This deck of 50 oracle cards is a contemporary approach to an ancient tradition. The images were inspired by universal symbols that honor Mother Earth and the Sacred Feminine. I created the artwork, both paintings and prints, over a 30-year period.
Use these Spirit Cards as a companion on your journey of self-discovery. Open your mind, heart and spirit to the messages you receive and use them as a form of meditation and contemplation.
A boxed deck, cards are 5 3/8″ x 3 1/2″. Includes guidebook with introduction and interpretations.
Spirit Cards were conceived during the covid quarantine, a silver lining to troubling times.
Order your cards on my website: $30 usd plus shipping. Add a beautiful gold organza bag for your cards – $5.00
This deck of 50 oracle cards is a contemporary approach to an ancient tradition. The images, inspired by universal symbols that honor Mother Earth and the Sacred Feminine, were created over a 30-year period by artist Glen Rogers. In her books Art & Sacred Sites: Connecting with Spirit of Place and Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art, she shares her pilgrimages to sacred sites around the world and her interest in archetypes and their universality. For Glen, creating in the studio is a form of meditation and a way to evoke a connection to the Divine Spirit. Her paintings and prints share a mystical quality that transcend into the spiritual realm. Spirit Cards were conceived during the covid quarantine, a silver lining to troubling times.
These unique oracle cards are 5 3/8″ x 3 1/2″
In Man and His Symbols, Carl G. Jung refers to certain symbols as archetypal: images that all of us can tap into through our unconscious mind, dream states and the creative process. He believed that “the greatest and best thoughts of man shape themselves upon primordial images,” and that archetypes—symbols from the collective unconscious—are metaphysical in nature. On my travels to sacred sites around the world, I learned firsthand that there truly is a universal visual language that connects us all.
Throughout my adult life, I have consulted various divination methods—astrology, psychics, the I Ching—all with eye-opening results. One of my favorites is Angeles Arrien’s interpretation of the Thoth deck in her Tarot Handbook. From her perspective, the ancient wisdom of the Tarot offers an opportunity to see life as a process of “walking the mystical path with practical feet.” Spirit Cards are a form of divination as well, a way of seeking clarity on an issue, and a simple-to-use form of reflection and contemplation to add to your daily practice.
Oracle cards can be a tool on your journey of self-discovery, a way to inspire and awaken the Light within. For some, they are synchronicity at work through both image and word, allowing the unknown to become known. Open your mind, heart and spirit to the messages you receive and reflect on how they resonate with you. Meant to inspire and offer food for thought, each Spirit Card you choose is the right card for you at that moment. Comes with booklet with instructions and interpretations.
Pre-order Now! Introductory price $25 USD plus shipping. Visit my website to purchase:glenrogersart.com
Special Offer: The first 50 orders received includes a beautiful gold pouch to store your cards!
‘Allegory of the Spirit’, oil on canvas, 56″ x 56″
I made a decision a while back that I wasn’t going to post my political views on social media. Most of my friends are on the same page – so there’s no need to preach to the choir. And those who don’t share my politics, some family and friends, mainly from the past, will not be swayed by my posts and in fact may be alienated. So what’s the point? Better to focus on my art and what I consider uplifting words and images.
But there comes a moment when Silence is not the correct response. I am apalled, saddened, embarassed, and disgusted that such blatant racism is still rearing its ugly head in the U.S. That white supremacy has a choke hold on our country. That we have a president who continually encourages racism and applauds violence. This latest incident, the murder of George Floyd, is so despicable it hurts to talk about it. My heart goes out to his family and to the human race.
I was raised in Mississippi and still carry the guilt of my forefathers and mothers. I witnessed racism throughout my childhood from a privileged position and experienced the move from segregation to integration in highschool. After all this country went through in the 60’s, the pain and suffering on both sides, why is there still such rampant inequality and abuse? We are all created equally. I pray for a Martin Luther King, Jr, a ‘Jesus’, a Mother Teresa to deliver us from the mess we’ve found ourselves in. Or maybe its up to us, each one of us, as individuals.
I’ve been looking to some of our great teachers of the day for positive thoughts and hope for the future. These are totally taken out of context and pieced together like a quilt:
From Oprah: Be a Warrior of the Light. Use your gifts to illuminate the darkness in the world. Find a way to serve. Turn your wounds into wisdom.
From Deepak Chopra: With love and action, we can create a new story. What is the vision? Joy, peace, a new humanity. Don’t fight the darkness – Bring on the Light. Live a love-centered life.
From Caroline Myss: We are built for this moment. Every act of goodness counts.
Here, my painting, Lotus Unfolding, literally unfolds before your eyes, layer by layer.
In a previous Blog https://artandsacredsites.com/2020/03/18/life-and-art-in-the-time-of-covid-19/ I talked about the painting commission I had during the first couple of months of the Covid Pandemic while I was sheltering in place. I loved having the opportunity to create something special and focus on this large-scale oil painting, 39″ x 77″.
