The Creek Spirit Fairy goes to the place in her heart where the beauty of the soul resides and all is eternally peaceful. There lies the source of her strength. It is eternally invulnerable. She offers a prayer for relief from the tears shed by so many people suffering from loss in its many forms. Death of loved ones, devastation from floods and other natural disasters, illness and disease, broken relationships, financial trouble, the list goes on and on.

It is said that when we commune with the Divine during the rising and the
setting of the sun and ask anything, and it will be granted. As the Creek Fairy sends out her prayers, she is completely assured that her highest hopes and fondest wishes for the relief from suffering, an Awakening for all of humanity, will be granted.

She emerges from the creek every day during the rising and setting of the sun. To outsiders, it appears that she is only sitting there on the stream bank, but she goes within to a secret place. Within to the Sacred Heart, where she communes and laughs and meets with her Divine. No matter what else happens to her in the external world.

No matter what else appears to be happening, she feels the causeless joy as it is restored to its rightful place in our lives. The tears of her strength and all her senses painlessly feed us her ojas*. A sense of renewal is restored for us, a sense of hope not lost, but left unattended. Then she returns the next day to begin the cycle again, continually until the end of time. Always taking up our burdens and cares, converting them for us back to causeless joy, food for us made from the substance of our own Eternal Selves.

This is a Work in Progress. I started it as a pencil sketch. Then I put a digital photo of it in Photoshop where I can try out various colors in Layers. It's a fun way to work out the colors for a future painting. If they don't work out they can be deleted or a Layer can be removed. After I work out the optimal color hues and combinations, I'll print an enlargement of it in a grayscale version. I'll transfer that to a piece of Bristol paper where I'll create a colored pencil, watercolor paint & pencil version of it. It really makes painting more fun by eliminating a lot of the guesswork on color choices and compatibility.
-Joyce

*Ojas is a Sanskrit word meaning “vigor." It is a pure and subtle substance. A story from an acquaintance of mine who specializes in ayurvedic medicine is that Beings in the higher spiritual realms allow their ojas to be drunk by those in need. It heals and restores those who drink it, but does not deplete the higher beings, who willingly and gladly give it to others in this way. Maybe that's an explanation for why Jesus is quoted in the scriptures as saying something like, "He who drinks from my mouth will be restored." If anyone has the exact words, you can post them in comments below.

The Awakened Ones (represented by the 6 people in foreground and receding), focused totally in the present moment, realize our interconnectedness, our Oneness. They assist Ganesha in activating the awakening of all people of Earth. A Golden Ball or Orb rests inside each Awakened One. In the same manner that the Awakened Ones have received it, a Golden Ball is ready to be placed inside each recipient of the Oneness deeksha. When this is given to anyone, it activates the process of Awakening into Oneness consciousness.

Ganesha is posing to represent the Divine Source who creates the Golden Balls. This is me exercising a little bit of artistic license, but it may also hold some truth. It shows the Divine's playful side. Ganesha performs like a circus elephant - except that his wisdom exceeds the ordinary. He can juggle the Golden Balls of Awakening 4-handedly, no less. :D

The first time a Golden Ball was known to be transferred from one person to another in this way and for this purpose, it was a happy accident. It was placed into a friend of Bhagavan's son's when the boys were young students. They attended a children's school in India operated by Amma Bhagavan. Amma Bhagavan (AB for short) is the name for the husband and wife pair who are spiritual avatars who were born and raised in India. It indicates their union as one entity, living as 2 human beings. Bhagavan's has dedicated his entire life to the specific purpose of humanity's Awakening.

One day at school, when AB's son told his father about the appearance of a Golden Ball, Bhagavan told him to place it inside of his friend. When he did, the friend had a remarkable spiritual transformation that has come to be known as Oneness Awakening. It advanced the friend's level of consciousness to where he was able to see beyond the sense of separation from one another that most of us experience at our current level of consciousness.

Hence the name Oneness blessing was assigned to this phenomenon. Since that time, Amma Bhagavan has developed ways to give the Oneness deeksha to many people and cause a permanent shift in their consciousness by transforming them. Making the shift also involves an actual neuro-biological change. The nerve pathways, neurons of the brain and other areas of the body are affected by the change. This is why there are tiny, vessel-like structures in the painting. They represent the inner changes that a person undergoes when he or she has this mystical "brain surgery". The surgery for the permanent shift can happen gradually over time, or in some cases, be completed in about 3 minutes. No physical hands touch the brain. But it is said that under the right conditions, a person's brain can be re-wired through the action of Light Worker spirits who act as channels for the love of God or the Divine.

Several people have been initiated as Oneness deeksha givers. They can give this deeksha to others to transmit the Oneness blessing. When they give deeksha, they either assemble in groups or meet one-on-one with individuals. I was initiated as a Oneness deeksha giver in December, 2012 by Doug Bentley. He is a Oneness University monk in India who is the lead trainer for North American deeksha givers and trainers. I'm very thankful for what I've been given. I've been happily giving Oneness deeksha to any willing recipient since that time. Once the deeksha is received, the recipient's awakening process is left to their Divine. Some recipients can feel the effects immediately, while some will experience gradual changes.

