Weekly Mandala: Auroras Compass and The Thorn Apple

The Compass of the Dawn and Compass of the Underworld. I was tempted to call the second piece The Apple of Eris, but I realized that our lady's apple would not nearly be so telling. The second piece is less about the sewing of discord and more about navigating the darkness.

From the Archives: Sly Grin

My original thought with this piece was to create an image like a Green Man, but with a regular man's face.  Originally created for publication in BROS. magazine.  A magazine devoted to the beauty of men with long hair.  I don't believe it is in publication any longer.

{Sharpie}

Weekly Mandala: Kirlian Implosion

I've always been fascinated by Kirlian Photography.  That shot at the beginning of X-Files embedded itself in my head (of course) and is mixed up in there with all the other occult stuff.

From the Archives: Janus Tornado

More Janus imagery and more tornado imagery. This piece is drawn in a style that I used for many years prior to my introduction to Photoshop.  It was kind of somewhere between Francis Bacon and H.R. Giger.

Recommended Listening:
Cocteau Twins
Hitherto
The Pink Opaque

{Sharpie}

The Ancient Archive: Saviour Figure I, Knight

This is a piece I did in High School, 1989 I believe. Okay now I'm feeling a bit old.  LOL. It is from my AP portfolio series. The face in the piece was someone that I had a giagantic crush on.  Of course he was straight and of course he had no idea.  However, that didn't stop me from being completely obsessed.

I was a VERY emotional teenager.  I'm not saying that I am no longer, but the water just runs deeper now.  At the time I was convinced I was in Love.  Obsessive, Irrevocable, Endlessly-driving, Earth-shattering, Soul-destroying LOVE. Whenever he was around, I couldn't speak or think or breathe. I joined a school function (which shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) simply so that I could be nearer to him.  I was lost in the throes of my emotional intensity.  I was silly and out of control and ignorant.  I'm just glad the only thing broken out of this was my teenage heart.

The paths we walk to get to today are strange indeed. I cried a little upon seeing this piece again.  It has been so long.  This whole week has kind of been bringing up ghosts. I met someone a few days ago who reminded me very much of myself around this age.  Friggin' Pluto in Capricorn unearthing the dead for yet another trip down undead memory lane.  I suppose there is something to be learned here, but for the life of me I do not know what it is.  Love hurts?  Yeah, Yeah.  Obsession makes for great art?  I dunno. I was at least lucky enough to have this piece published years later on the cover of an RFD issue.

Working on this piece and all the others in my AP portfolio is where I developed my love for Berol Prismacolor pencils.  I can't live without them now.  My involvement with Prismacolor pencils is very close to my relationship with Sharpies: obsessive and driving and I always end up with neato piece of art when I'm finished.  I guess I haven't changed so much after all.

This piece actually became the seed of a trio of pieces.  The second and third pieces were Death and Devil, respectively. I'll have to dig around and see if I have any copies of those two to post.  They were given away as gifts many moons ago.

Recommended Listening:
This song and album were my soundtrack during that time.
George Winston
Thanksgiving
December

{Berol Prismacolor pencil on Colored Paper}

Weekly Mandala: Crystal Division

The crystalline beginnings of fractal consciousness.  I feel like this is an earlier stage of Prism Mechanics.  As though once this one picks up enough speed it will look more like the other mandala.  Perhaps there is an animated gif in order...hmmmm.  I'll get back to you on that.

Recommended Listening:
Ginormous
Night Scenes, Fireworks, The Heavens
At Night, Under Artificial Light

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

From the Archives: Sun Moon

This represents the crystallization of the link between the Sun and Moon, the unification of the conscious and the unconscious.  Diving deep into the unconscious for the Philosopher's stone, the marriage of Heaven and Earth, as above, so below.  This is an image I created for an event poster.  The Sun Moon in the center was later used as a basis for a tattoo design.

Recommended Listening:
Data Romance
The Deep
Data Romance

 {Sharpie}

Review: H.O.P.E. Tales of the Nuclear Family

This isn't necessarily related to my spiritual content here on Trail of Breadcrumbs, but for those of you interested in comics, I've done a review of H.O.P.E. Tales of the Nuclear Family on my comics art blog, Wind of the Gods. Please check it out here and support these aspiring creators.

