great too. It was such a simple project, but people really expressed good experiences inside of the dome. A couple people expressed to me that it was one of their favourite festival activities, and that the world building activity real helped them think most consciously about the world around them.

Even when art making is sometimes really difficult, it’s all worth it when it’s meaningful to the participants.

All photos by Myself or Dina Devine NYC born, Brooklyn based, and Burning Man bred.

Gratitude Migration is a convergence of east coast collectives, artists, lovers, and creators, and this year I was honored to build the Temple domes for their Wellness Center.

Founded in 2010, Gratitude NYC has brought together theme camps, interactive artists, stunning performances, amazing DJs, VJs and live bands, along with consciousness expanding workshops, speakers, and activities. In 2015, Gratitude began their Migration to the beach in New Jersey, where they bring their experiences out of the Brooklyn warehouse and into the expansive natural surroundings of hELLO Beach. (-GM website)

Gratitude is not just an everyday party. Along with the celebration aspect they also seek to further the causes of conservation, environmental mindfulness and conscious living in order to affect daily lives with positive new practices. One of the ways they do that is by offering workshops and training that will give participants new skills they can bring home.

“GRATITUDE MIGRATION IS HUMBLED AND EXCITED TO OFFER A PLATFORM FOR YOGA AND WELLNESS TEACHERS AND SPECIALISTS TO OFFER THEIR PRACTICES AND HOLD SPACE FOR ALL EVENT A ENDEES TO UNCOVER SACRED MOVEMENT AND RESTORATION OVER THE COURSE OF THE WEEKEND. OUR OFFERINGS RANGE FROM THE TRADITIONAL TO THE WHIMSICAL WITH THE SHARED MISSION OF BUILDING A SUPPORTIVE SPACE FOR PRACTICE AND RITUAL.” -Ophra Werde, Wellness Centre Director

The Mind/Body/Spirit Domes at this year’s Gratitude Migration were intended to be a place of peace, wellbeing, and mindfulness. They offered classes and workshops almost continually during the course of the event.

The programming was absolutely inspiring, and I was so amazed to see these domes filled with such incredible content and smiling faces the whole weekend.

The reason I make these containers is so that they can help facilitate a healthy shift in the world. It is always so wonderful when I watch them used for just that.

Thank you so much to all of the organizers, teachers and participants who activated this space and made it into something truly impactful.

When I got into the van to head to Solstice I wasn’t even feeling super excited. I had just been at L’OssidBurn, the Quebec Regional Burn, where I had an amazing time. L’OsstidBurn (which I will blog about later) had been really fun. Full of joy, good connections and good art. I left that festival feeling satiated and happy. 

Part of my theme camp team and I had decided to do the two festivals back to back. We literally left the van packed with all our art and gear, crashed in Montreal for a couple hours and then drove straight to Solstice. While I was in the van during our nine hour drive I kept thinking to myself that if I were to skip Solstice this year, I probably wouldn’t be missing much. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Now, here I am at the end of this experience, my being so tender that I feel that if someone touched me their hand would go straight through my permeable skin into to blood and bone. I am knocked off my feet, I feel shaken to my core, nourished to the depths of my being, ripped open and put back together again. 

Solstice is one of those festivals that is non-negotiable for me. I haven’t missed one since I discovered it eight years ago and I have made a commitment to myself to attend every year regardless of where in the world I am. The fact that this festival is a committed pilgrimage site for many of its participants is part of what makes this festival so special. One of my best friends there has not missed a Solstice in 20 years and others have similar stories. There are dozens of my favourite people from around the world that I know I will see there every Solstice. This is a festival where people show up, heart open, year after year. 

I have often found that when you truly commit to something the world will rise up to meet you and give you exactly what you need, even if it’s not what you want. This space is a vortex of people committing to engage with true experience and the result blows me apart every single time. 

