For this month I did two paintings. The first one was done already in November, for the Guru Poojas, but I decided to publish it only for the beginning of the new solar year with spring equinox.

Lifting-up the Earth to the Kings of Beauty

11 November 2012, A 5, pencils, crayons and photo work

This painting arose inwardly after a meditation, while I was thinking about the Guru Pooja, an annual celebration in India in honour of the great Masters of Wisdom in the month of Capricorn.
Capricorn is the dawn of the year, where in the Northern hemisphere the days start to get longer again and the movement of the spirit is rising up from matter.
In the greater cycles the earth is on the way to rise from the dense physical planes to subtler realms, and the energies of the New Age are helping to “lift up the earth to the Kings of Beauty”, as it says in the 5th stanza of the Great Invocation.
For the picture I took a photo of an eagle, symbol of the rising spirit. I transformed it to this etheric blue eagle rising above the earth. Its wings are integrated into the lower part of the symbol of the Holiest of the Holy, the circle with the square and the cross. On the upper part I integrated the picture of Lord Maitreya, the head of Spiritual Hierarchy. The top of the square is at the Ajna centre of Lord Maitreya, the bottom at the heart centre of the eagle. The left and right wings touch the left and right points of the square.
In the background I placed a photo of a gorgeous sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea which I took this summer in Spain at Tossa de Mar after morning meditation, seen from the meditation room of the house of a friend. I enlarged the sun – the colours were so splendid. I placed several layers of the centre of the sun into the centre of the symbol, the greater sun forming thus the body of Lord Maitreya and the smaller sun his heart centre, from where he pours out his energy of Love all over the planet – depicted in the rose colours all over the blue of the planet.
You see three circles of the sun – at the very centre, of the size of the physical sun, as seen from our planet; then the larger sun filling the square of the symbol, representing the heart of the sun; and finally, the ring at the circumference and beyond the circle, symbolising the spiritual sun.

The picture illustrates the lift-up, about which K. Parvathi Kumar spoke at a seminar on Scorpio in 2005. The directions are points in the outside as well as in our inner:

“In Raja Yoga, the grand Masters sitting in the North-East pull us up. That is the lift-up. ‘May He lift up the Earth!’ They lift up the Earth from North-East. North-East is the junction point between Absolute God and God as Light. It is that point where darkness is transformed into light. In the Raja Yoga practice, you visualise the Masters at the North-East, at the top of your forehead, and seek their help, so that you are pulled up to that state of awareness. In Hatha Yoga practice, the help of these grand Teachers is sought for a push up. They can push you up or they can pull you up.”

30 November 2012, A 5, pencils, crayons and photo work

This image grew inside with the impulse of illustrating the enormous pressure of today’s society and its influence in the transformation process. There was immediately the visualisation of a volcano, symbol of throwing out matter from the inside through a fiery process of high pressure. And a diamond, as nature’s most brilliant result of a transformation process through pressure. It is meant as an allegoric illustration and not a presentation of a scientific process.
For the glowing magma chamber I first took pictures at my former place of work during the last days of my stay, but they were too static and not well suited to illustrate everyday pressure.
I then thought of the underground corridors and shopping passages at the central station of Berne. I went there, stood in the stream of people and took pictures. Some people looked at me a bit irritated. A shot with a running businessman and a traveller phoning and rushing by with his suitcase were the ideal pics. I fused them together, mounted a collage constructed by three volcanos and in the gorge of the volcano a fire-flow of the shape of a flying serpent or an angel and topped it by two diamonds, one enlarged in different layers. Since the diamond structure looked too mineral in its composition, I added in the background a picture of a rose flower of an echinopsis cactus.
Working on the picture with coloured pencils I created the glow of the “magma chamber”, the lava flows and the diamond on the top. Then, back to the computer, I intensified the colours to their right luminosity.
The idea illustrated in the picture is well described in the following extract from “Esoteric Psychology I” by Alice A. Bailey:
“The mineral kingdom marks the point of unique condensation. This is produced under the action of fire and by the pressure of the “divine idea.” Esoterically speaking, we have, in the mineral world, the divine Plan hidden in the geometry of a crystal, and God’s radiant beauty stored in the colour of a precious stone. The goal of the universal concept is seen when the jewel rays forth its beauty. If you could study the hidden processes which go on under the influence of fire, you would enter into the secret of initiation. When the day comes when the history of the mineral kingdom can be grasped by the illumined seer, he will then see the long road that the diamond has travelled, and – by analogy – the long road that all sons of God traverse, governed by the same laws and unfolding the same consciousness.”

