Interview with Maria Kay Simms .: PaganPages

Interview with Maria Kay Simms

I would like to extend an extra special THANK YOU to Maria for allowing me this interview in the midst of an awful time for her. I would like to extend condolences on behalf of PaganPages, our readers and myself for the loss of your mother! Maria is truly a wonderful woman.

For those of you unfamiliar with Maria Kay Simms, she is an author, astrologer, artist and Wiccan high priestess. It was a pleasure and an honor to work with her.
BLESSED BE

Andrea: When did you become interested in art?

Maria Kay Simms: I’ve been interested in art since I was a child—I would draw by the hour, most any day, if given the time. I think I was about halfway through high school when I decided for sure that I would major in art when I went to college. My degree is a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major concentration in painting, from Illinois Wesleyan University. When I was a senior, I also took the minimally required courses so I could be certified to teach art, grades K-12, and I did a semester of student teaching.

Andrea (A): When did you realize your skill for writing?

Maria Kay Simms (MKS): While I never had any problems writing whatever I had to write for school, I don’t think I ever thought about being a writer; it just gradually happened. My first commercially published book was an art book—one of those intricate high-end coloring books for young girls. It was titled Fashion Kit, published by Troubador Press, San Francisco, 1971. It was a time in my life when, although I was selling my paintings quite well from three galleries in the city, I had a real need to contribute more to family income, so I also sought some commercial art assignments, and one of them was that book—booklet, really. It was a paper doll with some clothes I designed, and also pages of "fabric" with intricate designs to color. Then there were ideas for creating one’s own designs with simple art techniques, and patterns (sections of clothing) to combine and put together into new designs. It was all planned to encourage creativity, and also teach a little about clothing construction. I didn’t start writing books until over 10 years later, after I’d become an astrologer.

A: Who was your biggest inspiration for your career?

MKS: I’d have to say first of all and foremost, my mother. She was primarily a homemaker, but a very creative person who could make beautiful things out of almost anything. My first memory of being inspired by art was at the age of 5, as I watched in total fascination while she painted a mural of Noah’s Arc all over one wall of my baby brother’s nursery, with every animal one could think of in pairs. It was beautiful, sort of Disney cartoon style, as I remember, and just as skilled as that. She taught me that I could make most anything out of very little, if I really wanted it. Later I got a major boost when my 7th grade teacher pushed me into entering a statewide art contest for primary/secondary school students that involved designing clothes, and I came in at 2nd place after a high school senior. As an almost adult, I was most inspired by my painting instructor in college, Fred Brian—he was a very fine painter. He also gave me an important wake-up call when I most needed it, about setting my priorities.

A: Did being an art teacher first make art your true passion?

MKS: No, I taught primarily to make a living. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a good experience—it was, and I think I was a good teacher. But my passion was my painting, and while I taught, I also painted and exhibited whenever I could. I taught for my first 5 years after college, partially in grade school and partially in junior high. Later, in my mid-30s, after my life had changed considerably (move east, divorce, intensive study of astrology), I taught high school half days for a couple of years while I was getting a small business off the ground—a little shop called Mystic Arts that combined consignment art gallery with metaphysical books and classes. Later I added a small cafÈ. It was both fun and a lot of work, but I only kept it for a few years, after realizing it was just too much following my remarriage and the birth of my third daughter. But, I remember it fondly as a very creative period.

A: What do you most enjoy about writing?

MKS: That’s a harder question. I guess I enjoy it most when it flows intuitively, and the "when" and "where" of that is not easy to define. When I get into the research for a book, and am writing the more substantial academic parts based on my research, I enjoy that, too, but in a different way. But it’s when I’m writing the parts of a book that come from my own inner feelings that the flow begins and then I don’t want to stop until I’ve expressed it just the way I want it to be—and I don’t stop, unless I absolutely must, no matter how late it may be. Much of Moon Tides, Soul Passages, while based on a lot of solid research and experience in using the techniques it teaches, came from that flow, and that is why it’s my personal favorite of the books I’ve written so far.

A: If you could dispel one myth about Wiccans, what would it be?

MKS: I suppose I’d dispel the tiresome and ignorant stuff one sometimes hears about devil worship, or that we are anything like most of the silly movies that feature Witches or Wiccans. But, personally (and fortunately) I’ve had virtually no need to deal with that kind of thing where I’ve lived or worked. If I’ve been mentioned or interviewed about Wicca by media, it’s been positive. If I’m asked questions, they’ve been just that, questions— requests for information that I didn’t perceive to be at all antagonistic, but instead expressing only interest or curiosity. I’ve been able to explain whatever the questioner wanted to know to his or her apparent satisfaction. That I haven’t experienced prejudice may be partially because I don’t invite it. I tend to blend in appropriately to whatever community or business activity is at hand, so the fact that most everyone knows I am Wiccan becomes only one of several things they may know about me--one that some may find interesting, but nobody that I know of perceives as any kind of threat.

A: What is your favorite piece of work? I have to tell you mine is "Seek Ye the Ancient Wisdom.’

