Within The Chrysalis
paintings from The solo Show At Pence Gallery, 2024
Standing Naked Before God (Know Thyself)
Carl Jung defined individuation as the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual, a separate indivisible unity or a whole. A lifelong process but most notable in the second half of life. No doubt the same line of thinking as the Alchemist’s in the Philosophers’ stone where in the process was disguised as turning base metal into gold. It begins with “know thyself”, the inscription on the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi. We cannot say, think, or do anything that is not colored by our particular way of seeing the world. To connect to the divine, we must let go of our ego, acknowledge our imperfections, and confront our fears, desires, and shame (becoming naked to ourselves). Only then will we harness our inner gold.
Within The Chrysalis
Inspired by a lecture by Marion Woodman. “[the chrysalis] is the twilight zone between past, present, and future…The chrysalis is absolutely essential if we are to find ourselves” -Marion Woodman
Hekate
The triple goddess Hekate stands at the crossroads, she is a guardian of the threshold between heaven, earth, and the underworld. She stands for wisdom to know what is worth fighting for, what darkness needs our light, and what kind of future we want to unlock.
Ambedo
A kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details-briefly soaking in the experience of being alive, an act that is done purely for its own sake.
Your life is not a quest, or an opportunity, or a story to tell; it’s also an experience, to be lived for its own sake. It doesn’t have to mean anything other than what it is. A single moment can still stand on its own, as a morsel of existence.
-Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Emergence
When the chrysalis phase is over the Metamorphosis is complete. A new and different life emerges.
Harlequin (The Trickster)
When you think to yourself - I can’t believe I said, or did that. That’s the trickster archetype. It represents the irrational, chaotic, and unpredictable side of human thought and behavior.
SAYING 22 - CONIUNCTIO
Coniunctio: "An alchemical symbol of a union of unlike substances; a marrying of the OPPOSITES in an intercourse which has as its fruition the birth of a new element.” -Carl Jung.
Saying 22: "When the two become one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower! And if you make the male and female one…then you will enter the Kingdom!" - Jesus
The Last Rehearsal
Not to be confused with ‘the final rehearsal’. This is the moment you realize you might need to give up on an endeavor. Perhaps you don’t really want this, or it’s not worth the fight. Maybe it’s time to move on.
The Divine Intuitive
This woman is a Tarot Reader (and a really good one). The High Priestess signifies spiritual enlightenment, inner illumination, divine knowledge and wisdom. She shows up in your Tarot readings when the veil between you and the underworld is thin, and you have the opportunity to access the knowledge deep within your soul
Bless You
The IC XC hand sign commonly seen in paintings of Jesus is the gesture of blessing.
Walking Through A Storm
“When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid
Of the dark
At the end of a storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song
Of a lark” - Elvis Presley (song lyric)
Cocoon
The cocoon represents the protective space entered to reflect and figure it all out when it is realized that life is shifting and the old ways of doing things are no longer working,