Gemini - Descent and Ascent of the Divine Spark
7 March 2024, pencils and photo work
According to the Wisdom Teachings, we are sparks of the divine. This is our inner nature. We are also known as solar angels. Like a ray of sunlight coming from the source of light, we have descended into earthly matter. As souls, we have gone through eons of development on earth. We have entered a body again and again, forgetting that we are a spark of divine light. On the spiritual path, we are now beginning to turn once again to the source of light. We are developing more subtle bodies through which we are able to rise up out of dense matter. And the light of the inner sun begins to shine through us more and more.
To depict the sphere of the sun, the divine origin, in the upper part of the picture, I used a photo of a sunrise in which a ray of sunlight emerges as a reflection. I worked the ray into a line of light that leads from the white-yellow disc of the sun at the top to the point of light in the heart of the embryo at the bottom of the picture.
The beige-coloured sphere below the solar disc is designed with a NASA photo of Mercury. Occultly, "Mercury and the Sun are one". For the luminous sphere below, I edited a photo of Venus. It symbolises the level of buddhic energy, the light of the soul.
For the background of the lower half of the picture, I used a photo of mountain ranges taken during a flight over the Alps. They symbolise the different levels of the earthly world. The snowy mountains in the upper part have merged with the sphere of Venus. This indicates the sphere of Manas, the mind, which merges upwards into the light of the buddhic sphere and downwards into the dense and darker material planes.
A field of light opens up into these darker spheres, in which an embryo shape is visible at the bottom. A delicately transparent human silhouette rises up from it, designed with an image of the human nervous system. The coloured spheres of light on the vertical ray from the embryo to the sun represent phases of human development.
Gemini - The Two Pillars of the Temple
27 February 2023, pencils and photo work
Gemini represents the threshold between the inner and outer worlds. We understand the world of objects as three-dimensional, and movement is considered as the fourth dimension. We experience a picture or a photo as two-dimensional, even if we travel with the sight into the worlds of the image. Depending on the rendering, we may see perspectives that appear spatial, or we may even see sensory illusions. In either case, we experience the world perceived through our senses as something external.
However, we often find that we are immersed in something, especially in moving images such as movies, games, or virtual reality. We do not feel that we have left the external, physical world and are in the internal world of imagination. Reflection or contemplation allows us to see the structures of the subtle and leads us to deeper realms. Intense, prolonged contemplation finally brings us to the experience of the dimension that lies beyond the constructs of our mind.
From a photo of the facade of the Bavarian State Chancellery, Munich, I have extracted a detail and used it to create the archway of two pillars, connected by a crossbeam. The pillars carry the Sun and the Moon, symbols of the world of light and the reflection of light. The mountain between the pillars directs the view up to the vault of heaven in the background. The zodiac, with its figures that appear to us alternately, is like another doorway to the world of cosmic symbolism. The stars of the cosmos are reflected on the white snow of Mount Shasta, just as the cosmic world is reflected within each of us.
At the bottom of the image, our view passes through the columns and the outer courtyard of the temple. Then we look through a square portal into the interior covered with a triangular roof. Square and triangle are symbols of the manifested and non-manifested worlds. The symbol of Mercury above the entrance represents our discrimination. The inside of the temple shows a checkerboard pattern. To our mind, the squares are each black or white. But the distinctions of the mind dissolve as we approach infinity, the background beyond all understanding.
Gemini - The Guiding Star
9 March 2022, pencils and photo work
The Masters of the Spiritual Hierarchy are working at spreading the wisdom required to help in the evolution of the beings on the planet. Just as Lord Maitreya and the other great Masters exist, there is also a physical embodiment of the feminine energy in the Himalayas. This grand Master in a female form is called Shaila Putri, the Daughter of the Mountain. She appears as a young woman of eighteen years dressed in garments of tiger skin and holding a trident. She is the Mother of the World for our Planet and the power that assists the Hierarchy, especially in times of crises. She is the guiding star also called “the Exquisite Jewel, the Star of the Sea”. You find her described in the books "The World Teacher" and "Man Sacrifice" written by Master EK.
To illustrate this reality, I worked on images of Shaila Putri and the leading Masters of Hierarchy. To indicate the relation to the Himalayas, I arranged the pictures on a background created with the help of the photo of a crystal.
Gemini - Working out the Reversed Wheel
23 February 2021, pencils and photo work
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.
Gemini - Gateway between Unity and Separation
11 February 2020, pencils and photo work
The symbol of Gemini is like a gate. It marks the threshold between unity and multiplicity and then the separation from unity. In the opposite direction, Gemini leads back to unity.
In this picture, the view leads the observer through an archway over a bridge-like path, designed with a photo of the top end of a moving stairway in the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall in Hamburg, Germany. The people move as if without any action on their part.
