Barbara Thomas

The Book

The Burned Woman

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The Burned Woman

© 2001

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I call her The Burned Woman. Images of her began to appear in my paintings many years ago but I didn’t recognize their meaning until I wrote this story. The image of a dark skinned woman appeared in my mind while I was talking on the phone with a friend. I realize that her dark skin was scar tissue. Somehow I knew that she had been burned at the stake.

The impact of her presence was so strong I immediately went to my studio to paint her. First I painted her face, then I painted flames rising around her. When she became engulfed in flames I started making sounds and singing wordless songs. I saw through her eyes and heard her thoughts saying, “How can you do this to me? What has happened to you? You are my friends.” Painting her was such a powerful experience I put the paintings away for months before I looked at them again.

A year later I woke up in the early morning hearing myself repeating a phrase over and over, “There once was a time, a horrible time. There once was a horrible time”. I knew I could not go back to sleep until I wrote these words. As I wrote each line the next line would come into my mind. Her whole story was written that early morning.

Writing brought back the memory of paintings I had created forty years ago, paintings that illustrate this story. Not one painting was created with the intention of illustration. Instead the story revealed the healing work my soul and spirit has been doing through my art from my very first painting. I want to share the story and the amazing process of guidance and growth I have experienced.

I realized my book, The Burned Woman, touches upon one possible reason humans have lost their connection with the reality of the world of spirit, angels and elementals.

The story takes place in the western world, during the 300 years of inquisition and witch hunts. It is my understanding that the people killed were those who related with the earth and with her angels and nature spirits as the source of life, protection, inspiration and healing.

During those years the western world lost connection with the earth based religions, natural healing and the reality of the faerie world and angelic beings. Some remnant of the faerie tradition has been hidden within children’s fairy tales.

I think the shock of this collective tragedy has moved through human consciousness to this present day. I wonder if that is one reason it took me so long to accept the reality of the beings that appear to my inner awareness and in my paintings.