MKS: In many ways, that painting is my favorite, too, though my four paintings of a dancer in each element come close. "Seek Ye the Ancient Wisdom?" painted in 2001, is the second painting that I did after not picking up a paintbrush since about 1988. (During the years ’87-’98 that I was with ACS Publications, at first as Art Director and later as President, I was so busy that I no longer did much of any painting. What art I did was all done on the Macintosh.) For "Seek Ye…" I used my mirror for a model, though I made the woman look a little older than I did at that time. Lately, though, I’m catching up all too fast! I like that no matter where the viewer stands, her eyes seem to be looking at in that direction—and I don’t know quite how I did it. I saw her first—the idea of her—in a meditation. Most of my paintings are intuitive—I paint just scribbles of color at first, then something begins to emerge and I bring out whatever is emerging without any specific thought of what it will be until it "feels" finished. Then I may sit back and find some meaning in it, or maybe not—and whether or not I do, it’s enough that it "works" as a composition. "Seek Ye…" is one of the few paintings I’ve done that had a meaning—a story that was part of it from its inception—and I painted it with both the image and the intent in mind. After she was finished and drying on the easel, my husband was enjoying showing her to various of his business associates, some of whom he likes to see how they react to his wife, the Witch. He was telling them how he saw the painting until I said, "Wait first, and instead ask them what they think her expression means." And, I did the same with my friends. This has proved interesting in its variety—some see her as smiling, others as frowning, or angry or sad or wise…so, rather than explaining what she means to me, I’ll wait, to see if you or others tell me what you think first.

A: How did the recent change in the planets affect Astrology, in your opinion?

MKS: It’s generated quite a lot of articles on Eris, which is not surprising. Anything new always attracts attention—people are excited to try it out and see how it works. The asteroid Ceres, now elevated to the same dwarf planet status as the demoted Pluto, has been around and interpreted for quite awhile, so she isn’t getting quite as much attention.

I’m glad (as are other women astrologers whom I’ve talked with) to welcome two new planetary goddesses, as it evens the score just a little more. Now, among the traditional ten used in astrology (8 planets plus the lights, Sun and Moon) it’s only 6 gods to 4 goddesses, instead of 8 to 2. I’m advocating that Ceres be made ruler of Virgo (I never thought Mercury was right for the only goddess image of the 12 zodiac characters, holding the bounty of harvest in her arms. Ceres is a perfect fit. And, since only two signs would then be left with the same planet (Venus) as ruler, Eris ought to be assigned to one of them. Libra, I think, is the better fit. I amused myself by posting on my website the glyphs for Taurus and Libra, with bandages and bruises, speculating on rulership by Eris, Goddess of Chaos and Discord. I have an article of the new planets on my web site , with an invitation for opinions on rulership, which I then post, if permission to do so is given.

The main effect on me of the change was that, like the school textbook publishers, I was left hanging in wait for the astronomers to make up their minds so I could send The New American Ephemeris to the printer without worry about whether the book would be out of date before the "ink was dry." Rique Pottenger, who programmed the tables, made three separate sets of pages for me, first with Pluto still in, just as before (astrologers would never give up Pluto, so this was a no-brainer decision), and he added a new column for Ceres in daily positions between Mars and Jupiter. Then when UB313 was also elevated, a new set of tables listed this very slow-moving planet in monthly positions designated with an X for the Xena nickname. Then, just before I was to send off the files to print, the name Eris was announced, requiring the 3rd revision of pages. Fortunately her name was short enough to insert, since no glyph has yet been decided upon.

A: I understand you have 2 more books in the works. Can you give us a little preview? When might we expect them?

MKS: I have books "in the works," but not of my own writing other than for some of the intro material. I’m in the midst of preparing five reference works by Neil Michelsen (who was my husband at the time of his death in 1990) for reprint, or with updates in years and "New American" style revisions by Rique Pottenger. These books are currently unavailable, but need to be, so my own books are behind that project for now. I expect to have these five books available before the end of this year: The American Heliocentric Ephemeris 2001-2050, The American Sidereal Ephemeris 2001-2050, The New American Midpoint Ephemeris 2001-2020, The American Ephemeris 2007-2020 with Longitudes, Latitudes and Declinations, and Tables of Planetary Phenomena.

As for my own writing, I want to do a practical astrology book next, with software included, that would be an expansion of an article I wrote for "The Mountain Astrologer" a few years ago, on quick timing techniques. I’ve been asked to speak on that topic several places recently, so I think it’s time I got my material on it into book form. I hope to get this one out within the first half of 2008, ideally before UAC, but it remains to be seen whether I can.

Beyond that, I’m not sure. I have a lot of new ritual material, developed within my Circle of the Cosmic Muse since it was moved to New Hampshire. So, perhaps that will be next, along with some of my current thinking from the perspective of Crone.

Titles by Maria Kay Simms:
A Time for Magick: Planetary Hours for Meditations, Rituals & Spells
The Witch's Circle: Rituals and Craft of the Cosmic Muse

Website:
http://www.starcraftspublishing.com

Other Links:
Magical Moon Join Maria Kay Simms each New Moon for her monthly column on the astrology of current lunar phases, complete with with ritual suggestions.

Also, see Maria's articles and rituals for each of the Wheel of the Year Sabbats at: http://www.starcraftsob.com/craft/wheel.shtml (llewellyn)

interviewer bio: Andrea