Leo – The Mystery of the Dog-Star
3 May 2023, pencils and photo work
The constellation of the Dog Star is called Sarameya Mandala in Sanskrit. The main star of the Dog Star constellation is Sirius. Sirius is the most brilliant star in the night sky. In Vedic symbolism, Sirius is personified as Lord Dattatreya. Dattatreya is the Master principle in creation; he is the Cosmic Teacher. Dattatreya is always depicted surrounded by four dogs. The dog represents vigilance, a great ability to listen and loyalty. The dogs are the guru, the teacher. Those who are attentive enough can hear the Master's voice speaking from within.
If we engage with Lord Dattatreya, we will find that what is said is very mysterious and mystical. It is beyond our understanding. But when we connect with this sublime figure, known by the seers of ancient times, magical, mysterious transformations take place within us.
The Vedic seers perceived that the highest energies of love and compassion come into our system from Sirius and can only be received by the heart centre. These energies from Sirius come to us through the south. The Dog Star moves around the South Pole. It is the southern star. Sirius is located in Scorpio; it enters our system through the Central Sun of Leo, Regulus.
I designed Lord Dattatreya with a photograph of a statue standing on the South Pole of the Earth. Four dogs surround him. The representation of the globe was generated with the help of an image from WorldWind.earth, which uses NASA images. For the design of the Dog Star, I used an etching by Hugo de Groot, a Dutch humanist (1583-1645). At the top right you can see the Leo glyph, on the left the constellation of Leo. The earth is surrounded by 12 stars, indicating the 12 Adityas, the cosmic correspondences of the signs of the zodiac. At the centre of the image and of the globe, the Dog Star also radiates at the heart of Lord Dattatreya.
Leo – The Jewel in the Lotus
8 Mai 2022, pencils and photo work
When pondering on which new image might develop, I contemplated on the inner vertical alignment from the heart to the head centre and its planetary correspondence: As there is an individual head centre, the Sahasrara, there is also a Sahasrara of the Earth called Shambala.
The innermost point of the head centre is called the Jewel in the Lotus. And there is a corresponding jewel at the innermost point of the planetary head centre called Chintamani. Both gems are referred to with the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM.
The image of two wheels forming the number 8 showed up in contemplation. I formed each wheel with the help of the symbol used on the cover of the book “The Teachings of Sanat Kumara” by Dr K. Parvathi Kumar. The graphic contains eight sections. I placed a miniature form of the symbol into the centre of each wheel as the jewel in the lotus. For visualising Sanat Kumara, the lord of Shambala, I reworked the photo of an old Bodhisattva bust, probably of Lord Maitreya, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I arranged the centre of the upper wheel as the Sahasrara of Sanat Kumara; the lower wheel leads downward from his Ajna centre, a star forming the contact point. In the centre of the lower wheel there is an image of the earth showing the Eastern hemisphere. I finally worked on the colours of the structure to give expression to the circulation of the energies.
Leo - The Man-Lion. Opening the Heart Centre
23 April 2021, pencils and photo work
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.
Leo - Group Consciousness. Common Purpose
18 April 2020, pencils and photo work
Leo stands for the birth of the soul into group consciousness. As soon as the soul in us awakens, we begin to live in the higher consciousness or group consciousness. There is no more need for us to limits and separations like, this is 'my group, your group, his group'. It is only one group of all beings of the universe. It is one entity called by many names in many groups. The purpose of Hierarchy is to release the humanity from its concretized bondages and perceived limitations so that they can cooperate with the greater purpose, the Plan for the evolution of our planet.
The picture visualizes the joint orientation of the group towards the higher purpose. For the depiction of the large group below, a photo of a group life at Mount Shasta, USA, was duplicated and mirrored. Above, there are pictures from online group meetings fused together as an expression of the physical and etheric interconnectedness. A staircase leads the view to the globe in the background and there to Shamballa. The detail of the globe is created with the help of a picture from WorldWind.earth using NASA images.
Shamballa is the etheric residence of Sanat Kumara in the Gobi Desert, where the purpose of God for our planet is known. He is the regent of the planet, indicated by the crown at the top of the globe. On the left you see the constellation Leo and on the right the glyph of the sign. The central axis was formed with the help of a photo of a galaxy. It reminds us that our system is part of a larger system and is aligned with it.
Leo - The Pulsating Heart of the Lion
12 April 2019, pencils and photo work
Leo is the royal sign of the zodiac. Gold is its metal and the splendour of the golden sunshine represents the lion's force of creation. The symbol of Leo symbolizes the cave of the heart. The principle of the heart is the principle of pulsation; it is linked to the soundless sound called Anahata, the Sanskrit name for the heart centre. In the cave of the heart, the initiates tune into the pulsation as the music of the soul. The radiant golden face of the lion with golden rays emanating from his heart is a meditation on the qualities of this sign.
