Triptychs!!!

I was rummaging around some work from a few years ago and decided that I wanted to see if it might be interesting to combine a few pieces into triptychs panels. Below are 2 of the resulting compositions. What do you think? The results are surprisingly powerful! Definitely something to explore more...

Durga Altar Triptych ©2012

Lady One Death Yantra Triptych ©2012

CIrcle of Spirits

I just completed a new piece based upon journey imagery that I received a week ago. The work combines three sources of guidance from three different realms - the sky world, the tree world, and the ocean world.

CIrcle of the Spirits

In the nighttime sky, the Pleiades star cluster is overlaid with a constellation of an owl carrying a rattlesnake in its beak. (The rattle is the Mayan symbol of the Pleiades). The ocean quadrant is populated by whale and dolphins singing song lines of the deep (deep ocean, deep time). The forest quadrant presents a cathedral of redwood trees, the spirits of which are gathering in a ritual circle (called forth by Lady One Death, the great dark spirit of nature).

The Many Faces of the Goddess

from: http://www.OriginoftheWord.com ~ Sacred Journeys Within.

Sign of the Times

Tonight, December 1st, look to the southwest sky right after sunset. Beaming brightly through the twilight you will see a tight three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon forming an equilateral triangle. This conjunction will continue to be visible for several days after the first of the month, but the planets and moon will move further and further apart, forming a highly skewed triangle.

The Maya believe that the planets and stars provide gateways to alternate dimensions. A conjunction of heavenly bodies is thus a major focus of energies affecting our consciousness. In the case of the current conjunction appearing low in the southwestern skies, the energies are of opening and transformation, returning to the original roots of creation. Perhaps signaling that the opening of the dark path or "Royal Road of the Ancestors" - xibalba be - to the 2012 transformation has in fact begun!

Who are the players in this conjunction?


Venus is both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. Venus serves as a gateway to the Underworld, its rising and setting are times of dangerous, intensely powerful energies. (For the Maya, Venus is not feminine love but rather masculine action, such as required for warfare or the hunt.)

Jupiter is the Old God, the ruler of solar planets and of royal lineages. He is sometimes referred to as Lord One Death and associated with jaguar spirit. Jupiter is thus the fundamental masculine energy of creation. Related closely to Old God are the figures of Hurakan, "Heart of Heaven" - another creator deity (whose aspects include wind, storm, fire) and Itzamna - the Lord of the Fire, Lord of the Underworld (whose aspect includes the Milky Way).

The Moon is often referred to as Lady White Quetzal or First Mother (with aspects of water, the Underworld, feminine energy). Related closely to the Moon is the goddess of fertility, health and the healing arts, Ix Chel, seen to be a young maiden. However, just as the Moon has a light and a dark side, Ix Chel, the maiden, has another side: Chac Chel, the old crone, whose aspects include death, darkness and the Milky Way (home of the ancestors), as well as being a root Earth Goddess.

What this brings into play, then, is the re-mixing of the root energies of masculine and feminine into a new moment of conception. Blessed by the Ancestors, this conjunction announces a new cycle of creation and transformation.

Lady One Death

Lady One Death presented herself to me several months ago during deep meditation. She is a root Mayan goddess, the Mother of All Being (First Mother, the Moon) and is an esoteric form of Ix Chel (the Healer). She serves to actualize and stabilize the energies of the creator god, Itzamna- Giver of Life, Lord of Fire. Her name derives from the codex naming hieroglyph "One Skull" - shown above.

Lady One Death embodies the dark root energy of creation and creativity, a place where death and life are one, the realm of ultimate potential and necessary dissolution. As such, she embodies similar energies to that of Kali and Durga.

Meditations on Lady One Death

Part of my practice to better integrate the Lady's energies has been to work on various thangka images and portraits. Below, I have posted a selection of these meditation images.

Altar of Lady One Death

Totem of Lady One Death

Lady One Death Invocation

Yantra of Lady One Death

The gem seen in these images reveals some of her underlying attributes (symbols within the opal stone): we see an eagle flying, diving, ready to capture it's prey. At the bottom slithers a rattle snake. Between the two floats the rattle itself - a symbol of shamanic journey (rattle), of the Milky Way, as well the time of upcoming galactic Solstice Alignment. The star field behind is that of the Pleiades, home of the Mayan Star Ancestors.

Durga Altar

As part of the Lady One Death series, I created this image of her embodiment in the form of Durga. Here Durga serves as a fierce protector of the Land of the Ancestors at the gates of Xibalba Be (The Dark Road).