Coyote Skull to Shakti

My friend and fellow mosaic artist Brenda Fraser came to visit for a few days last week and we had a great time visiting galleries and museums, and seeking treasure in thrift and antiques stores. She gifted me with the most beautifully and cleanly preserved coyote skull (sourced from Mid Mod Fab), which became my project as we spent time in the studio together, creating, communing and learning from each other.

Generally, when I think of coyotes – living coyotes, the coyotes on and around my land, the coyotes that sing in the night, the lone coyote that visits my watering hole in the middle of the night – I think of them as masculine. It’s always “he” in my mind.

The Art of Adornment

This is only the second coyote skull I’ve embellished and, interestingly, both times what emerged was definitely feminine, not masculine. This new coyote skull transformed into something not only distinctly feminine, but also strongly Asian Indian in flavor. She is adorned in a way that feels goddess-like or wedding-like, as if draped in a flowing sari and jewels.

Maybe this switch from masculine to feminine is an expression of Coyote’s Trickster nature, but the energy I feel from this piece is more mystical than trickster. She has the aura of something sacred and holy, like a guardian at the portal to initiation. Soft rather than fierce, like the impression I got of Sekhmet when I encountered her in Egypt many years ago.

Sekhmet is known as a goddess of destruction, but the energy I felt from her was heart-centered fierce love. Some say this softer face of Sekhmet is actually the goddess Hathor and, while I didn’t know this as I was creating this coyote skull, Hathor’s colors are turquoise and gold. So, this little coyote seems to carry both Indian and Egyptian vibes.

Embellishing skulls is, to me, an almost sacred act of transforming something that might be seen as morbid or frightening into a thing of beauty. Perhaps it is a way of transforming death itself from something final and scary into a beautiful invitation and celebration of the Infinite. Seeing death as the threshold we cross into the sacred marriage, our divine reunion with Source.

Seeking Her Name

In seeking a name for the piece, the idea of divine marriage led to the possibility of Beloved, which was close, but not quite right. Perhaps a Sanskrit form of Beloved to honor her Indianness? None of those were quite right either. But that word, Beloved, led me to listen to Snatam Kaur’s Celebrate Peace album for the first time in many years – particularly Ong Namo, which begins with

Oh, my Beloved
Kindness of the heart
Breath of life
I bow to you

This is the feeling my new coyote skull evoked in me – a reverent call to honor the creative Source.

Shakti. The divine feminine as the active, creative force of the Universe.

Shakti is both her name, and the process that created her. From her start as a gift from one woman to another, through the process of mosaic embellishment (guided as much by the skull’s own energy as by my hands), and through the ruminations and explorations of Sikh, Sanskrit and Egyptian expressions in search of her name, the entire process has been an active expression of the divine feminine creative force.

I think I may keep Shakti in my studio, at least for a while, rather than selling her. I’d like to invite her spirit to fill my own creative space and to guide me as I work. I’d like her to remind me that Shakti is much more than what’s created. It is the journey of creating and all that is invoked and experienced along the way.

Oh, my Beloved . . . I bow to you.