Yoohoo! It’s DEEP DIVE TIME! 🌊
Ok ok ok. Here’s a thing…
I sometimes feel like I need to apologize for talking about The Hallowed Wide so much…but then I remember that it’s the whole reason you’re here! Haha. And also, that The Hallowed Wide is a GIANT and like…genuinely magical work of art that deserves plenty of attention.
So. This month I’d like to weave The Hallowed Wide together with our Artifice Deep Dive…
I’ve been thinking a lot about what this work means to me—where it’s all coming from, why the muse whispered it into my ear.
And I think it’s because I’m a frequent traveler of The Hallowed Wide. I’m not especially old or experienced, and I’m not privy to any great secrets. My perspective is as limited as anyone’s…
…but lately I’ve been permitting myself to acknowledge that my inherent gifts of personality combined with my particular life experience do seem to leave me with the ability to see people with…some kind of beautifully flexible lens.
Furthermore, I’ve spent a lifetime cultivating a desire to inhabit these spaces, as well as the skills to share them with others.
Every podcast interview is a foray into The Hallowed Wide. Every new client for the wedding band, every new student, each new creative collaborator. My work and passions are set up to invest deeply in people—new people all the time.
Each new relationship and every weighty interpersonal notion is a brand new Hallowed Wide. And each journey across The Hallowed Wide is an evolution. We come out changed. And we enter again with revised perspectives. It’s an ongoing pursuit (listen…this might actually be a spoiler 👀).
I think the ultimate point of The Hallowed Wide is to remind us that continually updating ourselves, our worldviews, our behaviors, our hearts…it’s paramount. We may move on from a particular lesson, but we are never done learning, especially with regards to our deeply precious global human family (near and far).
If you think you’ve arrived, you probably haven’t even begun.
As I listened back to April’s Artifice episodes, I found my guests offering beautiful testimonials of evolution as a living principle.
Julie is a living, breathing embodiment of evolution (and resilience). I was absolutely floored listening to her talk through each chapter of her career. Her life and work seem so fluid. She finds purpose and projects in every space (physical and emotional) in which she finds herself. SO bold.
Of one of her earliest career moves, she reminisced in the first person “I’m going to jump from the kettle into the fire.” And…she did! And she does! Even now, after battling cancer and chemo, Julie evolves to continue creating beauty and art with a body that won’t do what she asks of it. All the while, she remains one of the most graceful humans I’ve ever met.
I normally don’t draw attention to this sort of thing, but having Julie and Zaza’s interviews back-to-back is some kind of wonder. One may assume at the surface that these two lovelies couldn’t be more different, but I see so many parallels.
Among SO many heart-opening topics, Zaza and I talked about how the arts are a profound workshop for the creativity of relationships and society— and of empathy itself.
I just have to quote this whole paragraph because it’s an unequivocal treasure.
She begins with our ancestors’ operating view: “If you don’t look like the rest of the pack, you’re going to get us killed.” But in our modern society, “we can’t be those small pack animals that we used to be. We have to evolve past that and find common ground with people that don’t look like us. Because all of the time, we can find a common ground somewhere. And somebody’s anger and hate is usually fear, resentment, or self-insecurity.”
This is The Hallowed Wide. It is so sacred, and so vast.
I think Zaza and I both live in The Hallowed Wide in our personal lives. And I know we both feel drawn to guide others through The Hallowed Wide with the art we make.
I asked Zaza whether she feels obligated to create art for the trans community. She responded SO quickly…It’s the opposite. She wants to make art that looks right into the eyes of the cis/white/hetero patriarchy and proclaims “I AM YOU. You are me. We are the same. We are one family.”
God, I can’t think of anything braver.
I guess what I most want you to know right now, as we’re about to move into Part 3 of The Hallowed Wide, is that as fantastical and whimsical as this project is, it feels deeply serious to me.
This is a work with a moral, and a call to action.
First  Descend ● Then Divide ● Make It Hallowed ● Make it Wide
Split, the last portion of the Divide, is coming to you this Friday.
If you feel the space between yourself and your global family (again…near and far) with an increasingly heavy urgency, I made this for you.
…come up to the edge and step inside!
It’s magic time. 🔮
See you soon…
Emily
P.S. Have you fallen behind? It’s not too late to catch up!