The Flame Leads the Way

Today a new friend of mine gave me a mediumistic reading, and afterwards he began to ask me about my Tarot paintings. He's a Tarot reader and offered me very specific feedback that changed my perspective about my own paintings! The reading he gave me beforehand was all about taking something and turning it slightly to completely change the perspective of it, so this talk about my paintings was just in line with the reading and was a great eye-opener! One of the things he was curious about was my use of the colors orange and red. At the time, I explained to him that orange, for me, is the color of self-empowerment and resides in our inner-experience, or can be found within, while red (representing many actions and emotions) was the expression of outward power, or the motion of inward power outward to its interaction with the world outside of self. All day I've been preparing Ephel Duath packages to send out and have let my mind open to the idea of perspective. As I took a break and walked to get dinner, I began talking with one of my Spirit Guides and we continued this discussion about perspective. She showed me the image of a flame and I instantly got the message: the flame is a representation of the path of our energy, or inner-knowing to its experience out in the world..in other words, it is the example of what happens when we let the universe and knowing and journey within travel outside ourselves to interact with others: it is light from the darkness, it lights the way and attracts others looking for the same experience. Candles, further, are lit in places of dark, darkness, and shadows. An absence of light, darkness is connected to the idea of secrets, the unknown, the occult, what is hidden. We think of finding the truth in that darkness: we meditate there, we have Spirit Circles in darkened rooms, we feel we are finding secrets in a darkened library, we hold our rituals in darkened rooms, we look for ghosts in shadowy buildings, we seek treasures in forgotten antique shops on side streets, and we tip toe into the unbeaten path, and we instinctively feel that old, dusty books containing information from our ancestors hold keys to finding the deeper truth about our present. Again, like the black holes in our universe, from that darkness comes the light; the knowing and the awakening, and our understanding of this is literally "brought to light" out in the world, where we experience ourselves and see ourselves reflected in others. At the center of a lit candle is a magnesium blue (Spirit), then yellow flame (intellect, knowing, inner-communication), glowing outward from this orange (self-power), then a red halo that connects to the space around this flame (outward projection of power and the interaction of what's within). I unknowingly used this idea in several of my tarot paintings: With "The Emperor" I wanted to convey the youthful idea of expanding empowerment that, especially for others, finds itself out in the world leading and inspiring. The orange and red here convey a sense of relaxed confidence and trust in personal power. With "The Fool" I painted the body in yellow ochre tones with orange and red outlines (as his body meets with the atmosphere), and his triangle of manifestation is orange "Strength" uses red to depict the struggle for balance within oneself in attempt to portray a united personality out in the world And in "Calling in the Four Quarters", rather than typical violet or green energy coming from the Healer's hands, I rather chose the color of clairvoyance, inner-knowing, intellect and communication to be the energy she's sending out into the world around her, where she's surrounded by her own self-empowerment which is changing the shape of the space around her.