The central star of the constellation Leo is called Regulus and it is also called the heart of the lion. Through Regulus the transmission of Sirius' spiritual energies into our system takes place.
I used a photo of a statue in Rajahmundry, India, to design the figure of the lion. I placed a radiant sun and the glyph of the sign at the heart of the lion. Coloured concentric circles indicate the pulsation. Above the head you see the constellation Leo; Regulus is directly above the head of the lion.
Leo - The Gateway of the Sun Centre
17 April 2018, pencils and photo work
In meditation, the awareness is raised from the heart to the head, linking the personality to the soul and finally the soul to the super-soul. The head centre is the point of the highest illumination. A yogi meditates on the correspondences to higher centres: in relation to the planet, the head centre corresponds to Shamballa; in relation to the sun it corresponds to the cosmic sun. The other dimensions of the sun are the heart of the sun and the physical sun. With the planet, the corresponding other dimensions are the Spiritual Hierarchy and the humanity.
For this image, I used the picture of the head of a Buddha statue as the head of a yogi. I placed the symbol of sun at the Ajna centre, which is governed by the sun. I visualised the meditative ascent with a stair leading to a gateway of light (using elements of a photo by Till Krech, Wikimedia) in the form of a lingam symbolising Shamballa. I fused two images of the planet, depicting the Himalayas and beyond, Shamballa. They are shining through the head of the yogi. The crown of hair of the yogi is like a receptacle for the downpour of light. I created the flow with a picture of the physical sun (photo: Nasa), visualising the heart of the sun and the cosmic sun with other photos of the sun.
To represent THAT which cannot be portrayed – the inexpressible Oneness expressing into trinity and multiplicity – I positioned the three heads of a statue of Lord Dattatreya at the place of the spiritual sun, at the top, and surrounded them with an array of multi-coloured rays on a starry background.
Leo – Hercules Conquering the Inner Lion
20 April 2017, pencils and photo work
The story of Hercules is the symbolic journey of inner transformation and initiation. Hercules represents the aspirant becoming a disciple and realising himself as a soul. Later on, he further ascends to realise the Universal Soul. The Labours of Hercules are a journey through the zodiac and the fifth labour corresponds to Leo.
Hercules is asked to kill the Nemean lion. The lion represents our lower nature, the personality. Killing the lion means, overcoming our ego and realising our identity as a soul. The cave of the lion is the heart. We go inside and listen to the sound of respiration which is compared to the roar of the lion. By observing the pulsation we slowly get to the subtle pulsation; this is called "entering the cave within the cave". In a deep meditative state, when the respiration ceases, we meet the Higher Self. Only the original thought "I AM" exists; no other thought remains. When there is no more identification with the personality, the "lion is killed". However, the Teacher tells Hercules that the lion needs to be overcome again and again; otherwise it will return.
For Hercules fighting in the cave with the lion, I worked on a photo (Wikimedia: Sailko) of a Renaissance brooch. In the background there is the transformed initiate who has realised himself as a part of the Universal Soul. For this, I used a photo (Wikimedia: Wouter Engler) of a bronze statue of Hercules of the 2nd century CE excavated in Pompeii (Vatican Museums). The golden colour of the statue symbolises the etheric body of the initiate, where the divine light reflects from above.
Leo – The Path to the Super Soul
15 April 2016, pencils and photo work
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.
Leo – The Tree of the Universe and the Cosmic Teaching Principle
17 April 2015, pencils and photo work
Leo is related to the heart centre; it is the heart of Spiritual Hierarchy. In the Vedic symbolism Leo is called the dog, meaning the Dog Star, Sirius. Our planetary Hierarchy is a replica of the Great White Brotherhood on Sirius whose Lord is Dattatreya. He is the teaching principle in the universe.
The Eastern Puranas compare the space globes of the universe with the fruits of a banyan tree and the suns with the seeds inside the fruit. Many trees line the roads to the garden of God. This reminds me of the astronomical concept of superclusters of galaxies called Laniakea (Hawaiian ‘immeasurable heaven’) which look like flows or branches of huge trees.
In the background of the painting I put a clustered photo of the known universe and super-imposed on it the structure of a tree. I made a photo of the statue of Dattatreya on my meditation altar, depicted as a being with one body and three heads, symbolizing the divine trinity coming out of unity. He is always depicted with a cow, symbolizing the universe. In his six hands he holds various symbols representing cosmic dimensions. In the branches of the tree you see two galaxies and in the centre a star nebula also called the “eye of God”. I placed a picture of Sirius into its centre.
In the foreground you see the symbol of the cosmic teaching principle, the triangle within a circle and the central point, which is placed at the heart centre of Dattatreya. The circle is surrounded by 12 stars, representing the twelve aspects of the zodiac or of the one original light, Aditi.
