With winter solstice, the esoteric Christmas festival, we just entered into the month of Capricorn, where the northern journey of the sun starts again.

For several weeks, I meditated on the symbolism of Capricorn but no complete picture came up. There was just an idea but I thought that the complex symbolism cannot be depicted in an appealing way. However, the impulse for the painting continued. And during the work on the picture it slowly manifested. Its symbolism is not easy to be understood by a Westerner. In short: The earth is lifted up from matter to spirit.

At the bottom you see the head of Varaha, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as the White Boar. The Puranic lore describes how he lifts up the earth from out of the depth into manifestation, and from matter to spirit. Varaha is particularly worshipped in Capricorn.

This month is the dawn of the solar year and also the dawn of the great time cycle of our creation called a Manvantara. The earth is depicted as floating on the surface of the waters of space; it is supported by Varaha and surrounded by a huge etheric lotus flower, the symbol of unfoldment. Behind, there is a great sunrise, and from beyond the sun a dragon rising. On its back you see Varuna, depicted as a five years old boy with four arms. As they move through space the trident in Varunas hands, representing Neptune, is creating lines of force, which are the guiding lines for the Aquarian age. The white dragon, the vehicle of Varuna, is called Makara in the Vedic scriptures, meaning Capricorn.

4 September 2013, A 5, pencils and photo work

I tonight received the link to a most touching documentary, The Animal Communicator. It is about psychic animal communication and portrays the work of Anna Breytenbach, a South African-based professional animal communicator. She has dedicated her life to what she calls interspecies communication. “She sends detailed messages to animals through pictures and thoughts. She then receives messages of remarkable clarity back from the animals. Anna can feel the scars hidden under a monkeys fur, she can understand the detailed story that is causing a birds trauma, she transforms a deadly snarling leopard into a relaxed content cat – the whole animal kingdom comes alive in a way never seen before – wild birds land on her shoulders, fish gather around her when she swims, and wild unfamiliar baboons lie on her body as if she is one of their own” (from the presentation of the documantary on the site of the film festival Culture Unplugged, the video has been removed from there, it is now available on YouTube).

Tracing animals is a very ancient tradition used by indigenous people for hunting. The movie presents interview with animal tracers describing their work.

You can find more about Anna’s work on her website Animalspirit.org. There she also gives links to other The movie cannot be framed here in the blog, so just follow the link. The film (52 min) is very well done and changes the understanding not only of animals but of our relation to creation. See the film until the end – the last story with the black leopard is very impressive.

There is also a short YouTube presentation of Anna, see below. Or here.

Anna Breytenbach, the Animal Communicator, pic from the documentary (c)

A traumatised wild black leopard who totally changed his behaviour after communicating with Anna, pic from the documentary (c)

Anna Breytenbach introducing her work.

Whenever you have tried to silence your mind you will have realised that it keeps on moving. Only when you move on to the next higher plane of pure energy, the thoughts slowly vanish. The same, when you try to fight any disturbing outer influences such as noise you will notice that your fight is in vain – or better that the disturbance is inside and not coming from outside.

In his computer animated short “The Fly“, Hanjin Song, a graduate from a school of art and design in Florida gave an excellent illustration of this principle of meditation: A samurai is seeking inner peace by trying to rid himself of the distraction by a fly. However, he discovers that the flies multiply and seem to be coming at him harder and faster. Only when he starts accepting the disturbance ends and he really turns inward. Well done!

The fly on the cheek of the samurai – picture (c) from the short.

The two hours before dawn are considered to be most propitious for deep contemplation, where the awareness can easily link to the subtle planes. At this time nature prepares the new day and we can receive plenty of vital energy. In the annual cycle, Sagittarius is said to be the “two hours before dawn” and very beneficial for the spiritual aspirants.

For the painting I took a photo of a pre-dawn sky taken from an airplane I fused two photos of wooden and ceramic statues of Buddha. I placed the figure into the centre of the structure of a double pyramid surrounded by a circle. It is the symbol of transformation, a diamond enabling protection of the meditator, of a group, a nation or even the globe. It is also called a temple, from where positive energies spread out and help to reorganise the subtle matter. The diamond stands for the four cardinal points of the day and of the year, the Midheaven (MC; Medium Coeli) and the Nadir (IC, Imum Coeli).

In the centre I placed the lotus of the heart centre surrounded by golden light. The lotus is formed by different layers of radiant light. I took a photo of prismatic reflections on the walls of my home office and constructed the central column from the base centre to the head and beyond. Around and above the head you see an aura of vital energies in different shades of violet penetrating the space.

You can find more new images on my website.

3 August 2013, pencils and photo work

The butterfly is a profound symbol of transformation – it goes through very different stages of its existence. A caterpillar has seemingly nothing to do with the strange chrysalis, and who would think that out of this immobile cocoon a beautiful flying being would emerge?

