Self-Cultivation
“Self-Cultivation” © D. Yael Bernhard
This illustration was commissioned along with 57 others for The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck, published earlier this year. This is no ordinary Tarot deck, but rather an original and unique compilation, entirely conceived, written, and published by Daven Lee. Daven is an eclectic healer, author, qi-gong teacher, and all-around visionary.
It was a blessing for both of us that our paths crossed. Daven had followed my art for years, especially my images of fertility, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and mothering that I painted all throughout my childbearing years. According to Daven, my sensibility for the feminine is what drew her to my work. Working with her for sixteen months to illustrate and design this deck was truly an amazing experience. What a joy, to collaborate with a kindred spirit!
For me, cultivation is akin to nourishment, and that’s exactly what well-cultivated soil does: it nourishes whatever grows in it. Daven’s text on the back of the “Self-Cultivation” card – deliberately spare so as to allow for broad interpretation – reads as follows:
Tend the resplendent garden of yourself.
Cultivation is your practice;
a loving self-discipline.
Refine the raw and wild.
Hone your essence.
Weed the garden, rake the soil
Prune, feed, protect.
Train and guide,
Select and harvest.
Bring forth your sweetest fruits,
most nutritious grains, robust vegetables.
Cultivation is an act of self-reverence.
The harvest, your gift back to Life.
Like many of the cards in this deck, this one may serve as a metaphor for the creative process itself – for that is how the nature of the feminine unfolds. Enrich the soil of your inner soul, and watch what naturally germinates, gestates, and emerges in the fullness of time. It’s the generative and nurturing capacity in all of us that The Power of the Yin strives to evoke.
The woman shown here is a cross-section of the earth herself, complete with a ruby-red “heart-beet.” Laced with mycelium and roots, she sprouts seedlings and mushrooms from every part of her body, while also enfolding dead leaves, insects, worms, and all kinds of earthy matter into her flesh. She gives and receives to and from herself in an endless cycle that resembles a lemniscate.
Something possessed me to darken the perimeter of this painting. Maybe it was an underground, womb-like mood that I craved, or a feeling of night – I don’t know. It just didn’t look right until I did this. As for the upside-down position of the figure, she is turning – turning and turning with the sun and moon, the seasons, the weather, all of which form the cycles of time through which she cultivates and enriches herself.
Some personal expression is incorporated here, too, as I cultivate both plants and mushrooms myself, and love any excuse to depict roots and mycelium and all that luscious, earthy stuff. This was one of those occasions when I got to indulge myself as an artist while also bringing forth someone else’s vision – which delighted Daven, of course. She allowed me to choose most of the imagery for the deck according to how her texts inspired me. The best collaborations are based on trust.
You can watch a conversation between Daven and me about how the art was created for The Power of the Yin here, and/or purchase the deck here.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
children's books • fine art • illustration
posters • cards • calendars
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D. Yael Bernhard is a professional illustrator, fine art painter, writer, arts-in-ed teacher, and health & nutrition coach. She has illustrated and/or written over forty children’s books, many with educational and multicultural themes. Her work has been featured by religious publishers, environmental causes, and healers and midwives all over the world. Find her art at the links above, and visit her illustrated nutrition newsletter, The Art of Health, here.