An impressive video of a ride on the Atlantic Road at the north-west coast of Norway. It was built in 1983-1989 and seems to be running through the roaring sea. The video was done the day after the storm “Dagmar” hit the shore and caused a lot of damage in the area.

The symbolic impact of the images is like an illustration of passing through rough times in one’s life. It reminded me of my feelings during a period one year ago till this spring. You are going ahead on your way, but there are gale-force winds and sometimes the road seems to be covered by spindrift clouding your vision.
Now the inner times have totally changed – my wife just called it the velvet blackness of unmanifest potential, quoting a thought of Barbara Ann Brennan in Light Emerging.

Map images from Wikipedia

Photo from the video (c)

In the last weeks several friends asked me when I would do an exposition with my paintings. I replied, “I’m not ready yet, they have to be in another format and way of presentation.” But their asking made me start searching for a solution.

The “original version” of the paintings is a digital version, result of digital and analogous work. I saw on the web an interesting method of mounting pictures on aluminium dibond. So I ordered picture enlargements with direct print on aluminium and with photo paper foils on aluminium. Though the pictures were well produced, I wasn’t happy with the luminosity of the images. They looked either blurred or the colours like dark blue didn’t show up well.

Two of the pictures of the first experiments this morning in our garden – the colours didn’t give the right brilliance.

I knew from previous experiments when I sent the pictures to a photo laboratory that a brilliant reproduction isn’t that easy – the quality wasn’t satisfying me. So I normally use an ink-jet printer and do the printout on photo paper – there the quality is excellent. But the maximum size I can to is A 4.

I asked a print specialist at my office and he recommended me a specialised print shop in Berne.

2 weeks ago I went there, explained the problems and showed to the print counsellor the ink-jet results. He told me that these computer printers work with a RGB colour space, but that they use CMWK colours and that it isn’t easy to find the right tones. I decided to get a sample printed on foil in A 3 so that we can see how to further proceed.

When last week I saw the result I wasn’t satisfied: The image turned out to be too green and the tones of orange and yellow didn’t show up well. The counsellor proposed to do adaptations with the help of the foil and the ink-jet image to find the right tone. I said I wanted a mounted A 2-version to be able to better judge the quality and not to have to do too many costly experiments – some hundred francs had already gone in these test-prints.

The picture on the foil between autumn leaves in our garden

When I yesterday saw the mounted picture the colours finally were in the right tone and luminosity. I felt relieved for the further production. But when I looked over the picture I saw irregularities of the mounting and the way they had done the suspension. So again another round…

He proposed to do a printout on foil of all my (newer) paintings, the Images of Synthesis, in a small format on a long foil. So we would be able to find the optimum general colour settings for all of them – otherwise it would be very costly to do it all individually. This will be done till end of next week – and hopefully the production can start.

I’m very fascinated by the impact of these large-size works – but after production I’ll have to find a storing solution for them.

Another experiment with the paintings was the “by-product” of quite another situation:

I was curious how viewers with a non-spiritual background would react on the pictures. In the 80ies I had experienced an irritation and a lack of comprehension when I showed the pictures which I later destroyed and now have digitally restored from photos.
When showing my newer paintings to friends they said that they needed my explanation of the symbolism expressed. My language of symbols of a “fusion of east and west” didn’t reveal itself to the onlookers.
I started calling the paintings “inside-out, outside-in, east and west” and wrote comments on how they came about. They are not only influenced by my spiritual backgrounds, but also by the long inter-cultural work and my journeys.
I got very positive feedbacks mainly via the web, but I didn’t show them yet physically to a general public. An English woman wrote to me this week, “I really cannot impress upon you how beautiful I find your artwork. Your images are imbued with light and a certain sacredness that pierces the heart.”

Since I had received a cancellation notice of my job at the Red Cross due to restructuring and yesterday left the office after precisely 260 months of work there, I didn’t want to go away with any resentment but joyfully and upright.

