Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
Here’s an illustration from The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck, published earlier this year by Daven Lee. This original deck features 58 themed cards that I illustrated and designed over the course of 17 months. To inspire reflection and insight, each card has a reading on the back. This particular card is titled “Abundance,” but I named the painting itself “Earth Mother” – for she is the source of abundance, the forests and hills and streams that nurse new life as any good mother does.
Daven began following my art when she was working for Mothering Magazine in Santa Fe, NM. I was a young mother myself at the time, painting a lot of mother-and-child artwork. The magazine’s editors licensed several of these images, and also commissioned several new ones. Mothering was a progressive, earth-centered, feminist publication that honored mothering as a special journey, a creative endeavor and a path to spiritual fulfillment. I was all about expressing these ideas in my art, while Daven was on a parallel path of her own, forging a deeply feminine view of the world that is both empowering and nurturing, grounded in the body and trusting of the soul. The project gestated in her mind for many years, and when it was ready to be born, she reached out to me. We hit it off instantly and the collaboration took off.
The concept of this image is based on an illustration I did for Mothering years ago, for an article about “lotus birth” – a practice in which the umbilical cord is left intact and attached to the infant until it dries up on its own. The article delved into the cultural underpinnings of this custom, and its effect on the newborn babe. Here, the sapphire blue cord leads not to a placenta but to the great maternal sea, whose outgoing tide will ultimately pull the baby away from its mother. But for now, s/he is nestled in mother’s arms and nutured at nature’s abundant and giving breast. Creation itself is personified as a woman, cloaked in a daytime sky and illuminated by a starry night.
That’s one lucky baby, to be held in the arms of Mother Earth. As the card says:
“We live in a universe of abundance,”
rustles the oak tree,
laden with ten thousand acorns
each carrying a forest within.
”Abundance,” echoes the rain,
filling the ocean with innumerable drops.“Abundance,” sparkle the stars,
glowing from light years away.
For most of the cards, I chose a straight-on view of the subject to increase its graphic impact. Often I depict faces in a mask-like manner – a product of my immersion in African art. Yet here, the 3/4 view of the mother’s downward gaze serves well to soften the image and convey a sense of human warmth. At this angle, the mother’s face is no mask, but serenely focused on her baby. I have an old photo of myself nursing my son with the same angle and expression, enraptured by the precious new life in my arms. Like most new moms, I never tired of gazing at my children.
The Power of the Yin oracle deck may be found at yinoracle.com, and soon right here on Substack as a series of ongoing, interactive offerings. Like many oracle decks, it’s a portal into a community of seekers – of the empowered feminine sort, lively and life-affirming. Check it out!
A good week to all –
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
children's books • fine art • illustration
posters • cards • calendars