MYSTICAL FACTS

“Wonder compassion and conscience -three powers through which human beings transcend their own limitations; through these powers, influences that cannot find entrance via the intellect or the senses, ray into human life.” Rudolf Steiner Love and It’s Meaning In the World

Conscience is inspired by The Sermon chapter in Moby Dick. The story of Jonah and the whale is told and there is a moment when Jonah notices the swinging lamp in his berth is tilting but the flame stays upright--as flames always do.  “Oh! so my conscience hangs in me!” he groans, “straight upwards, so it burns; but the chambers of my soul are all in crookedness!”  Many traditions describe the conscience as a flame inside you. This is why we call a moral person upstanding. It is said animals don't have a conscience because they are on all fours, and a baby's doesn't begin to develop until they can stand. It is the reason a criminal is called a crook and described as crooked .

I’ve wanted to paint a lamb for a long time. What I really wanted was to paint the spiral fur, but it’s intimidating to paint the animal that represents God for some people.  Why a lamb?  Such a gentle creature, hardly anyone I know thinks of God that way. In mythology wool is wisdom in matter. A king will have a fleece over his shoulder to show he is a wise person. I love wool. It is a magical substance, even wet wool will keep you warm.

SIGHTS UNSEEN

Feeling is part of the triptych: Thinking, Feeling and Willing. In spirit a human being is separated into three aspects: the head and nervous system -thinking;  the trunk and the rhythmic system -feeling; and the limbs and the metabolic system -willing. The head, heart and hands. I chose a giraffe for Feeling because of its sensitive face, though I recently read that a giraffe has a special ‘super-charged’ heart in order to get blood up to its head. In retrospect the awkward posture of this giraffe reflects the sometimes unwieldiness of feelings.  If I were to choose a spirit animal it would be a giraffe- which would mean I’m ‘far-seeing’. In Siena, the giraffa is the symbol for the contrade (neighborhood) of painters.