Dark Moon & Sacred Earth statue!

Part of working with a modern or unusual deity, deva, energy or spirit is that you're not going to find a nice dramatically posed statue of it in the local pagan shop. Some ancient cultures left lots of writing or art behind, as did the Greeks, and their gods just happen to work with how you see the universe. Other times, if you want a cosmic power image that fits your soul and its work, you gotta make your own.

Such is the case with me and Naphtha. No ancient culture anywhere was as knowledgeable of, clever with, dependent on --- or fatally at risk by --- petroleum as much as we are today. Oil culture like ours is not ancient. It's not even romantic, in that so much Celtic and faerie vibe everywhere my eyes hurt from not rolling Ren-Faire kind of way. It's miraculous, but in other ways it's fearsome and dirty, reminding us of our mistakes and possible fate. Which in my opinion makes it ideal, if not necessary for transformative magick and shadow work.

Spiritual, mystical or neopagan work with petroleum and its modes seems kind of rare; thus, every time I have a new image or vision of how She operates in the world, or how She might want to work with me, I have the urge to cement it in artwork so I can continue to meditate on it. I have a running backlist now! Aliria-Naphtha the Gatherer waits to be sculpted, as does Pyrochthonia the Cleansing Fire. . . .

I especially love this image, with her beautiful profile, silky snake body, and Gaia's little gnome toes ♡

I'd been working on this one for weeks now! This image came partly from indigenous (Lakota) prophecy of the so-called Black Snake, which would bring destruction when it appeared in the land, and which the northern midwest Natives believe is manifesting in the DAPL (pipeline). But the snaky nature of Oil to me is part of what and who She is, preceding any involvement or exploitation by humankind. She slithers through the rock as Earth's blood and bile, as a spirit of the underworld: Before She was ever bad or evil or globally destructive at the hands of foolish Caucasians and capitalism, She simply was --- and still is.