I was trying to quantify why exactly this festival so consistently shakes my being. The fact that everyone is willing to let that happen is part of it. The combined energy of so many open souls is a powerful force. But for me there’s a little bit more to it. 

I am someone who has to carefully hold my life together all of the time. As an artist, an entrepreneur and community leader I am juggling plates constantly. I travel often, and if I work less than 60 hours a week it’s a slow week. The buck stops with me on dozens of projects and if I let something slide just once I’m the one that has to do damage control to fix it. On top of that I’m still healing from a massive injury I sustained three years ago. The result means that I don’t relax very often and taking the time to play and be myself happens even less frequently. 

But at Solstice this week I was able to actually let go. This supportive and beautiful space allowed me the freedom to relax. And the result in myself was shocking. 

As I was doing my spiritual practice yesterday, I came across this passage that defined it really well for me- 

“Have you ever felt like you were a ‘different person’ when you were on holidays or travelling? This is because you were free of the astral gravity that you normally live in on a day to day basis. The astral plane is like glue. When we put enough energy into thoughts, emotions, beliefs and stories form our past that condition how we interpret current life experiences, we can get stuck in astral gravity, unable to let go of ways of thinking and reacting even if we really wish to do so. We can create sticky astral thoughts that attach to houses, places and people.When we are in a different environment we often have a chance to create fresh habits and beliefs, which is why a holiday can be so refreshing and inspiring.” -Alana Fairchild

Light collaboration on the Glow Dome with Aziz Light Crew

This past week felt like someone had pulled me off of a glue trap. Suddenly my limbs and spirit were free. I felt more energy and joy than I have in ages. I was laughing constantly. I felt like I had a grin that could split my face in two. I felt sexy and funny and open and present. Just for a moment, this space gave me the full understanding of being in flow and relaxing into what was, instead of what I was trying to make it. 

The difference in how people responded to me when I was in this state was so apparent. Normally when I’m on a festival site I’m working. I’m running teams and dealing with equipment, handling stages, or working med or fire staff. I’m focused and serious. The only people I tend to talk to are people who are also working. I don’t tend to be open to chatting with festival participants and strangers don’t often approach me because I’m so obviously closed. This is a state that is sometimes useful as well, but sometimes it makes me forget that I can be fun, that people want to connect wth me. 

As well I often feel quite isolated in my life. Because I live such an alternative lifestyle I am not always sure where relationships can fit, especially romantic ones. There are times when I’m certain that in order to be committed to this life as an artist, I will just have to come to terms with being alone forever. When I do make space to connect with others, I find I often come to it with the assumption that people could’t want me just the way I am, that I would have to change or project something different in order for people to love me. 

But suddenly at Solstice this week none of that was on the radar. I was free of my astral field. I just let go and was myself and was willing to play or be goofy or sad or anything else I needed to feel at any given time. And the lesson that is smacking me in the face is that I couldn’t believe how attractive I became to other people when I let go. 

People wanted to spend time with me, to meet me, to connect with me deeply. When I stopped thinking about controlling my experience or trying to be something, I was suddenly just myself. And myself turned out to be someone who’s pretty awesome. I like that person. I would like to see her more often.

But now I’m back home and I’m struggling with how to implement that lesson. It’s really easy to be open and in flow at a festival, where you don’t have to deal with any of the realities of the default world. To show up in joy and play is so easy in that environment, how do we bring it home? How do we connect, meet people heart open, not get our spirits dampened by all the responsibilities and stresses of every day life? Already I can feel the clamping down, the attachment of trying to hold onto that feeling and those connections. 

So today I’m going to start small. Instead of rushing towards all the work I need to do I’m going to make a cozy spot on the floor or my living room. Do my spiritual practice. Sit in feelings of gratefulness. Try to tap into the core of that inside woman I would love to see more often. See what she wants to do with her morning instead of doing all the things I should do. I will practice letting it drop. I will practice giving myself space. I will practice play. And maybe one day that woman inside will be the woman who’s outside all of the time.