So I celebrated my going away by personally saying good-by to many old colleagues. I used it at the same time as a “coming out” with my paintings. I had prepared a selection of images which are more easily understandable as cards and let them chose one as a good-bye present. Neither me nor they did know at that time that it also was an experiment – I only realised it this morning:

It was very interesting for me to observe the reactions. I distributed cards to 58 persons. Only one did not want any, with a few I felt that they had to open for a new way of expression uncommon to them. Most of them didn’t know of the eastern symbols like Lakshmi, Krishna or Kuan Yin. Many said that they hadn’t seen such images before nor this kind of technique of a cross-over of analogous and digital painting. Many were deeply touched – and it was always a good turn-around of the normally gloomy good-bye moment.
Even with my superior, who had given me the notice of termination it turned out to be a very good experience. I had done an intense inner preparation work for this. He was positively surprised when he saw the cards. He chose one and put it on his shelf in the office.  I left light-heartedly not only from this final talk, but also from the office.

So the experiment turned out to be successful. Now I’m looking forward how the production of the mounted images will work and where and how a first exposition will take place.

The image experiments placed this morning in the garden. You cannot judge the colours by the photo

I got a beautiful powerpoint with pictures of the Chinese painter Abraxsis Der Jen. I couldn’t find out much about her, but saw this sublime video which shows the paintings from the powerpoint and more. See also the videos on YouTube. And here are her paintings on Pinterest.

The expression of the women depicted is like from supermundane planes – expressing a gracious noblesse and purity, with alabaster-like faces, clad in precious brocade tissues and decorated with gorgeous flowers or ornaments.

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Painting of Abraxsis Der Jen (c)

This impressive Thousand Hand Quan Yin was a dance created by Chinese choreographer Zhang Jigang. The dance was performed by 63 deaf dancers of China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. Because they could not hear the music, there were 6 directors in white clothes helping them stay synchronized with the music.

The dance describes the legend of the Bodhisattva Quan Yin, who had one thousand hands. Bodhisattva Quan Yin is a “Proto-Buddha”. She cannot become a Buddha because she remains devoted to the world. Her vow is: “If a single tear is still being shed in this world, I will not become a Buddha.”

In Secret Doctrine, of HPB, and Spiritual Astrology, of Master EK, it says: “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.” I have done a painting about Quan Yin for the month of Virgo.

Picture from the video (c)

Here is the trailer of a fantastic documentary about the Birds of Paradise in New Guinea – nature’s creativity and colourful originality at its best, with feathered beings I never saw before. The video of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Geographic was published this autumn. An exposition in the National Geographic Museum was launched today. Enjoy.

A picture from the video (c) National Geographic

Next Monday is Scorpio full moon – so here are some words about how the picture I did for Scorpio on 14 July 2012. If you would like to send it as an e-card, it’s here – since yesterday you can send again e-cards from the Good-Will website – thanks to my son Nikolas, who wrote the program.

When the picture started to appear in the inner, after studying the chapter on Scorpio in “Spiritual Astrology” by Master EK, I thought that I wouldn’t get it out. There was a face at the upper right side with the bridge of radiant light between the pituitary and the pineal on the front, the sign of enlightenment. At the left end there was the tree of consciousness, as in the story of Adam and Eve, where the serpent was falling down, the fall of the spirit into matter. There was a starry vault and flying serpents ascending, the Nagas or Enlightened Ones, – the liberated souls, the Masters of Wisdom.

I didn’t want to start painting, for I “knew” that I wouldn’t get it down. But there was the impulse, just go ahead, it will develop.

First I arrange the structure of the pictures in the computer before printing it out for painting and then I work again on it in the PC again. I collected pictures, googling, searched through my photo collection.  I finally saw a picture of a serpent flying through the air, jumping from a tree, which I took to start with and worked it over. I merged it with a photo of a huge tree I took some weeks ago – it became the Tree of Life from which consciousness descends into matter to gain experience. The serpent is falling down like a flash – it got a light-filled head and a body of red colour with a yellow line.

For the upper face I found a beautiful profile which I transformed into this dark mother watching over the scene with the light of the “electric hint” on her front – the “higher bridge”, the “pituitary hint”, as it is called by Master EK. And the lighted side-face reminds of the ascending serpent in bluish light. It observes the magic dance of the ascending flying serpents with blue jewels as their heads, and in the background stars of the constellation of Scorpio, joining the enchanted dance. They are ascending from the lower into the higher sphere, from the “burning ground” of the planes of suffering on our earth, where the souls are caught in ignorance.

