My real primary point in painting is to enter the process for my own experience where the activity of painting becomes a meditative, mental and "spiritual" activity which makes me feel "centred" (ie, what I'd call less of a feeling of the usual pulling this way and that of dualistic 'reality').

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Many times, my paintings don't have any purposefully intended meanings or symbolism but various objects get included for likely some subconscious "reasons". In other paintings, I do include some particular items within the painting for specific reasons. Many times why I put these objects in certain paintings may not be obvious and so people are free to just interpret the paintings in whatever way they feel like. Recently, I've started writing some things on the backs of some paintings which people may try to look for information about. However, I still think it's a good thing if there is some vagueness so different viewers can get whatever their 'subconscious mind' sees in the painting.

(In the following explanations, I want to point out that my mentioning of planets and gods/goddesses is only because they symbolise concepts within human experience and Reality and not for any alleged astrological ideas or literal purposes.)

As far as the seascape above is concerned , I did include a few things on purpose for certain reasons. One main idea deals with the Moon, Mercury and Venus placed in that order. This relates to my researches involving the old concept of the Earth-centred model of the cosmos which up until the time of Copernicus, was the model seen as physically accurate (and although today, even though we intellectually 'know' the physical Solar System has the Sun at the centre and the planets with Earth and Moon in the third space out, from the "relative experience" as humans on the Earth, we still actually "experience" the Earth-centred model - we still say with language that the Sun 'rises' and 'sets' even though it's an 'illusion' caused by the Earth rotating daily). So this arrangement of planets had the Earth below, then 7 levels for the 5 known planets and 2 luminaries and then the sky or 'Heavens' above in this order:

top

Sky, Starry sky or 'Heavens' ... 'oldest sky father' Ouranus (born from Gaia who then became her husband)

Saturn (Cronus to the Greeks) ... son of Ouranus

Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) ... son of Saturn

Mars (Ares to the Greeks)

Sun

Venus

Mercury

Moon

Earth ... Gaia to the Greeks, Mother Earth (came from Chaos and more primary than sky father Ouranus who was born from her)

below

And so when I include Moon, Mercury and Venus in a painting in that order, it is visually referencing the first three levels between Earth and "Heavens" in the old Earth-centred model of the cosmos. The related (and more important) reason I have been including such things in paintings is not just to show a portion of what is now considered an 'obsolete physical model' of the cosmos but because this old Earth-centred model was actually also seen as being mirrored as the levels within the body which are best known today in the Indian system of the chakras.

You can find old Alchemical (Hermetical) diagrams (I attached one) of a picture of a human with the symbols of the 5 planets known to the ancients (5 that are bright and obvious to the naked eye) and 2 luminaries (Sun and Moon) running up the body and to the crown of the head. And so the very characteristics of these various gods and goddesses in Greek mythology (and going back to previous civilizations) as the 5 known planets and 2 luminaries can be seen as pointers or hints about the characteristics of these levels within the human (so the idea is that the gods/goddesses labelling these 7 levels were symbols related to the character of the "conscious energy" at these spots in the human - apparently seen in more modern times as having some connection with key nerve centres going up the nervous system).

So for example, Mercury (to Romans ... basically Hermes of the Greeks) holds the Caduceus (double entwined serpents on the winged staff - this staff of Mercury/Hermes by itself has symbolism of the chakra levels of the body going up to the crown of the head (Saturn) and he can partially be thought of as like a primary energy but without any kind of moral or ethical restraint. The very name of Mercury comes from the Latin Merx which finds it's way into words like 'market', 'commerce', 'mercenary'. This symbolic level can become the focus of personal or corporate interests and it needs some higher guiding principal or it is solely involved with power, greed and gain without any other regard (which of course is very dangerous for anyone stepped on by people or groups solely interested in power, gain or greed). Mercury to a great extent symbolises 'intelligence', the 'trickster' and was the god associated with thieves. I have been painting Mercury as a star (planet) with two light rays angled down to the left and right (representing two directions found within any dualistic situation) and one light ray going upwards which hints at the idea of the 'combination of' or 'freedom from' the 'pulling this way and that' of duality. And so at the top level of experience (in the body) at the crown chakra symbolised by Saturn, the experience of things would be going towards the feeling of everything being a 'oneness' or centreness . Outside of the body at the level of Ouranus (the sky, starry sky or "Heavens"), the deep mystical experience is said to be impossible to describe in human language and historically becomes the basis for various religions (in my opinion) forming around certain individuals who had this state of consciousness (which can be labelled with various phrases like Nirvana, Moksha, "cosmic consciousness", "Christ consciousness" and possibly even found in the phrase "I and the Father are One" ... although I would argue that it is a bias of patriarchal cizilizaion [which has dropped all official connection to the symbolism of the Earth Goddess] to suggest this is a 'Heavenly Father' connection... but rather it can be symbolised in Greek mythology as the union of Gaia and Ouranus and the obliteration and combination of all duality into a oneness - currently I am looking into the symbolism of Atlas whose role was holding the Heavens up, or better stated as "holding the Earth or Gaia and the Sky or Ouranus apart and so perhaps having a symbolic role in the human experience within the body of 'separating the chakras' and enforcing the conscious state of duality within the human experience of 'reality' - interestingly, the 11th Labour of Heracles where he was supposed to get the blissful apples of the Hesperides could be symbolic of getting to the crown chakra - the Hesperides being the daughters of Atlas in some myths. I have never read any book on mythoogy say such a thing. Perhaps Joseph Campbell may have mentioned such an idea - incidentally, in this labour, Heracles frees Prometheus ... whose brother is Atlas).