In our lives, we also might experience going through very different stages which seemingly have nothing to do with each other. There are clairvoyants, like Barbara Ann Brennan, who have observed with some people that for a longer period they are going through a time of pregnancy followed by a profound transformation, a second birth. During this time in the “psychic uterus” we might feel locked up, not knowing which direction our life wants to take. We are in a state of transition, which is frequently accompanied by deep inner crises and a reorientation of what we want to express in life. If you hold on, you might experience coming out of the chrysalis and step into a new life, where your soul’s intention can freely express – like a butterfly, symbol of the soul, coming out of the chrysalis and starting to fly.

Dinu, a friend from Mysore, whom I had visited in January, had his camera ready when a butterfly, a Plain Tiger, came out of the chrysalis. He documented it in his blog, “Dinu’s Yarden” (Yarden = Garden + Yard) and just sent me the link to the beautiful 2 min. video – must see!

There are millions of butterflies rising from out of their chrysalis but it needs a human eye to observe and a human heart to gain the inspiration and realise that it’s a story about his own soul.

The Plain Tiger just before eclosion. Pic: Dinakar KR (c)

In October, my wife Cyrille was at a weekend seminar on Earth Energies with Janet Treloar, whom she came to know from a pre-course for a spiritual regression formation with Andy Tomlinson which she now is starting in GB. During the weekend Janet used an iPhone-app for aura-photography (saying that apps for Android etc. don’t give good results…).

Cyrille was curious (me too!) to do some experiments herself, and so she got the old iPhone from our youngest son Nikolas who installed the app (for less than 2 euros). However, Nikolas was sure, as well as his brother, that the app is creating just some “colour magic” and not making any subtle vibrations visible. Cyrille and I thought, let’s make some experiments. And though we don’t understand how the app really functions – it seems that it interprets the waves taken by the pics and renders them, sensing emotions and/or etheric forms –  and how to interpret the colours and forms which sometimes present in a seemingly random way but there are some astonishing effects.

Since some years, Cyrille is training her sensitivity and has been studying and practicing spirit release work. She took the camera and went on a walk in a nearby forest with a friend. There they did a number of shots. Her friend felt intuitively drawn to a certain area:

Both were surprised about this dark cloud. Cyrille sent some light in it, with little success, as the following pic shows. A dark spot remained.

Taken aback, they went closer. Cyrille felt her familiar shiver indicating some subtle presence. She guessed an earthbound being there. Together with her friend, they released it, invoking their souls and archangel Michael. After the work, but still feeling the presence of the light beings, the next pic was taken.

Cyrille’s experiments are inspired to a great degree by the very interesting book of Louise Ireland-Frey, MD: Freeing the Captives. I was thrilled to read it. Though it is of course a topic discussed controversially, we have seen impressive results ourselves when working with spirit release.

At another occasion two weeks ago, my wife did a remote spirit release work via Skype together with a friend, let’s call her Ann. Ann’s friend, let’s call her Marta, had submitted herself some days before into a psychiatric hospital due to a psychic crisis. Ann had the impression that there were dark energies around. Cyrille and Ann did a remote release for Marta. Cyrille felt that there was some dark energy around Marta, and before they started the work, she took the following picture of herself:

After the release work, the dark energy was gone. At the same evening, Marta quite of a sudden felt much better. The next morning she left the hospital. An accidental coincidence?

Cyrille noticed that the pics become clearer when she takes them with an inner focus. So for the next three pictures she invoked the devas of our garden and of two trees:

The deva of the old walnut tree

The deva of the oak tree

The deva of the garden

And here is a pic I took of myself when doing the first shots with the aura-app. There were pics of quite different colours and forms – as I said before, some seem to be random, others in tune with what we thought to correspond with the situation.

“You are the infinite in your own way – the connection is within yourself…. Be the idea, be the deed… And no one of you is outside the heart of all that IS… Out of your soul be Light. For you are nothing else…” An amazing video visualising the cosmic connectedness and the etheric world.

Pic from the video (c)

The Canadian film maker, musician and meditation teacher Daniel Schmidt and his wife Eva Dametto have created a beautiful film called “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds“. The film could be described as the external reflection of their own adventures in meditation. The movie consists of 4 parts which they have published for free on YouTube: Part 1 Akasha, Part 2 – The Spiral, Part 3 – The Serpent and the Lotus, and Part 4 – Beyond Thinking. There is also an additional musical part, called Pranava – Deep Chant and Yantra Meditation, and a trailer.

On their website you see their profound motivation which is behind these films:

“It became clear during the making of the film that Inner Worlds Outer Worlds had to be released for free for the benefit of all beings. In the ancient traditions the dharma or “the truth” was always taught freely and never for personal gain or profit in order to preserve the purity of the teachings. It is Daniel and Eva’s belief that to awaken one’s true self, one must awaken the entire world. Daniel and Eva have started the Awaken the World initiative www.awakentheworld.com to bring the ancient knowledge back to the earth in order to restore balance and harmony on the planet.”

Even if you don’t have the time to see all the videos, it is worthwhile to have a look – beautiful images and good texts. You can read more on the Facebook-page of the film. Or, if you feel motivated to “spread the word”, there is also a call for help to translate.

