Art of the Month: July

Forgive me for the brief nature of this post but we are sweltering here and our upstairs spare room (where the computer is) is the hottest place to be in the house at the moment. I have chosen to feature two different bags this month. One is a tarot card bag that I made many moons ago before I had my own sewing machine. I only own one deck of cards: The Sacred Circle Tarot and I don't use tarot very much, usually once a year for my birthday read. But my cards still need a nice place to live and so I made this bag which has lots of symbols that are meaningful to me.
One side has male and female symbols embroidered on fabric that was a gift to me from a friend who did some resistance work with Starhawk using it in ritual, at the WTO protest in 2000. The verses written out are from Carol Christ's book Diving Deep and Surfacing where she lists nine touchstones that I still find beautiful and poignant to my life.

*Nurture Life*
*Walk in love and beauty*
*Trust the knowledge that comes through the body*
*Speak the truth about conflict, pain and suffering*
*Take only what you need*
*Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations*
*Approach the taking of life with great restraint*
*Practice great generosity*
*Repair the web*

The second side has the Scorpio symbol, a pentacle and a wolf. I have felt a deep connection with wolves for many years.
The second bag is one that Heidi made. She made one for each of us to celebrate Imbolc. She made them with the idea of them being amulet bags. It is not a small pouch but rather an elaborate bag (she did a great job of making them). I am saving this bag for a special use that is yet to be determined. But at Beltaine she used hers to bring her stones and special objects for the altar. So it is a type of amulet bag with many potential uses. Here are a couple of write-ups 1, 2, about amulet bags.
And in ritual we embroidered on our bags to add to their magical potency. I chose purple and blue as my colours.