Weekly Mandala: Black and White Trio

These three mandalas are all centered on the internal, the discovery within.  In the first mandala, Furtex, we discover a small bit of knotwork at the center of this flowering vortex of fur. The mandala also seems to be taking place in pool of shimmering light.


In the second mandala, States of Weather, we are drawn into an isolated personality and sucked inside the whirling moods of this enigmatic figure.  Four ghostly hands pull back the cloaking fur to reveal The figure, shielded from its exterior world.  The figure seems satisfied to be completely absorbed only in its personal circulations.

In the third mandala, Machina, we uncover the machinery beneath it all. Far beneath snow and mountainous rock, we find the gears of creation whirling the world into existence.  These three mandalas all came from the same source material. Initially, they all had a very light coloration to them, but once they began to move towards completion, I chose to desaturate them completely.

Recommended Listening:
Ginormous
At Night, Under Artificial Light
At Night, Under Artificial Light

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Realization

This is me coming to a greater understanding of the universe through the fruits of my meditation practice.  Growth is the slow movement of vines over a thicket, the breath of living progress.  The empty cup is filled with understanding.

Patience is one of the hardest lessons for me.  I want understanding now!  I want knowledge now!  However there are roads that can only be walked and experienced. Thus the journey becomes the destination.

Recommended Listening:
Claustrum
Penitential

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

I usually don't do this sort of thing...

I usually don't link to such viral videos, but I actually stopped and watched this one and it moved me to tears.  He is such an eloquent speaker for a nineteen year old.  I didn't realize that I had been waiting to hear these words 'from the horse's mouth as it were.  I watched it three times and found myself crying.  Please take a look.

Special thanks to Moveon.org for sharing.

Weekly Mandala: Chaos Star Spinning Happiness

This echoes back to Karma and my Sending Out post, but with the addition of the Chaos Star.  Never fight fair.  Nature doesn’t.  However, I do not mean this in the sense of being vicious or vindictive.  Turns guns into flowers, hate into orgasms, conflict into understanding.  Undermine everything  and transform the World.  This is the lesson of Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2023)  combined with Neptune in Pisces (2011-2025) and Uranus in Aries (2010-2019). These forces become the water of life, dissolving the old structures of our world and releasing knowledge and energy.

Our challenge becomes keeping pace with this evolutionary force.  Our world doesn’t end with the finalizing of the Mayan calendar cycle.  It transforms beyond our previous understanding of it.  Try explaining our current world state to someone with a 19^th century worldview and you begin to see. Heck, try explaining our world to someone from the beginning of the 20^th century!  We are in the throes of birth change.  We are becoming the future.  MUTATE NOW!

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Through the Window of the Flesh

Orgone Energy emerging like a flower through the window of the flesh.

Recommended Listening:
Hans Zimmer
Waiting for a Train
Inception OST

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Mushroom Elder Watching

Recent experiences have led me to agree with Terrence Mckenna concerning Mushroom consciousness.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Occupy Now

The old world is dying and the new world is being born.  Do not listen to the evening news - they are bought and paid for.  This is only the beginning - Occupy and be counted.  If you think the last two links aren't related, just follow the idea of SOPA and PROTECT IP to their logical conclusions and you will see.  Our government has been bought and paid for.

~Occupy Wall Street

~Occupy Together

~We Are the 99 Percent

~The Other 99 (Ustream - live)

~STOP SOPA

~Fight for the Future

Weekly Mandala: Sending Out

The Nature of Karma revealed.  It is a simple admonition that what you send out returns to you, but I feel that it is one of those tenants that you cannot truly understand until you observe it for yourself.  A difficult task for anyone of intensity, for the intensity you send out returns to you.  As above, so below.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Open All Night

Yearning can only be satisfied by the successful completion of desire.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Cat Shaman in BioMech Mushroom Gear Visiting the Tundra of Crystals

After an experience earlier this year, an element of the psycheldelic has creeped into my work.  I can't say that I am disappointed or disinterested, just following that strange bunny down the hole to see where it all leads.

Recommended Listening:
Phutureprimitive
Xotica
Kinetik

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Gift of the Doll People

I really don't have a lot to say on this one at the moment.  My brain has been ravaged by the beast of moving - nom, nom, nom.  However, after viewing this again, I really really want a tall glass of strawberry lemonade.  :-P

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Deeper and The Peacock Diamond

These two were created from the same source material.

On top we have a tunnel entrance to the underworld guarded by four angry armored heads.  Or are those four bearded gurus with strange headdresses.  Regardless, the tunnel goes all the way down.

On the bottom we have an otherworldly diamond, but not without its own level of trepidation with the four masked figures lurking behind the central cross shape.  Perhaps this is merely an illusion and the top mandala is the truth revealed when the deception falls away.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Home Lotus

A comfy and peaceful emanation.   This one was developed from a photo of a friends home.  However, the lighting was very dark and the colors were much more intense.  His home is a very comfy place though.  :-)  A little bright restful spot shining within the past few dark months.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

The Black Goat

This one is an echo of The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.  Also there feels to be an influence of Pluto here as well.  Not completely sure why this one is called the Black Goat.  I knew that was the title once it was complete, but not completely sure why.  The Piece isn't exactly black or goat.  There is definitely an angelic feeling here.  Perhaps there is a bit of Baphomet in there, but not so much on the Shub Niggurath.

OOP - I may be wrong there...LOL...I just re -read some on Shub and considering what I've gone through the past two months and the heavy influence of Binah (Saturn in Libra - 3 of Swords) in my life recently.  Shub might be spot on.

I also had a strong feeling of Odin and Metatron simultaneously while working on this.  Perhaps black goat is a misnomer on my part.  I may be pulling Shub in because of my current experiences and it may have nothing at all to do with this piece.  There is definitely a mixed bag here regardless.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Night Lily

Here is another simple one.  This one had only a few rotations to reach this state.  It isn't quite as simple or as spacious as The Desert Rose, but I do enjoy its structure.  I wonder if this what it will look like when the aliens show up to abduct me?

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Sketchbook from the Archives: Color Serpent versus Fireworks

A sharpie drawing from my sketchbook.  I was attempting to bring the style I tend to use with colour pencils to sharpies.  The sharpies are bold and intense, but don't mix as much as I would prefer.  When the colors meet, one will tend to dominate the other with minimal mixing.  Although enjoyable as an experiment in sharpie, I prefer the color pencils.  This may all be moot with as much digital work as I'm doing now.

Apologies for the slight haze the piece.  I currently have no access to a scanner and had to photograph this piece.  Heavy sharpie tends to easily reflect a flash.  This is actually the best of set of seven.  Once I have access to a scanner again I will repost.

{Sharpie}

UPDATE:

Over in Zombie Bites, I've been reposting my sketchbook images.  I recently was gifted a wonderful scanner and it is allowing me the opportunity to get some of my physical hand drawn works into the digital realm with better quality.  I think this maybe the only sketch from that set that ended up here in TOBC.  As you can see, this piece benefits greatly from the rescan.  The glare and the blur have been eradicated, letting the wonderful depth of color shine through.  Enjoy.

Weekly Mandala: Collapsing the Waveform

More Inspiration from Peter J. Carroll and the beauty of Quantum Physics...maybe also a little Crown Chakra also.  Sahasrara would make a good bit of sense as collapsing the wave form is all about uniting the Macrocosm and Microcosm.  As above, so below.

A little happy marker with this post:  this is my 52nd post.  When I began working with my blogs more intensely, my plan had been to at least get one post per week for the coming year for a total of fifty-two at the end of the year.  Even though my posts have been biweekly at best, with this post I have surpassed my total goal dramatically.  :-)  Also this is the most posts I have done for trail of bread crumbs in any given year so far.  I know comparatively it isn't much, but this year I am happy to take my little beams of light where I can find them!  My end goals are much further and farther, so it's just a matter of keepin' on keepin' on!  Thanks for reading!