The transformative lotus is an image that I’ve used in my work many times over the years. The petals unfolding never fail to soothe me, to embrace me and to help me transcend the ordinary. You can read more about the Lotus in my book, Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art. (https://www.glenrogersart.com/copy-of-books-1)
While working on the painting, I began photographing each step to document my progress. It was meant as a tool for me to study as I went along. So it literally shows how I built the painting – the layering of colors – easing my way towards completion. I hope you enjoy the sequence.
We still need to dream! When all this is over, and this too shall pass, there just may be a new normal. Will we be able to travel as freely as before? For that, we shall see. But if you do get to travel, and you want to combine your journey to a beautiful and historic location with art and creativity, here is what I can offer, Monoprint Workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, an Unesco World Heritage site. Dream on! Add it to your Bucket List.
Monoprint Workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with Glen Rogers
Imagine yourself in this landscape – enjoying the night time stillness at water’s edge, full moon shining. Breathe in and experience your inner peace.
“Bird with Moon”, Monoprint, 7″ x 5″
During these strange times, it’s important to stay centered and not give in to FEAR. Fear constricts and immobilizes. Yes, follow the protocols set out for us during our Covid-19 enforced home-stay. But after that, find your peace. Come up with your stay-at-home schedule. Be kind to yourself.
Perhapsthis is the time you’ve been craving. The gift of Time!
I’m a list maker (the Capricorn in me!) Make a list of the things you want to accomplish.
Keep a journal. Set out on a journey of self-discovery. Write down your thoughts and feelings each day.
Listen to inspirational podcasts while you are working. Here are a few of my favorites: Caroline Casey, The Visionary Activist; New Dimensions Radio with Justine Toms; Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations; Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
“By the Light of the Moon”, 12”x12”, Oil on panel with gold leaf Recently created for the Audubon Society of San Miguel auction (new date to be announced)
I would love to hear your comments. How are you dealing with it all?
Wishing you well! Keep your creative juices flowing!
Ofcourse the title is a nod to Love in the Time of Cholera a novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. And folks, we are living it – in the here and now – a crisis pandemic in our times. So what’s an artist to do?
I feel lucky that I just received a commission for a large painting. A 3′ x 6 1/2′ canvas. A transformative lotus – an image that I’ve used in my work many times over the years. The petals unfolding never fail to soothe me, to embrace me and to help me transcend the ordinary.
Sketch for Painting
From my book, Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art: Incorporating the lotus into my artwork is meant as a spiritual metaphor, not just the image of a beautiful flower. Using simple graphic strokes, I try to capture the hidden aura of the plant and reveal an ethereal side of nature. Jung said that the symbol (any symbol) is the psychological mechanism for transforming energy. Through this simple form, I attempt to transform a blank canvas into something mystical, giving the viewer a spiritual connection through my art.
1. So during this time of uncertainty (and mass histeria!), I will hole-up in my studio and create.
2. I’ve also decided to amp up my spiritual practice and do my yoga and meditation every day (up until now, it was 2 or 3 times a week). But I have plenty of time – so I’m going for it!
3. Pull a Tarot card each day (Also a practice I’ve been doing once a week for many years). Yesterday I pulled 2 of Discs: Change. The only constant and it is cyclic. For the purpose of re-balancing. For revealing to us that which is knowable and that which is unfamiliar. Changes in the External reality – and Internal changes that are expansive and positive.
Today I pulled The Hanged Man: The Pattern Breaker. Somethimes it’s necessary to take a distinctly different posture to get un-stuck. Time to trust the deeper aspects of who we are.
See how these nuggets of wisdom can make us contemplate and go deeper? (These abbreviated readings from Angeles Arriens’ The Tarot Handbook).
I realize this forced social distancing and self quarantine is a hardship for many. Believe me, I’m not trying to make light of the situation we are all in. But what if we thought of our forced home stay as agift of time? How will you use your gift?
“Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings.” —Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Reflections on 2019
It’s been a great year of art and travel, exhibiting, teaching, curating, learning, sharing with old friends and extended family and making new friends and connections around the world. Some of the highlights of my year:
Exhibiting at La Huipilista Artspace, San Miguel de Allende; in the Poéticas de Arte Contemporáneo, Dolores Hidalgo and Mexico City; and at GAP: Crossing Borders in Ghent, Belgium. Opening (and closing) Galeria Espiral in San Miguel’s Fabrica Aurora gave me valuable exposure, art sales and taught me what I did and did not want.
Publishing my second book, Symbols of the Spirit, gave me the opportunity to expand my audience and to give book talks at La Huipilista Artspace and Camino Silvestre ; Open Ground Studios, Triton Museum of Art and Richmond Art Center (Thanks to CSP!) in California.
Teaching my Monoprint Workshops allowed me to share my techniques and philosophy of art with wonderful artists (this year in my studio in San Miguel and at Open Ground Studios, California).
