In Plato’s famous allegory of the cave he shows that what you think as true is not the true existence, it is only discovered when you liberate yourself and walk out of the cave to see the sun. The video “Shadowland” by the experimentalist dance company “Pilobolus” reminded me of Plato’s parable – a magnific play presented at the German show “Wetten dass” in April 2011. Enjoy.

Extract of the video (c). The video has been removed, please see here a trailer and more about Shadowland.

I went through turbulent times during the first 6 months of the year. It culminated in receiving my notice of termination of my work contract after 21 years. I felt a great relief, it was for me a sign that something new, better would come. In a meditation the vision of the picture “Libra – Birth of the New Earth” came to me. I saw the old structures collapsing, the energy being withdrawn, and at the same time felt the seed of the new sprouting, though not yet manifest. And so the picture was finished 16 June 2012.

For the painting I used different photos – one of the skyline of Hong Kong, which I transformed with Photoshop, one of a painting of angels I had googled some time ago, and others. You see brightly illuminated high-rise buildings on a burning ground which are about to crumble down. And in the depth there is the formation of a new globe out of shining etheric flowers manifesting in a field of deep blue. A group of angels is observing the beauty with rapt attention.

There is a tremendous contrast between the subtlety of the new earth and the display of grandeur of the old structures, which are ready to sink into the abyss. For me the picture is a figure for the present situation in many areas of life – not in the physical sense of a physical new earth coming into being, but of new worlds opening up when you drop the debris of the old.

You find a description of the deeper meaning of the picture in the following lines from the book on Hercules by Sri K. Parvathi Kumar:

“Many are the secrets of Libra. The whole bubble bulging like a globe is an aspect of Libra. Emergence of a point and becoming a space globe is an aspect of Libra. An emergence of an impulse becoming a planetary globe is an aspect of Libra. The growth from the centre to the circumference is an aspect of Libra. The point bulges on all sides, from centre to circumference and from circumference to centre. The key is held by Libra.”

You find more paintings here.

Though we have not yet entered into the sign of Virgo, I would like to publish already the picture I painted for the month, since we will go on  holidays in 2 days.

While I was inwardly searching for the expression of the picture for Virgo, I came across photos of a statue of Kwan Yin I took in the house of friends in Alsace, France. Each time I saw the sculpture I was fascinated by its beauty and serenity.

In May, 3 days after an ear surgery, my wife had arranged for me a bioresonance treatment to stabilise the energies of my body. I was astonished that the therapist proposed to me to treat me first with the vibrations of the Aura Soma essence of Kwan Yin. It was a bottle with a pale orange colour, and as soon as she applied the frequencies I inwardly felt a vivid vibration of a similar colour, though brighter. She then continued treating the effects of the anaesthesia which provoked a metallic feeling with a dark red colour, and then she changed to applying the frequency of an orange essence, and I immediately experienced a field of strong orange / golden yellow.

Next day the picture to bring down was quite clear inside. At first I cut out a photo of the statue of Kwan Yin and changed the greyish colours to golden yellow. I then searched a photo of a waterfall, and the proper flow was a picture I took 5 years ago of the waterfall below the Beatus Caves (a place in the Bernese Alps where many years ago St. Beatus lived, a monk of Irish origin) and changed its colours to a similar reddish-gold. Afterwards I took a picture of the ceiling decoration of an Indian Minakshi temple. Minakshi is related to Pisces, the opposite sign of Virgo, having complementary energies; she is the goddess with “eyes of fish” showering grace through her looks. I transformed the picture in perspective and made a double overlay. Then I took a picture of a golden yellow lotus flower and arranged it as the Sahasrara of Kwan Yin, and added the picture of a sun globe. Finally I took a circle of moon phases and arranged it as a garland of Kwan Yin, placing the full moon / new moon behind her head – moon is the inner ruler of Virgo, being a reflector for the rays of Neptune.

I then printed out the image on paper and started working on the colours and shapes to get the right transitions between the different colour shapes. Then I scanned the image and worked again on it with the computer to gain the right luminosity of the colours. Some test prints and finally picture shone forth in its proper radiance.

At the end I searched for the description of the spiritual meaning of Kwan Yin and the symbolism I had used:

“Kwan-Shai-Yin is identical with, and an equivalent of the Sanskrit Avalokiteshwara, and as such he is an androgynous deity. Under his female aspect, he becomes Kwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, called the “Divine Voice.” In the Vedic and the Puranic symbolism, this plane of the divine Word is also called Gayatri, the Great Mother of the Dawn. The World Mother is called the Virgin, who finds her expression as a principle in nature and in man through the sign Virgo.”
From the “Secret Doctrine” and “Spiritual Astrology”

The picture for the month of Leo discloses itself intuitively to the observer, but some words might help for a better understanding.

The wisdom teachings tell us that the sun we see is just the physical appearance of the soul of the sun, called the heart of the sun. And this one is hiding the central spiritual sun. Our sun is an inlet gate for the higher planes. In us the physical heart corresponds to the physical sun. It is the seat of the pulsating principle of life, the sound of which is also called the roar of the lion. So you see in the picture the radiating lion in the centre of the lotus.

