Picture to the month of Capricorn

Capricorn is represented as a mountain top, the point where spirit and matter meet. At this most subtle and translucent state, the individuality becomes so pure and transparent that the light from above shines through. The personality ascends to the higher self, and the soul prepares to receive the energies of the super-soul. When the super-soul descends into a form, the Christ consciousness is born in a pure vessel. In the New Testament this pure body of light is called the “radiant white robe”. After the personality is conquered, the soul is glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is also the Mount Sinai, where Moses experienced the “I AM THAT I AM” in the Burning Bush. The pure body of light is symbolised by a radiant five-pointed star. This star is also embodied in the shape of man with his outstretched arms, the two legs, and the head. We can take to this position and visualise with closed eyes how orange or golden light enters into us.

You see this symbolism depicted in this painting. For the orange light I transformed a photo of a cosmic nebula, for the mount a Swiss mountain top. The figure of Christ is created from an Indian image.

Capricorn is also called the gate of death, the release from the bondage of form. Cancer, the opposite sign, is called the gate of earth life, where the souls lose themselves in matter. Cancer is ruled by Moon. I depicted the cycle of incarnations with the moon phases from no moon (new moon) to full moon and back to no moon. The full moon is placed at the centre of a big crescent Moon, symbol of the form-bound consciousness. The pale light orbs at the bottom represent the souls bound in matter.

Picture to the month of Sagittarius

The Eastern wisdom describes seven working intelligences in creation which exist as seven principles on the cosmic plane. They are called the Seven Seers / Rishis or Seven Judges. They have incarnated as the seven stars of the Great Bear and have externalised as seven rays. This principle also expresses on earth as seven great sages, as seven layers of consciousness and as the seven energy centres of the human body.

Spiritual astrology explains that Sagittarius is the sign of judgement and that the seven judges are related to this sign. Sagittarius is the sign of aspiration to noble goals where the spiritual student dreams of becoming a seer whose plans are one with the cosmic plan.

At the start of this image, I worked on a photo of the Great Bear. Seven rays in the colours corresponding to the related Seven Seers come down to earth. There, the Seven Rishis are depicted as seven flames, which I superimposed on the shape of the Earth. One of the flames is radiating in a human silhouette, where a line in rainbow colours represents the seven centres. The silhouette is standing on a radiant blueish sphere, looking to the Earth. The globe, surrounded by a subtle aura, appears like the pupil of a great seer. The image has a background of blue, the colour of Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius.

Picture to the month of Scorpio

Scorpio is ruled by Mars. On the mundane planes, the Martian principle is related to blood, fight and conflicts. In the East, the sublime aspect of Mars is visualised as Kumara, the ‘I AM’ consciousness (This is explained in the book ‘Mars. The Kumara’ by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar). We can visualise the Kumara as light emerging from our centre into six directions – east, west, north, south, above and below. The six-armed cross represents the six dimensions. He is described as an eternal youth of sixteen years. He holds a spear, as a powerful celestial weapon. We can identify with it as the energy inside our cerebro-spinal column piercing through the lower nature.

The Kumara constitutes the axis of Taurus-Scorpio around which the zodiac is formed. Taurus is ruled by Venus and Scorpio by Mars. The masculine energy of Mars in association with Scorpio kills the evil and gives birth to the serpent of wisdom. The feminine qualities of Venus soften the masculine quality of power and bring about beauty.

To depict this symbolism I transformed the image of a statue of the Kumara holding the spear. I constructed the radiant six-armed cross emanating from the centre. I put it at the centre of a ring galaxy (photo by NASA). Behind the Kumara I placed a red rose forming the reddish aura as a symbol of the beauty aspect of Venus. The stem of the rose is fused with the vertical axis. I transformed its leaves into a serpent-like form on which the Kumara is standing.

Picture to the month of Libra

Libra teaches to turn from the outer to the inner, from the circumference of life to the centre. It is symbolised by a circle with a central point representing the Sun centre. By contemplating on the central point of the heart centre we can enter into the subtle spheres and ascend to the higher planes. The fiery spark of I AM is the solar angel, which we are in our essence. It is a ray from the Sun. On the upward journey we are returning to our source. Man is a potential solar system. The Sun we see is a gateway to the Central Sun and this in turn is an expression of the Spiritual Sun. Like the Sun, man is a micro-image of the Cosmic Person. This symbolism is a profound meditation.

