Pisces – Chintamani, the Philosopher’s Stone of Heavenly Origin

23 November 2023, pencils and photo work

In various paintings by Nicholas Roerich, Chintamani is depicted as the treasure of the world. He also painted Chintamani as an extraterrestrial jewel which, according to Tibetan and Mongolian legends, is brought to the humans on the back of a white horse, Erdeni Mori, to enlighten the consciousness of humanity in times of darkness.

According to the wisdom teachings, Chintamani, the Philosopher's Stone, is a beautiful self-radiating jewel that is kept in Shambala, the ashram of Sanat Kumara, and is sometimes given to the Hierarchy.

There is also a dormant centre of Chintamani in every human being. We can visualise it as the jewel on the crown of our head in the centre of the thousand-petalled lotus. From there, this energy is sometimes brought to the forehead. It is a state of being that gives us bliss and enables us to realise the purpose of our life. The jewel of Chintamani reminds us of this goal.

To visualise the centre of Chintamani on the head, I used photos of a Buddha statue, a crystal and a gemstone as well as flower elements. The sparks of light connect with the stars and indicate the cosmic nature of Chintamani's origin.

In the background of the picture is an opening spiral, the beginning of which is not recognizable. It symbolizes the evolution of consciousness. From the center between the eyebrows, lines form a vessel that opens up into space. They indicate the opening of the personality to the soul and the merging with the Supersoul. The sign of Pisces stands for oceanic union with the cosmic consciousness.

Pisces - Saraswathi and the Flow of Energies

3 December 2022, pencils and photo work

Pisces is a sign of synthesis that unites opposites. The two fishes of the symbol Pisces are swimming in opposite directions but forming a complementary unity. The two fishes can be thought of as spirit and matter. Spirit and matter are apparent opposites that together give rise to universal consciousness. This consciousness is the underlying current that balances the opposing forces and allows creation to exist.

The flow of consciousness is called 'the Word'. In the East, it is worshipped as the Mother of the World in the form of Saraswathi, Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. Saraswathi directs the movement of all things, which we can meditate as a circular flow of energies in the wheel of creation. It is a flow of light and sound through all seven planes of creation. Symbolically, this is represented by the seven-stringed musical instrument Vina, on which Saraswathi eternally plays her music, keeping the process of creation in harmony.

For the design of the picture I used elements of the NASA photo of a star nebula in the background. I integrated the photo of a rainbow over streams of the Iguazu waterfalls, seen from the Brazilian side. The colours of the rainbow symbolize the seven planes of creation. Above, I inserted a Saraswathi depiction by Raja Ravi Varma from 1894. Saraswathi is playing on a Vina, as a peacock with its multiple colours watches nearby.

Pisces - The Blessing of Lord Maitreya

6 December 2021, pencils and photo work

The Earth has a Hierarchy of Teachers popularly known as the White Brotherhood. The head of the Hierarchy is called the World Teacher. The World Teacher in the present cycle is known as Lord Maitreya. The word “Maitreya” comes from the Sanskrit root “Mitra”, meaning friend. Maitreya is a sage of great brilliance; his teachings are of synthesis, unity of existence, and love and wisdom.

Though little known, the Indian Puranas contain information about him. The Vishnu Purana is a question-answer session between Parasara, the teacher and the student, Maitreya. Maitreya received the wisdom under a ficus (fig) tree at the eastern entrance to a cave which is said to be at Sravasti, in a region north of Mount Kailash. It is today called Shigatse by the Tibetans. It is believed that the ficus tree is still there even today and that he continues to bless the entire planet and humanity during the morning and evening hours.

To visualise this scene, I used a photo of a ficus tree at the Sun temple of Konark, India. I created the figure of Maitreya by fusing an extract from the painting “Transfiguration” by Fra Angelico and a picture of the head of Maitreya. The background was designed with elements of photos of the Himalayas and the Alps and of a sunrise taken during a flight over India.