10 days ago I found 11 pictures of my “Early Paintings” which weren’t published hitherto – and this blogpost is the first time they are shown in public after 32 years. They were among a collection of slides done from the original paintings in the early 1980ie. I found them because I’m preparing all my images and poems for a new website just dedicated to them. I took photographs of the slides and thus reconstructed the original pictures.

Though the quality isn’t superb (I didn’t want to buy a slide scanner just for these slides) I was very happy that I could rescue them this way and bring them back to manifestation. I give them here with the titles they now have in the order for the new website; partly there were titles and dates written on the border of the slides. I wrote explanatory comments and added quotations from Vol. III of the Secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky.

I wouldn’t have dared to show the pictures to a larger public 30 year ago, but now it seems to be the right time. This presentation is just a preview – the right place will be the website which will be launched in a few months.

Photographing the slides in the hazy light of morning fog

Sons of Light 7 – Fiery Metamorphosis
24 October 1981, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

At this time I was discovering the existence of the Cosmic Christ in relation to the individuality of Jesus Christ. This painting expresses the release of energy which happened through the transformation Jesus Christ underwent through the crucifixion manifesting most sublime energies onto the physical. The cross, symbol of his initiation, is in connection with the fiery world, and through his body there is an inpour of light. The elements are in a state of turmoil and the forms, the imprisoned souls, are waiting for their release.

“From the beginning of Humanity the Cross, or Man, with his arms stretched out horizontally, typifying his kosmic origin, was connected with his psychic nature and with the struggles which lead to Initiation.” Secret Doctrine III

Sons of Light 6 – Apparition
24 October 1981, a 4, liquid glazing paint and white covering colour on paper

In this painting I tried to express an inner vision or feeling of the existence of sublime beings which at times give us their presence. This was the only painting where I used white covering colour. The luminosity wasn’t satisfactory and I saw that representing details of shades of white weren’t as I felt they should be expressed on paper. Nearly 32 years later, when restoring the painting from a slide, I enjoyed the subtlety of the colour nuances which are vaguely expressed on the print-out.
This painting is kindred with the picture “Manifestation”.

Divine Mother 6
28 October 1981, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

This picture shows the return of the souls into the arms of the Great Mother.

Sons of Light 7 – Triumph
08 November 1981, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

This painting shows the final victory of Jesus Christ over the death of the physical body creating a tremendous release of light.

“The words “My God, my Sun, thou hast poured thy radiance upon me,” were the final words that concluded the thanksgiving prayer of the Initiate, “the Son and the glorified Elect of the Sun.” They were pronounced after the terrible trials of Initiation, and were still fresh in the memory of some of the “Fathers” when the Gospel of Matthew was edited into the Greek language.” Secret Doctrine III

Divine Mother 7 – The Family
12 December 1981, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

The painting shows Jesus together with Mary and Joseph, as the representants of the Holy Family in fiery flames

Spiritual Hierarchy 7 – Towers of Light
31 December 1981, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

This picture is a symbolic representation of the Spiritual Hierarchy as towers of light for humanity.

“White is the absence of all colours, and therefore no colour; black is simply the absence of light, and therefore the negative aspect of white. The seven prismatic colours are direct emanations from the Seven Hierarchies of Being, each of which has a direct bearing upon and relation to one of the human principles, since each of these Hierarchies is, in fact, the creator and source of the corresponding human principle. Each prismatic colour is called in Occultism the “Father of Sound” which corresponds to it; Sound being the Word, or the Logos, of its Father-Thought.” Secret Doctrine III

Transition
16 January 1982, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

I was fascinated by the etheric structure of the pyramid and the double pyramid manifesting in space. For me it was like a portal into another dimension, and at the same time a basic brick of the manifestation of the cosmos. In India the double pyramid is considered as a form of the Lingam of Lord Shiva, and, when visualised around oneself, as a structure of protection.

“The Infinite Unity, or Ain-Suph, is ever placed outside human thought and appreciation; and in Sepher Jetzirah we see the Spirit of God – the Logos, not the Deity itself – One is the Spirit of the Living God . . Who liveth forever. Voice, Spirit, [of the spirit], and Word: this is the Holy Spirit, [ Mishna, i. 9.] Three-in-one and Four and the Quaternary. From this Cube emanates the whole Kosmos. Says the Secret Doctrine: «It is called to life. The mystic Cube in which rests the Creative Idea, the manifesting Mantra [or articulate speech – Vâch] and the holy Pûrusha [both radiations of prima material] exist in the Eternity in the Divine Substance in their latent state» – during Pralaya.” Secret Doctrine III

Emanation
18 January 1982, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

This painting tries to illustrate how from the Eternal One, which opens like an eye from the beyond, the creation manifest. The down-pouring flames emanate the forms, the quaterary, the pyramid. At the time of painting I hadn’t yet studied the Secret Doctrine, but much later found the parallels.

