15″ x 19.75″, Soft Pastel on Paper
Black Stone of the Void
This painting is a rather intriguing mystery to me.
The image appeared before me during a guided meditation in which I journeyed in my mind’s eye to a forest stream and was offered a gift at the water’s edge.
In this dream-like state I was given this round black river rock, just the right size to fit in my palm, yet holding the universe, holding infinity. I identified with the gift—it was somehow my self.
It felt it had come from afar to land in my hand.
It felt otherworldly, forged in a star system millions of lightyears away,
a cosmic traveller, flung to Earth.
And it came with the message:
“I commit to bringing my wisdom, my magic, the mysticism . . . “
The title for the image, and for the experience itself,
“Black Stone from the Void”
arrived with it in a flash—a strong statement ‘out of the blue.’
It took me a-back!
I was initially uncomfortable and confused as to what it might mean.
But then I began, timidly at first, to lean into it, only to soon find a profound comfort, and even beauty, in the embracing of it.
That black stone, given to me by the stream, encompassing and holding both the nothingness and the all-that-is.
As a young person I had a terror of the ‘void’—of being sucked in and disappearing into the black emptiness that I saw as my self.
Now though, and for a long time now, the black void is, rather, for me a place of deep safety and profound freedom.
A place of connection, a place to meet source. The infinity of it puts me in my place, where I belong—at once both small and immense.
That vast emptiness that I can escape into when I close my eyes now feels full of everything that is,
and I can feel my Self one with that.
It is pure potential.
Yet, the appearance of it in this meditation did still side-swipe me,
for a moment throwing me into fear.
A mysterious gift, the universe given to hold in the palm of my hand, to ponder and contemplate.
I don’t know quite what all it wants of me.
It has me charmed.
I hope it resonates with you.
