IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS

 The Circle, Circular Canvasses, Hermes Trismegistus, Ayin (Absolutely Nothing), Ayin Sof (Absolutely All), Mathematics, Mathematical Formula for a Circle, Wheel, Orb, Disk, Mandala, Wheel, Islam, Allah, Buddha, Emerald Tablet, Shapeshifter, Electron, Quantum Mechanics, Probabilities, Quantum Possibilities, Dance of Life, Dance of Old Age, Dance of Death, Green Man, Life Cycles, Mother Earth, Seasons, Animal Spirits, Light Bringer, Angels, Lucifer, Jormungandr, Midgard Serpent, Norse Mythology, Ourobouros, Uroburos, Tail-Devouring-Snake, August Kekule, Medicine Wheel, Om, Aum, Ohm, Sun Gazing, Sun Dance Ceremony, Plains Indians, Pawnee, Menominee Indians, Algonquin Tribe, Navaho Creation Myth, Rabbit Magician, Master Rabbit, Labyrinth, Double Woman, Goddess of the Day, Goddess of the Night, Inanna/Ishtar, Ereshkigal/Lilith, Mouse Oracle, Sea Wolf, Moon Man, Shamanic Drum, Singing Bowl, The Infinitely Large Circle

THE CIRCLE

Paintings on circular canvasses

and reflections on The Circle

'God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'

Hermes Trismegistus

AYIN (or Absolute Nothing)

AYIN SOF (or Absolute All)

According to legend, God/ Great Spirit/Source/The Holy One was complete in itself. Yet It felt a desire to experience Itself from without, for "God to behold God". This God is known as AYIN (or "Nothingness") in Hebrew. To beging the process of existence, Ayin withdrew an aspect of itself (God The Imminent, known as AYIN SOF, The Absolute All) in order to create a space within itself. Ayin and Ayin Sof are the sources of Creation.  The 'Ayin Sof' is is also known as the Endless Light or Ten Attributes of Fire, contained within the Cosmic Womb.

Wikipedia gives the following definition of a circle: 

A circle is the set of all points in a plane at a fixed distance from a fixed point.

In proper mathematical terms:

 A circle is a special ellipse in which the two foci are coincident

THE MATHEMATICAL FORMULA FOR A CIRCLE   (30 x 30 cm)   £95

Visit the MATHEMATICS page if you share my fascination with maths, but I will now look at the way The Circle crops up in everyday life and situations.

 A circle is an intriguing symbol that has no beginning and no end. The circle is the wheel, the orb, the disk, the form on which the mandala is based. (In fact the word 'mandala' is Sanskrit for 'disk').

HUGE BLUE ORB FLOATING AROUND OUR GARDEN RECENTLY (Dec. 2009)

The Circle is a form that encloses a space: there is an inside and an outside space.

In the teachings of Buddha the wheel is a common symbol: the centre remains still while everything around it turns.

 Buddha also taught that identifying one's self with any point on the wheel itself was to become tangled up with beginnings and endings, births and deaths (and rebirths!) that always lead to suffering. Therefore the centre is the place of observation without observer, action without actor.

In Islam, which forbids the portrayal of Allah or Mohammed, geometrical shapes dominate sacred art. A segment of the circle, the crescent, together with the full circle in the form of a star, represent the Divine. The inverted half circle, i.e. the dome, represents the arch of the heavens. An arch forms the roof of the mosque, turning the whole building into a space of contemplation, turning the minds of the faithful towards Allah.

I quoted Hermes Trismegistus at the top of this page. Another famous ancient phrase by him is: 'As Above, So Below', (from the 'Emerald Tablet'). From the micro level of atoms and molecules to the macro level of planets and their orbits, circles and spheres are found on every level of human experience.

  THE ULTIMATE SHAPESHIFTER: THE ELECTRON!   (diameter 30 cm)   £95

Quantum mechanics describes a reality of probabilities: a reality where things hover in a hazy state of being partly one way and partly another way. Things become definite only when observation forces them to 'relinquish those quantum possibilities' and settle on a specific outcome. In other words: long range quantum connections between particles can bypass spatial seperation. Two objects can be at opposing ends of the universe, but they will behave as if they are two halves of one single entity. (Bear in mind here that the 'speed limit of our cosmos' is the speed of light, and that this phenomenon of 'acting like two halves of the same coin' even applies to particles millions of  light years apart!)

To read more: please visit the COSMOS PAGE!

THE DANCE OF LIFE   (diameter 30cm)   £150

This painting is inspired by a Passamaquoddy legend about Muggahmaht'adem or The Dance of Old Age (or the Magic of Weemillmekq). In a village lived many Indians and there was a great dance in the lodge. Someone had prepared a cool drink and in it was the powder of the Horn of the Weewillmeqk (a monster you can call up by song, a desperate act). A witch came to the dance and was offered the drink. Then a strange thing happened: for every turn at the dance she grew a year older. She began as a very young girl. By the time she got back to the point where she started, she fell dead on the floor, at the feet of the person who gave her the drink.

