An Art Shoppe for Souljourners
Four Moons Mysterium is a pop-up art shoppe by Four Moons Howl. Maker, Monika Denise, creates by following her passion and aliveness to the question of "what if this prepared a place for the impossible to arrive?" When she has art ready to share, she opens the shoppe for a 10-day window (or until supplies last), then fulfills all orders following the shop.
How Four Moons Mysterium Came to Be
Monika Denise has been a maker her whole life. As a teenager, she called it “one of the ways she prayed.” For her, praying through art was about an expression to the sacred, an expression to the world, an expression to others that illuminated something of her soul. Every art piece, an incarnation of the intangible. This way of making art led her to become an art therapist early in her life path, guiding others in understanding their inner life through the creative process. As her journey unfolded and with the opening of Four Moons Howl LLC where she offers soul medicine for the souljourner, Monika Denise has integrated many threads of her passion into her work in the world. As someone who frequently holds space for ritual in her community, she became intrigued with inviting her art to meet the needs of the altar table. What does it look like to center beauty and infuse even the tools of ceremony with prayer and love and intention? What if this creation was preparing a place for the impossible to arrive? Four Moons Mysterium is a pop-up art shoppe for souljourners where Monika Denise shares the exploration of art, soul, ritual, and prayer. She will spend time each year making, creating, following the pulse of aliveness, and when there is art to share, Four Moons Mysterium will pop up for a short window to share the love–from our sanctuary to yours.
Read more from Monika Denise about the soul medicine of opening Four Moons Mysterium.
Pottery
Monika Denise first took a pottery class in highschool, and didn’t like it. Too much mess, cold hands, and too difficult! But then, she took another, and then more in college, and the clay started to speak to her under her hands. Since then, clay has been a faithful companion, a literal grounding and centering force in her life. Making pottery has opened up new opportunities in new chapters along with constants of clay, water, air–then fire. This elemental alchemy is transformation at the core, is prayer and magick in action. Every piece of pottery Monika Denise makes is infused with the memory of what happens when we risk change. Some pieces never make it, blown up in the kiln or collapsed on the wheel. But most, most come out shining in radiant glory, with capacity to hold and be in service of the world. Let your imagination run wild with how a cauldron or moon jar might support your practice and play with the sacred. Let every cup of coffee or candle lit be held by its trusty companions of every-day mysticism.
Beaded Earrings
Monika Denise didn’t pierce her ears until she was 19. In her upbringing, jewelry and piercings weren’t encouraged and she was slow to explore what jewelry meant to her. But then she was off to Guatemala for four months with newly pierced ears, and the variety and feast of beauty in the earrings lining the street vendors' tables was astounding. She spent most of her Quetzals on earrings of all kinds, amazed at the new world of wearable art opening up to her. More recently, Monika Densise picked up the art of beaded earrings and has been playing with making dramatic earrings to bring a spark to ritual (whether daily life or in ceremony) as well as earrings for milestones, such as the Maiden, Mother, Crone earrings. What is the power of adornment for ritual? There are many philosophical reasons, but honestly, she just puts on big earrings for a song circle or a grief ritual because she wants to. And it’s fun. (And aren’t all things more juicy when it’s fun?)
My&Moon Lunar Calendars
My&Moon is a revolutionary moon calendar for cyclical living created by Monika Denise. She designed My&Moon when she was hungering to see what her cycle was up to in conjunction with Grandmother Moon’s phase. My&Moon allows for you to track the moon in the sky as well as your own rhythm through having two concentric wheels that spin freely. With My&Moon, you get to line up where your own patterns are falling alongside Moon, and choose your life accordingly! Living with this calendar can be entered into as a spiritual practice, used as an organizational tool, or as an act of self-sovereignty. My&Moon is an act of unbraiding our lifestyle from the patriarchy. We are entrenched in what it means to live in a solar society. While living in a solar rhythm (productivity between sunup-sundown) has its place and usefulness, it is not the natural rhythm for those cycling with estrogen and progesterone. Living in a lunar cycle also brings a rhythm to life that honors the flow of birth-death-rebirth, which is RADICALLY different than the ever-expanding and production focus of a solar rhythm. Grandmother Moon, in all her phases, embodies the death-rebirth cycle fully and is a great teacher and energetic compass for us. May My&Moon be a supportive guide for you in your rhythm!
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