Sharing Shiva - a Stencil Girl Tutorial

Last week Stencil Girl released 3 new stencils of Hindu Deities.

In my last post, I introduced the Krishna Stencil.

Today, I want to tell you a bit about Lord Shiva.   If Krishna is peace and love, Shiva is "shakti" or power.  Sometimes known as the destroyer, Shiva is considered the most powerful god of the Hindu pantheon, and is one of the godheads in the Hindu Trinity of Brahmha - the creator, Vishnu - the Preserver, and Shiva - the judge or transformer.      (Scholars point to the trinity as one of many Hindu tenants appearing in Christianity.)

Although Shiva is responsible for death and destruction, it is important to note that Shiva destroys in order to create, since death is the medium for rebirth.  The dualities of life and death, creation and destruction, reside in his character.

Shiva is often portrayed in the pose of a Nataraj, the dancer - with the flames of creation and destruction surrounding him.  This is how I chose to portray him in this stencil.  In it, he stands on a pedestal of lotus flowers, representing the creative forces of the universe.   His four hands represent the four directions - North, South, East and West.  He stands on a prostrate figure that represents ignorance, and his lower right hand shows the gesture of fearlessness.

You can read more about Shiva online - but I love him for the metaphor of creation and re-birth arising out of destruction.  Certainly, I have learned more, and grown more, from my failures, disappointments and defeats, than any of my successes.

I have enjoyed making tags with different parts of the Shiva Stencil.  I also found great words in Carolyn Dube's Uplifting Words Stencil , and some cool motifs from Kae Pea's Wheel in the Sky Stencil to go with him in my journal.

I also used it to stencil this T-Shirt for my daughter.  May she always be fearless!

Here's a fast forward video of this Shiva art journal page.   The journaling says:

Sometimes we need to be broken to become whole,

to fail in order to succeed.

You can also watch "Lord Shiva Art Journal Page" on Youtube here.

I hope this post gives you some inspiration to embrace Shiva's energy and commitment to rebirth and renewal.  

There's a winner from the giveaway from the Krishna stencil post!  Linda on the Prairie, email your snail mail address to jessicabethsporn at gmail dot com and I will send the "Matters Most" piece to you!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.