Pisces – The Rod of Initiation

30 November 2020, pencils and photo work

For some weeks, I was pondering on the image for Pisces but the direction remained hidden. Going through my photo collections, I was attracted by pictures from an early morning walk along the beach in Visakhapatnam, India. The waves and the wet sand were mirroring golden rays. The meeting of sky, earth and water spoke of the cycles of time and of the endings and beginnings characteristic of Pisces.

While searching I joined a Zoom lecture of Sri Kumar and I was thrilled to hear him explain in detail the meaning of the rod of initiation and how to meditate upon it. The very word initiation means entering into oneself. That rod of initiation is in us; it is normally dormant but it can be awakened. It is a pole of light upon which there is a sphere of light, like a golden club - the rod of power or the weapon Lord Vishnu is holding in his hand. It is a symbolic representation of the inner side of our cerebro-spinal column and our head. I started drawing and contemplating.

I fused the picture of a golden club with a photo of a Bronze sculpture of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion (from the Metropolitan Museum). I arranged them in the centre of the image. Avalokiteshvara holds the rod of initiation. On his eyes and forehead, you see a lighted triangle with a central point, symbol of the basic trinity and the oneness. The meditative calmness of Avalokiteshvara, the eternal observer of everything, is in maximum contrast to the ever-changing movement of the waves of time and life. He remains blessing and protecting the beings through his looks.

Pisces – Spiralic Ascent

31 October 2019, pencils and photo work

Time moves cyclically. Every day is a time cycle, also every week and every year. As long as we remain in our old thought patterns and always do the same thing, we move in circles. As we evolve, we progress from circle to spiral – progressing spirally and ascending the path of evolution. When we learn to be useful to ourselves and to the environment, each turn of the spiral takes us to a higher plane of consciousness, until, freed from the limitations of matter, we finally move into higher circles. In the zodiac, the transition from Pisces to Aries offers the possibility of ascension; symbolically, it is called the resurrection from death.

The lower part of the picture shows the pair of fish swimming in different directions. The background of the painting is formed by the images of a spiral galaxy and a blue spiral, from the centre of which several spirals rise. Above there is the head of Phanes, a god of Greek mythology, whose name means "the appearing, the shining one". He is regarded as the first-born of creation and as a light bearer. The figures of the zodiac surrounding him are based on a Phanes bas-relief (Wikimedia: Sailko).

Above on the right you can see the glyph of the fishes and above it the constellation of the zodiac sign.

Pisces – The Spiritual Waters of the Sky

16 December 2018, pencils and photo work

Pisces symbolizes the eternal flow of energies. It is a cyclical movement in which the energies come down into the objective manifestation of creation; they develop and finally dissolve again to give way for new manifestations. This is called the movement of the waters of life. We can visualize it as a circular flow of water. It is also regarded as the wheel of creation, the descent and ascent of manifestation. This subtlest form of water is called spiritual waters or electric fire.

During some weeks of November and December 2018 I was in a rehabilitation centre in the Bernese Alps to recover from a cerebral bleeding. From my room there, I was looking over the Lake Thun to the Mount Niesen. The air was full of vibrant vital energy. The mount with its prominent pyramidal shape seemed to be an epitome of matter rising towards the spirit and spirit descending towards dense manifestation. The meeting of spirit/space and matter culminates in the nightly light on the top of the mountain. The lake and the lights of the town of Spiez at its foot receive the vastness of space and reflect the cosmic fire.

At the top of the image I put the arc of a nightly rainbow as a portal towards space. I increased the light spot on the mountain top and surrounded it by a sphere of light penetrating matter. I duplicated the reflections of the city lights to form an embrace. Then I covered the whole picture with a photo of a downpour of water from an old fountain.

