The “Birth of Christ” Paintings 1983
In January-February 1983 I did a series of six paintings about the “Birth of Christ”. They were done with liquid glazing paint and fast glue on paper in A4 format. The pictures arrived at the end of a long and profound crisis where the first signs of deep changes in my life started to show up. In a way, it was also a birth of the inner Christ in me.
You can see the pictures also on my website.
Birth of Christ 1 – The Logos
This is the first picture of a series on the birth of Jesus Christ. This series was painted immediately after the series on Way of the Cross.
The cosmic cross – the transformed and light-filled version of the physical cross of crucifixion – has the sun god in its centre. It is the cosmic person (Purusha) fixed in matter and through this sacrifice enables the creation. So you see the spiral of manifestation in the background, on a basis of the deep blue / indigo of the background, the ocean of the space waters. The sun globe has the white disc in its centre, standing for the central sun manifesting from the background. The square formed in the centre stands for the matter aspect, and the parallels forming the cross are the vertical and horizontal dimensions forming the cardinal cross in heaven. So the Logos, the Word of God, is spoken out from beyond – and the Word was with God, as it says in the beginning of the Epistle of St. John. It is the Word taking on the “flesh” of matter – the cosmic prelude for the physical incarnation of the Christ consciousness – expressed in this series of paintings.
Birth of Christ 2 – Announcement
You see here the Angel Gabriel with a white lily announcing the future birth of Jesus to Mary. The whole is surrounded by ether, the cosmic space waters, from where the soul of Christ approaches the form of his future incarnation.
Birth of Christ 3 – Pregnancy – The Mother Standing on the Dragon of Matter
Here you see his mother in an archetypal representation as the World Mother. Often she is represented as standing on the crescent of Moon, or on a serpent or a dragon. This symbolises that the incarnation of the soul is into a pure, virgin vessel, and the serpent/dragon represents the cosmic creative force (kundalini) bound to matter. It is being liberated through the divine light. The pregnant mother (Lat. “mater” / matter) carries the light in her womb, surrounded by the space waters of ether.
Birth of Christ 4 – The Birth
Here you see the cosmic cross of the first picture of this series, where the cross manifests in the cosmos, now linked to earth. The sun in the centre, the Consciousness, comes down from the cosmic centre through the vertical movement into the physical sphere and enters into the form of the new born child. In the background you see the spiral of the first image now with blue and violet, the ether of the physical plane. The spiral condenses to the forms, and it surrounds the forms of Joseph and Maria who are blessing and protecting the child. The child is surrounded by a golden aura, and towards the bottom the colours change to the vital red, the colour of the blood of the earth into which the child now is “implanted”.
Birth of Christ 5 – Announcement to the Shepherds
In a glowing aura of light, a group of three angels appears to the shepherds in the nearby fields announcing the birth of Christ upon earth, blessing them with their presence. The shepherds, sitting on the ground and dazzled by the light, incredulously look at the apparition. A great contrast between the spheres of night and light.
Birth of Christ 6 – Worship of the Three Kings
This is the sixth and last picture of a series on the birth of Jesus Christ. In the centre you see the infant Jesus held by Mary and surrounded by an aura of light, which is adorned by a crown of light. One of the three kings prostrates before the child, while another puts down his gift and the third one stands in the background in veneration. The three kings / magi carry crowns of red fire and are surrounded by a sphere of electric blue light. Mary is surrounded by the warm golden-yellow and red, colours of the heart, while the infant is of pure light.