Curating two more Plastic Madness exhibitions (Casa Europa, San Miguel and Mazatlan Convention Center/Baupres Gallery) extended the message of the global plastic problem and led to upcoming exhibits in Columbia in 2020 (thanks to all the artists and fellow organizers!).
Traveling around Mexico, the U.S. and Europe enriched my life through new inspiration and allowed me to explore, commune & collaborate. Highlights were doing a house exchange and making prints in Sauve, France and a new opportunity for a public art piece outside of Vienna Austria, Throne for a Goddess, (more to come!). And believe it or not, it wasn’t all about art – I attended a very special McCrory family reunion in Kentucky where I re-connected with 25+ family members.
I am grateful that my art serves as a connector and allows me to share a message of honoring Mother Nature and the Sacred Feminine. Through the universal symbols that I’ve focused on for 25 years to my recent Return to the Figure (my upcoming show at Baupres Gallery, Mazatlan in February), the message in my prints, paintings, drawings, artist books and public art remains true and connected to the heart.
A sincere thank you to those who have been with me along my artistic journey!
May your dreams and creativity soar to make our world a better place!
On a recent visit to France, I visited one of the last prehistoric caves sites open to the public where one can see authentic paintings from the paleolithic era. The Niaux Grotto is located in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees, just south of the French town of Foix. I made us a reservation months in advance for 1:30 in the afternoon – enough time, I thought, to drive from the small village of Sauve. We booked a rental car and set off – GPS said 3 1/2 hours to get there. It took 4 hours and we barely made our tour! Driving in a foreign country, sometimes on small windy roads, not knowing where we were going or if we would make it on time, added to a slightly stressful adventure.
But we did make it (at 1:15) and it was worth the stress! Like my traveling companion said, this was a once in a lifetime experience. (Actually, this was my third cave visit (See my blogs), but equally exciting. Ofcourse, no photography was allowed and veryone was given a flashlight to maneuver the unlit cave.
Once inside the cathedral like space, I felt a serenity and a connection to the ancients who walked this space 15,000years before us. On the left, a figure of a woman (not a painting- a spirit) greeted me. (This is not in the guide books, folks!) She was there to the left outlined in the gold and white granite rock. I pointed her out to my friend and she saw her as well. This sign of the sacred feminine spoke to me and let her presence known. Perhaps she created some of these drawings and wanted me to know it. Thats my story and Im sticking to it!
‘Lady of the Cave III”, Monoprint, 10″ x 8″‘Lady of the Cave II’, Monoprint, 10″ x 8″
As we moved further into the cave, our guide pointed out the beautiful drawings made with black carbon – horses, bison, mountain goat, ibis etc. There was often a layering of images – implying motion and one could tell many hands created these images over time. One never knows what will inspire the artist – in my case it was something even more mysterious and ethereal than the ancient cave drawings themselves. It was the spirit of the cave and perhaps a whisper in my ear…
“Retablo for the Sacred Feminine”, oil on canvas with gold leaf & wood, 25.5″ x 18″
I’m honored to be participating in The CrossingBorders exhibition in Ghent, Belgium, August 31 thru September 15, a group exhibition of artists from the Global Art Project (GAP). We were invited to create an artwork that reflects a border or boundary and what it means to cross it – (political issues, globalisation, (im)migration, climate change, gender, race, culture, religious racism, terrorism, genocide, war, misogynist behavior, feelings of fear or superiority etc.)
I chose to use a retablo format and focus on how women have been marginalized, tortured, terrorized, and abused for thousands of years in the name of religion. Through time, matriarchy was erased from memory as myths were appropriated and symbols were stolen. With this votive, a prayer is lifted for women to break through patriarchal boundaries around the world and share the bounty of the planet equally and peacefully with men.
Traditionally, retablos were a votive offering in the form of a religious painting with a solemn request or a show of gratitude for a miracle. They were specifically important in Mexican folk religion in the 19th century where workshops would paint a favored scenario on a piece of tin or wood and write a request to God at the bottom of the image.
Using this retablo format as the basis for my piece, I chose to focus on Mary as she represents the divine feminine in the Catholic Church. For many indigenous cultures who were forced into the religion of the Opressor, Mary is a symbol for their goddess from ancient times.
Traditional Mexican-style retablo
In “Retablo for the Sacred Feminine,” Mary is crowned in all her glory with a golden halo and a hint of angels wings behind her. She is truly Divine. Her breasts are bared, challenging the status quo and breaking through the shame that the Church imposed on her body. One hand open signifies her love and caring for all humanity and the other, a tight fist, represents her anger for the suppression of women and her readiness for their defense. Incorporating the spiral and the lozenge design at the top, symbols of renewal and fertility from the Neolithic goddess culture, signifies her role as life-giver.
The CrossingBorders exhibition will take place at the Sint-Amanduskapel – Campo-Santo – Visitatiestraat 2 – 9040 Sint-Amandsberg – Ghent – Belgium. It is organized for Global Art Project GAP by 10dence and curated by Ron Weijers and Carl Heyward.
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Art and Sacred Sites 
