Pentagrammatanatos -

This piece, made Winter 2009, was made with Adobe Photoshop, utilizing a fractalesque filter, digital brush work for coloring and lighting, layer masking and blending and photo-montage techniques for the mass of the background as well as the figure. The basis of the image came from a result of a collaboration between Austin Guarisco and I, his contribution being a digital photo that I transformed into the background seen here. The subject is myself, (as a self portrait, my internal energetic and psychological state to be more precise).

Pentagrammatonatos - Severe Beauty is a self-portrait of my personal energetic experience focusing on the psychological concept of "Thanatos" (the Will to Die), the esoteric concept of Pentagrammaton, the Hebrew Qabalistic Paths of Lamed and Cheth and the Spheres of Geburah, Tiphareth and Binah. Pentagrammaton (as well as Tiphareth for that matter) could be described as the unified and fully realized Man, aware of his higher faculties and in alignment with them, with the highest of his ability and potential ruling over and managing all other aspects from life force and drive, to emotions, the mind and body.

Geburah and Binah could both be ascribed to the aspects of boundaries and limitation in the universe that grants energy the stillness it needs to become form; in this case the friction and restriction necessary to scrutinize, analyze, control sublimate, isolate and burn away and any unnecessary growths and patterns. This piece primarily deals with the individualized and unified sense of power and Self-Actualization through the act of creation and destruction, (self psychological analysis and dismantling of neurotic complexes and free creation of healthier space in their place), associated with the process of Psychosynthesis within Assogioli and Jung's theories of Transpersonal Psychology, as well as the western Qabalistic and Alchemical traditions. It is the volition of progress taking place in active transformation.

The term "Severe Beauty" comes into play through the Tarots attribution of the zodiac sign Libra to the Qabalistic Path of Lamed, as well as Tiphareth's English translation, "Beauty". The colors were chosen to exemplify the alchemical fires of Geburah as well as the brilliance and light of Tiphareth, and to allude to the feeling of a Rose and the Heart. The oriental costume was chosen for it’s original red shade, amorphous form and wide brimmed pointy hat, which I feel is symbolic of the astrological Saturn, associated with Binah and it’s attributions of Mastery, Understanding and Limitation. The Pentagram shape within the peice can literally be ascribed to the Pentagram or Pentagrammaton. “ Pentagrammathanatos - Severe Beauty” serves as both a bookmark and personal talisman for the internal processes of this highly pressurized phase of my life.


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