Picture to the month of Capricorn

Capricorn, tenth sign of the zodiac, is called "the mountain". It is the mountain of initiation, a symbol of the spiritual quest of the personality to unite with the light of the soul. After climbing to the peak and absorbing the “light supernal”, the initiate returns to assist those who are captive in matter. Capricorn represents the dawn of the year. The golden rays of the morning sun, the winter solstice sun, pour forth a spiritual light and activity that help the souls free themselves from matter and rise up again.

The energy of Capricorn supports the development of the golden etheric body and also the diamond causal body. In mythology they are represented as golden and diamond dragons. Since ancient times, high beings have lived on earth called Nagas in spiritual wisdom. They are sacred serpents or dragons holding the light of wisdom. Like serpents, they live in hidden caves in the mountain regions. The Nagas can be regarded as embodiments of the Kundalini energy. They are the ascending serpents and are radiant and divine by nature. The descending serpents are represented as black and are poisonous by nature. The Nagas do a lot of good for humanity. Some of them are also said to be able to fly.  

For the illustration of the Dragon of Wisdom, I photographed a dragon statue in a Tai Chi centre in Hamburg. The mountain in the background was designed with a photograph of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Andes, which a pilot friend, flying over, had photographed. The essence of wisdom streaming down from the sun enters and illuminates the dragon. In his hand he holds a golden glowing orb, symbol of the gift of wisdom for humanity.

Picture to the month of Sagittarius

From a spiritual point of view, the sun of our solar system is a threefold principle. The visible sun is only the focal point for the action of a greater sun called the central sun or the soul of the sun. And the cosmic sun is the spirit aspect of the solar principle. This cosmic or spiritual sun is invisible and incomprehensible to us. The central sun, around which our sun moves, corresponds to the human soul. The physical body of the sun corresponds to our physical body. Everything is threefold in its manifestation.The physical sun has its correspondence in our heart centre. The soul of the sun has its seat in the Ajna centre on the middle of the forehead, and the cosmic sun is located in the head centre, the Sahasrara. In the Gayatri mantram, the three planes of the sun are called Surya, Savitru and Bhargo Deva. The cosmic plane of the sun is Bhargo Deva. Savitru, the central sun, receives the light of the soul from the cosmic sun and gives it to Surya. Through Surya, the visible sun, the earth receives its light and we receive the light in our hearts. Thus, we have the cosmic, solar and planetary systems embedded in us.For the human silhouette in the centre of the image, I edited a photo of the writer. I designed the background with a photo of a sunrise and elements of a NASA photo of a star nebula. The sun in the heart was created with photos of the sun. The electric blue light of the sun in the Ajna centre leads beyond the shape of the body. The radiant centre at the top of the image suggests the formless, invisible cosmic sun. The luminous central line merges into the light as individual consciousness gradually unites with universal consciousness. The semicircles in the lower part of the picture symbolize the different density levels from space to earth.

Picture to the month of Scorpio

On his symbolic journey through the zodiac, the Sun in Scorpio reaches the darkness of the underworlds. Scorpio stands for loss of consciousness and death experiences. These experiences often seem frightening because they reflect encounters with the dark aspects of our personality not yet purified. Scorpio enables us to enter into the silence for inner transformation and ascension to the light.

Scorpio represents the threshold to the infernal worlds. At this threshold a Master watches over the planet and its beings, ensuring that no one falls into the nether worlds. The Master is symbolised by the three-headed watchdog called Sarama in the East and Cerberus (Kerberos) in Greek mythology. Sarama stands for the dog star Sirius, the watchdog of our system. Master Jupiter is this watchdog.

To illustrate this symbolism, I transformed a Wikimedia photo by Matthiasberlin showing a group of statues from the archaeological museum of Heraklion, Greece. It depicts the three-headed Cerberus at the threshold of the underworld, surrounded by Hades/Pluto, the regent of the underworld, and his wife Persephone. She represents the part of the immortal soul that goes through the experiences of birth and death.

Picture to the month of Libra

In the wisdom teachings, creation is described as a wheel without beginning and end, which appears cyclically. Each new cycle has its own freshness, but the basic structures remain largely the same. When the impulse for a creation comes, the wheel begins its movement and radiates time and space. The point at the beginning of creation radiates and expands becoming a globe. With the movement of time, rays of light come forth. Objectivity emerges from subjectivity. The forms gradually take on denser matter; the cosmos and its stars are born and form the visible creation.