When we listen to the sound of pulsation and fall into its rhythm, the mind comes to rest and we slowly get uplifted out of personality to unite with the ajna centre on the forehead, the heart of the sun. This is depicted as a huge flower like a sunflower with a pulsating heart in the centre. The spiritual sun corresponds to our head centre, the sahasrara, where the spark of the eternal light rests in the centre – the jewel in the lotus. This is represented as a sun globe opening its petals into space.

In the background you see the window of a cathedral. I constructed it from out of three cathedral windows and transformed the colours into fiery golden yellow. It represents the inner subjective side, the holy space within us, which opens up and allows the fusion of the different planes of light to happen.

You can download the high-resolution version from the Good-Will website.

A great flashmob concert in Sabadell, Spain, with the Ode to Joy. The video description says:
“On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.” Enjoy.

Normally shadow is seen as the absence of light, having a negative connotation. In the fascinating works of the Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita he is sculpturing shadows to create “objects” through a single source of light. The objects just exist through the arrangement of other objects creating the form seen through the interaction with light. On his website you find a number of objects where the form he created is the shadow.

Here you see shadow persons talking:

In a Japanese video of a show you see some of his installations, fascinating:

You find more on YouTube.

In spirituality the shadow is the symbol of the personality and the soul of the inner Light. The self-conscious personality is but a reflection of the universal soul. Sri Kumar says in “The Aquarian Cross“: If we are after our shadow, we cannot reach the light. The shadow is nothing but our own personality. In so far as we continue to fulfil our personality needs, we are only running after our shadow. “When we are running after our own shadow we have no direction”, says Pythagoras.

So shadows is a topic for this time of Cancer, where the Sun starts its seeming southwards journey again and the shadows start getting longer.

Morning light shining on the Krishna statue in my work room

If you like playing keyboard – here is a virtual one with different modes.

A Montblanc competition with short films of one second – many beautiful short impressions.

A scene from a video

We have just entered into the full moon phase of Taurus, which culminates tomorrow at 05:36 CEST. This full moon is considered to be of a particular importance in spiritual circles, being called the Vaisakh (Wesak) Full Moon of Buddha Purnima, the full moon, where Buddha found enlightenment. It is also worshipped as the full moon of Spiritual Hierarchy, the Masters of Wisdom, which are the guiding Light for humanity. I tried to illustrate these central ideas in a painting I did last year, called “Taurus – Receiving the Milk of Wisdom”:

In the Vedas Taurus, the Bull, represents the sound principle. Creation is also called the roar of the bull whose sound fertilises consciousness.The roar, the influx of energy into our system, is coming from Rohini or Aldebaran in Taurus. The bull thus also symbolises the Divine Word which is received by Spiritual Hierarchy in the month of Taurus as the Plan for the year. Allegorically the bull is represented as Nandi, the vehicle of Lord Shiva. Incessantly he looks at Lord Shiva who sits there in the form of a lingam.

So for the picture I took a photo of the constellation of Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus, then placed the head of the bull, from an Indian temple, in the upper centre and on the head of the Bull a picture of Buddha. I made a photo of a lingam and arranged a waterfall on it. Then I placed around it many pictures of the great Masters of Wisdom, with Lord Maitreya, the head of the Hierarchy, and his team of co-workers in the middle. All is done on the background of deep blue, symbolising the energy of Love and Wisdom. The cosmic wisdom is regarded as the milk of the Divine Cow, the universe, and here it is flowing down from the cosmic heights.

You can read hear some inspiring texts from Sri Kumar about the Vaisakh Festival, as a help for your full moon meditation. And the following video shows scenes of the festival in a valley near Mount Kailash, where it is celebrated since times immemorial. So it substantiates that it is not, as has been supposed for a long time, a fanciful idea of esotericists.

If you want to read more about the spiritual significance of Taurus, see here the Letters on Spiritual Astrology. You can also download here the painting in a high resolution.

You might not have the time or money to travel all around our planet, but you now can have very beautiful panorama views of many wonders of beauty all around the world. The Russian website airpano.com offers fantastic 360 degrees aerial panoramas of  the following places and more (the sequence is from an e-mail a friend sent to me):

Amazon, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam , Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Lake Mono , California, Liberty Island , New York, Sydney , Australia , Victoria Falls, Manhattan, Saint Petersburg , Russia, The Palm Jumaira, Dubai, Hollywood, National Park, Australia, Maldives, Underwater, Maldives at night, New Zealand, Fiordland, Las Vegas,  Las Vegas, Night, Miami, Moscow, Cape of Good Hope , South Africa, Angel Falls, Venezuela 1, Angel Falls, Venezuela 2, Golden Gate Bridge , San Francisco.

Not a 360° panorama-view, but view of the Alps (Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau) from our balcony 2 days ago: