(36” x 36”) Oil on canvas 2019

This painting was created during a highly intense, mystical experience that changed my life forever. It holds deep meaningful significance, as it was made while the experience itself was transpiring and accompanied by an outpouring of synchronicities that shaped both the imagery and its meaning.

The work began with my fascination with Mercurial symbolism at the time. I was experiencing a restless “monkey mind,” and Mercury, the planet of communication, expression, and mental activity felt like an appropriate archetype to explore. Initially, my research led me to a particular book called The Kybalion, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Soon after, I was drawn to the Caduceus, the staff of Hermes and Mercury, which I later learned is also symbolically linked to kundalini energy, which is spiritually transformative energy located at the base of the spine. For some reason I was very intuitively drawn to the fact it's related to something so mysterious and mystical and felt compelled to incorporate the symbol in my painting.

I also happened to begin a daily yoga breathing practice associated with kundalini activation unknowingly. And as the painting evolved, additional symbols started to pop up intuitively. I incorporated the Chaos Star and entwined it with the Caduceus in order to represent scattered energy and shifting paradigms. In addition, I added the Sun and Moon to signify alchemical union and the Hermetic axiom “Ut Supra, Sic Infra” (“As above, so below”), alluding to the philosophy of correspondence.

The man in the center of the painting is my own depiction of the Greek deity Hermes and his Roman equivalent Mercury. Both are psychopomps and messengers between realms. I incorporated the Hand of Mysteries as an emblem of apotheosis, which symbolizes initiation, secret knowledge, and divine potential. And within the palm, an eye with ichthys-inspired markings references Christ consciousness and my casual study of Gnosticism at the time.

As I continued working on the painting, synchronicities intensified. I had revisited my interest in Vedic astrology and came across the concept of the atmakaraka, the planet representing the soul in a person's birth chart. I had discovered out of all the possible planetary lords that my atmakaraka happened to be Mercury. Soon after, I encountered the Caduceus repeatedly in unexpected places, including in a fashion magazine for a collage I had created shortly before my awakening.

The kundalini activation itself occurred during a period of a deepening meditation practice around Easter. What began as painful surges of energy along my spine developed into a soul-enriching, heart-centered opening that lead to a full awakening. It was an experience so sacred and profound that using language to describe it would feel sacrilegious.

Some final elements were added as well. The musical notation flowing from Hermes’ ear was taken from an old Sanskrit devotional song called Govinda by the Radha Krishna Temple, which I listened to obsessively during the time and which became the song I last heard before my awakening. Mantras such as Sat Nam (meaning "Truth is my identity” in Sanskrit), the number synchronicity 10:10 (the angel number I happened to see exactly at the time of my awakening), sacred geometry, an unalome symbol, the alchemical crystals, and these specific tarot cards formulate the stages of destruction, rebirth, and initiation inherent in the process.

My intention with this painting was to honor this sacred experience and reveal to others their own divine potential. How our world is much more magical and unusual than what many of us perceive it to be.