Pisces - Flower of Time Cycles

19 November 2017, pencils and photo work

There is a cyclical movement of time in creation. It is like the growth of a seed to a tree bringing forth new seeds. The wisdom teachings explain that there is no end to existence. When a physical form is dissolved, it does not end but continues to exist on subtler planes. With seven cosmic pulsations the creation descends and ascends again. From innermost realms, it comes down to objectivity; and after a while, the direction is changed and there is again an ascent via subtle and causal states to the absolute state. Our earth is part of a chain of seven globes. There are earths in preparation in three preceding states, we are on this present earth in the fourth state, and there are earths in recession in three succeeding states.

I illustrated this great pulsation with the circle of the serpent eating its tail, a symbol of the eternal movement of time. I created three semi-transparent globes on the descending arc and three globes on the ascending arc with a crescent of the present earth at the centre. I transformed a photo of the gears of an old pocket watch (Wikimedia, Sachin Sandhu) and placed it in a desert-like surrounding symbolising the slow movement of time. From its centre grows a Brahma Kamala flower (transformed from a Wikimedia photo by Schwiki), a mundane replica of a celestial flower growing at high altitudes in the Himalayas, symbolising the sublime unfoldment of nature.

Pisces - The Great Fish and the Seed of the Universe

14 November 2016, pencils and photo work

Pisces represents the dissolution of an old state followed by a gap and the beginning of a new cycle. The stories of smaller and bigger deluges correspond to the monthly cycles of new moon and full moon or the ending and beginning of the solar year. The Wisdom Teachings explain that the Earth, the solar system and also the universe go through such cycles. There are periodical dissolutions called Pralayas. The seeds of the previous creation are preserved through the “flood” in a vehicle symbolised by a ship, and the Lord in the form of a Great Fish takes the seeds to the new creation.

I visualised the cycle by a circle with a central point, symbol of the Sun. At the same time the central point is also like a Sun from where a stream comes forth. The water of the flood is partly submerging the circle. To this transition point the Great Fish has drawn the boat with the Manus, the seeds of the new creation. The depiction of the Manus was created based on an old Mahabharata illustration of Ramanarayanadatta Astri.

Pisces – Alpha in Omega, Omega in Alpha

12 November 2015, pencils and photo work

Pisces is seen as the end of the zodiacal year which leads to the next annual cycle beginning with the vernal equinox. For a disciple on the spiritual path Pisces is the beginning of the cycle, since he moves in the retrograde direction towards the origin. In mundane astrology, Pisces corresponds to the feet, whereas for the disciple it is located above the head. In the body of the yogi, it is related to the pineal gland and the pituitary body which aid to produce light of the Higher Bridge to cosmic realms of consciousness. This light is the expression of the eternal NOW, the fusion of the beginning and the ending of creation.

The picture I received in meditating on Pisces consisted of two globes touching each other with a light in between and a head below. I understood the spheres of the globes as the contact of the past with the future in the light of the presence. The two touching spheres give the glyph of the sign of Pisces. I created it by fusing several photos of the Earth, the star Fomalhaut of the Pisces constellation and a lotus.

For the head I fused a wood-carved and a porcelain head of the Bodhisattva Quan Yin, the female correspondence of Buddha worshipped especially in the Far East. She is the Goddess of Mercy and thus a form of the World Mother related to Pisces. On the crown, symbolising the head centre, she wears a figure of Buddha, the light of the jewel in the Lotus. On her front I integrated the bridge of light between the pineal and the pituitary linking to the cosmic light.

The deep blue light of the background fuses the stars of the firmament with the night lights on earth and the aura of Quan Yin into one whole.

Pisces – The Tablet of the Universe

17 November 2014, pencils and photo work

In Eastern wisdom, the content of space is called Akasha. The impressions of the past cycles of life are recorded in the ‘Akashic records’, a kind of subtle photography. In ‘Spiritual Astrology’, Pisces represents this ‘tablet of the universe’ on which an initiate can read the past, present and future of the whole creation. Pisces also preserves the information about the human frame and its relationship with the frame of the cosmic man, which is hidden in the depths of our consciousness.

