The symbol of Sagittarius is the bow and the arrow. In spiritual astrology, Sagittarius is located at the base centre in the human body. The arrow is seen as the vertebral column, where you find the column of light called sushumna. When the higher consciousness awakens, the power of kundalini moves upwards through the sushumna in a spiral manner. The science of yoga describes the sushumna as the central balancing energy line surrounded by ida and pingala, the energies of materialisation and spiritualisation.

The bow to shoot the arrow of consciousness upwards to the head centre is the sacred word OM. With every OM we can visualise the upward path of kundalini through the sushumna to the head and beyond. OM exists as the triple aspect of spirit, soul and matter, represented as ida, pingala and sushumna.

I depicted the arrow of consciousness as being surrounded by two energy lines and going through the etheric centres. The centres are formed out of the whirlpool of the etheric plane, for which I used a picture of the solar plasma. The bow is symbolised by the blueish horizon. In the sky you see Jupiter, the lord of Sagittarius, and the Great Bear. This constellation is linked to Sagittarius as the birthplace of the seven judges which bring down through Sagittarius the seven states of consciousness in man.

9 August 2018, pencils and photo work

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Sagittarius paintings.

The video:

From the subtlest to the grossest state, there are seven planes of existence. These planes are related to the seven kingdoms of nature. Three kingdoms are below the human kingdom and three kingdoms are above the human kingdom. Below us are the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms; above us are the kingdoms of the planetary, solar and the cosmic devas. These devas express through our planet, through the solar system and through the cosmic system.

In this image, these seven kingdoms are illustrated by symbolic representatives. The amethyst at the bottom represents the mineral kingdom. The violet crystal is surrounded by a sphere of green leaves and a pink lotus grows from out of its centre, both representing the plant kingdom. The leaves are surrounded by a blueish sphere. I generated it with photos of Venus and of a school of fish to illustrate the transition to the animal kingdom. This kingdom is represented by a group of coatis on a brownish sphere, for which I used colours of a photo of Mars. The group of people looking towards the Sun symbolizes the humanity aspiring for higher evolution.

The three higher kingdoms are indicated by the sphere of the Earth, by the Sun surrounded by planets and by the stars in the background. A ray of light coming from the Sun illumines the path of the different kingdoms towards higher evolution.

21 July 2018, pencils and photo work

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Scorpio paintings.

The video:

The wisdom teachings explain that number 432 forms a major key to understand greater time cycles:
The whole creation is an alternation of active and passive phases called the days and nights of Brahma. The days are again divided into sub-periods called Manvantaras which are further divided into cycles called Yugas. Each great Yuga is subdivided into four Yugas which are composed of units containing 432 solar earth years multiplied by tens, hundreds and thousands.

The apparent rotation of Jupiter around the earth zodiac is twelve solar years. Six sets of 72 years give the duration of time for Jupiter to go round the apparent zodiac 36 times and for the precession of the equinoxes by 3 degrees. This period is 432 years which forms the base number for the computation of the great cycles of Yugas and Mahayugas.
This is how Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) explains one aspect of Number 432. It is a major key to divide time into various ages that mark different cycle and different energies.

In 2017, Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created his “Mandala 432“, a beautiful artwork inspired by the stained glass rose windows in cathedrals. In the description of this artwork he writes (extract):

“One thing that my favorite rose windows do is work at the limits of our perception of color. At the edge of blue-violet/ultraviolet, our perception drops off, but right at that threshold there’s something interesting going on energetically, a kind of electric pulsing that is hard to describe but I think we all feel it.
To achieve that blue-violet effect, the designers of rose windows used lots of pure blue cobalt glass, with occasional small spots of red, and even less magenta. Yellow and green are also used sparingly within the blue, to create patches of blue-green that make the blue-violet areas feel even more rich. From a distance, these colors all combine to give the experience of that electric blue-violet space. The color space of computer monitors does not contain edge-of-perception violet/ultraviolet, but a fairly convincing illusion can be created using this mix of colors.”

In many of his teachings, Master KPK (K. Parvathi Kumar) explains the qualities of violet and working with its energy. Violet can be experienced in the interludes between the known and the unknown. It is the bridge into the subtle world. Read more about working with violet colour here.

See here my other blogposts about the work of Chris Jordan: “E Pluribus Unum” – From Many, One: A Sublime Mandala Work, Midway – A Love Story for Our Time from the Heart of the Pacific, Chris Jordan: A Slow-Motion Apycalypse in Progress.