“It is in the quaternary that the first solid figure is found, the universal symbol of immortality, the Pyramid, ‘whose first syllable means fire.’ “ Secret Doctrine III

Divine Eye 4
July 1982, A 4, liquid glazing paint and fast glue on paper

This painting visualises the Divine Eye as a portal to enter into the subtle spheres and the path which leads into the light. It is surrounded by three eyes representing the three aspects of the Divine – Will, Love and Light. The sperm-like forms in the periphery of the circle represent the souls which have taken through the portal and now are in the Light.

“The Pineal Gland is that which the Eastern Occultist calls Devâksha, the “Divine Eye.” To this day, it is the chief organ of spirituality in the human brain, the seat of genius, the magical Sesame uttered by the purified will of the Mystic, which opens all the avenues of truth for him who knows how to use it.” Secret Doctrine III

Worlds of Light 13 – Flames of Light
July 1982, A 4, liquid glazing paint and fast glue on paper

The image visualises the divine spark, the divine ego, surrounded by the flames from the One Flame.

“The essence of the Divine Ego is ‘pure flame,’ an entity to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken: it cannot, therefore, be diminished, even by countless numbers of lower minds, detached from it like flames from a flame.” Secret Doctrine III

Sons of Light 9 – Self-Giving
10 December 1982, A 4, liquid glazing paint on paper

The painting shows the self-giving of the lower to the higher self, of the personality to the Divine.

“The ‘harvest of life’ consists of the finest spiritual thoughts, of the memory or the noblest and most unselfish deeds of the personality, and the constant presence during its bliss after death of all those it loved with divine, spiritual devotion. Remember the teaching: The Human Soul, lower Manas, is the only and direct mediator between the personality and the Divine Ego.” Secret Doctrine III

I got the link to a song of Khwaja Mere Khwaja, a Dervishs’ Dance from the beautiful Indian movie Jodhaa Akbar, a scene of mystical rapture. I saw this great film at a seminar with Sri Kumar in India 2009 and later also at home. The film is an Indian epic historical drama film released in 2008. It centers around the romance between the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great and the Hindu Rajput Princess Jodhabai who becomes his wife. The video of the song shows the scene where a group of Dervishs is performing a song to the Emperor, who at the end joins their dance and is carried away into a state of ecstasy.

Pictures from the video Jodhaa Akbar (c)

Pisces is a sign of sensitivity and fluidity, of the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. In one sense it stands for the liberation of the soul from the bondage of personality. One fish represents the soul the other the personality.

When meditating on the picture of Pisces, the image of the stairway from the lower to the higher spheres came. I found a photo I took at the Château of Sanssouci in Potsdam some years ago and chose it as the point of departure, taking away the château except the centre, which became the entrance, the portal into the higher spheres.

They are symbolised by the sphere behind the glowing fish. I took a photo with the reflection of the sun in the sea, symbolising the soul reflecting in the personality. Behind the lower fish you see the skyline of New York, symbolising the life caught in matter.

On the stairway you see people descending from above and ascending to the light – the journey of the ascent of the soul – and the liberated souls descend again to help the people stuck in matter.

Devas on the right and left are guarding the path. One is giving his blessing; the other is holding a treasure, the fruit of wisdom. I used pictures from the monastery of Montserrat which I took this summer. I painted the central sphere on a photo of Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, and at the top you see some stars from a galaxy in the sign of Pisces.

The dome at the top reminds of the Greek letter Ω, Omega, and the stairway resembles the letter Α, the Alpha, symbolising the beginning and the end of creation.

In Spiritual Astrology (Master EK) it says:
“The sign Pisces is normally understood as the last sign of the zodiac. It is, in fact, the first and the last sign of the zodiac. This fact is denoted by the symbol of the two fishes travelling in opposite directions. If Capricorn is the “alpha and omega of the whole creation”, Pisces represents the “alpha in omega” and also “the omega within alpha” of creation. To the average man, this sign ends with the vernal equinox but to the man of the reversed wheel it begins with the vernal equinox. One who can link up these facts gets The Light.”

There is a beautiful video by Rassouli, the Iranian-American visionary artist living in California. It is a visual presentation of his series on The Eternal Feminine (exposition). He has also done a series on Goddesses and says, “Beyond the outer beauty, I paint feminine inner beauty to open the spiritual vision of the viewers to experience the inspiration that moved me to create the paintings.”

