Bathing was painted in the summer of 1911 by Duncan Grant. It was part of a decorative scheme, “London on Holiday” for the dining room of Borough Polytechic, London. He was influenced by Michelangelo’s male nudes and the summers he spent at the Serpentine in Hyde Park, a site at the time associated with gay culture. I love it because even though it shows seven separate figures, it also represents the continuous motion of a single figure swimming.
I also choose this painting for the beginning of July, not only for its representation summer and my favorite pastime swimming, but it also brings to light how the gay community has grown to include a large group. If you have read my blog for a while, you know I’m not big on singling out a group for celebration for just a time period, like black history month or gay pride day. I think that when we really evolve as a society, we will not solely highlight a month or a day to celebrate a group or movement.
However I would like to point out that the “gay movement” seems to have grasped this idea and evolved to now be named LGBTQ2+. And even though June 28th does represent a very important day in queer movement history, Gay Pride is celebrated around the world on a variety of days and showcases a variety colors or the rainbow. That is the beauty of this movement it is about inclusion not isolation. It celebrates love. So like this painting there can be many individuals but the movement or action is perceived in the joining.
P.S. Please share. Below are more of Duncan’s work.
*Aries – Magician
Take this week to experiment and bring your amazing imagination into the real world. The challenge is to let yourself experiment and know that the key to success is learning and building on your mistakes.
Taurus – Page of Swords
The Page of Swords is the most inquisitive of the cards. When it comes into a reading it means that you need to listen and ferret out information before putting anything into action. So your challenge this week is to ask question and really listen to the answers you get. You will need this information in the coming weeks.
Gemini – Two of Cups
The Two of Cups is about exploring relationships. Sometimes you do so well by yourself you forget to invite other people into your life. The challenge this week to get to know someone better or create some romance in your life.
Cancer – Seven of Pentacles
The “building” energy of June continues this week with the Seven of Pentacles. This card represents the work that needs to be done. This week is best spent working on the projects that you have already begun.
*Leo – Wheel
The Wheel foretells there will be opportunities this week that can change your fate. The challenge is engaging in the variety of opportunities without putting all you faith in one basket or outcome. Spin the wheel often.
Virgo – Nine of Pentacles and Page of Swords
These two cards tell you that you will feel more informed if you keep to yourself or only hang with a chosen few. Do not listen to the general public their information is not helpful to you this week. Heed your own counsel.
*Libra – Star
Oh you needed this card after the past couple of weeks. The Star is the card of healing and hope. Take this week to pull away a bit and heal. Your challenge is allowing the time to heal. If you do, you will gain the hope and insight you will need to carry on with a lighter load.
*Scorpio – Temperance
The Hanged Man card told you to sit back and enjoy the slow lane last week. And now Temperance is here to increase the pace, but your challenge is not to increase the pressure. This week your lessons are around moderation and taking the time actually needed to complete your tasks. Do not go by the time or pace dictated by others but the one you know that will produce the best product.
Sagittarius – Ten of Cups
Last week, The Empress challenged you to grow by knowing what to sow, where to sow it and how to tend to it for the longer haul. This week continues that theme, but with the caveat that the end result should include creating joy. So your challenge is to be more of the wild horse this week then the human part of yourself. Run or drive with the wind blowing through your mane/hair.
Capricorn – Queen of Cups
The Queen of Cups focuses again on your emotions this week. Where last week the Page wanted you to play, the Queen wants you to pull from all your emotions to create. This week you might find that you can be pushed emotionally by outside sources. The challenge is to see that each of these encounters is a way to interact with and use your deeper emotions – think emotional alchemy. Overall, this card wants you to make friends with your heart.
*Aquarius – Justice
The Justice card tells you that in the long view all things will balance out fairly in the end. The challenge this week is keeping your emotions off the scale during the process. Rely on the facts and your logic this week.
Pisces – Knight of Cups
The Knight of Cups asks you to create some movement in your emotional life. However, the challenge with this knight is not to wear your heart on your sleeve while doing so. You can kick around in your emotional waters but don’t swim to the deep end.
