I painted this piece in July 2005 while living in the Dominican Republic (DR). It consists of five pinewood spheres, each measuring 55 cm, painted with acrylic paint. After the photo of the painting, I’ve included, first, an explanation of the work and, second, the message I wanted to convey through it. I hope you like it…
You can also download it here as a PDF.
1. EXPLANATION OF THE PAINTING
The three upper circles symbolise the Macrocosms or worlds in which we live:
1. First Sphere: The First Sphere is the rainbow. This was the emblem of the Incas, the Tahuantinsuyo Empire, the greatest empire in South America. Today, the Andes – the home of the Incas – have become the ‘Nose of the Planet’ or the ‘Gateway for the Planet’s Energy Recharge’ [until 30 years ago, it was the Himalayas, and they take turns every two thousand years]. In Europe, too, the rainbow was the emblem used by the Celts, one of the most spiritually and magically advanced peoples in Europe.
However, the Iberians [the original inhabitants of Spain or Iberia] were even more advanced; they were guided by the number 9, the number of the balance of the Universe or universal balance, and were thus beyond the reality depicted in this picture.
This sphere is governed by the number 7, the number of the Earth’s balance or earthly balance. There are 7 musical notes and 7 days of the week. The indigenous peoples of present-day Mexico also had 7 colours: red in the East; yellow in the South; black in the West; white in the North; green for the Earth; blue for the Sky; and purple for the Centre.
The flag that gay men and lesbians have adopted as the symbol of their campaign against discrimination resembles a rainbow, but has six stripes instead of seven.
2. Second Sphere: The Second Sphere is Eastern Taoism. Taoism was a philosophy that existed in China before the turn of the era. It believes in the flow of yin-yang energies and in sexuality free from prejudice. The five directions are associated with five elements (black and water in the North; red and fire in the South; green and wood in the East; white and metal in the West; yellow and earth in the Centre). East and West are represented in the reverse order to that used in the West. If we draw a line following the Taoist order (E, W, S, C, N), we obtain the infinity symbol, which, when painted in gold (male) and silver (female), symbolises the supreme harmony between the two sexes (see explanation below regarding male and female).
3. Third Sphere: The Third Sphere comprises the Western Maya [where ‘West’ is understood in the broad sense to encompass both the colonisers (Europe) and the colonised (the Americas)]. The Maya were one of the most advanced cultures in the Americas in architectural and astrological terms. Some believe that the Maya received their knowledge from beings from other planets, although this remains impossible to prove with current means. The Maya had five directions and five colours (white to the north; yellow to the south; red to the east; blue to the west; and green at the centre).
Both the second and third spheres are governed by the number 5, the number of human balance. We have five fingers, each associated with an energy meridian in the body, and there are five continents. Applying the Taoist analogy of colours to the continents, we can see that there is one continent that is originally white (Europe), another black (Africa), another yellow (Asia), another red (America; the Red Indians; the spiritual path of the Native Americans is called the Red Path) and Oceania (the fifth race, the green continent). Europe is the Mind; Africa, the Instinct; America, the Emotional; Asia, the Higher Mind (Spirit); and Oceania, the Higher Emotional (Soul).
In my view, there is a sixth race, namely the Semitic race (Jews and Arabs), and the land they now occupy—the Middle East—is the Heart of the Planet, which theoretically ought to be the seat of Love, the wellspring, home and receptacle of Intuition. And although I believe that Antarctica is the continent that corresponds to this sixth race, it is in the Middle East that one of the oldest cosmic dramas must now be resolved – a drama that will either enable us to progress as a race or force us to remain stagnant.
I feel that, in the process of human evolution, travelling across the six continents and humbly absorbing within ourselves the legacy of each race can help us to become more complete as human beings. It is best to travel physically. If that is not possible, astral travel is an alternative. But as astral travel is so complicated and requires such intense concentration – which we rarely practise – journeys through books, documentaries or simply with our minds can also help us to get to know ourselves, connect with every part of ourselves and become whole. Behind the increasingly frantic craving for movement and travel, there may lie a more fundamental drive towards authenticity, of which we ourselves are not even aware.