Rassouli is deeply influenced by sufism. Read his inspiring statements about his inspirational meditation work through painting, for example: “Creation is the product of synchronizing our energy with the universe. Once we experience the whole and recognize it, we become aware that we are nothing but the Divine Creative Force.”

He calls his art “Fusionart” and has taught many artist this spiritual approach. Here are links to websites about his huge world-wide influence.

Some time ago Rassouli gave me the permission to use his paintings for the e-card of the Good-Will website, there you find a small selection.

Freidoun Rassouli, from the video “The Eternal Feminine”

For the monthly paintings I take the inspirations mainly from the book “Spiritual Astrology” by Master EK (E. Krishnamacharya). I’m regularly reading in this book for over 12 years, but still there is quite a lot which I don’t understand. It is a very dense text, but when reading it a lot of images arise before my inner eye. And so I try to capture them with the paintings.

We just entered the sign of Aquarius. When reading the chapter on Aquarius I was fascinated by the description of the downpour of the energies from cosmic planes down to our planet. The description of the Ashwins, the Vedic twin Gods as winged horses made me think of Pegasus. I searched for an adequate representation and found a picture of a little statue of a winged horse which I took as a starting point. Below you see the figures of the two sages Vasishta on the right and Agastya on the left. They have a cosmic and a terrestrial dimension, guiding spiritual Hierarchies on our earth.

In the centre of the upper triangle you see the pot of Aquarius from where the waters of life are pouring out incessantly, though there is an opening on the other side where nothing flows in – the mystery of the Aquarian energies. In the centre of the lower triangle there is a picture of Uranus who receives the energies for our system. And below you see a triangle of mountains surrounding a huge lotus into which the energies are received. The vessel is on the planet but also in our heart. You see the Blue Mountains of the Nilagiris in the front, Mount Kailash in the right back – and from the “Swiss Himalayas” the Matterhorn at the left…

And if you have a close look, you see in the centre of the downpour a Deva figure…

Here are some thoughts arranged from “Spiritual Astrology” and “The Aquarian Master”, describing the spiritual dimension expressed in the painting:

“The One manifests as two and the two interact with each other, making various systems. The one centre from where these two energies descend is called “Aswins” or the twin Gods. The sign Aquarius represents this state, in which the two potencies are concealed, which form the expressions of time and space, of the divine breath. They are called Mitra and Varuna or the “Not untrue Beings”, because they are beyond the real and the unreal. They descend from the supra-cosmic plane as the twin horses with wings. They both conceive the great dweller of the supra-cosmic plane as Vasishta and in the cosmic plane as Agastya. These two seers preside over the spiritual dwellers of their respective planes. At the planetary level, Vasishta functions through the Himalayan Hierarchy and Agastya through the Blue Mountains. The two Hierarchies represent the two triangles. Vasishta governs the higher triangle and Agastya the tower triangle.” (From: “Spiritual Astrology” and “The Aquarian Master“)

25 September 2012, A 5, pencils, crayons and photo work on paper

Tomorrow is Winter Solstice and the beginning of the month of Capricorn. I have just published a new painting for the month, also as an e-card for Christmas. I did it already on 11 August 2012 and called it “Capricorn – The Dawn and the Light of the Higher Heart Centre”. How did the picture come about?

Capricorn is also called The Mount. On the painting you see bright mountains in the background – Himalaya summits – which I transformed a bit – in bright sunlight, symbols of striving to the heights, be it in the outer or in the inner. In the foreground there is the dark blue silhouette of a meditator, symbol of diving into the subjective worlds. A huge eight-petalled lotus of the higher heart centre carries in its centre the entrance to the inner light. The stalk is rising from out of a reddish sun and fiery flames surround the lotus. The sky above the mountains merges with cosmic spheres and at the same time the inner of the meditator. At the top of his head the jewel in the lotus radiates an electric blue light.

For some days I meditated on thoughts from Spiritual Astrology, and the picture developed in the inner: I perceived the huge lotus of the higher heart centre, a dark blue silhouette over-towering steep Himalayan mountains merging with the starry sky above.

When the inner picture is clear there just remains the task to bring it down – and that is where the meditative work starts. At the beginning I ask the Masters for help, for it is my experience that the flow of ideas takes to the right direction when guided from inside. I’m in a kind of elevated state as long as there is this flow – and when I get stuck, I have lost the inner connection. This picture developed quite fast. I took a mountain range from a collection of Himalayan valleys I had googled before – the same with a huge white lotus – and compressed it a bit to give the impression of altitudinarian summits.

I transformed a picture of Master MN, cut out the contour and changed the silhouette to black and a copy of it to dark blue. I made other copies, started creating layers in Photoshop to modify the nuances and experimented with different scenes of dawn and sunrise. For the lotus of the head I took a photo I made from an artwork of a friend and transformed it in perspective. And again several layers in different gradations. Then I took a photo of the constellation of Capricorn and transformed it to form the sky. I duplicated it, minimised and rotated it to place it at the inner of the head – the outer sky reflected in the inner

Then I printed the picture and started working on the colour transitions with pencils. This way the forms become softer and one colour subtly transits into the other, even if they are strong contrasts there is no hard border.

Since 2 years I always listen to some songs of Davide Swarup done with a new percussion instrument, the hang. It has certain similarities with steel drums, but is more melodious. Again and again I hear the same series of songs and they are very inspiring for me. They also accompanied me with this image.

Finally I scanned the picture again, did some final retouching and then did prints of a small format until the colours have the right luminosity. Afterwards looking at the new-born child of the soul I familiarise myself with the picture and show it to my wife before putting it on the altar to shine there for some days.

Today was a very important moment for me: I got a phone call from the printing office that I could pick up the pictures. They had produced 36 prints of my paintings with a special technique in A2 format and some in A3. I blogged about my “Experiments with Pictures” mid-November. Last Thursday I already had been in the print shop to control the prints, and then they had to be wrapped for transportation. I was thrilled about the good quality and the luminosity of the colours. It had been a long way while searching the right method with quite some waste producing.

So I took the car to pick up the paintings. It was heavily raining. When I saw the ready-packed pictures it was a solemn moment for me, though in the print-shop it probably was “business as usual”.

Walking through the basement of the printing office

The graphic designer who had accompanied the process putting the pictures on the forklift…

… and then into the car

At home on the sofa, ready for unpacking

Phoenix out of the ashes: the first of my “Fiery Paintings” done in September 1981, destroyed in 1997, now restored from a photo to its original beauty. It’s the only one of the old paintings I got produced now.

Unpacking and storing: though the photo doesn’t show, the quality of the colours is and the production is very neat.

An upcoming documentary called “Landfill Harmonic” is presenting a remarkable musical orchestra in Cateura, Paraguay – a “Recycled Orchestra”, where the young musicians play instruments made from trash. The film of  The Creative Visions Foundation (CVF) shows how a humble garbage picker in the barrios of Paraguay uses his ingenuity to craft instruments out of recycled materials – – all made from recycled metal drums, tin cans, and plastic pipes. The film portrays some of the children who learned to play violin, flute, drums, cello, string bass, and how a youth orchestra is born:

“Landfill Harmonic shows how trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings.”

You can like the project on Facebook to spread this inspiring initiative; a longer version of the video trailer is available here.

Pictures credit (c) Landfill Harmonic

First this picture didn’t show up clearly before my mind’s eye. When reading the chapter on Sagittarius in Spiritual Astrology just the impulse flashed in that it will be about Kalki. In the Eastern Puranas he is described as the 10th Avatar who comes to close the Dark Age. He is riding on a white horse, symbol of the purified energy of life. The saviour is said to destroy injustice, conduct judgement, sit on the throne and re-establish law.

I thought at once of the painting “Oirot – Messenger of the White Burkhan” by Nicholas Roerich, but in my inner view there was just the rider in a majestic posture, behind him spheres of light and mountains. However, the whole didn’t get clear. But there was the inner impulse saying, it will come.

To get an idea of the position I googled through many equestrian statues – but either the attitude of aristocrats was somehow too arrogant or too martial. When I saw a white marble statue from the Vatican I knew it was the right one, but I had to mirror and transform it. For the mountain range I looked through many sceneries of the Himalayas and made a collection, before I started on arranging the picture in Photoshop.

After some hours of work I thought that this time I wouldn’t get the picture done. I made pauses, observed the image again, prayed for help. One mountain scenery fascinated me very much. And suddenly there was the impulse of eagles coming in from above. Inter-penetrating spheres, fiery eruptions, colours of dawn. Finally the basic structure of the image was ready.

The next morning, Sunday during fire ritual, there was the inner lustre over the inner image. After breakfast I started to work on the printout, and now everything went very quick. The painting started its glow, and when I scanned it and worked it over again on the PC, the radiance shone in its beauty.

See “Images of Synthesis” for the image in high resolution.

05 August 2012, A 5, pencils, crayons and photo work on paper