Click on the picture (from the video, copyright Chris Jordan) to see the video Mandala 432 on his website. The music is King’s College Choir in Cambridge, UK.

The formula “E Pluribus Unum” (from many, one) is the traditional motto of the United States used on seals and coins. Its meaning, however, is much more profound than just uniting different ex-colonies to one nation. It is even deeper than what the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus gives as “The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one”. The eternal wisdom teachings explain that focussing on diversity, as we do with our analytical minds, makes us lose the sense of oneness. All multiplicity is coming from one source, is being held in existence by the unfathomable background of all and is merging again into the inconceivable oneness – from many to one.

Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created a mandala named “E Pluribus Unum”. In the video project realised in 2010, he visualises the many different “organisations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture” (from the video) by zooming from a detail structure to a great globe of interconnected lines expressing the beauty created by all the goodwill work done on the globe.
The video contains a million names of such organisations – Chris explains that it would need to include more than twice the number of names to cover all activities.
All these projects seem to be different activities but together they form one unified effort to promote the well-being of earth and of the beings living on it – a great visualisation of oneness done through Chris’ video.
The mandala is constructed around a circle containing 108 equally-spaced points. In Eastern wisdom, the number 108 is explained as containing profound keys to understand time cycles, like 4 x 108 = 432.

In many of his artworks Chris visualises complex realities in photos or movies. See also my 2007 blogpost about his activities or about the trailer to his impressive video “Midway” about plastics polluting the Pacific Ocean.
His works are intended to raise our awareness to understand complicated relationships by visualising with his “environmental art” the effects of pollution, mass consumption or destructive behaviours.

See more on his website or his videos on Vimeo.

Picture (c) Chris Jordan, from the video

Creation is compared to a wheel. The movement is greatest at the periphery; the point of stability is at the centre. The formation of the globe of space happens through a process of radiation: objectivity comes out of subjectivity. Dissolution is through a process of contraction: the creation merges again into subjectivity. The centrifugal and centripetal forces are kept in balance by the Libra principle.

In the human body, Libra is located at the navel. Its higher counterpart, Aries, is found in the head. Libra represents the equilibrium between the outgoing horizontal movement towards objectivity and the inward vertical movement towards subjectivity. When the fulcrum is stable, there is an ascent of consciousness to higher planes.

At the centre of the image you see a human silhouette with the nervous system representing the lines of force permeating the body. There is a centre of light around the navel and a higher centre of light at the head – the human brain representing the head centre. It is linked by the central vertical column of consciousness. The Libra principle at the navel is also the centre of the horizontal movement through space illustrated by expanding waves, and spheres of transparent globes representing the planes of creation.

12 June 2018, pencils and photo work

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Libra paintings.

The video:

Here is a sublime Sanskrit song which is part of the Madālasā Upadesha, or teachings of Madālasā. Madālasā Upadesha Stotra is the teaching of Saint Madalasa to her children. Upadesha means instruction. The stotra (hymn) is also known as Putra Upadesha Stotra or Putropadesha Stotra. The story of Madālasā is in Chapters 25-30 of the Mārkandeya Purāṇa. The Mārkaṇḍeya is one of the eighteen ‘great Purāṇas’ said to have been narrated by Rishi Mārkandeya.

The stotra is sung by Gabriella Burnel and the recording was commissioned by friends and students of the School of Practical Philosophy in Australia. Gabriella is a Sanskrit scholar and an accomplished musician and musical theatre performer; she is well-known as a composer and performer of poems and hymns drawn from the Sanskrit tradition (more info about her and the song on the website).

You find more background of the Madālasā Upadesha in German on the website of Yoga Vidya, also the text and another recording of the song together with MP3 download links on the page.

Here are more beautiful Sanskrit songs by Gabriella Burnel: Sanskrit Vedic Prayers, SANSKRIT SONG – The Wonder of Sanskrit, Sanskrit Song ‘Anandamayi’= MADE OF BLISS, Bhagavad Gita “I do nothing at all” – Gabriella and the Planets, Sanskrit Prayer to Dhanwantari, Relaxing Sanskrit Song: Tāra (ft Shiva Sutras), Life is a DANCE, Sanskrit Song for Ganesha, Shri Lakshmi Stotram – Happy Diwali, Sing Through Me- Song for Children inspired by Sanskrit Text, and many more.

Please also read the beautiful words of Gabriella about “Why I Studied Sanskrit”

Image (c) extract from the video.