The underlying essence of everything is called Narayana in the East, the indwelling God Vasudeva and the all-pervading God Vishnu. Libra symbolises the principle of the fulcrum that causes the wheel to turn.

For the visualisation of the Wheel of Creation, I used a photograph of the Sombrero Galaxy taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA/ESA). I worked on the image of a statue of Vishnu as Vishvarupa, the embodiment of the cosmic person. It stands on the serpent Ananta, the endlessness. Its many heads symbolise the variety of phenomena. The planes of creation emerging from the centre of existence are indicated by the rainbow circle.

Picture to the month of Virgo

Creation comes forth from light, which, in the Vedas, is called Aditi or the Mother of the World. We are part of this original light and are, by our very nature, immortal beings of light. However, having forgotten our true identity and having assumed a false identity, we have become mortal. Whenever violation of the natural law threatens to lead humanity to self-destruction, immortal divine beings descend to earth to once again give the law and help humanity recognise its original identity. The immortals pave a way through which mortals can once again find access to the subtle realms. When the etheric body is built from out of golden light, we can experience immortality once again.

In Norse mythology, Ydun is the goddess of immortality. She guards the golden apples that confer eternal youth and thus immortality.

The figure of Ydun in the centre of the painting was created using a photo of a statue of Ydun by the Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798 - 1868). Ydun descends from the golden light to grant access to immortality with her apples. The sphere of the upper part of the picture shows the subtle world, the lower part of the picture indicates the dense physical world - both created with images from the virtual globe "NASA World Wind". The light structures at the bottom were designed with autumn-coloured leaves foliage of the ivy called Virginia creeper.

Picture to the month of Leo

Leo is related to our heart centre. The heart is the home of the soul. By turning inward, we enter the cave of the heart, lion's den.

The heart centre when opened transforms us into the man-lion. In the Eastern Puranas, the opening of the heart centre is symbolically veiled in the story of Narasimha, the Lord with the head of a lion and the form of a man. The story tells of a father and his son. The son knows that the Lord is within as well as without, even within a pillar. The father doubts this, and he breaks open the pillar. Out of the pillar Narasimha manifests to help his disciple Prahlada and to kill the tyrannical father. Killing the father by ripping open the chest represents the transformation of man through the opening of the heart centre and overcoming the limitation of the lower self.

The image was designed with a photo of a lion's head and a photo of a statue in the temple of Simhachalam, India. It depicts Narasimha opening the chest of Hiranyakashipu. The stone structures on the right and left indicate the opened column. It is a symbol of the column of consciousness, our vertebral column, from which the centres emerge like flowers.

Picture to the month of Cancer

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which reflects the light of the Sun. Cancer is a water sign; it symbolises the impermanence of our mind, which, like moonlight reflected in water, is constantly moving. The original light of the soul, on the other hand, is stable and constant like sunlight. Through the mind, the three higher principles within us are reflected in our three lower aspects, the personality. In the wisdom teachings, the Sun is considered the Father, while the Moon represents the Mother. Through her, the souls originating from the energies of the Father are drawn in, nourished and born through the lunar principle. The sunlight is golden, the moonlight is silver.

The half of the year from Capricorn to Cancer is symbolically represented as a golden bowl; in Eastern wisdom it is called the divine arch or the arch of light. With the solstice at the beginning of Cancer, the descent of the souls into the bodies takes place as an annual drama. The half of the year from Cancer to Capricorn is therefore called the silver bowl or the royal arch.

In the centre of the picture, you see the figure of the divine Mother, created with the help of a statue of Quan Yin. She is surrounded by the Moon and a field of stars shining in the darkness. In the lily pond below lies a silver bowl. Inside it shines a white and silver triangle with three water lilies blooming at its corners. Above the Mother's head is a golden bowl in which a golden triangle shines. At its corners there are three golden shining stars.

The bowls were designed with the help of a photo of a late antique Roman silver bowl, taken in 2007 during a visit to the museum of Augusta Raurica near Basel.