Leaving aside any mention of witches and monsters, to me the Dance Of Old Age seems quite a profound concept. I made this painting contemplating my own life and where I might be in this great dance. The Passamaquoddy also call it The Dance of Death, but personally I think of this concept and this canvas as The Dance Of Life.

 THE GREEN MAN   (diameter 30 cm)   £135

And this painting too expresses the concept of Life Cycles:  the great cycle of Mother Earth and the succession of seasons. A green man is traditionally represented 'radiating' oak leaves. In this painting the leaves have taken on the look of little 'gingerbread men' dancing through the seasons. Thus I have tried to capture the shamanic concept of even the tiniest leaf having its own spirit and its own life cycle.

ANIMAL POWERS MEDITATION   (30 x 30cm)   £110

Another recent canvas inspired by working with Animal Spirits in my shamanic work

LIGHT BRINGERS   (SOLD)

This is a vision I had recently while doing shamanic work with a client: I saw an infinity of angels dancing in the flame of the candle.

The Dutch word for 'match' (as in little wooden pin to light fire) is 'Lucifer'. Lucifer is a Latin word, literally meaning "light-bearer", which in that language is used as a name for the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, heralding daylight. Use of the word in this sense is uncommon in English, where the word 'Lucifer' has become synonym with the word 'devil'.

Another example of a circle is the snake or serpent that bites its own tail. A well known serpent is Jörmungandr , the sea serpent or Midgard Serpent in Norse mythology. He is the middle child of the giantess Angrbotha and the God Loki. According to the Prose Edda, Odin tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard (or the abode of the first human beings) The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasps his own tail. When he lets go, the world will end...

JORMUNGANDR, SEA SERPENT OR MIDGARD SERPENT IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY

(Diameter 30 cm)   £125

And here is an Inuit varation on the same theme:

PAINTING INSPIRED BY AN INUIT SERPENT OR DRAGON BITING ITS OWN TAIL

(30cm in diameter)   £125

The ourobouros (or Uroburos) is an ancient symbol that depicts a serpent or dragon swalling its own tail and forming a circle. As a symbol it represents cyclicality, in the sense of something constantly recreating itself. The Greek word ourobouros means 'tail-devouring snake'.

In modern time the organic chemist August Kekule claimed that a ring in the shape of an ourobouros he saw in a dream inspired and helped him in his discovery of the structure of benzene!

MEDICINE WHEEL   (30 in diamter)   £145

 The Native American philosophy behind the vision of the Medicine Wheel is that all things and all beings on earth are connected and related. Therefore they must all be in harmony for the earth to be balanced.

 OM/AUM/OHM   (30 cm in diameter)   £135

The name Omkara (in Sanskrit: the syllable om) is taken as a name of God in the Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj. Similarly the concept of 'om' ('onkar' in Punjabi) is found in Sikh theology as a symbol of God. It invariably expresses God's singularity, expressed as Ek Onkar ("One Omkara" or "The Aum Is One") stating that the multiplicity of existence symbolised in the aum syllable is really founded in a single God. (Source: Wikipedia)

BASKET   (30 cm in diameter)   £125

The Yekuana People in Venezuela believe that a succesful life is one that continually integrates the visible everyday world and the invisible world of the spirits. This is expressed visually in patterns on baskets. Each pattern can be read two ways: foreground and background expressing the two complimentary worlds.

 THE EARTH'S TRUE MOTHER   (30 in diameter)   £110

 Many peoples have worshipped the Sun as the God(dess) that gave birth to Earth, scientifically speaking this is only partially correct. The Earth originated from the ecliptic plane of dust and debris that circles the sun (another circle!), but the earth's "true mother" was a star (or collection of stars) that died billions of years ago in a supernova. Quite literally our bodies are made from stardust, from stars that died billions of years ago!

"THE BEAR  IN THE SUN"   (30 cm in diameter)   £150

The Plains Indians in the United States sought and received powerful visions through prolonged gazing at the sun and the moon. This tradition was part of the so called Sun Dance Ceremony, by far the most demanding part. Only very few people attempted this, but it was through gazing at the sun that a candidate might receive a vision from the spirit world that will aid him throughout his lifetime. One Pawnee man received a vision from a bear that came out of the sun, after he prayed and gazed at the sun for seven days.

GREAT MOUSE FREES THE SNARED SUN   (30 cm in diameter)   £145

The Menominee Indians of the Algonquin tribe have a creation story that explains how a Great Mouse cut free the snared sun. 

"WHY THE MOON BELONGS TO THE WHITE PEOPLE"

(30 cm in diameter)   £135

"The Moon God lives in the same house as the Sun. The Moon was given to the white people and the rest of the tribes in the beginning of life on this earth. The white people can look at the Moon and see things in the future, for this was foretold by the gods themselves. White people look at the Moon and see inventions and then try to make them. The Moon is like the white people's skin, transparent. The moon has a nose and a mouth and the face of a white man, for it belongs to the white people."

