Persephone

Oil and acrylic on canvas

18" x 24"
2012

$400

Available here

Copyright Patricia Ariel

Our Lady of the Angels-Gone and the "Terrible Mother"

about two weeks ago I began to feel a strong wish of working in a piece about abortion. I got to make a nouveau-style illustration some time ago, but nothing close to this work I started to develop early last week and decided to call Our Lady of the Angels-Gone.

writing this post was very difficult, since many questions came to my mind, questions that lead to another to another to another... the ones who know me know that I am totally pro life, and it saddens me to know that this term today is associated to conservative and retrograde people. however, due to my spiritualist way of seeing life, it couldn't be any different. without the limitations of materialism, your vision of things become kind of multidimensional. but that's my own vision, and I don't intend to push it toward others as the only truth. while science do not come to a conclusion about when human life starts, it will be hard to know the truth about things. even being so sensitive to this question, which makes rise in me a blend of compassion, revolt and sadness, I have concluded that it's very difficult to approach such a delicate and contradictory subject. I then decided to make the work as a kind of "visual prayer", not only for the spirits that have been interrupted in their reincarnation process but also for the mothers that for one or other reason were forced to interrupt that process - which never occurs without any pain of some sort.

as it always happens, the artwork takes control and I simply let myself to go with the flow. at first I had imagined a kind of enlightened entity, like a saint, who would take care of the little spirits and of the mothers in suffering. something like compassion personified. it didn't work. the face that came up didn't sound very soft, but even a little severe. she covers herself carelessly in a kind of dark cloth, through which we see her golden heart. I thought that it was so important to show her heart... because there's no better judge for this type of question than love. another thing that came to me and sounded interesting was her hair... that appeared like huge roots of an old tree, or like tentacles, or still like serpents... running down two masked figures that seem to beg for shelter under the saint, or goddess, clothes.

there's a myth that represents the opposite pole from the caring and donating Great Mother: the Terrible Mother. this myth symbolizes the domain of the instincts and of the unconscious powers that have not been controlled by Ego. the Terrible Mother doesn't nurture or protect; she is the denier of the feminine in its positive pole, castrating, repressing and even killing her children. she is represented in different cultures as dark and destructive goddesses, like the hindu goddess Kali, balinese Rangda, or the gorgons. the stepmothers and witches of the fairytales are also related to this aspect of the Goddess. all of these goddesses are identified with reptiles, spiders or snakes (it's funny how my figure reminded me of Medusa...) anyway, I ended up finding in her great identification with this myth and I'm still in doubt about her soothing character. maybe she should entirely reflect the negative aspect of the feminine. (notice that in the world of myths as well as in nature there's no manichean conotation, nothing like positive = good and negative = bad. and that my attempt to discuss this matter in this post by no means intend to be accusatory, as if the Terrible Mother was the "bad girl" and the Creator Mother was the good one. both are aspects of the Great Mother and contain in themselves aspects of the psyche that are present in every woman.)

the relation of abortion with the Terrible Mother myth is quite intriguing. I believe that reflections on this archetype might turn possible bringing to light a little of the psyche of the women that for one or another reason deny themselves the development of the creative facet of the feminine (notice that this position does not relate to the therapeutic abortion, but the one that occurs for the mother's free will, for a series of reasons.) I really respect the position of the women that don't wish to have children, that don't feel connected to motherhood (although I don't think that that's enough to justify abortion), but I think that the vision of many feminists about abortion and female freedom, about having control of our own bodies and sexual behavior is very dangerous. in one of my favorite books, Jung and Tarot - an Archetypal Journey, by Sallie Nichols, she speaks about something that, to me, is very revealing. in the chapter about the Empress, she explains that the destructive aspect of the Goddess becomes apparent every time that woman neglects her true realm, which is the one of relationship and love. her strength can then turn toward the desire for power, taking them to lose touch with the female creativity. thus, The Empress, to whom her kingdom was denied for too long, comes to the surface with infernal fury. "It's understandable", she says - and pardon me for the rough translation, since my book is in Portuguese, "that in the search for her true essence, woman appears under several aspects."

for the ones who don't know Tarot, the Empress is the arcane that represents the complete woman, emancipated and fulfilled, conscious of her creativity and a "governor for love". the one who has all the goddesses balanced inside herself. my hope is to see someday woman coming to this condition of fulfillment... although I know that it does not depend entirely on her. there's a whole system that favors the flourish of the Terrible Mother, stopping the Woman-Empress from taking control of her creative role.

second panel finally in progress

I must confess I am proud of this one. :)











Ignis Aeris is the right panel of The Waterman triptych. it represents the elements Fire and Water, or the yang ones. the left panel will be called Terrae Aquae, and it will represent the ying elements Earth and Water.

I didn't intend to use too much symbolism in the side panels, since they are supposed to "frame" the main one, which I decided to call Unio Mystica (this is the very own you've been watching for a while, with the naked Christ.) the four elements are the base of the physical universe, or microcosm, where the Divine Spirit manifests.

in Ignis Aeris, the bottom figure is the Magician. this arcane represents the number One, the power of creation. his nature is pretty much Air/Fire, since he pursues the gifts of the intellect (Air) and of the power of will (Fire) combined. I wanted to represent him wearing the Nemean lion skin, like Hercules. Hercules is the epitome of hero, that guy who has the power of will, creativity, braveness and passion (all Fire qualities), as well as mental skills (Air) in enough quantity to be succeeded in his endeavors.

other symbols I used are the butterflies (for Air) and the phoenix ( for Fire, represented by the middle figure in a bird mask). all the gestures evoke spirituality and connection to the higher planes.

it was funny to notice, when I finished the sketch, that the group had gained a sort of a Bacchanalia aura. I think that the god Bacchus has a strong fire connection, with all that wine and ecstasy, not mentioning that his cult was also pretty wild and sexually indulgent... more Fire, impossible.

about Hecate

so I finished Hecate some days ago, right after the New Year. although I still think that there are things to be corrected, I got proud for this being a kind of milestone for me. first because it's the first "large" piece I make (20 x 15 inches), practically double the size of my former drawings; second, because it's the first work on illustration board I really managed to finish; and third, because is the first finished work of my new phase (I have 2 more pieces on paper I started several weeks ago but have not showed here yet.)

now, let's go to the story:
the piece was initially planned to portray Lilith. then, I added the two heads beside the main figure, which immediately reminded me of the triple aspect of a goddess I was very fond of: Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, childbirth and the crossroads. Hecate has power over skies, earth and sea, which I wanted to show in each one of the three figures. the central one carries several symbols attributed to the goddess: the pomegranates in her hair remind us of the legend of Persephone, in which she plays an important role; while she hides her right eye behind her hand, the eye still shows through the fingers, showing that she's got the "vision", or the capacity of seeing the past, present and future. the moon under her right breast denotes that Hecate is a moon goddess, and that she protects the women in labor and their offspring - the moon is associated to the motherhood. the black dog is one of her companions.

Hecate symbolism is so rich that your imagination simply flies away. I tried to be the simplest I could when showing her main attributes. who knows I can make another picture of her in the future.

William Blake, Hecate or The Three Fates