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Invocation

I open myself.
I open myself.
I open myself.
I become cloud and lightning.
I become the doorway and the bridge.
Me becomes Not-Me

and the bridge flares bright with the fire of heaven.

The veil of me spreads like shimmering water.
My skin is taught with the entrance of the Other
as my mind shatters into mirror vapor.
I aim myself into the gap
and refract like lantern light in a funhouse.
There is a sound like bagpipes warming up,
like a distant airplane passing.
Transfixed in this endless moment
I watch the world swallow itself.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Blue Chaos Star

Somewhere between and snowflake, a doily, and a chaos star.  I've been reading too much Phil Hine and Peter J. Caroll...or perhaps not enough.   :-)


Recommended Listening:
Land
Neo-Noir
from Opuscule


{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

An Island called Us

Meanwhile at the Cyberpond...Liquidlight technology takes over and transforms the world. What happens when Television screen tech becomes Wafer thin - I think at that point the world goes Psychedelic.  :-)  Walls, Doors, your house exterior, your car, your toaster...everything becomes a screen.  Imagine clothes from Liquidlight tech.  I want that shirt!

Of course I hope the tech takes over before the advertisers do.  If it becomes a world of nothing but walking billboards, I'm quitting and moving to a cave in the mountains.    Call me a luddite if you will, but it would be either that or cyber terrorism.  What exactly would it mean if you hacked someones clothes? LOL  A world of clothes with patterns and images that everyone creates for themselves...that I can get behind.  Then it is just a matter of making it applicable to skin and then I can finally have those leopard spots I've always wanted.  :-P

Wow...I just realized this looks a little like the the big smiley face ship from the original heavy metal movie.  That blows away any other thoughts.  LOL.

Recommended Listening:
Phutureprimitive
Ripple Effect
Kinetik

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Desert Rose

Surprisingly, this one had very few permutations to reach this state.  It looks nothing like the original image either.  The mandalas can sometimes get so complex, I forget how powerful a very simple image can be.  I'm really enjoying the space in this one.   I think that is part of the simplicity as well.  No arbitrary details cluttering the distance.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

My Ducks

Well, I fought against it, denied it, and avoided it, but none of these has worked.  I will be spending this month moving to a new residence in a new town.

My financial situation has bottomed out and I am no longer able to keep the place I am in now.  This may disrupt my posting here for a bit, but hopefully I will be back on track within a month or so.  We'll see. 

I'm kind of making it up as I go along, which is my least favorite place to be.  I'm a Capricorn.  I like all my ducks in a sequential row, color coded, numbered, with cards giving me a personal history of each duck.  My ducks have all  turned into cats with wings and are chasing the pretty butterflies.  Flap, Flap, Flap!  Sigh.

Cherubim of the Mother Sanctum

A little digital nod here to Susan Seddon Boulet.  The bear is associated with Mother energy, protection, and nurturing tough love.  This piece told me its name as soon as it got close to a finished state.

The funny thing in all of this is that I used no animal source material whatsoever.  It just kind of emerged all its own.  I love when that happens.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Variations

These are some left over variations from my mandala for the Rose Fire into Tipareth.  I should have posted them with that post.  I cannot remember why I did not, but here they are now.  Enjoy.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

The Janus Chariot

I think this piece may exist in the same plane as The Great Wall.  I see the wall now though as less of a barrier and more like a boundary marker...like you're now entering the freeway or some such.

I want to say more about this piece, but I feel blocked on it.  It holds its knowledge in place like a weighted net.  Most of my pieces freely give up their thought or idea to description, but this one, apparently, doesn't want to share.  I've tried writing this description about fifteen different times.  I've left and returned, and still no information presents itself.  I can't even seem to remember what I was feeling when I created the piece.

I am going to let it go and let it be.  You guys tell me what you see / feel / experience.  Perhaps that is the answer here.  Let me know what you find.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Pearls

Once again I was torn between the color variations. Each one seemed to have its own voice.  This may also give you a bit of hint of my thought processes when I'm making a Mandala.  The Lava pearl was created first, followed by the glowing blue moon pearl, followed lastly by the traditional mother of pearl.  There is also an element in these that reminds me of the undersea aliens from The Abyss.  Simultaneously it also reminds me of a strange astral tortilla pizza.  Ah strange and tastey creatures from beyond!!!

