This is a conceptual breakdown of one of my large scale paintings, "The Alchemical Divination of Soul Synthesis" 6ft. x 10.777ft. Oil, gold leaf on Birch. I went through hell completing this painting, it is one of my older pieces so was a good example of the new agey ideals that started my interest in the esoteric. Some time in the middle of this I was given my first "occult" book, "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel, which had a large influence on my work thereafter and helped me learn how to successfully create an esoteric architecture for my work, down to the use of covert colors, shapes and narrative. In the future I want to write a whole series of posts on occult art, how to read, create and find the symbolism in occult art.
Chris
The text:
This piece depicts a ritual taking place in which the soul/total informational experience of a being is transfered from a plant and re-materialized into human form.
The surrounding poplar trees are a represntation of the great collection of disembodied souls/experiences. The augurs or adepts are standing inside a "magical" circle from where they conduct the ritual. They are reading the magical rites from sacred scripts that they have prepared just for this ritual alone. The seedling poplar tree in the center represents the single soul/experience that the adepts are re-materializing through their divine ritual. The poplar seedling is burning as this ritual is commensing because the soul is leaving it and taking human shape. The choice to use a poplar resides in the fact that it's species is the first in which the genome sequence has been fully discovered and translated. This would lend itself more easily to a real life genetic dna mixing.
The Center Figure...
The center is shown rising above the ground as the small seedling beneath him is being burned, when the seedling is fully burned he will return back to the ground. On his chest is shown a poplar leaf which is a marking that shows where his soul was transfered from in this lifetime. The halo around him represents his connection to the divine and spirit world as the ritual is taking place. The halo is visually split into a cross shape which is a sacred symbol for many of the worlds religions and in this instance is representing a cross roads between two worlds; that of the spirit and that of the physical. On each end of the cross there are four symbols which are accompanied by a spike looking mark that represents the flow of energy. The symbol on the top of the halo represents the schroedinger equation(a wave function equation), the symbol on the right side is a mathematical symbol for wave, the symbol on the right side is the symbol for phi ( the golden ratio, in which the canvas is constructed), the bottom symbol over the mans heart is the poplar leaf.
The poplar leaf resides over the heart as a representation of the heart being the giver of life to the man and that heart being given by the seedling that was burned. The energy spikes are running upward (through the spine and towards the head).
The Phi symbol(left) represents the continuum of life and death as it is an infinitely repetious number which when represents itself in nature makes symetry and beauty. The energy spike is centering towards the head/mind as the acceptance of this continuum of life and eventual death is infused into the new life.
The Wave symbol(right) represents the specific wave vibration that the soul/experience has re-materialized into for this new life. The energy spike is centering towards the mind/head as the physical body is fully materializing and deciding which vibrational level to inhabit in this new life.
The Schroedinger symbol(top) represents the ability for the soul/experience to re-enter the spirit world through its journey in this current body. The energy spike is centered inward towards the head/mind so that the mind is filled with the knowledge that it once was a spirit and in different form and so has the ability to return to that space or form once again.The Adepts/Augurs, the six figures surrounding the center figure are compositionally shown inside a pentagon, which is the first self repeating polygon showing the properties of Phi. This is representative of their tapping into the great continuum of life and death.
Surrounding Figures and Vegetation...
The poplar trees and surrounding vegetation in the foreground are compositionally creating a circle around the whole ritual. This is to represent the encapsulation of the divine work. This would also create a pentagon inside a circle which is an ancient religious symbol used by many cultures. The composition would take this form when fully broken down(the compositional symbol).
The Adepts/Augurs, the six figures surrounding the center figure are compositionally shown inside a pentagon, which is the first self repeating polygon showing the properties of Phi. This is representative of their tapping into the great continuum of life and death.
The Seedling...
The seedling poplar tree in the center represents the single soul/experience that the adepts are re-materializing through their divine ritual. The poplar seedling is burning as this ritual is commensing because the soul is leaving it and taking human shape. The choice to use a poplar resides in the fact that it's species is the first in which the genome sequence has been fully discovered and translated. This would lend itself more easily to a real life genetic dna mixing. The seedling is also encircled by twelve rocks and sticks representing the zodiac and the poplar as the center representing the sun as it is releasing it's energy in this ritual.
The Compostion...
All the symbols have meaning in the composition as explained above but when read from bottom to top it also has meaning. At the base, the ground(rocks, sand, dirt) represents the base form of physical matter then the seedling represents base living form of physical matter where the spirit can dwell. The augurs crouching are not reading from scripts because they are reading from the earths energy and sending it up toward the center figure. As the eye moves up the composition the base of the feet and non essential extremities of mans physical form take shape encapsulated in the pentagon shape which represents the ability for spirit to take form infinitely form body to body. further up (in the triangle shape or top of the star) is shown the top half of the center figures body with all his vital organs and functioning parts, it is at this level that the other augurs are conducting their ritual and also at which level the horizon splits the painting representing a visual metaphor for the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds. At the top of the composition the mans head is shown encircled in a halo that is imposed on a star representing the divine link to the spirit world at which all the current spiritual work is being done in the ritual.
Thanks for reading.
Chris
https://www.facebook.com/chris.sedgwick.90
"Life sucks and then you die" -- Teen Wolf, 1985
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