Included here are images and videos submitted by our community related to our focus on Gaia, climate change and our relationship with the Earth.

Large banyan tree in a botanical garden in Ponta Delgada, Azores. Photo: Stephe Gray.

“Albedo”, ieri pnoi (Dimitra Natskouli), acrylics & gold leaves on canvas, 40x100cm, 2022

Albedo is the second of four major stages of the Magnum Opus, the alchemical process of transformation. The meaning of this latin word is ‘to whiten’. It refers to the purification process of clearing all impurities, of bringing light and clarity to the Prima Materia. Here, human consciousness becomes aligned with all kinds of consciousness existing on Earth: mineral, botanical, animal, etheric. In terms of depth psychology, in this stage the world is more than just the individual ego. In other words, individual consciousness expands to include and incorporate the various realms of life on earth, all life-forms and rainbow colors. The epicenter of this process is the pineal gland. The tree represents the two hemispheres of the brain, while the mythical symbol of labyrinth indicates a pathway to reach this gland and to activate it. The geometry of the triangle is balancing between two gold spheres, representing the purification of matter by the descent of spirit.

“Gaia, Mother of All”, ieri pnoi (Dimitra Natskouli), Egg tempera & gold leaves on wood, 75x50, 2016

Gaia, the caring and nurturing energy of abundance, is represented by a female silhouette. Her glance is encouraging the humans traveling on the planet, having forgotten their roots and the reason they are here. The color of her garments indicate that she belongs to a higher hierarchy, possibly as a representative of the soul, or a high priestess of feminine energy. The white dove on the base of her neck liberates Logos, the individual will that has become aligned with the divine Will. This alignment creates reality on earth. It creates paradise on earth. Protectively, she cradles the planet in her arms. I created this painting as an active prayer to my soul. The title is inspired by the first phrase of a Homeric hymn to goddess Gaia.

“Queen Bee”, ieri pnoi (Dimitra Natskouli), egg tempera & acrylics on canvas, 40x50cm, 2020

The children of the Earth are suffering from human industrial pollution. According to a spiritual allegorical tale, bees are the wise guardians of the planet. Community, love, wisdom, and creativity are some of their qualities. Human’s alienation from a natural way of living is causing bees to suffer. They, however, hold the memory of a balanced life on earth and they are here to help us remember our way back home.

“The Rock of the Universe”, ieri pnoi (Dimitra Natskouli), Acrylics on canvas, 150x35cm, 2017

The ancient Greek poet Hesiod introduces Gaia -the Earth- as one of the primordial Triad of entities, including Chaos and Eros, born of nothing and creating everything. Chaos and disorder are often represented as a reversed mountain. Primordial goddess Gaia rises out of the chaotic soup of non-existence, and archetypally awakens in us thirst for life (represented here by the red cloth covering the figure). In a world of perceived duality, this instinctual impulse is accompanied by its opposite polarity, fear of death and decay; the dark cosmic void from which we are come and whereto we shall return.

“Alignment 33”, ieri pnoi (Dimitra Natskouli), Acrylics on canvas, 70x100cm, 2020

According to Plato’s myth of the Androgynon, the first humans that populated the Earth were simultaneously male and female, inhabiting one body. This memory carries the symbolism of a geometrical balance between opposing qualities. This balance crystallizes in the human psyche in alignment with spiritual light, and is shed into the light of the sun and moon and enlivens elemental life on earth. When balance is achieved, this mystical alignment creates a portal: a hexagonal portal that unites the spiritual, psychic and physical worlds. In this respect, the material realm of the earth is just the embodiment of psyche and spirit, and the triad exists in the cosmic microcosm that forms ‘a human being’.

The hexagon and the points of it occured accidentally after the painting was done. It was a geometrical synchronicity that gave a deeper meaning to the symbolism of the work.

 

Hill End 13, Peter Cameron, 2022, oil on linen, 152x148cms

Within reason Land surfaces,
yet our centre and periphery
spiral around her interstices.

Source Lake Mungo 61, Peter Cameron, 2019, oil on linen, 113x102cms

Lake Mungo 65, Peter Cameron, 2019, oil on linen, 138x138cms

Elemental Land of dimensional Mandala
expands everywhen in conscious unhorizon.
As primal unbinding unravels one periphery
intwining becomes perception’s necessity.

Like the flowing winds and waters we
bright living vessels meander the radial
ragged lines of Earth’s tissued synapse,
before disappearing again in plain sight.

- Peter Cameron

This is a film made by Bill Oakey that was part of a successful referendum campaign to save the Meramec River from damming by the USA Army Corps of Engineers. For GAIA participants it can serve as evidence that we can help protect GAIA by getting off our cushions and our couches and doing the work. We can believe that anyone who does so will become part of the fabric of a healing GAIA.

 

"Stars of Wonder", a presentation by artist Johanna Baruch
Inspired by the breathtaking photographs offered by the Hubble Space Telescope, Johanna Baruch explores the realms where science and imagination intertwine. She believes that the wonder revealed to us through modern astronomy can act as a bridge back into the mythopoetic mind. She was invited by Mythica to show the paintings in her Cosmos Series, and speak of her process of journeying into deep space through an inner landscape.

 

Adele Davide, "Gaia".

 

Adele Davide, "Gaia, Demeter, Persephone and Athene".

 

Margaret Tsirantonakis, “Garden for Artemis III”, 2018. Oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches

 

Bert Kupferman, "Sea and Sky", 2021. 15 x 7 inches

 

Bert Kupferman, "Earth and Sky", 2021.  Oil, 9 x12 inches

 

David Wilson, “An Encounter from Joshua Tree National Forest, CA".

 

Ruby Wachtel, "Mother Earth Contemplating".

 

Ruby Wachtel, "Pollution of Many Shapes".

 

Laura and Dean Larson, "The Ecstatic Dance of Sentient Beings".