Pondering on the symbolism of Libra I tried to visualise the centres of the different circles. Each being has an individual central point and thus has a unique circumference. However, as they are all expressions of the One Existence, this is described as “centre everywhere, circumference nowhere”.

On the central axis of the image I placed a human silhouette with the energy centres and a radiant heart centre. There is a larger fiery silhouette in the background symbolising the solar being. I surrounded them with circles of different sizes representing the different spheres and their limitations. Vertical lines of various lengths illustrate the stages of ascent through the different planes. 

I transformed an image of Krishna to represent the Cosmic Person. The human and the solar being are looking towards the Cosmic Person, their origin. The Cosmic Person is surrounded by an aura of a starry field.

Picture to the month of Virgo

Virgo is the month of the World Mother, the universal awareness or the basis of creation. She is called Gayatri in the Vedas, the Light of the World, and worshipped with the famous Gayatri mantra. She is depicted with five visible faces and a sixth invisible one. Of the five faces, the one on the extreme right represents the brilliant solar light and the face on the extreme left the soothing light of the moon. In between there are the three faces of the primary colours in the order of red, golden yellow and blue. The invisible face in the background stands for the absolute light of the background.

The World Mother is depicted with the aura of the rainbow indicating the seven planes of existence or the seven rays of the original Light. Each plane is subdivided again into seven sub-planes creating the kaleidoscopic beauty of creation.

To depict the World Mother, I used an Indian image of the Mother and transformed it by changing the colours and replacing the faces with extracts of women portraits of Western painters mainly from the 19th century. I kept the colour expression of the faces. Then I created a circular rainbow aura around the Mother and added seven rainbow hemispheres on a blue starry background indicating the expansion of universal awareness through all the planes of creation.

Picture to the month of Leo

The soul is an image of God. It is a replica of the super soul and it expresses itself through the mind, the senses and the body. If we want to come in touch with the divine radiation of the super soul, we have to release our association with the outer form and orient within. This way the inner man is formed and we can relate more to the super soul, the source of our existence. 

As a symbol of this orientation upwards I used the photo of a friend standing on a sand dune in Tibet in front of a lake with mountains behind and a vast sky above. To depict the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and space surrounding the personality I created spheres of different colours and the shape of the aspiring individual with his hands lifted up. 

Light pours down through three globes – super soul, soul and personality - and is received into the individual. It is anchored in the head, the heart and the base centre. The light detaches the man from the impact of the surrounding spheres. He is oriented upwards to remain in touch with the source of Light.

Picture to the month of Cancer

Cancer represents the descent of the soul into matter and the relation of mother and child. At birth the soul ‘falls’ from the spiritual world into matter, imprisoned in the dense sheath of physical incarnation. The mother nourishes the child and gives her affection. Mother Nature protects the child until it awakens to the soul and consciously ascends from matter back to the spirit.

Meditating on the symbolism of Cancer I caught a glimpse of a converging spiral. In the spiral I perceived the different steps of the descent of the soul into matter, and this linked to the mother protecting the growing child. Their interaction reminded me of the glyph of Cancer, ♋.

However, it took some time of searching until I found access to the actual composition of the painting. As a point of departure, I chose a Shalagrama stone, an ammonite, whose spirals are regarded in the East as a symbol of the universal principle or God. I transformed light reflections from butter-lamps in an Indian temple to represent the stages of the descent of the soul, superimposing them on the spiral in different colour shades. For the mother and child I used elements of two Italian Renaissance painters: the mother from a painting of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) and the child from a painting of Fra Angelico (1395-1455). The spiral ends and also begins in the heart of the child, being near the heart of the mother – Cancer rules over the heart centre. The looks of Mother Nature come out of a veil of light; the face of the child radiates strength and purity. The surrounding greenish blue hints at the higher ruler of Cancer, Neptune.

