Circle, courtesy of The Sun Hermit (Tom Corsus)

With Christmas we are thresholding Capricorn – the thresher of the Dweller – for the midwinter Solstice came late this year, on the 23rd.  This morning in north Somerset the sky is as eggshell crisp and blue over the hills; the sun rose in fiery gold splendour and the parcels were opened.  And the light will begin again to grow.

Painting by Jung in “The Red Book” – Jung’s fabulous Odyssey in the Sun-boat

Mac Macartney’s book “The Children’s Fire” deeply touches me in his un-mapping of Wales. Along the numinous borderland of Druidic Albion, through wet leaves, frosty nights and carefully concealed firelight, refuse was chucked at Mac from cars, but also he met the ageless kindness from strangers. Mac’s odyssey towards pre-Roman Anglesey turns my nose and antlers towards the re-wilding movement.  In the tiny pockets where this starts…

Francisco Goya-El_Aquelarre (Witches Sabbath) 1798

The figure of the witch has haunted many an artists work, from the strange and disturbing phantasmagorias of Albrecht Durer and Hans Baldung Grien at the time when the Early Modern witch trials were sweeping across large swathes of Europe to the feminist re-envisionings of Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini and Alison Blickle.

The archetypal image of the witch created in the Early Modern period is of a women, alternatively a hideous crone or a beautiful temptress, engaging in nocturnal flights upon enchanted broomsticks or diabolical animals to attend Sabbaths presided over by the Devil in animal form, where they participate in sexual orgies and blood rites. This delirious but potent fantasy contributed to the hysteria that resulted in around 50,000 executions between 1424 to 1785. Even after the witch craze abated she lingered in art as a femme fatale in the 19th Century, only…

Karel Teige-Eve 1947

A leading theoretician and proponent of the Czech avant-garde during the very active decades of the 1920’s and 30’s, Karel Teige was involved in Devětsil and was a co-founder of the Czech Surrealist Group along with Toyen,JindřichŠtyrský and Vítězslav Nezval.

Teige created over 300 collages in private during the last two decades of his life, frequently featuring elements of a female figure forming part of the landscape. Subject to a brutal smear campaign and constant vilification, Teige was hounded to an early death by the Stalinist controlled governmentin 1951. Even this didn’t satisfy the authorities who ransacked his house, destroyed suspect unpublished writings and continued to suppress his published writings for decades to come. These factors probably contributed to the suicides of both his wife and mistress shortly afterwards.

The collages only came to light after samizdat surrealist publications ended up in Germany during the…

The Sanskrit words Maha and Vidya translate to “Great Wisdom”.

Dr Kavitha Chinnaiyam’s book “Shakti Rising” was published in 2017 and you can find it on Amazon.  Earlier that year she asked me to do the illustrations for it.  They are included here under copyright.

It was a wonderful opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Mahavidyas – the Ten Wisdom Goddesses.  I had been inspired by them previously in David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri’s) “Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses”.

In this new post I will collect together the illustrations in Kavitha’s book, as well as some background images for a fresh angle on the creative process!

Kavitha combines her distinguished career in cardiology with teaching Yoga and meditation.  She introduces her Shakti Rising facebook community:  “This group is about radical self-discovery through the divine feminine. In this safe place, we can share anything knowing that it…

►Greek Mythology: “Poseidon, The God of Sea”:

“Neptune and Triton” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1620-1622). Victoria and Albert Museum of London.

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Poseidon (Roman equivalent: Neptune), was a son of Cronos and Rhea and brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.

Poseidon was the god of the sea, rivers, flood and drought, earthquakes, and horses.

Being the ruler of the sea, he was described as gathering clouds and calling forth storms, but at the same he has it in his power to grant a successful voyage and save those who are in danger.

He was further regarded as the creator of the horse, and was accordingly believed to have taught men the art of managing horses by the bridle, and to have been the originator and protector of horse races.

The common tradition about Poseidon creating the horse states that when Poseidon and Athena disputed…