Dweller Bettween The Worlds (re-edited)



Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyrights held by the artist)

The simple, absolute and immutable mysteries of divine Truth are hidden in the super-luminous darkness of that silence which is revealed in secret. For this darkness, though of deepest obscurity is yet radiantly clear; and, though beyond touch and sight, it more than fills our unseeing minds with splendors of transcendent beauty.”- Dyonysiusthe Areopagate

As I posted in my last post, I would write something about my current paintings. Often its not easy to put into words or conceptualize the thoughts about my spiritual interior experiences. A visual art like painting, is a more natural language for the spirit, than the intellectual mind. While it is important to explain what ones work to others, its just as important to explain and comprehend in a conscious way to the self also. By the act of trans-muting my experiences to others, I gain understanding. When one is sensing a spiritual truth or awakening in spirit as I am, it is important to transmute this knowledge down thru the lower levels to the conscious human earthly experience to be fully aware. Spiritual knowledge is a river, it must keep flowing.

Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyrights held by the artist)

 In my current painting you can sees a woman pouring out a dark liquid from a jug. It is an image I have been attracted to because of its mysterious beauty. It is said, spiritual and mystical knowledge comes into the mind and we create images or symbols as vessels to contain them. Where this spiritual knowledge comes from is hard to say, it seems all around, all directions. I feel sometimes like I am a bowl being filled with something, a kind of information or knowledge, so fast, I barely understand. Maybe not only do we create the symbols for our truths, we become them. I am an artist, I am conduit, I am not a spiritual master or authority, only one simple soul seeking truth, I feel is my purpose to record and communicate things I can only describe as mystical truths and spiritual gifts because as it is explained in Proverbs 11:24-25  "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered".

In my painting a hidden obscured woman is pouring a dark fluid. This dark fluid spirals around her, causing all around her to be brightly illuminated, while the figure and water remain dark. Why is it dark, how can darkness illuminate?
Sometimes the image of a woman (or a man), carrying the water of life, is universally known as Aquarius, the water bearer, or the self appointed world-server. This fits well with my own path as an artist and the deepening commitment I feel to it, not just as work or a job but as a duty and a calling to a path with purpose. This symbol has had long history in human cultures, from ancient Egypt, Sumerian and the around the Mediterranean. This image is also associated with the 17th card of the Major arcana of the tarot. The Star, a symbol of hope and promise. Common sayings like, 'follow my star, wishing on a star, my lucky star' etc., pertain to this. In  ecclesiastical circles it is known as the star of the Magi. In the tarot card, some pictures show a man with a telescope, looking at the stars, and sometimes its called 'the astronomer', but usually it is a nude woman holding two vessels, from one she pours water on the ground to nourish the earth and the other jug pours water into a pool. Above her one large star and seven smaller stars shine. To me this mysterious imagery is reveling the path or space that connects the eternal waters of the subconscious universe to earthly consciousness, in order to draw its healing energies into the everyday world.   

                                         Paintings by Stephanie Tihanyi
                                           (all copyrights held by the artist)
I have tried to show in my painting, the forces that dispense the essence of, the renewing waters of life; that which gives the means of perpetually renewing its creations, after destruction. The Star is a card of faith, and of hope, both in your own power, and in powers greater than your own.

                                           Paintings by Stephanie Tihanyi
                                                         (all copyrights held by the artist)

"Alternative names of this card are “Daughter of the Firmament” and “Dweller between the Waters“. This card corresponds to the path that connects Netzach and Yesod on the Kabbalistic tree of life. We can also attribute to this card the Hebrew letter Hey  and the symbolic image assigned to Aquarius".The Path Of The Star

 In my painting the jug the woman pours out a dark fluid, a spiraling river of dark light into the waters of the firmament. Her body, the jug and water seem to be dark or hidden, but that does not mean it its absent of light, because it illuminates all that it contacts. It is what is known since ancient times as 'invisible light', the 'super-luminous' or 'quintessence'. In the physical universe 'dark light' is merely type light energy wavelength  beyond our visual range. You can detect the 'dark light' spectrum around the base flame of a candle, next to the wick, there is a dark area, then you see the visible white flame light, and then the amorphous aura around the white flame itself.

This darkness does not deny the glory that flows from it. It is nοt the absence of light: rather it is 'more than luminous'. Or again, cοincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites (which in their very unity remain opposites): the darkness is simultaneously both the brightest light, dark through excess of brightness, and the blackest obscurity because it is 'Tran luminous'.
Likewise the darkness does not deny the Word but reaches the Silence in the very heart of the Word.
 Olivier L  Clément -The Roots of Christian Mysticism;
I intend this work to have three parts, I have pretty much finished the first panel and need only to work some more on the center panel. The final panel that represents the physical universe of matter, is what I am currently working on. These are the most detailed and the longest time I have ever spent on a painting. I have really enjoyed being so immersed in one subject, though the subject seems to develop many themes as it progressed. I have starting and am working on other paintings as well, this is my longest obsession so far. I will keep updates on progress and new insights as I work.

                                 Painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyright held by the artist)