Oil on canvas, 16”w X 20”h. Prints available here.
The vernal equinox, Ostara, a time for Eostara observances when the hours of daylight and night come into balance, seemed like an appropriate opportunity to explore the creation of a new story, a visual narrative based an old Christian myth that I long ago shed.
I'm taking a break from political preoccupations and celebrating the return of the Goddess with a different interpretation of what has been popularly known as the Second Coming.
A vast majority of Christians believe in a Second Coming of Jesus, some sort of Apocalypse, an Armageddon, a Rapture that will transpire in the near future. For millennia, this melodramatic myth has persisted yet the planet continues. Life goes on despite great catastrophes that have decimated wildlife, turned seas into deserts, split continents, and driven species to extinction over the course of billions of years. And yet Earth survives. Life moves on.
Has anyone thought that these disasters may be natural occurrences and part of a cycle of correction and rejuvenation? Ever notice how a burnt forest springs back to life more vibrantly after a fire? If our civilization continues at its present pace, ignoring the need to exist in harmony with nature, deaf to the trumpet to change behavior and confront the effects of global warming, we may indeed face an irreversible planetary crisis. Worse case scenario: The human species may not survive as we know it. Evolve? I pray so.
In the painting of The Second Coming: Return of the Goddess, I call for a return to balance, a spiritual correction that heralds the arrival of a female messiah in the form of a blue pasture rose symbolic of Holy Mother, Goddess, the sacred feminine. She has been subverted for far too long and we need her power to balance our male-dominated civilization, its preoccupation with achievement, colonization, and conquest with little regard for Mother Earth and life. The drive for progress has gotten out of kilter. Something's missing. What is it? I dare to say it is the other half of our divinity, our sacred feminine that's been disowned by both men and women.
To atone after tens of thousands of years of male domination, the way-showing Christ--the masculine aspect of divinity--calls forth and welcomes the return of the sacred feminine in the picture above. Together, the balancing complement of masculine and feminine spirituality heralds the dawning of a New Age, a transformation that restores heaven on earth in tune with all life, mind, body, and spirit.
When I hear End of Days or End Times, I want to say, good-bye and good riddance to out-dated patriarchal ways. I think of new beginnings, a time to balance, a time for correction, and a time for transformation culminated in a Second Coming that transcends and inspires. I think of the return of the Goddess--not in replacing God--but in Them joining together, equal at last.
Let it be so is my prayer for this day of equal light and dark.
IMAGE: For a larger version of the painting, click here and then click on the image for it to enlarge.
|