For the background I used the photo of a newspaper page ("Der Bund", 31 January 2020) with an article about the UK's withdrawal from the EU on the eve of the Brexit. I turned the colours into the negative and fused this photo with the mirrored form of the picture. The headline "Wie der Brexit” (Like the Brexit) and its reflection appear like signs of a bifurcation. In the background on the right there is the mirrored slogan "Get Brexit done"; on the left, only faintly visible, there are two dogs tied together with the flags of Great Britain and the EU, all in turquoise as predominant colour, the colour associated with Gemini and the throat centre.
At the top of the picture you can see a flame surrounded by reddish colours and inside, in a delicate glow, Maitreya, the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy. The Masters of Wisdom intensively work for the unity of humanity and especially for the European unity. People, however, often choose the ideology of the island consciousness of separation.
Gemini - Through the Throat Centre
23 February 2019, pencils and photo work
Gemini is related to the throat centre which is governed by the element akasha, the content of space; it is represented by the light of the blue or white sky. Gemini stands for duality in creation. In Eastern wisdom, it is symbolised by a male and a female and not by twins. The throat centre is governed by Mercury, the ruler of Gemini. The right use of speech enables us to rise above duality and reach the unity of consciousness.
To visualise the throat centre, I reworked the colours of a water lily. One of its petals forms the pathway leading through the portal of the glyph of Gemini, symbol of the vocal cords. The duality of male and female is depicted by the faces of Hermes/Mercury and of Aphrodite/Venus looking at each other. Over the head of Mercury there is a picture of the planet Mercury.
Gemini - The First Pair on the Threshold of the Temple
12 February 2018, pencils and photo work
The point of the birth of objectivity from subjectivity is visualised as the gate of the temple linking the inner space with the outer space. It is symbolised by the glyph of Gemini ♊︎ or the Greek letter ‘Pi’, Π. Pi is the path from the circumference to the centre or the origin; it is called the path from visibility to invisibility. Pi stands for wisdom; the upper line of the symbol projects two vertical lines meaning that the duality emerges from the unity. Gemini is worshipped as the birth of the first Androgyne, the male-female God, the divine pair of Shiva and Shakti.
The centre of the image shows the gate of the temple formed by a duplication of the Greek letter Pi. The gate is standing on the periphery of the circle whose centre is the sun. The sun is located in the middle of the upper line of the symbol. The circle reflects again in the lower part of the image representing objectivity. On the surface of the water the light reflects like a path of light leading to the gate. In the inner of the gate there is a lingam of light, a symbol of the divine. From out of it comes forth the first pair.
Gemini – Ardhanari, the Male-Female God
18 February 2017, pencils and photo work
When creation comes forth from the background of absolute existence, it manifests as existence with awareness. It is also called Father-Mother, the interplay of the male-female God. We don’t say it is male and female because it is an inseparable unity. It is the Ardhanari of the Indians, the Hebrew Adonai or the Greek Hermaphroditus. Ardhanari is usually depicted with the right side being the male Shiva and the left side being his consort Shakti, his energy.
In astrology, the male-female God is called the soli-lunar principle, the light and its reflection. It is associated with Gemini, where the unity is bifurcated into two. In our body, the left eye is associated with the Mother, the lunar principle and the Ida Nadi (subtle nerve); the right eye is associated with the Father, the solar principle and the Pingala Nadi; whereas the Son is the Sushumna and the Ajna centre or the third eye.
For the face of Ardhanari, I fused photos of a Durga statue and of the central face of a Dattatreya statue, symbolizing Vishnu. At the right eye, I created the aureole of the radiant sun, at the left side the crescent moon surrounded by a field of dark blue. I transformed an image of Aldebaran, the “Eye of the Bull”, to be the third eye; and Regulus, the blue-white star of the constellation of Leo, is placed at the centre of the crown.
Gemini – Group Consciousness, Merging and Emerging
08 February 2016, pencils and photo work
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.
Gemini – The Messenger of Light
24 February 2015, pencils and photo work
Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the Greek Hermes; he is the Lord of Speech. Gemini is related to the vocal cords and Visuddhi, the throat chakra. Through the vocal cords, the air connects the inner with the outer space. The word is expressed through our breath by the messenger, symbolized by Mercury. In meditation, the throat centre is also the entrance into the element of space called Akasha in the East.
The doorway of Gemini is symbolized by the two pillars of the glyph of Gemini, representing the polarity of seeming opposites or the dual nature of the mind. The colour of the Gemini and the throat chakra is described as a shade of green which produces blue; it has a great healing effect. The crystals of copper sulphate give an idea of this colour.
