About Elizabeth Locke
I am an artist by profession and the owner and operator of Austin Fine Art Classes. Before that I taught meditation for ten years in the United States and abroad.
After being classically trained in painting and selling and showing my work, I decided to open an art school that could offer the fundamentals of art, the way they were taught for centuries but haven't been taught for a good seventy or eighty years. Because of this need for a comprehensive and more complete training for those wishing to become artists, I have been teaching art classes here in Austin for the past sixteen years. You could say I came to Aura-Soma through the "art" door. But I am finding out that art, science, healing, and spirituality all have a lot more in common than I ever realized. Having completed all seven levels of the Aura-Soma training, I am now a qualified Aura-Soma teacher, and have been doing consultation here in Austin since 1997.
What Aura-Soma Is for Me
What I have found through my experience doing Aura Soma consultation and training, as well as teaching and creating art, is that both are about assisting people in "seeing." Both are about perception and expanding it. Both are about awareness and seeing things in relationship to one another and the whole. Just as in a painting all the elements have to fit together to tell a single story in an aesthetically pleasing way, so must the interpretation of the bottles in a reading fit together to tell the story of an individual soul.During the Aura Soma Level I and Level II Courses, the course facilitators repeatedly said how important it is to learn to see the bottles in relationship to each other. This phrase "in relationship to" had the effect of waking me up to the fact that doing a reading is much the same as doing a painting. Doing a painting is all about seeing the placement, position and proportion of the elements of line, tone and color to one another and the whole. Doing an Aura Soma reading using the Equilibrium Bottles seems to require the same kind of holistic seeing.
Acquired Knowledge and Innate Knowledge
Within the boundaries of the key notes we received for each of the colored Aura Soma bottles and the color symbology taught in the Aura Soma training courses, there seems to be a variety of ways to interpret the meaning of any four bottles and a variety of ways of seeing the truth of the colors in any given moment. At first this was a bit unsettling to me. My mind wanted to know everything in advance. I wanted to have certainty and be in control. Opening up and allowing information to come to me rather than knowing ahead of time felt uncomfortable to me, but I have come to trust and even enjoy this experience now.Not only am I more comfortable doing readings this way, but I find I am doing my artwork more this way too. The way I now approach my portrait commissions is to have the person pick their bottles and I do a reading. Then I work these colors into their portrait. I just allowed the colors to find where they want to go. This experience of following and trusting instead of leading and having it figured out ahead of time, has been a new and exciting experience for me, and a direct result of doing the Aura Soma readings.
As a classically trained painter, I was not taught to follow but rather to lead. I was expected to make all my decisions ahead of time concerning the theme, the focal point, the composition of objects within a certain size space, the composition of shapes of tones on the objects through the control of the light source, choices concerning color and texture, to name a few. I was taught that a painting is a record of a series of skillful decisions that the artist makes over a certain amount of time.
Now when I paint, these acquired technical skills of painting are more in service to my intuitive self. I am very encouraged by the responses I am getting from these commissions. The paintings that come as a result of this new approach seem to have a clarifying effect for people as well as assisting them in remembering who they are, why they are here, and what is most important to them.
Recently, a mother commissioned me to do a portrait of her twelve year old son. I had the boy pick his bottles, and tell me what animal he felt a strong connection to. The boy picked #54 (clear/clear), #86 (clear over tourquoise), #6 (red over red), #1 (blue over deep magenta), and a tiger. His choice of a tiger seemed to fit so perfectly with his bottle choices, since that particular animal symbolizes spiritual strength and clarity as well as physical protection, groundedness, and courage--all qualities that can be seen in the #54, #1, and #6 bottles.
It became clear to me, as I began working on the painting, how to bring in the tiger and all the colors of the bottles, except for the all-red bottle. I began the portrait allowing the bottle colors to find their way into the painting, only this time an unexpected image showed up. It was the image of a bird that I was totally unfamiliar with. At first I thought it was a hawk, so I used neutral colors of browns and grays for the body, feathers, and head.
[Select the thumbnail image to view a larger, 60KB jpeg version.]
The piece was nearly finished and still I had no clues about how to work in the solid red bottle. A client, coming over for an Aura Soma reading, identified the bird as being the rare Quetzal found in South America. The Quetzal was revered by the Mayans for centuries, and can be found in much of their art. The Mayans thought of the Quetzal as a magical, mystical bird of great healing power. Once I had the name of the bird and looked it up in the field guide, the answer came. The entire body of the Quetzal--including the front, back, and sides--is a very intense, bright, solid red! Bingo! In went the red along with the long iridescent green and turquoise tail feathers and head, and the piece was complete! I had to wait, along with everyone else, to see the finished painting.
The animals, rhythms, and patterns of the lines, tones and (most importantly) colors seem to fit together to describe who this boy is in essence. He is powerful and graceful, magical and mystical, energetic and grounded, and preparing to awaken to his potential of being a pure channel for creative communication from his feeling self. In a sense, this piece was one of the more accurate and successful portraits I had ever done, from a soul point of view.
Seeing What "IS"
As an art teacher, I encourage my students to use their awareness to really "see" instead of merely
look at the subject matter. Much of the time what is right there gets totally missed. Once they
are seeing purely and innocently without adding to the mental picture of what they are looking
at, a right relationship to the subject matter is established, and they are able, quite easily, to draw or paint it. There is an opening of perception at such times that allows an intimate communion between the observer and the object being observed, just as there is with the bottles when we have this kind of "open focus." In that "space" or opening, real magic can happen. Just as the objects arranged in a still-life seem to reveal themselves to us when we create this kind of receptivity to them, so does the arrangement of the bottles in a reading reveal a specific meaning if we allow for the space to open within us. In the allowing, in the "not knowing" comes the revelation. The awe and wonder of the physical universe begin to be seen. We realize THIS IS IT!
Winston Churchill once said, "I think this heightened sense of observation of Nature is one of the chief delights that has come to me through trying to paint...the whole world is open with all its treasure. The simplest objects have their beauty, obviously then one cannot bored...Good Gracious! What there is to admire and how little time there is to see it in." Through the careful observation that Churchill refers to, along with an open and relaxed focus, deepening insight is possible. The physical universe revels itself in greater richness and intensity. Sometimes, when I am painting, waves of appreciation spontaneously flow out from me to the objects, and waves of exquisite color and light flow back to me in return-fulfilling, inspiring, and inviting me to go even deeper.
I think it was Einstein who said, "The aim of an artist is not to solve problems irrefutably, but to make people love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations." In this state of pure seeing, where the mind has no words to describe or interpret what is going on, one simply sees things as they are without judgment or prejudice. All that is left to experience when you take away interpretations, analysis and definitions is the sense of awe and wonder at the beauty and mystery of it all!
Aesthetics has the capacity to communicate the mystery that goes beyond the intellect. When we are involved in the creative process of either doing a reading or creating a work of art, we are a part of that Great Mystery. An amazing journey can be traversed by anyone who has the desire and passion to go deeply into this kind of seeing.
Right and Left Hemispheres of the Brain
There has been much talk of late about the right and left hemispheres of the brain when
describing brain function. Some differences in these two hemispheres are:
| Right Brain | Left-Brain |
|---|---|
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In my experience, the right hemisphere is simply about putting things together, whereas the left hemisphere is about taking things apart. The left brain identifies and labels and concludes "this is not that-this is an apple, not a pear." It assists us in separating out all the visual stimuli, which in turn allows us to make sense of our world. The artist, however, is more interested in seeing how different elements fit together and what their relationships are to one another. The right hemisphere of the brain want to see how the parts fit together to create a beautiful "whole." A work of art is one whole creation, greater than the sum of its parts, as opposed to a bunch of unrelated parts stuck together in a frame.
There can be many benefits that come from developing this sadly neglected right hemisphere of the brain. One can begin to see the universe in a profoundly deep and different way. To stay grounded in the present is a characteristic of right brain functioning. Being in present time allows us to "see deeply into the forms" of the physical universe without limitations, illusions or preconceptions. In a quote from Frederick Francks' book The Zen of Seeing, he says, "It is to really see, ever deeper ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw...it is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle."
Seeing My Way Home
At first I thought Aura Soma was going to be about acquiring a new body of knowledge about color that I would simply integrate into my mind. But now it seems more about supporting me in shifting to a new place of trusting life, and of being "out of my mind" and more into my spirit and soul. As an Aura Soma practitioner, I understand I am not so much responsible for knowing a volume of information and revealing that information to someone, but rather I am responsible for being present and at-one with them, and in that sacred space allow for the truth of that moment to reveal itself to us both.
There certainly have been many hours of note taking, questions and answers, and investigating into the meaning of the bottles from the stand point of intellectual information. Yet I feel during that time of intense training and preparation what was also going on, almost silently and without my even knowing it consciously, was a powerful shift in my consciousness. It is this subtle yet profound experience of who I am that is more what I now feel Aura Soma is about for me, and why it has shown up now in my life. Art and meditation gave me the training and practice to "see" differently which, in turn, gave me the insight and courage to attempt to do Aura Soma readings. The readings are now opening me up to trusting my perception in an even deeper way, which in turn is allowing me to paint the physical universe in a more essential way.
Ever since I began meditation and yoga in 1969, I have been very conscious of my life's path leading me "home." It has taken many twists and turns along the way, but always there was the sense I was going home. For ten years I taught meditation to more than two thousand people in the United States, Europe, and Asia. For the past sixteen years, as the owner of Austin Fine Art Classes, I have taught hundreds of people from all walks of life to draw and paint successfully. I find as confidence grows in one particular area so does the courage to go beyond previous limits. For me, Aura Soma is the next arena of transcendending limitations and the next big step in the journey home.
© Elizabeth Locke 1996, 2004
Maintained by: Elizabeth Locke
Last modified: 12 May 2004