How to confide in the world
A love that straddles names,
..Too spacious to contain,
......The love that pried us open?
(You have to open!)

Reinvented by this love
...A new Venus steps ashore
...With her God of Sublime Force
We invite the Goddess of Fortune
..........To join in

Lady Lakshmi carries forth
An infinity of riches
From Lord Vishnu's long nap
In the richness of Infinity

Pouring out onto the Earth
Libations to sustain us
...- Or temptations to chain us -
.........She grants to those who ask
(You have to ask!)

What alchemy she performs
Through the marriage of the elements!
With her wish-fulfilling jewel
The Goddess manifests the Universe

We can receive her bounty
But there is no way to own it
...For once we've come to know it
......We can only let it flow
(You have to let it go!)

Showered by lotus blossoms
And with the splash of gold on water,
...Venus and Mars
..........Do each other the honor
........And confide our love
..............To all who will accept it.

James: The sacred nature of the couple's love and loving has never been so apparent in our work. The Goddess Lakshmi agrees and gives the partners her sacred blessing. Venus blesses her lover Mars. Mars blesses the goddesses before him. Radiant and peaceful, loving attains a new high for the archetypal characters. I love it.

In harmony with traditional Hindu iconography, Lakshmi pours out gold coins and holds her flower, the lotus. The lotus often depicts the opening of the chakras, especially the heart chakra. Just as Greek myth has Aphrodite (Venus) arising out of the sea on a scallop shell, Hindu myth has Lakshmi arising out of the sea on a lotus. In this painting, Lakshmi, Venus, and Mars are all on the lotus. She is associated with the element of Water, and there's plenty of it in this work. Earth, Air, and Fire (and Wood, too) complete the Basic 4 (or Basic 5) elements. Lakshmi wears a golden yoni crown. The elephant blesses the whole scene.

Becca: This painting commanded the space on my bedroom wall for some time as I contemplated its message. Although I made references to her traditional associations - with the Hindu God Vishnu, with prosperity and riches, her ability to grant wishes ("wish-fulfilling gem"), water, etc. - my focus was on the exuberant emergence of the new paradigm couple. Indeed, after the winter with Kali, the springtime arrival of Lakshmi gave us cause for celebration! The line "Reinvented by this love" refers to the subtitle of The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover - Reinventing the Myth. "Venus stepping ashore" ties her birth myth in with Lakshmi's. The reference to "marriage" is an inside joke about James' and my "secret marriage" while under the influence of this work.
I wrote the poem as if Venus and Mars were speaking to a student of this process who was receiving their advice: "You have to open!" "You have to ask!" You have to let it go!" These recommendations are appended to quatrains rhyming abbc. The conversational style of the poems overcomes any adherence to form, however, culminating in the envoi: "And the blessings rain down! They rain down!"

As the last work to be completed before forsaking our Caribbean home and jumping off to a new life in Europe, "The Blessing" was for both of us an affirmation of hope, and belief in the generosity of the Universe.