Leo – The Sun Centre in the Heart
09 April 2014, pencils and photo work
According to spiritual astrology, the heart centre is the seat of the soul and is ruled by Leo. Leo is the expression of the I AM, the sun of our being. The lion is the symbol of the personality which is to be transformed by the soul. The highest point of illumination in us is the head centre, and via this centre a yogi establishes contact with the sun centre of our planet, Shamballa. On a still higher plane there is a relation to the polar star.
The painting took some inner preparation before I began the outer work. To start with, I did a print-out of a colour spectrum wheel with 7 layers per colour shade. I photographed an icosahedron cut in a rock crystal and used the form of this Platonic solid of 20 triangles as an expression of rounded-up matter, or the “diamond body” of the spiritual matter which an initiate carries. For the meditator inside the crystal, I chose a picture of a statue of an Eastern goddess in a blessing posture which I took some years ago in the home of friends. I placed her face into the centre of the triangle pointing upwards and placed the picture of a lion with its head in the middle of the downward triangle. I put the colour wheel into the background with its centre at the heart centre of the meditator, symbolising the spectrum of the one light manifesting in 7 layers of creation. The colour of Leo is gold, and so the lion radiates a hue of golden light.
Behind the colour wheel I included a photo of the Dhaulagiri (meaning “White Mountain”) of the Himalayas as a symbol of intense aspiration towards greatest heights. On the front of the meditator, I placed the symbol of the sun. I shaped the headpiece exceeding the pyramid as an etheric representation of Shamballa which the meditator contacts via the head centre. Atop of it you see a star symbolising the polar star forming a triangle with two other stars.
Leo - The Entrance
17 March 2013, pencils and photo work
In symbolism Leo is connected with the transformation process in the inner cave of the heart. With the help of respiration you enter into the “cave of the lion”, the Heart Centre, where you can encounter the higher self, when the lower self is well adjusted. The cave also symbolises the inner ashram, of which an outer ashram is the externalisation. The image illustrates this entering into the ashram.
The painting shows a circle of 12 stars, symbolising the 12 signs of the zodiac. A woman is climbing a stair, entering through the circle of the “gate of stars”. The point in the centre is represented by a door leading to the Sanctum Sanctorum, and so the entry is a path from the circumference to the centre. At the threshold before the centre there is a white figure representing the Master in the Heart, the Divine Self. Above the centre you see the figure of an angel, the guardian of the ashram and the link to the cosmic spheres. The ashram is represented as a crystal cave. The crystals on the sides symbolise the purified, transparent matter, which can receive the Light. At the bottom on the left, outside the starry circle, there is a group of people waiting for their turn to enter.
Leo – the Three Planes of the Sun
22 April 2012, pencils, crayons and photo work
As already explained, the sun, like the human being, has a triple nature with a body, a soul and a spirit aspect. In the painting I have visualised their unity in a sacral space, which is hinted at by the church window in the background. The light at the centre (top) with the petals expanding into the space stands for the spiritual sun. In the centre of the picture there is the heart of the sun, represented as a huge flower with a pulsating heart at its centre. I visualised the sphere of the physical sun as a lion resting in a lotus and surrounded by an aura of light. It is a symbol of the pulsating life principle, which has its seat in our heart.
The picture with its fiery golden yellow illustrates the power of the love energy, which permeates the various spheres.
Leo – The Mother with the Lion
11 June 2011, pencils, crayons and photo work
In eastern wisdom it says that one of the forms of the Divine Mother is the shape of Saila Putri. She is regarded as a form of Parvathi and is also called the Daughter of the Mountain, the personification of the Himalayas. She is said to exist even today and to live in the form of an 18 years old woman accompanied by a white lion. From time to time she gives her presence to the initiates in the Himalayas through the roar of the lion which accompanies her.
For this picture I didn’t want to use an Indian-looking woman. I searched for a lady with royal posture and I found a figure of Elisabeth of Thuringia, queen of Hungary. It is said that once when she was threatened by her husband, a transformation of bread into roses happened to protect her. I gave her a huge rose as the symbol of the Heart. In the background I fused the pictures of a sunrise above Mount Everest and a panorama of Mount Kanchenjunga. And the white lion lies in his fiery cave, which is the symbol of the Heart Centre.
Leo – The Mother on the Lion
27 June 2010, pencils, crayons and photo work
Leo is ruled by the Sun. Here you see the glyph of the Sun in the upper centre showering streams of light downward. The full moon of Leo is the future festival of Hierarchy, and many masters of wisdom are born in this sign. In the centre you see the three great Masters, Kuthumi, Maitreya and Morya.
The cave of the Heart is said to be the cave of the lion, and the pulsation is called its roar. You see the glyph of Leo as the cave of the Lion. The Mother sitting on the Lion with Ganesha on her arms is a symbolic presentation of the majestic energy of Leo.