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned the circle of people within the mandala.  They are also present here.  I see a group of tribesmen wearing strange masks.  I think perhaps they are holding staves as well.  Circled around the tribefire of life.  I think they may be protecting it from the little angry daemonspirits in the corners.  The circle of light does seem to be keeping them at bay.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Moth and Flame

I liked both versions of this so much I couldn't decide between them, so this week you get two mandalas for one! 

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Hope

I  usually avoid animated GIFs, but after seeing what Vincent did over in his blog, I got to thinking.  Let me know if this just annoying or if there is an entrancing element to it.  

Here is another bit of weirdness.  Look at the first line of text below the image and focus on it.  Stare for a few seconds and try to ignore everything around it.  After a bit it begins to look like you can reach your finger right over the edge into the mandala.  I love optical illusions like that.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Weekly Mandala: Rose Fire into Tipareth

There is something very soothing and safe in this piece.  All that warm yellow light...the comfort of a lazy afternoon.  The red would usually makes me think of something more sanguine, but here I feel contained and safe.  It evokes a sense of rose petals or the reddish color of shadows turn in the presence of a candle.  The source material for this did have candles in it, but I feel there is a difference between the mere presence of a candle and the comfort that comes from it.  So many of my pieces have an element of urgency or emergency in them, but I feel no danger here.  Makes me want to take a nap.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Laptop Update

They were able to retrieve my data! Thank goodness for small favors. I've found an affordable replacement, but it is going to take me awhile to amass the cash. As it stands, until then I'm still connected, but only sporadically. I'll post as I can. See you all soon. :-)

Pause for station RE-identification

I'll keep this short as my current access to the web has a definitive time limit.

My laptop died. The horrible my-logic-board-and-hard-drive-are-dead-no-returning-from-dead-kind-of-death. The nice people at the istore are currently trying to retrieve my data. (fingers crossed). I'm going to be gone for awhile unless something changes VERY dramataically in the next few days...

Thank you all for reading and commenting. I'll be back as soon as I can. Wish me luck. I need as much as I can get.

Weekly Mandala: A View from Malkuth

Here we are standing in the kingdom, Malkuth, looking up into the Tree of Life.  Malkuth is the sephiroth within the Qabalah system associated with the realm of earthly matter.  It is the world of our day to day life, the physical realm, Earth.

Many of the mandalas I've worked on always seem to have the intimation of a circle of entities or people around the outer edges.  The same holds true with this one.  I can see what looks like a group of bearded men.  Some are wearing large turbans, others seem to be in dark robes of some sort wearing crowns or headpieces.  They seem to be singing or chanting.  They each hold a cup or a chalice.

The men emerged as an image and were present through most of the process of making this mandala.  At one point I tried to eliminate them as I like to keep the mandalas mostly abstract, letting the viewer's eyes determine what is seen.  I'm kind of glad they're still in there...or maybe they aren't really there at all and they're just what I'm seeing and bringing to the piece.  :-)

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

UPDATE: Kevin's Dream Catcher Completed Tattoo

Here is the finished version of my friend Kevin's Tattoo.  With Kevin's permission, I will post a photo of his arm once it is complete.  At some point (also with Kevin's permission) I need to post what his arm looked like before.  More on that later...

My post with my initial drawing of the Tattoo is here.  As you can see we shifted the whole dream catcher structure over.  The preexisting paw is very close to Kevin's arm pit and as I understand it, that is a very sensitive area for tattooing, so to avoid causing him too much pain, we shifted everything over.  :-)  We also changed the web design a bit to give it more organic, less structured feel.  I added the border around his existing paw to make it look like a large carved piece of turquoise attached to the dream catcher.  The feathers are modeled after the feathers of the Great Horned Owl.

{Drawn in Pencil, Scanned, Color Created in Photoshop}

UPDATE:

Here's Kevin's Tat, fresh from the shoppe! I'll post another once it has healed completely.  :-)