May light be on you, around you, and within you,
Nina
The Five of Cups ponders the idiom of perceiving your life or situations as a cup half full or empty. This card challenges you this week at the end of each day to quantify where your glass-line lies.
The King of Swords is the decision man. This week is a great week to make decisions, write, create proposals or bath in the literary world. The challenge is to maintain your focus while you doing it.
The “building” energy of the past three weeks continues with the Ace of Pentacles. This is a great way to start off your birth year. All aces are about beginnings. This week is a great time to start new projects, experiment with old projects in new ways and explore new places. The challenge is seeing everything with fresh eyes.
This week is the beginning of your month-long wind down to your birth day. This card asks you to wrap up emotions that you have been dealing with the past year. The challenge is how to see these emotions with rose-colored glasses. I know that the blinding truth is your recent M.O. but just for this week look through the rosy-tinted optics as a fashion/lifestyle statement.
The Seven of Wands is about your boundaries versus your walls. The challenge this week is defining and then acting on those definitions.
This is your second five in a row, so let’s look at fives for a second. Five challenges or forewarns us about the chaos in our life. Last week the chaos resided in your material plane, and this week it is with your interactions with your community. The Five of Wands asks you to examine your line between play and competition. The challenge is seeing to that line not getting stepped on by others or you.
The Hanged Man card foretells a week of delays and side roads. The challenge is seeing that this detour is just that. You will eventually end up where you were heading, so sit back and enjoy the slow lane.
The Empress is the card of growth and fertility. Like last week this week create new things on the material plane. However, the Empress wants you to take the long view with what you are planting. She is the supreme gardener. The challenge is what to sow, where to sow it and then know that you will need to tend to it for the longer haul.
The Page of Cups is the card of innocence and joy. So here is your challenge: Enjoy life like a child. Laugh. Play. Sounds easy but really hard for you all to do for a whole week.
The Knight of Swords challenges you to slow down. The main reason to be almost sloth-like is that you will need to notice something along that way that you would have missed at the pace you have been setting lately. This is also an omen card and comes up when we are more accident prone. You can avoid these missteps by keeping your feet on the ground, keep your eyes on whatever you are doing and slow your roll.
Five of Swords is the chaos card. The way to deal with this is to realize that this chaos has really nothing to do with you unless you engage with it. The challenge is imagine the chaos blowing over you like the wind. It might leave some dirt or dust on your skin but you can wash it off.
The King of Pentacles is the mini version of the Emperor. This week is about building your empire whether that is your business, your home, or your home-life. The question is: are you happy with what you are building? If not take this week to reassess what you need to do to feel “self”-made.
Last week the Devil arrived for your birth month. This card came to show you the coming year will bring in your last act to the old, and begin a new life or evolution. This year will challenge to stay focus on your path and stand firm on who you are or want to be. So for this week the Five of Cups arrived to have you go through the emotions of letting go of the old way of life. This card reminds you that you need to go through a mourning period for the past before you move on to a brighter future.
The “building” energy of the past two weeks continues this week with the Ten of Pentacles. But this card reminds you that it is as important to enjoy what you build as much as building it.
The King of Wands challenges you this week with a question to answer or maybe a demand: How can you increase the creativity and passion to your work this week?
This week the Four of Wands recommends spending time at home or under the shade of an oak tree. This is the card of comfort, coziness, and a sense of well-being. The only challenge with this card is seeing the little details of life are as important as the big things.
The Five of Pentacles challenges us to ask for help when we are low in energy, funds, or resources. This card shows up to remind us when we are exhausted the first thing you need to do is stop and realize that you are, and then look to a peaceful space or friends for help.
It is another week of strategizing and preparing with the Queen of Swords. This queen is the personification of strategy and communication. The better prepared you are at what to say this week the easier the week will flow. Watch your words.
The Ace of Pentacles foretells new beginnings on the material plane. This is a great week to plant something, to start a project, or invest in your future. Things grow from each thing you do this week.
The Six of Swords challenges you to do some conscious exploration this week. Whether that is in your world or in your mind, pay attention to what surrounds you. The challenge is to take note or pocket those things or thoughts that grab and then keep your attention. You will find them useful trinkets for future wanderings.
Last week the Magician challenged you to experiment with new things. This week is the opposite with the Eight of Pentacles. This card advises you to spend this week honing your craft. The challenge is to only spend time on things you already are good at. Keep your magpie quality of collect and trying new bright and shine things at bay.
Last week, the Judgment card challenged you to be a more evolved and thoughtful you. This week takes on a lighter tone with the Seven of Cups. Sevens are the cards of explanation and contraction. This card has you explore how your dreams can expand or contract your future. We have a tendency to unrealistically dream or dream to small. The best advice with this card is to dream just out of reach, so with a bit of effort you will obtain your goals this week.
Last week you had the theme ‘beauty adorns virtue” This week continues that theme with the Knight of Swords This card suggest that you slow down and take time to smell the roses. Be in each moment.
The artist last week asked you to pay attention to the details. The Four of Wands wants you to focus on the details in your home. Focus on the how to create more harmony in your home. Whether that is adding a calming color or adding some pop, remember harmony does not equate to uniformity.
The painting last week was about standing up for you rights, even if it is seems hopeless. And that beauty arises outside the realm of judgment. The Three of Swords extends this theme by having you deal with three self-defeating thoughts. Your challenge is look at the reason of why you carry around these thoughts through a lens of self-compassion.
The artist’s theme last week was about being aware that you do not have control over reality, but you can nudge it towards your favor. And so the Emperor extends this thought for another week by having you add to and build upon the reality you are in. This can look as simple you have to go to work but can you manipulate the time or space that you do it in.
Last week’s art theme was to see parody(humor) in your life. The Eight of Wands continues that theme of bring in and accepting the positive even joyful energy in your life. Arms and minds open.
Dulle Griet’s hinted about being a bit devilish or against the social norm last week. The Hermit would like you to continue the exploration of the outer edges of societies’ norms, but in theory with meditation and reflection. This is a favorite card of Virgo, for this is a lifelong challenge of balancing your social and solo sides. The challenge with this card is not to seek solitude out of a reaction of being over social but to be proactive about scheduling your need of space and time to decompress. And the bigger challenge is do it without guilt.
Last week your challenge was to met people outside of your normal wanderings. This week the Four of Pentacles takes an about-face from the emotional realm to the physical one. Your goal is to save time, money and space anywhere you can. Your challenge is not to feel selfish about it.
Last week your challenge was two-fold, taking on a challenge and proving the “haters” wrong. This week, the Six of Pentacles’ lesson is around the “give and take” in your life. The goal is lowering your input to people or work that you are not getting something positive in return. The challenge is to do it without them noticing.
Last week your painting was about finding and bonding with your inner horse. The Judgment card challenges you to create a ritual or rite of passage that moves you on to the next act of your life. This can be as simple as lighting a candle and blowing it out to release the old, or as complex as burning all your old journals.
The art last week challenged you to see the boundaries you may be holding on to around your passions or your way of life. The Tower comes this week to break down those walls if you haven’t already. The Tower comes to shake things up because something you have not been dealing with and that doesn’t work, needs to change. The best way to deal with this card is to stand back and enjoy the destruction.
The painting last week advised you to see that your history or past experiences are useful in the present whether you see it or not. The Five of Swords this week continues this theme by challenging you that you can learn more from your mistakes and failures then you can from your successes.
Last week’s painting suggested to come at your life with softer edges. This theme continues with the Four of Cups this week. This card is the card of self-compassion and empathy. To see the world, its people and yourself without sharp edges.
Last week the Tower challenged you to let go of needing to control change and to subtly navigate it by shifting your stance. This week the Six of Cups continues the theme by having you look back in to your history for clues on how to deal with this change.
The Nine of Swords is the card of worry. Worry can be helpful when you use it to prepare for the future or to re-think about your past. However, the challenge with this card is to know when worry becomes nothing but thoughts that have no objective or conceives a useful action. This week be aware where your worries take you.
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