In this image, you see Mercury standing between two bluish pillars. There is an influx of yellow-green light from above. Mercury wears a hat with two wings, which are depicted partly concrete, partly etheric - symbol of the Messenger of the Gods or the Light; it radiates through his eyes. His face is half light blue, half golden yellow, representing the dual nature of the mind and of the Buddhic plane. His throat centre of bluish-green colour radiates into space.
I created its colour with the help of a photo of crystals of copper sulphate. And Mercury with the help of a plaster bust of Mercury by the French artist François Rude.
Gemini – The Son of the Sun and the Great Cycles of Time
09 February 2014, pencils and photo work
The Eastern wisdom describes the unfoldment of the creational activity in tremendous time cycles called Manvantaras. They cover periods far before the creation of our present earth and go into cycles of far distant future times. A Manvantara is ruled by a solar intelligence called Manu and the Manu presiding over the present cycle is called Vaivasvata. Vaivasvata is the son of the Sun; he is the mind of the Sun and is also called the light of the soul. The Sun is called the weaver, Vivasvata; he weaves the globe of light around itself. The very meaning of Vaivasvata Manu is “the weaver of the light of the soul”, of the divine plan on earth.
This painting visualizes Vaivasvata Manu as emerging from the Sun in the background. Behind his head you see the radiance of the solar light and his headpiece has the form of the solar material shown in images of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT). His youthful face reminds of him being the son of the Sun.
The sages describe the creation as emerging from out of a golden egg. You see a golden egg-shape in the background and the Manu surrounded by a wheel of 14 egg-shaped figures each containing the colours of the rainbow, representing the 14 Manvantaras and the 7 planes of each creation. The whole is contained in a huge lotus, the symbol of unfoldment. Vaivasvata is in the midst of the lotus, and inside the Sun you see a higher octave of the lotus out of which the Manvantaras emerge.
Creating this picture was a strange experience. It seemed that it didn't want to come out. And while working on it, I wasn't satisfied with the way it developed and on several occasions wanted to destroy it. In the end, I realised that my concepts of how the picture should look like were blocking its emergence.
Gemini: Pulsation – The Song of the Swan
10 February 2013, pencils, crayons and photo work
Pulsation is a fundamental principle in creation, which I wanted to express with this picture. Before my mind’s eye I saw a huge white swan with outspread wings. Hamsa is the Sanskrit word for swan, and it is the symbol of the centripetal and centrifugal movement. At the centre of its heart you see an open flower which is white inside, the pulsating centre. The ballerina sitting on the beach symbolises the moment of contraction, the one flying high symbolises the climax of expansion. I merged photos of several waves to visualise the pulsating movement of ebb and flow (behind the swan). I used very light colours at the border of reproducibility to give expression to the delicacy of pulsation.
Gemini – Saraswathi and Mercury
17 March 2012, pencils, crayons and photo work
The sign of Gemini is ruled by Mercury, who in the east is represented by Saraswathi, the goddess of wisdom. For Mercury I used the photo of a brass statue from the 19th century. And for Saraswathi I found an illustration of the goddess flying on her vehicle, the swan. It is holding a lotus flower in its mouth, symbol of the messages of the divine Word conveyed to Mercury.
Mercury is holding a rod surrounded by serpents. It is a representation of the vertebral column, with the wings of the Ajna Centre, and the pineal gland, the seat of the higher awareness. In his other hand he holds a purse filled with gold coins, being the God of merchants, and he wears the winged cap of the fast messenger. The keyboard in the background is a symbol expressing that the whole creation is done with the letters of the divine Word. And behind the keyboard you see a NASA photo of the surface of the planet Mercury.
Gemini – Union beyond Duality
16 April 2011, pencils, crayons and photo work
According to the ancient Indian tradition, Gemini represents a pair of supplementaries, subjectivity and objectivity. Subjectivity is called the Lord and objectivity is called the power of the Lord in relation to his Lady. Gemini is worshipped as the temple of the Lord, at the entrance of which there are two pillars. The picture shows on three planes, between and above the pillars, Lord Krishna and Radha as a symbol of duality and union.
On the physical plane they are surrounded by an aura of light. On the solar plane you see them in the network of the energies linking the planets. And on the cosmic plane they are one with the far-away stars.
Gemini - Distribution
15 May 2010, pencils, crayons and photo work
This painting shows the reception of light from higher spheres, which is entering onto earth and is being distributed by Christ, the embodiment of Love and Wisdom. The light enters from a flame at the top of the picture through the portal of the glyph of Gemini, where the sacred syllable OM is shining. It further descends like a half-globe and divides into 7 streams distributing over a city. For this I used a photo of the skyline of Berlin seen from the top of the German Bundestag building. The motorway route part was taken from a highway bent east of Berne.
In the upper part you see the symbols of Mercury and of the Earth, which in the Wisdom Teachings are linked to the energy of Gemini.