Astarte: Divine Feminine Protector

This painting woke me up from my artistic self-denial. It is an image of feminine energy rising from the waters to nurture and protect the unique power she brings to the world. She’s an ancient goddess whose name is Astarte.

When I learned about her, I began to learn from her. The process of painting her image taught me how to be an artist in a new way. I love all the meaning her name enfolds: a star, start, art. It was a sign to me that my period of artistic dormancy had ended...

“Can’t Stop the Spirits When they Need You” (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

The process began to unfold last September when the counselor I had been working with for over four years made an unusual request for a painting. She had a desire to see an image of a goddess she loved whose name was Astarte. I had never heard of this goddess and my curiosity was piqued. We scheduled an official project consultation for me to get more information.

We spoke of the Divine Feminine, and how she has been silenced for too long. The history of Astarte has been nearly erased. She was known to the Caananite people as the goddess of love and war and, as my counselor understands her, she’s the primordial Feminine from which many other representations of goddesses have developed.

I said yes to the project even though I wasn’t sure how I would accomplish it. I just knew it was significant. I chose not to research further on the history of this figure myself because I wanted to intuit her significance as I went along. This is a new approach for me - trusting myself and my process to guide me rather than looking to external references. This is what my counselor has been encouraging me to do more of, little by little.

In October 2023, after the process of this painting began, I was laid off from my job as a marketing manager for a business peer-advisory organization. This was my first sign that Astarte, and my dormant artistic practice, was waking up.

I attended the Loveland Art Studio Tour to reacquaint myself with what other artists were doing in my chosen hometown. The next sign that I was on the right path came when I visited Artworks Center for Contemporary Art Loveland and spoke with artist Jan R. Carson. She showed me a small space that happened to be available and said I should talk with the board about it. Then, suddenly, board members appeared and I was able to have the conversation right away. I filled out the online application and, before I even knew how I would pay for it, I had my studio.

The Goddess Takes Shape

For the first time in seven years, I had a place to put my easel. I set to work right away on Astarte, using an up-cycled cupboard door that I had primed with black gesso years ago and stored in the garage waiting for the right image. As I painted, my studio and my business took shape around me.

Unlike previous iterations of my art business where I would paint images to sell, now I was developing a business around the creative process itself. The next month, I completed my professional life coaching certification so that I could help others come alive to their true selves as my counselor was helping me.

There was so much that I learned by engaging imagery in my process of self-discovery. I incorporated tarot cards and oracle cards to encourage me and give me further insight along the way. I truly believe that when a person is able to get specific about what they are thinking and feeling, and when they can translate that into something visible and tangible, they can participate in their own evolution.

As I painted, I allowed myself to be informed. I allowed myself to question the Christian belief system I had been raised in and open up to what the Divine Feminine wanted to communicate to me. It wasn’t easy at first to accept the guidance of things like tarot and a Caananite goddess when I was raised to believe that these things were intrinsically evil.

Questioning the Reasons for Existence

My mission as an artist and coach is to reflect the reasons for existence. I help people find their why because I believe that when there’s a why, there’s a way. It is important that I live out my mission with every specific opportunity I have. In the process of painting Astarte, I challenged myself to question long-held beliefs.

I began to consider how much of my life has been governed by the broad strokes of good and evil as painted by well-meaning parents and modern evangelical churches. They all wanted to ensure the safety of my eternal soul. And so there were rules to follow, taught by approved sources. When I was a young woman, I quickly learned that I ought to trust the men. The men were the leaders in the church and designated as heads of household.

Conversely, it was made clear that it was wrong for me to turn to my own inner compass as my primary source of guidance. The message was that, although I had officially invited Jesus into my heart to live, he was not me. He was somehow outside of me. And, again, he was a he. Anything I didn’t understand, I should just believe, and believe in HIM primarily. It was good to profess Jesus as Lord and Savior above all else (even if, secretly, I didn’t believe I was really so bad that I needed “saving.”)

What Astarte, in the way that I painted her, communicated to me is the importance of bringing forward the power that is distinctly feminine within myself. This is the power to hold everything in balance. In my understanding, the masculine approach is to compete and conquer. It is black and white, right vs. wrong.

If Astarte is not only the goddess of love and fertility but also the goddess of war, how would she fight, I wondered?

Translating the Symbols of Divine Feminine Power

She holds her swords on the ready as a means of protecting that which is sacred. But her head is lowered and eyes closed so as to discern what is true. The swirls emanating from her forehead and third eye symbolize her connection to the source of wisdom and intuition. Her fight is for the freedom of the mind.

Her heart is guarded by the symbol of the Ojo de Dios (God’s Eye) that has become my metaphorical compass. It represents my spirit guides in each of the four directions that include the Divine Mother in the South, Ancestors in the West, Divine Father in the North, and Brother and Sister spirits in the East that include Jesus. When I think of Jesus as a Divine Brother, I feel an opening to the participation of my own wisdom. Together they are Perfect Love that cannot be conquered in any fight.

Finally, the symbol at the base of the figure is the cycles of nature in motion. Nature teaches us how to come into balance with its rhythms if we listen. We are made of the earth and subject to its elemental forces. If we seek to dominate and subdue it, we will eventually be destroyed by it. But if we let go and accept this reality, we can flow like water into any form that is needed, replenishing ourselves by regularly returning to the source.

The Adventure Continues

This is what Astarte taught me as I painted her. But it was only the beginning. I began to wonder what would happen if she had cause to open her eyes and brandish her swords. Her power is as palpable as the fiery rage that is held within a volcano. That would lead to the next painting, a story for another day…

If you’d like to see Astarte before she travels home with her collector in Ohio, visit the Loveland Art Museum for their exhibition of Studio Tour 2024 artists.

Come to Artworks Center for Contemporary Art on October 11th from 6-8pm to see me painting live with 4 other artists in our inaugural Art Attack event! Three more of my visionary art pieces will be on sale that evening as part of our Square Foot Fundraiser. More information here.

And if you want to see the next painting in this goddess collection, it will be on view in my studio during the 2 weekends of Studio Tour: October 12-13 & 19-20th, 11:00am-5pm. Come and visit me, Studio #109 at Artworks!

Astarte: Divine Feminine Protector, Acrylic on cupboard door, 18x30" (See process shots below)

On view at Loveland Art Museum through October 23rd, part of the Loveland Studio Tour 2024 (read to the end for details...)

Process Shots