For this part I took a picture of a totally crowded beach in China, all the people standing close-by-close in the water. Though it is now covered with colour you still recognise the crowd – symbolic of the humans caught in the waters of the emotional and lower mental spheres. The sphere seems to be closed by the “ring of the horizon”, the plane in which the ordinary people are locked up. The flames behind were not flames, but worked out from a photo of a surfer in a wave seen against sunlight – again a symbol of the watery sign of Scorpio and its fiery ruler Mars. Its fire reflects at the higher sphere, but doesn’t penetrate it. There you see the vastness of the starry vault. Above, there are the apples of the tree of experience, now the fruits of wisdom gained.

When I thought the picture was ready I sent it to Sri Kumar. He answered, “Let there be an eagle too over the snakes.” First I thought, oh, this isn’t possible, the painting is already finished. But then I visualised a shining eagle and I set on integrating it. And this was just the closing point of the picture.

Scorpio – The Ascent of the Serpent Through the Pituitary Hint

We all know that the sky isn’t empty anymore but crowded by planes. And we know that radar surveillance works to conduct that traffic and sometimes a plane comes down unexpectedly. But I was much astonished when I saw the website FlightRadar24, where you can see the life traffic in many parts of the world. You see where a plane started, where it’s about to go and at what height and speed it is travelling.

There is a tremendous traffic going on over Europe – like a swarm of birds, but flying in all kinds of directions.

A print screen from FlightRadar24

On their website they write:

“The technology we use to receive flight information from aircraft is called ADS-B. Roughly 60% of all passenger aircraft around the world are equipped with an ADS-B transponder. However, this percentage will continue to grow….

Flightradar24 is a flight tracking service that provides you with real-time info about thousands of aircraft around the world. Our service is currently available online and for your iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) or Android device plus for your Mac OS computer. Read more about our flight tracking apps….

Flightradar24 started as a hobby project in 2006 when two Swedish aviation geeks decided to build a network of ADS-B receivers in Northern and Central Europe. In 2009 we opened up the network, and made it possible for anyone with an ADS-B receiver to upload data to the network. Many parts of the world were quickly covered, but the quest to provide global ADS-B coverage is still ongoing. Hopefully with your support, we will get there….”

So not all areas of the world are covered – where there are no data fed to the network of FlightRadar24, there is no information.

Real-time flight traffic, data from FlightRadar24 (c)

A very touching video (5.5 min) by the Greek film director and producer Constantin Pilavious about patience and understanding between a father and his son. The beauty and depth lies in its simplicity. Greek with English subtitles.

And I saw another video by Constantin Pilavious, with silent beauty. Well done and worth seeing. He writes:

“Once upon a time in a country far far away a boy lived, very different from all the others. His name was Eftichis. Everything ran smoothly in his life until one day, many many years ago an incident made him see life from a different perspective. And suddenly, a big secret was revealed.”

Last Thursday was the only good day in a series of rainy days. So I took off to go with my wife to Mount Harder above Interlaken. While going up the valley was still packed with clouds which later dissolved. Autumn nature was displaying its full beauty.

Looking down while going up. In the “Harderbahn” above Interlaken

At the hill station

In the valley the clouds looked like floating cotton

A majestic view to the Mount Jungfrau, Eiger and Mönch.

View of Interlaken – situated “inter the lakes” of Lake of Brienz and Lake of Thun. The leaves are getting fiery colours

The lake of Brienz shining in deep turquoise colours

The lake of Thun with view of Mount Niesen

A fantastic panorama platform over the steep mountainside

“Living at the edge”

Walking down a steep mountain path. You have to be very concentrated, for the ground was still slippery from the rain of the last days.

Curious cows…

… and curious walkers

Houses of fairyland in the forest

A little pause, with view to Mount Jungfrau and Interlaken

A waterfall on the way down

Heaven and earth meeting in an old bathtub – a watering place for the cows

About 20 years ago I saw the very impressive movie of Peter Brook, The Mahabharata. I now came across the part of the end credits of the cinema with the Śvetāśvatara Upanishad sung by Sharmila Roy. It is a song full of depth and beauty. You can find more parts of this grand production on YouTube, for example the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna at the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, given in the Bhagavad Gita. Here is the video in full screen mode – if you open it on YouTube. Enjoy.