Eventually, as I and others see it, we will all awaken to the new levels of consciousness. This will relieve humanity of the way that the mind currently processes experience that causes us all of our suffering. We each will welcome this change when we come to an understanding of how this heals suffering in all its forms.

The elephant in the painting is a composite image depicting both Ganesha and also a white elephant. It is believed to be especially propitious when one sees or has visions of a white elephant. It is a sign that one's Awakening shift is imminent and will happen very soon. Ganesha is known in Hindu tradition as the remover of obstacles. He is especially known for his presence at the beginning of spiritual ceremonies.

My husband who "never" has visions or mystical experiences, reported seeing the eye of an elephant at the beginning of the ceremony the first time we attended a deeksha blessing meeting in Albany. We had no knowledge of Ganesha's role in such ceremonies at the time. As I learned about Ganesha a short time afterward, I came to realize it may have been a revelation of his presence in our midst that evening. This is a salute to his Divine energies and Presence, whether or not we're aware he's always there for us.

My current perception relating to that occurence is that he assists with removing the veil that most of us have unwittingly drawn over our minds. The veil of fear and guilt that we mistakenly cling to is what keeps us from reaching higher spiritual levels of understanding so that we can be healed and transformed. Ganesha is often depicted with one broken tusk to represent breaking away from duality into Oneness. Maybe I'll change it in the future. Everything in the duality consciousness is changeable. As we shift, we will reach a keener sense of what it means to truly be at peace, as we immerse ourselves in the Changeless beyond duality. Bhagavan says that the Awakened One is unpredictable. As I see it, this is in part due to the nature of the necessary interplay between change and the Changeless.

I started on this in June at the Laurence Caruana, Maura Holden workshop on Mischteknik at Alex Grey's CoSM in Wappinger's Falls. It's a Work In Progress, aka WIP. At the workshop, we were shown the basics of how to apply white paint over dark or colored backgrounds, then cover the white with new layers of paint glaze. In this way, subsequent white layers are applied and color glazed. The buildup of layers can give the painting a richness of hues not easily achieved otherwise. Traditionally, this method is done using egg tempera paint. I used acrylic paint, a departure from the norm, but easy for me to work with, especially as a workshop attendee.

The Awakened Ones' images are based upon people I've met or encountered as I've progressed in my learning about Oneness. It seems as soon as it's time, I'm guided to find out more from seemingly disparate sources. The books A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, Love Without End, The Keys of Jeshua, and the body of knowledge as taught through the lives of Amma Bhagavan have figured prominently in my personal growth on the subject. This all began for me years ago when my curiosity was piqued upon having a very powerful mystical encounter with an artist. When she told me, "We are all One", it initiated me on my path to find out what this means.

Next, I had another powerful mystical experience during a dreams workshop given by a shamanistic teacher. During our 2nd and final Saturday class meeting, I was surprised to find out that we were to give a dream report for the week prior. As it happened, I had a very powerful dream during the intervening week between the 2 classes. In it, I entered a firey light orb in the center of the room that was the result of a merger or joining of myself, the teacher, and all the workshop participants.

The feeling was indescribably wonderful. It was my only direct experience of how it feels like to experience the Oneness phenomenon firsthand. I knew I wanted to know more about it and hoped to some day experience it again.

The lingering deterrant in my mind that prevented me from "going there again" was a dread that the euphoria wouldn't last and I would have to return to ordinary consciousness. It wasn't until I learned of the permanent shift, given by God's grace through the work of Amma Bhagavan, that I saw a way to have a permanent shift from which I wouldn't have to return to a less desirable state of consciousness. To that end, I hope that soon, I will have a permanent shift and then I'll happily never look back.

I'm showing this painting at its current stage rather reluctantly. I don't think I'll be able to finish it in the near future, but who knows? Least of all, me. For now, I wish to return to my work on another project that I started earlier. I'll be traveling to India soon, and I want to get as much of that done before I go. I'll be switching back to this Oneness painting in spurts, whenever conditions are right. I can't say what those conditions will be. I sense them more than know them when they arise. That's the most comfortable way that I can allow things to flow as I live my life.

I tell myself that if I didn't have other life demands that require switching myfocus to other things, I might approach it differently. I might meditate more often to intensify and speed up the process of receiving the spiritual
transmissions that clearly point to what next to do to the painting.

However, when I think it over more deeply with a bit of detachment, I realize that there's actually more to it than that. I see that I've only allowed my mind to fall into old habits of finding grievances about the way that I think things should happen. Maybe it's a small sign that I'm moving forward into a mind shift.

I begin to see how fortunate I am that I have such a rich life full of many things that need my attention. I can observe that it also greatly refreshes me if I look away from the painting for extended periods. When I return from these hiatuses, new insights into how to move forward often jump out at me. I'm learning that all my other pursuits actually go into making my artwork better - i.e., deeper, more powerful, and maybe even more beautiful.