The two lower circles symbolise the Microcosm or the body that carries us:
1. Fourth Sphere: Woman, feminine energy or Yin, Silver, the Moon, the four lunar phases, 28 days. Yin energy manifests as tenderness, gentleness, joy and creativity. The moon governs the tides and women’s cycles. The Maya divided life into four cycles of 13 years. Pink represents the waxing moon, the pre-adolescent girl [0 to 13 years], creative energy; white is the full moon, the energy of the Mother [13 to 26 years], ovulation, nurturing and protective energy; purple is the waning moon, the intuitive sorceress [26 to 39 years], the energy of breaking away; black represents the new moon, the introspective Wise Woman [aged 39 to 52], menstruation, and the energy of withdrawal, reflection and self-connection. It is important to connect with one’s own blood, to undertake the Bear Retreat (the ritual for the peak day of menstruation), to menstruate on the Earth, and to reconnect with the sacred ovaries. Menstruation is something sacred, a blessing. In the process of rebalancing yin and yang, from the ‘13 a ’ the age of 52, it is essential to practise sex in accordance with the teachings of the ancient Taoist and Gnostic masters. From the age of 52 onwards, according to the Maya, a woman becomes a wise elder and no longer needs either sex (which does not mean one cannot continue to make love if one wishes) or the cycles of the moon (which is why she reaches the menopause). The red spiral in the painting symbolises menstruation as a means of connecting with our female ancestors. Of all the mythologies I have studied, the only one that recognises this pre-eminence of the Feminine in the name and concept of its Supreme Deity is that of the Taínos who inhabited the Antilles. Their principal deity was Yocahú Baguá Maórocoti, which literally translates as: ‘Spirit of the Cassava – masculine, yang – and of the Waters – feminine, yin – without male ancestors’.
2. Fifth Sphere: Man, masculine energy or Yang, Gold, the Sun, the four solar seasons, 365 days (a cycle longer than that of women and, therefore, slower). Yang energy translates as combative, enterprising, hard-working energy, the provider for the family. Green represents Spring or a boy’s pre-adolescence [0 to 13 years], when the boy begins to exercise his masculine strength; yellow represents Summer or the height of yang [13 to 26 years], when he should become a father; orange represents Autumn [26 to 39 years], when a man should seek to slowly and gradually begin incorporating yin into his life; and brown represents Winter [39 to 52 years], when yin and yang come into harmony. In the process of rebalancing yin and yang, from the age of13 a 52, it is essential to practise sex in accordance with the teachings of the ancient Taoist and Gnostic masters. By the age of 52, a man may, if he so wishes, do without sex. In India, men have four stages of life: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. In this final stage, even today there are many men who leave everything behind (wife and children – as the latter are now grown up and can support themselves), take a blanket and a tin, and set off in search of enlightenment.
If a man and a woman have managed to rebalance their masculine and feminine energies in life – that is to say, if a man born yang incorporates femininity and a woman born yin incorporates masculinity – on the day of their death they manage to transcend reincarnation and break free from the wheel of samsara (for Hindus and Buddhists, samsara is the wheel of reincarnation that binds souls to the planet until they achieve liberation or samadhi). Mozart recounts this beautifully in “The Magic Flute”. I believe that this balance is enlightenment. There’s no need to overthink it. It’s difficult enough to achieve. Sex isn’t essential for this, but it helps.
The inauthentic masculine is linear, and unfortunately it is this linear masculine that is the energy governing the world and which has eliminated the cyclical nature of both the feminine and the masculine. The linear man is terrified of the destructive phase, but if the weeds are not cut back, they can damage the harvest. If the winter snows do not melt, it is impossible for spring to bear new fruit. And if something is rotten, it must be shaken off. And we women shake it off when we have connected with our essence, and authentic men shake it off when they have understood that they too are cyclical, for they carry within themselves the solar cycle of the seasons. And if men and women hold fast to our authenticity, we will serve to break away from that part of our partner which does not serve us, and they will break away from that part of us which does not serve them; and break-up after break-up, we will both gain and we will walk towards what we were always meant to come to Earth to do: to recover the total and full radiance of our Being.