Virgo represents the “womb of time” wherein the spiritual seeker is slowly matured through profound crises. He needs to grow into the light of knowledge and learn to use his free will in a responsible way. When nature considers him mature she leaves him to himself for further evolution to higher consciousness. Our earth is also in a slow process of ripening in the womb of the Mother Nature.

Virgo stands for the virgin nature of the Divine Mother. She is depicted with an ear of corn in one hand and a light in the other. They symbolise the spiritual food for the souls and the spiritual light which lightens the way.

For the illustration of the Virgin I reworked a photo (by Sailko, Wikimedia) of a statue of Hera, the Greek queen of the gods. In her womb I placed a human silhouette on the globe surrounded by a field of light. The goddess is walking on a forest path. In her right hand she carries two ears of corn and in her left hand she carries a flame lighting the way. The ears are pointing to the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, the mothers of the seven aspects of form life. In esoteric astrology, this constellation is deeply linked to Virgo.

18 May 2018, pencils and photo work

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Virgo paintings.

The video:

In meditation, the awareness is raised from the heart to the head, linking the personality to the soul and finally the soul to the super-soul. The head centre is the point of the highest illumination. A yogi meditates on the correspondences to higher centres: in relation to the planet, the head centre corresponds to Shamballa; in relation to the sun it corresponds to the cosmic sun. The other dimensions of the sun are the heart of the sun and the physical sun. With the planet, the corresponding other dimensions are the Spiritual Hierarchy and the humanity.

For this image, I used the picture of the head of a Buddha statue as the head of a yogi. I placed the symbol of sun at the Ajna centre, which is governed by the sun. I visualised the meditative ascent with a stair leading to a gateway of light (using elements of a photo by Till Krech, Wikimedia) in the form of a lingam symbolising Shamballa. I fused two images of the planet, depicting the Himalayas and beyond, Shamballa. They are shining through the head of the yogi. The crown of hair of the yogi is like a receptacle for the downpour of light. I created the flow with a picture of the physical sun (photo: Nasa), visualising the heart of the sun and the cosmic sun with other photos of the sun.

To represent THAT which cannot be portrayed – the inexpressible Oneness expressing into trinity and multiplicity – I positioned the three heads of a statue of Lord Dattatreya at the place of the spiritual sun, at the top, and surrounded them with an array of multi-coloured rays on a starry background.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Leo paintings.

The video:

The primordial light permeating creation is called the Mother of the World. The seers realized different stages of reflection of this light into the various states of creation. The reflection is called with different names at different planes but all are understood as expressions of the moon principle. The satellite of our Earth is just one dimension of this principle. Neptune is seen as a higher dimension, and on a supra-cosmic plane the principle is called Soma in the Eastern scriptures. The reflective principle functions in us as the mind, mirroring the light of the soul. The sixteen phases of the ascending and of the descending moon phases are called the sixteen syllabled name of the Divine Mother. They correspond to gradations of light and of consciousness.

For the illustration of the Divine Mother I reworked a Chinese painting of Quan Yin. The halo around her head is formed by merging an image of the Sun and of Neptune. She holds Neptune in her hands, lying in the crescent. From there, water, the vital energy, pours down to Earth. For the downpour I used a photo of the Staubbach Fall in the Bernese Alps. The bottom is created from a view over the lake of Geneva seen from an airplane. In the background of the Mother there is a dark blue moon representing the background of the cosmic moon principle. It is surrounded by the bright and the dark halves of the moon phases, where the lower sphere forms another crescent. Above the upper half you see a sphere of stars indicating the vast dimension of the Divine Mother.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Cancer paintings.

The video:

The point of the birth of objectivity from subjectivity is visualised as the gate of the temple linking the inner space with the outer space. It is symbolised by the glyph of Gemini ♊ or the Greek letter ‘Pi’, Π. Pi is the path from the circumference to the centre or the origin; it is called the path from visibility to invisibility. Pi stands for wisdom; the upper line of the symbol projects two vertical lines meaning that the duality emerges from the unity. Gemini is worshipped as the birth of the first Androgyne, the male-female God, the divine pair of Shiva and Shakti.

The centre of the image shows the gate of the temple formed by a duplication of the Greek letter Pi. The gate is standing on the periphery of the circle whose centre is the sun. The sun is located in the middle of the upper line of the symbol. The circle reflects again in the lower part of the image representing objectivity. On the surface of the water the light reflects like a path of light leading to the gate. In the inner of the gate there is a lingam of light, a symbol of the divine. From out of it comes forth the first pair.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Gemini paintings.

The video:

2 February 2018, pencils and photo work