Picture to the month of Gemini

When seeing the 1838 “Map or Physical Tableau and Astronomy Chart” of the French cartographer Charles V. Monin in my collection of zodiac illustrations, I noticed that most of the representations depict the zodiac in an anti-clockwise direction, while in this map the signs were arranged in a clockwise manner. So, I selected Monin’s chart to depict the “reversing of the wheel”, which is worked out by an advanced disciple on the path of spiritual ascent and liberation.

I transformed the design of the chart and arranged it over a photo of a sunrise. In the centre of the zodiacal wheel, I constructed the triangles of the four elements, placing the air sign Gemini at the top. Air is considered the subtlest of the four elements, followed by fire, water and earth. In spirituality, there is a fifth element, space, being the foundation of the other four. In the chart, it is represented by the surrounding space.

At the bottom of the image, I inserted elements of a painting by the 18th-century English artist Joseph Wright of Derby. You see a group of people around an armillary sphere, an astronomical device for displaying the movement of celestial bodies. It is a symbol of the relationship between the microcosm and macrocosm, and of studying the cosmic interrelations.

Picture to the month of Taurus

Beauty expresses itself through many and various forms – a work of art, a beautiful flower. Beauty shines through the form. On the subtle planes the limitations of the material form fall away and beauty shines more radiantly. Beauty in the form is governed by Venus, ruler of Taurus. In our body, Taurus rules the lower part of the head and the neck. There are seven etheric centres above the neck related on the solar level with the seven stars of the Pleiades. They are also called the seven mothers who nourish the disciple after his spiritual birth with glandular secretions in this region in the body.

In the centre of the image, you see Apollo, the solar God, holding his seven-stringed lyre, symbol of the seven planes of creation. He is surrounded by flowers expressing divine beauty. From below, a serpent is lifting up its head. Apollo is raising the currents of the Kundalini energy to flow upwards and reach the Ajna centre. There, you see the shining star of the awakened centre.

Above the neck, there are seven stars linked to the seven stars of Pleiades. On the left side, in the vastness of the night-blue sky, you see a golden globe surrounded by a sphere of light and flowers. I created it with the help of a photo of Venus, from Nasa. For the figure of Apollo and for the flower meadow I worked on photos of friends.

Picture to the month of Aries

In Aries the Sun is exalted. Aries represents the midheaven and the midday where the Sun gives the brightest light. Aries is considered the head of the sun signs and also Aries represents the actual head of man. The highest solar centre in man is the Sahasrara, the head centre. When we stand vertically on the Earth, our head aligns with the midheaven. When the Sun is at the midheaven at noon, we can line up with the Sun. In this way we can align with the light in our head and connect with the greater centre of the Sun. This helps us to rise up from personality to soul consciousness and connect with divine consciousness.

The picture shows a group of people gathering at spring equinox and aligning and connecting to the higher energies. The circles around the Sun indicate the three planes of the Sun, the physical plane, the soul plane and the spiritual plane.

The colour of Aries is red. The shades of red along the central axis outline the figure of the solar angel through whom the energy pours down. The arced horizon line was designed with a photo of the Bernese Alps as an expression of the inner striving upward. At the top right you can see the Aries constellation and Mars, the ruler of the sign, and its glyph is at the top left.

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.

Picture to the month of Aquarius

The constellation Aquarius is called 'The Man in the Heavens'. The Masters of Wisdom recognised him as the archetype of man and called him Manu. The Heavenly Man has descended into the forms of the many human beings. As Manu, he leads mankind to perfection in accordance with the spiral movement of evolution. Master EK describes this development as spirally moving hieroglyphs.

In Aquarius it is recommended to meditate upon the glittering body of the Heavenly Man and how the stars of the constellation emanate forth the light of spiritual realization. Within us, the light pours down through all centres from the point of Aquarius at the top of the forehead.

The picture shows the light streaming down from the head of the Heavenly Man. A spiral comes forth from his heart. The background of the picture shows the hieroglyphs of a piece of the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet). In this text Hermes Trismegistos taught the relationship between man and the Heavenly Man with the words "As above, so below".

The predominant colour of the painting is between deep blue and violet. It is described as the colour of Aquarius. The actual colour appears as colourless to the human eye, since the human eye cannot recognise this colour. At the upper left corner, you see the stars of the constellation Aquarius and on the right side the Aquarius glyph.