To illustrate the opening of the sacred content of space with its subtle records, I used an image of the stained glass windows of a Gothic cathedral, which I transformed and duplicated. For the cosmic man I extracted from an Indian painting the face of Ishvara, the Master consciousness of the universe and in our own being. On his forehead, you see the path of light connecting the pineal and pituitary – the representatives of the two fishes of Pisces. And above there is the crown of the head centre.

Below, I placed the “blue marble” of our Earth as the sphere of our life. I super-imposed the image of an embryo, symbolizing that our frame is made in the image and likeness of the cosmic man and that it is in a process of unfoldment.

Pisces is ruled by Neptune, who helps us to merge our lower consciousness (personality) into the higher consciousness or group-consciousness. I used a photo of Neptune to create the background of the image and to give it the mystic note, for Neptune is the soul of our solar Logos and is linked to the cosmic soul of our universe.

Pisces – Ascension, the Light of the Higher Bridge

28 October 2013, pencils and photo work

The signs of the zodiac have their correspondences in the body. Pisces is not only associated with the feet but also with the area above the head, with the pineal gland and the pituitary body. When the higher consciousness awakens, a light starts to manifest between these two glands and gives rise to an ascension via this higher bridge of light beyond the limitations of the body. Pisces represents the ascent of man into God; it is therefore also called the sign of completion, of the meeting of the “alpha and omega” of creation.

For this picture I used a picture of Jesus and of the transfiguration of the Christ, from a painting of Fra Angelico (1442). I transformed this painting and fused the face of the Christ with a picture of Maitreya. I arranged two photos of sunrises on the front of the image of Jesus, thus generating the view of the radiant etheric centres. I increased the intensity of the eyes which are observing the observer and created a fusion of the subjective and the objective spheres.

For the upper background, I warped a photo of waves rolling onto a beach, producing the impression of the vastness of the etheric ocean of space associated with Neptune, the ruler of Pisces. And the colour of the sign is that of the pure sky in bright daylight. I further worked on the head centre in the middle of which you see the blessing figure of Christ.

Pisces - The Alpha and the Omega

28 October 2012, pencils, crayons and photo work

Pisces is a sign of sensitivity and fluidity. The two fishes of the sign stand for the soul and the personality. I represented them as an upper and a lower fish carrying a sun in them. The sun at the top is reflecting below, just like the soul is reflecting in the personality. Behind the lower fish you see the skyline of New York, symbolising the life caught in matter. The stairway stands for the ascent and descent of souls. Angels on the right and left are guarding the path. One is giving his blessing; the other is holding a treasure, the fruit of wisdom.

Pisces – The Mother Blessing the Earth Through the Grace of her Looks

22 October 2011, pencils, crayons and photo work

In the Eastern wisdom Meenakshi is the Mother who blesses the earth through the grace of her looks. For the Mother I took an illustration of an Indian goddess, but replaced her eyes by bright blue eyes. For me, they symbolise the unfathomable depth of the motherly love. Her light radiates from the centre of her forehead. Beside the earth you see the hands of Meenakshi; they hold and bless the earth, whose aura thus becomes a radiant blossom.

Pisces – Fusion. Synthesis of Existence

06 November 2010, pencils, crayons and photo work

Spiritual astrology says that Pisces represents the blessing through the look of the eyes of the Mother.

For this picture I used an image of Maria and transformed it into blue. I surrounded it with the ring of eternal existence. The fishes surround her on the ascending and descending arc of the circle / of evolution. On the top of the left side, one fish is gliding through the depth of space, where you see the sign and the constellation of Pisces. At the bottom on the right side, the other fish is diving into the depth of matter, where you see a group of souls incarnated into human bodies on the material plane. You can discover Sri Kumar standing at the left side of the picture, and the author sitting at the bottom right side. The night-blue colours represent the background of existence, the potential space in which all forms manifest.