Back in August I took my first ceramic class. I had been wanting to learn ceramics for a very long time. I started off creating with drawing, writing and painting heavily for years. After having a breakup with painting for some time, I longed to learn a new medium. I wanted to see what it would bring to me.. and so i went for it. I was super excited to get into the artistic process of getting messy and try something completely new and fresh in the art world. Having very little sculpting experience, I went in with only the expectation that I have fun and discover something. As a new mother of two i had just started going out to do things by myself and to have fun.
It was so aligned for me in the way of what I had been getting through at the time. Which was me taking up space, being confident in my creative expression and my voice. I remember my lovely instructor telling me that I didn't need to be so gentle with the clay. Though it was soft and palpable, I needed to be assertive. As she guided me through my session, there were a few pieces of wisdom what hit me to my core and I have carried it with me ever since... She said "brace yourself, don't let the wheel shake you.. don't let it move you". This simple but straightforward statement instantly hit my mind like okay.. this is truth. I knew from that point on that everything she said to me was a message from Spirit and that everything was more than just learning ceramics. I was stunned; not at the fact that I knew spirit was speaking through her, but that everything she said during our session was everything I needed to hear in that moment. As a woman.. a person who feels so deeply and is highly sensitive to the energies around me, I am often affected by a lot of things that come into my energy field, or environments that I'm in. Bracing myself felt like protection, it felt like security within myself, my movements, and my intentions.. Bracing myself meant preparing myself to withstand whatever that it is coming my way, so that it does not take me out of position.. That position being alignment.. exactly where I'm supposed to be with everything that I need for my divine assignment. It meant that regardless of what I endured, I would be secured in my position and could continue moving forward with clarity and confidence. With that, I knew I needed to obtain a certain amount of assertiveness to accomplish this.. to be steady. To be able to handle the clay.
First you have to get the air out of the clay and shape it in to what you want which is a ball. Next you have to throw the sphere of clay down in the center of the wheel. To be honest, my first couple of throws were slightly off.. and then she helped me get it just right in the center. Its quite funny actually because the thoughts that came up were more spiritual than focused on the clay. To be in alignment you have to be in the right shape.. you have to clear out the things that won’t help you stay centered, that would throw you out of alignment. This means releasing, surrendering to whatever it is that you need to let go of, whether it’s thoughts, habits, people, outdated beliefs, etc.
Next is centering the clay on the wheel.. I brought it up and back down, up and back down over and over again. Shaping the clay so that it could be just right so that I could start pulling the sides up to create my little mug. While this process was so fun, i found myself in my head a lot. And it taught me that being in my head too much could cause me to make silly little small mistakes. For example, I was picking up too much clay on the bottom of my hand, and there was a slot of slip and muck on the wheel. The slip and the muck you must clean that up, on the wheel and in your life. It made me realize how important it was to clan up the mess and the muck in our own energy which is subtle.. But its around us all of the time, and if we aren't clearing it out regularly and in a healthy way. It will linger, it will stay there if we don't remove it. So as I was cleaning up the slip.. it just reminded me of what happens when you let things throw you around and get to you,. You get off center and you have all these different energies around you clouding your perception and you ability to feel. The muck to me represents things that need to be cleared out. My instructor told me to put pressure down when using the sponge to clean up the slippage.. Because of I was too soft, and too gentle that it would get everything.
On another note, me being in my head about centering the clay was only causing me to be too gentle.. to play it too safe.. It caused me to do the opposite of what I wanted. It was mucky, it was off center, and just shoving me around left and right. And that's when she told me to breathe.. to close my eyes and feel what I was trying to do. Not to keep looking around, but to feel. I mean.. when I tell you my jaw was on the floor at this point, because she wasn't just speaking to me in the way of instructing me through my pottery lesson, she was pouring into me some of the wisdom that I needed to strengthen my core, to strengthen my spirit and my character. She told me I didn't need to see what I was doing so much, because if you can feel, and it feels right to you.. then you are right where you need to be.. Even if you don't understand or maybe uncomfortable with where you are because you can't see the full scope of where you are, where you're going or what you're doing...
Just feel..
When we are centered we must brace ourselves to be there, and if the muck around us causes us to slip, that lets us know that we need to cleanse, to feel and get clear so that we can stay in this position. So that we aren't carrying weight that we aren't even supposed to be carrying in this position Spirit needs us in. The muck only caused me to overthink my position, to think myself out of feeling.. The only things I would feel were the tension in my hands and in my shoulders.. But once I cleaned up the slip and decided to close my eyes and breathe, I felt everything I needed to to get back to my center.
Never forgetting the wisdom spirit poured into her and gently handed to me... With that, I move through each day remembering that each step I take should be confident and clear, reminding me that spiritual hygiene is important.. Assuring me once again, that art and creating is the way that we can center ourselves again and again..