2. MESSAGE FROM THE PAINTING
The Mayan calendars indicated that December 2012 would mark the end of the current cycle.
If we wish to prevent the End of the Cycle from bringing negative consequences for humanity, we human beings must reconcile our masculine and feminine sides (our yin and yang) within ourselves. We all have a masculine and a feminine side that we must bring into harmonious balance. Homosexuals also possess these aspects, and indeed, in every same-sex couple, one partner takes on the masculine role and the other the feminine. However, the rigid moral structures that hypocritically grip contemporary societies prevent each individual from aligning with the energy they must embody in this reincarnation to complete their cycle. Reincarnation features in almost all primitive cosmogonies, and the Christian Church believed in it until it was suppressed in the 6th century (553 CE, Second Council of Constantinople). Likewise, we as individuals must go with the flow of life. Going with the flow of life means weathering the storms when they come and moving forward, striving each day to be more harmonious; gradually raising our vibrational level; drawing towards us BALANCE, joy, love, simplicity and beauty; and pushing away from us anger, hatred, lust, gluttony, greed, avarice and envy—all of which are signs of imbalance. A large part of the population of the Dominican Republic remain masters of this flow, a legacy of the Taíno people.
Socially, we must urgently restore balance to the societies in which we live. We must rapidly redress the balance between men and women in our societies (through quotas, special support, etc.). The Ship of the World has been listing towards yang for two thousand years, and we are in danger of sinking. We must not forget that with the change of era, a patriarchal trend swept across the world (Confucianism also stifled Taoism in the East). That patriarchal trend was necessary for the evolution of humanity. The Feminine had to be reborn with greater strength, and now the first seeds are beginning to sprout. However, the path has been arduous. For two thousand years, women have been unable to complete their evolutionary cycle; they were condemned to be ‘eternal full moons’; if they developed their magical or hunter side, they were burnt at the stake. How many women must have been forced to reincarnate for this very reason!
This rebalancing of yin and yang must also take place on the material plane (politics and commerce). The world’s excess of yang (a yang without yin balance tends towards the extremes of aggression and excess) has led to the production of weapons; to wars aimed at using up accumulated arsenals; to arbitrary, despotic and rigid political decisions; and to selfish accumulation by a handful of countries. If international politics were rebalanced and had more yin, we would stop supporting – even if it hurt our pride (a yang quality) – those actions that are destroying the Planet and Life upon it. Politics would be conciliatory—not merely paying lip service through endless resolutions, but getting straight to the point. We would put a stop to wars and the exploitation of poor countries by rich ones, under the guise of issues such as the debt they owe us, the trade barriers we impose on their products, or medical patents derived from raw materials sourced from those countries. The First World would suffer, and that is why nothing significant is being done. Sometimes a lesser harm prevents a greater one. Inaction can be lethal, and we do not have much time left. Finally, peace on the planet depends on the sixth race—the Semitic race—reconciling amongst themselves, both directly and through intermediary channels. If the sixth race does not reconcile, the rest of the world’s rebalancing mechanism cannot be set in motion.
This rebalancing of yin and yang must also take place at the spiritual level (religions). Just as men have pre-eminence over the physical realm, it is women who must have pre-eminence over the spiritual or metaphysical realm (they are the bearers of the great mystery of life). The West has imposed its religions on half the world, and in many of these religions women are relegated to a secondary role. Women were priestesses in Iberia (the Black Virgins); in Greece (the hieraias); in Rome (the Vestal Virgins); and in the early Christian Church (the early Christians, who were closer to Christ’s message, had female priestesses), until the Church finally shut women out entirely. And this trend of the last two thousand years, which denies women their full powers in the invisible realms, must be reversed as a matter of urgency.
IAO – SHALOM – SALAM – AOM