The Queen's Tree
Where ceremony meets craft, and the path becomes clear
There was a moment, during my first ceremony weekend, when I received an image that has never left me.
The Queen of the Forest, as she is sometimes called, showed me a tree.
Not just any tree.
Her tree.
And in its branches she was hanging lanterns.
Small lights. Suspended. Glowing softly in the dark.
At the time I did not fully understand it. I only felt it.
Now, years later, I am beginning to understand what those lanterns are.
They are beacons.
They are signals that say: you are not alone in the dark.
They are reminders that even in the most disorienting seasons of life, something luminous is reaching toward us. Something patient. Something ancient. Something that wants us to remember who we are.
In the image above, I imagined those lanterns as small red embers hanging from the branches. Each one a point of contact. Each one an invitation.
Hope does not always arrive as a blazing sun. Sometimes it arrives as a quiet light swinging gently in the night, waiting for us to look up.
Why this matters right now
I feel very much at a threshold.
For years I have been building this world. The Last Memory of Earth. The Elder Stones. The emissaries. The mythic language that continues to unfold through paintings, sketches, and quiet transmissions.
Now I have the opportunity to deepen my design thinking in a very structured way through this upcoming Concept Design Mentorship.
To learn from those who have spent decades refining visual storytelling.
To connect my intuitive, ceremonial, earth rooted imagery with disciplined craft at a higher level.
In many ways, this mentorship feels like another lantern.
A light being lowered down.
An invitation to grow.
If I am honest, stepping into it requires courage. It requires investment. It requires faith that what is forming wants to be born fully.
And I believe it does.
A final call
The mentorship funding campaign is coming to a close very soon.
If you have felt moved by this work.
If the lanterns in this tree speak to something in you.
If you believe in what this body of work could become with deeper training and refinement.
This is the final window to help carry it forward.
There are still support tiers available, including original design sketches and a documented PDF of the journey for those who want to walk more closely with me through this next chapter.
You can find the details here:
No matter what, I am grateful.
Grateful for the lights that were hung in my own darkness.
Grateful for the people who have stood beside me as this mythology has unfolded.
Grateful for the path that continues to reveal itself, lantern by lantern.
The Queen still hangs her lights.
And I am still learning how to follow them.