A spiral – a manifestation of the basic energy of life (c) from the video The Spiral

Part 1 Akasha
“Akasha is the unmanifested, the “nothing” or emptiness which fills the vacuum of space. As Einstein realized, empty space is not really empty. Saints, sages and yogis who have looked within themselves have also realized that within the emptiness is unfathomable power, a web of information or energy which connects all things….”

Part 2 – The Spiral

“The Pythagorian philosopher Plato hinted enigmatically that there was a golden key that unified all of the mysteries of the universe. The golden key is the intelligence of the logos, the source of the primordial om. One could say that it is the mind of God. The source of this divine symmetry is the greatest mystery of our existence….”

Part 3 – The Serpent and the Lotus

“The primordial spiral is the manifested world, while Akasha is the unmanifested, or emptiness itself. All of reality is an interplay between these two things; Yang and Yin, or consciousness and matter. The spiral has often been represented by the snake, the downward current, while the bird or blooming lotus flower has represented the upward current or transcendence….”

Part 4 – Beyond Thinking

“We live our lives pursuing happiness “out there” as if it is a commodity. We have become slaves to our own desires and craving. Happiness isn’t something that can be pursued or purchased like a cheap suit. This is Maya, illusion, the endless play of form….”

The wisdom teachings refer to the manifested creation as an inverted tree. In the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says: “The whole Creation is an inverted tree. The roots are up above, the branches are down below”. The branches (manifestations) of Nature are downward, towards the gross matter, and the roots (causes) are above, in the subtler planes. The wisdom teachings describe the downward movement into objectivity as female (Nari), and the ascending movement as male (Nara). Both movements together form the cosmic person, Narayana.

We are just in the month of Scorpio. Socrpio has to do with profound transformation, with going through the depth of matter and the chance of turning back to the spirit. As a starting point of this painting to the month of Scorpio, I took a picture of snow-capped Tibetan mountains reflecting in a lake, and I digitally warped the mountains into a downward u-form. At the top I placed a tree as the original “idea” of the tree. It is projected downwards into the lake, the inverted tree of creation. I took a photo of the Vitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci, took away the extra arms and legs and integrated him into the tree. His head is penetrated by the roots from the upper tree – receiving the ideas from cosmic dimensions. Then, I extracted the Venus from a photo of Botticelli’s famous painting “The Birth of Venus” and fused her, downwards, into the Vitruvian Man, thus creating the male-female Androgyn. I worked on the painting with pencils. I transformed a photo of the roots of a tree and put them, pointing downwards, in several faint layers around the upper tree: The roots are in the blue space at the top, the manifestation of the tree extends below.

You might like to have a look at my other paintings.

16 July 2013, A 5, pencils and photo work

I’m not really a fan of Japanese Anime films, and years have passed by since I “read” the last Manga comix when my sons were still younger. But recently I stumbled across an Anime video called “The Rebirth of Buddha“. Somehow I was drawn into the fantastic story, and my wife and me kept on viewing.

You can read about the story in a short or an interesting long version in Animenetwork.com. It says that behind the film there are people inspired by a Japanese neo-spiritualist movement called “Happy Science”. But this I only came to know later when I searched a bit the web. And it seems that the story is illustrating a book of the founder of Happy Science: An article about the movie says: “The film illustrates Happy Science’s belief that the religious figure Buddha will return ‘when the world sinks into darkness’.” This is precisely what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that “When Dharma, the Law, is significantly disturbed and the world and its existence are being threatened, then I come down to establish the Law.” And it reminds of the expectations of a return of the Christ or of the Shi’ites waiting for the coming of the Imam Madhi…

What attracted my interest was the way the movie is presenting realities from the subtle worlds in the presentation. The film starts showing how Sayako, a young high school journalist, hears about the suicide of Kanemoto, a newspaper reporter she admires, and slowly develops clairvoyance. She sees how spirits and dark thought forms are moving around. On a train station she is nearly drawn in front of a moving train by a dis-incarnated soul and saved in the last moment by a friend. In these seconds she witnesses how the reporter who had committed suicide is standing in front of a council of Elders – like it is being described by hypnotherapeutic “Life between lives” researches like those of Michael Newton.

The plot of the film is a big battle between the powers of good and of evil – with alien attacks and gigantic mass manipulation by Arai, the “false Messiah”, fought by Sorano, the re-born Buddha, and with the help of Sayako. And in between there are some sermons of the new Buddha, probably spreading the beliefs of “Happy Science” and the hope of a big “bling” to solve all the problems. However, you meet various scenes where they quite well present subtle realities: The visual realization of the spirits of mass manipulation reminded me of descriptions of Aurobindo and the Mother about the psychic effects of fear and of contagious diseases.

Though the story is full of spirito-fiction, sometimes diving into kitsch, the film is very well produced and of a high visual quality. Enjoy.

Sorano, the Buddha reborn, healing a boy possessed by evil spirits. Picture (c) from the video