From: In The Beginning - A Navaho Creation Myth

 THE RABBIT MAGICIAN   (30 cm in diameter)   £165

There are men who are bad at copying, yet are good originals, and of this kind was Master Rabbit, who, when he gave up trying to do as others did, succeeded very well. He applied himself to become able in good earnest and studied m'teoulin, or magic, so severely that in time he grew to be an awful conjuror, so that he could raise ghosts, crops, storms or devils whenever he wanted them'

From 'The Algonquin Legends of New England'

In Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism - the three great spiritual traditions that originated in India - the circle or mandala is an integral part of sacred art. The ground plan of a Hindu temple often takes the form of a circle/mandala symbolising the universe, with doors or gates at each of the cardinal points.

In the West a circular labyrinth, such as can be found on the floor in the Cathedral of Chartres in Northern France, is a representation of the symbolic journey from outer darkness to a sacred centre. It is a journey inwards, a journey of self-discovery. Read about this in more detail on the LABYRINTHS AND MAZES webpage!

CLAN WHEEL  (Sold)

DOUBLE WOMAN   (30 cm in diameter)   £185

 'Double Woman' is a Native American (Lakota) concept or theme described as two women joined together by a rope from which dangles a baby. It is said that if a woman dreamed of Double Woman they would teach her songs. It has been suggested that this image shows a personification of two selves. While working on this painting, however, for me this image extended to Inanna and Ereshkigal (or Ishtar and Lilith if you like), Goddess of the Day and Goddess of the Night, two sides of one coin, Goddess of our visible Everyday World and Goddess of the Invisible Other World...

MOUSE ORACLE   (30 cm in diameter)   £145

 The Baule People of Ivory Coast use a Mouse Oracle for divination. The inspiration for this painting combines this and the habit of ancient Chinese people to 'read the bones'. Divination goes back to the philosophy described under Medicine Wheel: everything is connected, so what happens in one place sheds light on what happens in another place or context...

"CHINESE SOUP" (Vision for Judith!)   SOLD

 SEA WOLF   (30 cm in diameter)   £165

The wolf and the whale are mystically twinned in Inuit legends. (See also the INUIT SERIES). The leader of the whale-hunting spirits was a wolf-tailed being. The Orca or Killer Whale often hunts in packs and is also known as the "Sea Wolf".

This is hard to understand for us. The Inuit of this period lived in a world where everyhing was connected and animal species and human beings were connected in all sorts of ways too. I will quote an Inuit by the name of Samaruna here:

"The moon spirit comes from Tikigaq (a peninsula in the Bering Strait in Alaska). // Whales come from the moon. The Wolf and the Whale have one soul.// Tigigaq is a whale".

 (So even the peninsula this tribe lived on was shaped like a whale, in their perception). How different from our rational and scientific ways of looking at the world - yet how layered, mystical and how rich!

MOON MAN AND WIND IN-DWELLER, Inuit Series

(30 cm in diameter)   £145

 CIRCLES IN EVERYDAY LIFE! 

MY SHAMANIC DRUM - ANOTHER IMPORTANT CIRCLE IN MY LIFE!

MY SINGING BOWL, ANOTHER IMPORTANT SHAMANIC TOOL...

A very simple mathematical concept that has profound implications, is the

INFINITELY LARGE CIRCLE

In mathematics there is a clear distinction between straight lines and curved lines. However, if a circle increases in size until it has a infinite diameter, then it's surface would become indistinguishable from an infinite straight line...

When you spend some time contemplating this, you realise how much depends on our particular viewpoint, as human beings of a certain size and with a brain that is wired a certain way on one particular planet called earth... Modern physics has established one fact: we lived in a curved universe!

And last but not least I had a dream vision and was told to borrow a toy from my boys:

Where a dot unfolds and becomes a circle, becomes a spiral, becomes a ... "small universe"! And that takes us back to the beginning of this page... The Absolute Nothng and The Absolute All...

Imelda Almqvist, (Last updated August 2010)

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 The Circle, Circular Canvasses, Hermes Trismegistus, Ayin (Absolutely Nothing), Ayin Sof (Absolutely All), Mathematics, Mathematical Formula for a Circle, Wheel, Orb, Disk, Mandala, Wheel, Islam, Allah, Buddha, Emerald Tablet, Shapeshifter, Electron, Quantum Mechanics, Probabilities, Quantum Possibilities, Dance of Life, Dance of Old Age, Dance of Death, Green Man, Life Cycles, Mother Earth, Seasons, Animal Spirits, Light Bringer, Angels, Lucifer, Jormungandr, Midgard Serpent, Norse Mythology, Ourobouros, Uroburos, Tail-Devouring-Snake, August Kekule, Medicine Wheel, Om, Aum, Ohm, Sun Gazing, Sun Dance Ceremony, Plains Indians, Pawnee, Menominee Indians, Algonquin Tribe, Navaho Creation Myth, Rabbit Magician, Master Rabbit, Labyrinth, Double Woman, Goddess of the Day, Goddess of the Night, Inanna/Ishtar, Ereshkigal/Lilith, Mouse Oracle, Sea Wolf, Moon Man, Shamanic Drum, Singing Bowl, The Infinitely Large Circle

IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS