By Matruka Sherman
We have all experienced how the work environment has changed over the last fourteen plus months. Things that would have taken us 5 to 10 years to set in motion have accelerated, virtually overnight.
Our ability to connect with others all over the globe has been transformed with the click of a single button. The ability to make a living through technology has made more progress in these last few years than the last 100. Our world has changed in the blink of an eye.
We can say thank you to the planet Uranus for this, as it moves through the sign of Taurus. In short, the advance of technology in the sign of earned income, beauty, and what we value, is what is manifesting in extraordinary ways and with lightning speed.
As an astrologer, I knew something very significant was coming. And that it was huge. A client reminded me months later, that I had mentioned it in a session. I had said something was happening that was really important all over the world, but we weren’t quite feeling it here. We had that initial conversation in mid-January. By mid-March we were meeting over a telemedicine site.
Covid Diva by Matruka Sherman
I am also a psychotherapist and have been seeing all my clients virtually. Sometimes it’s more like a séance rather than a therapy session. “Can you hear me, M?” “I can hear you, but I can’t see you.” That is the most challenging piece. Sometimes the technology can be disruptive, but people have been more accepting during this time and we work together to make it happen. I am a trauma specialist and do a lot of EMDR which uses a bi-lateral stimulation and that has held up even on the phone when the tech won’t load. In some ways, these tech glitches have provided more connection. I get invited into my clients’ homes and get to see parts of their lives in a way I would never experience if we were in my office. I get to meet the fur babies and sometimes other family members, should they want to join a session briefly.
My third professional love is being a fine art photographer. I have been a photographer since my early twenties. I thought I’d need a survival job, so I decided I’d become an astrologer to support myself. Go figure. A friend had gifted me a reading with an astrologer for my birthday. The astrologer told me I had a good chart to practice professionally and that she was offering classes in the fall. I just thought she told that to everybody. But since I’d been reading astrology magazines since I was about 9 years old, I decided to study with her, and it made so much sense to me. I began making a living doing readings, writing columns, and teaching classes. Years later I wanted more credentials, and a different way to counsel, and so I went back to school to become a psychotherapist.
How has the Pandemic changed my view of the world?
In some ways because I had no longer needed travel time, I was able to devote more energy to art. I created two pieces that are very much connected to the pandemic. “Covid Diva” is a nod to all the ways a mask can hide one’s identity. We don’t know who anyone is behind a mask. A young client of mine had a date with a guy who she thought was so cute. When he took off his mask, he was missing a tooth. For a while no one could see if anyone was smiling under their mask. The mask in this piece is used for a Venetian masked ball. I wanted to suggest that this pandemic has opened up a lot of new ways of seeing things. Are others safe? Do we know who we are anymore? What are we hiding? How will things change from what this Diva suggests? And more specifically, what will we really know, when this pandemic is over, when she takes off her mask? Reveals herself? Who is she really? What gifts did she bring us?
What the pandemic has given me most is the ability to own my multi-dimensional beingness. I am a Renaissance Woman and I have often felt reserved about sharing that, but this year I decided to rethink and embrace this. I don’t want to cover up what I love to do, these three very different professional loves of mine. I want to serve as a model for women to develop all their abilities and not feel like they are too much. The gift this pandemic has offered me is to own all the treasures I have been offered. These blessings were made to be developed, experienced, and offered in service.
Ascension Flu by Matruka Sherman
So, in mid-December I started posting on Instagram. It is a curated site only for my artwork. I’ve been sequestering, but not hiding. The composite pieces like “Covid Diva” and “Ascension Flu” were all photographed and edited on my iPhone. I can’t use Photoshop to save my life, so my hand-held phone does all the work.
“Ascension Flu” was created because of the fatigue people have been talking about. People who are connected to spiritual practices know we are engaged in a tremendous growth spurt. Sometimes when the spiritual stretch is too big or too fast there is unexplained fatigue. We have a more moderate version of this with Zoom fatigue. My healer friends and colleagues have both. I wanted to honor that experience.
I think this next year will ease up quite a bit. We still have a rough patch in late spring but nothing like what we’ve experienced.
My intuitive sense when creating “Covid Diva” was that she vanishes just as quickly as she came. By late fall this will be a faint memory. All part of her masquerade.
Matruka Sherman, LMSW, ACSW, can be connected with on Instagram: @matrukashermanphotography.
See the original article, and read more great essays, in the CW Weekly.
It was 5 a.m., and I had not yet slept in any meaningful way. I spent the night drifting in and out of wakefulness, my body feeling like it had lost the ability to regulate my temperature: I was simultaneously hot while also experiencing chills. I was on the edges of a migraine, the arm where I had received my second Covid vaccine was too tender to lie on, and periodically nausea washed through me.