Picture to the month of Gemini

Meditation creates an energy field around us. When done in a group it is much more effective. By uttering OM as a group it builds a huge funnel into the sky and brings in sublime energies. It has to be a prolonged intonation with full intent. In silence we can receive the energies descending from above. In this, the individual consciousness might experience group consciousness or even universal consciousness.

To depict this process, I used a photo of a group living which I fused with layers of blue. In the foreground I created a field of various light balls with the help of photos of oil lamps, city lights and flames. It symbolises the process of merging of the individual souls into group consciousness. The individual units ascend through a funnel to a point of light from where radiant white and blue rays emerge. Thus, the group is receiving the downpour of light and is uplifted.

Picture to the month of Taurus

To be able to perceive the energy structures in the subtle spheres you need to develop the inner sense organs and purify your system through right living and spiritual practices. There are several energy centres in the body. In the process of unfoldment, a bridge is built between the pineal and the pituitary linking the related subtle centres. When this bridge of brilliant light is built, the centre of the third eye opens and allows subtle perception. When the consciousness is further raised, a connection to the centre at the top of the head gets established.

The centre of the third eye is related to Taurus; it is called the “eye of the bull” and it governs the power of clairvoyance. In the cosmos, it corresponds to the star Aldebaran.

To visualise these subtle realities I made a “selfie” of the upper part of my head. I superimposed a picture of Aldebaran with the surrounding stars of Taurus and constructed the bridge of light and the third eye with the help of other stars. I depicted the head centre by transforming the picture of a flower changing the shape of the petals to a mountain scenery. Then I worked on the colours and the radiance.

Picture to the month of Aries

The three fiery signs of the zodiac – Aries, Leo and Sagittarius – are described as three fires. The cosmic or electric fire is the spirit, the pure energy. It expresses through the solar fire, the energy of the soul, and then through the terrestrial fire by friction or the visible expression of the energy. Before the energy consolidates into the star dust to form stars and solar systems the Eastern scriptures call it the great serpent Ananta, the cosmic Kundalini. It is identified with the constellation of the Dragon and described as moving on the great ocean of milk, the immense ocean of solar globes in various stages of formation.

I visualised the three great fires as three suns using the photo of a sunrise over the Mediterranean. The fiery globes are connected by a downpour of light, where the lower receives from the higher and distributes the light in its turn. 

I constructed the serpentine movement of the cosmic Kundalini spiralling through the various planes of creation with the help of elements from a photo of a ring galaxy. The head of the serpent is above and the tail in the lower sphere. It moves around the three fiery centres and creates the matrix for the further consolidation to the visible universe.

Picture to the month of Pisces

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.

Picture to the month of Aquarius

The Eastern Scriptures describe in poetical form the birth of matter and the passage of its formation from the space as a river flowing through all the planes. The apparent creation comes from seeming nothingness and the bridge between these states is called the Aquarian passage: on one side there is the creation and on the other side there is the seeming vacuum which in reality is everything. The point of the emergence of existence expresses as the deep blue of space. From out of the deep blue all other manifestations happen. Blue is but pure white in its depth. To the spiritual eye all colours exist in blue.

The point of the Aquarian passage in us is the Eye of Shiva, the Divine Will. This eye is on the top of the forehead and is far superior to our third eye. Through this centre energies can flow from supra-cosmic spheres to all the planes of creation. This passage is used to absorb all that exists or to let new energies pour in for a new creation. The Scriptures say, “When Shiva opens his eye, all can be destroyed.”

To visualise the Aquarian passage I placed a dark blue field at the very top followed by a field of brilliant white. Below I shaped the third eye of Shiva and two closed eyes - symbolising the focus within -with the help of the image of a wooden statue of Shiva, which I worked out in golden yellow. From the third eye there is a downpour of white light to Earth. It is received on top of the White Mountain, the Mont Blanc. I took the picture of this highest mountain of the Alps during a flight back from Spain. In the background I fused another photo of the blue sky with an image of a torrent of the Iguazu Falls located between Brazil and Argentina. It is emblematic of the waters of space containing all potentials of creation.