As for Venus, as the level above Mercury, I draw this as a star (planet) with four light rays at the four quadrants which can be thought of as a type of Mandala. Venus can be seen as a higher guiding symbolic principle above the level of Mercury (which left to it's own devices can beome focussed soley upon power, greed and self-interest at the expense of others).

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As far as the design of the house is concerned, one edge of the roof has a spiralling end that theoretically can go inwards perpetually. I often think of this spiralling shape as representing the female aspect of duality or also as so-called "time" or the non-divided flowing of so-called "events". The other side of the house has a rectangular shaped spiral I tend to think of as representing the male principle or even as 'form' or so-called "objects" within Reality. I say "so-called" events and "so-called" forms (objects) because even if you think about these things intellectually (ideas you'll see Buddhism, Taoism and Zen centre around), you can start to see how our definitions of what is "one event" or "one object" become arbitrary to decide - in other words, it points to the idea that ultimately, 'separate events and objects are more of an invention or illusion of the mind than as actual 'separate things' in Reality. An example of "losing the ability to define an object" would be with the "object" we label a "mountain" (and I have indication of this idea where the mountains fade into the background sky in this painting). Near the peak, we are 100% sure a mountain is a real object and anyone who says it is nota real object would be laughed at as delusional. But as we look down to where the mountain nears the Earth or the valley, we start to argue about where the mountain starts. There is a region where we arbitrarily decide where this supposed "real object", the mountain, starts. The same idea is found regarding 'waves' on the water ... where does a 'single wave' become a wave and not just the background sea. And so similarly, people who enter certain rare deep states of consciousness suggest that even the appearance of the separation of individual human consciousnesses may merge into one 'background thing' just as waves from a sea are really part of one sea.

On the peak of the house I have included a symbol of the Moon and Sun together which (combined) would be like the female side (one aspect of duality = symbolized in our civilization by Moon) and male side (the other aspect of duality = symbolized in our civilization as Sun) combined into one which would represent a non-dualistic centred-ness or basically would be symbolism seen in the idea of the Earth mother Gaia and Sky Father Ouranus merging (ie, I don't mean this literally but symbolically of the process and goal of the yogic techniques in India which was also found as hints within Greek mythology - I'm not sure if this was due to transference of Indian wisdom during the conquests of ancient Greece into India or if they both shared ideas from an older common source).

The bird (or crow - which was seen as a symbol of the initial stage of Alchemy ,the negredo or blackening stage) can be seen as a messenger or even as thoughts going here and there. [alchemy is most often misunderstood today and discarded as merely some silly old idea of making gold out of base metals - really though, it was a spiritual activity using manipulation of materials by the alchemist with at least the main goal of a spiritual mutation within his own consciousness. The whole subject is so cloaked in purposefully misleading details - planted by alchemists to mislead the 'unworthy' but also likely to hide their ideas from such things as the Inquisition of the Church although many alchemists were even higer up members of the church]

Sometimes I draw a pine tree as representing a pointer to the ideas that the 'pineal' gland (apparently so named because it resembles a little pine cone a bit) is connected to the experience of these 'higher' states of consciousness (ie, such as the third eye or brow chakra which would be symbolized by Jupiter/Zeus in the order I listed above).

Descartes was of the opinion that it was the "seat of the soul". I have included an image of a staff of Oriris (Egyptian) which resembles the later Caduceus staff of Hermes (Greek) and Mercury (Roman). In this one, you can see a clear indication of a pine cone at the top of the staff ... interestingly at the Vatican , is a 'court of the pine' with a large metal pine-cone statue with what appears to be two peacocks on either side (interestingly the peacock with colourful tail is a symbol in one of the stages of the Alchemical process). I am curious about any historical transfer of symbolism from ancient Egyptian, Sumerian to Greek, Roman and then even modern religion (it all seems to be carrying on some secret symbolism not really mentioned in the official religion given to the mainstream populace).

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Regarding the second landscape, there is also included the Moon, Mercury and Venus.

Additionally, there is a tiny island with three flowers. Their colours of black, white and red represent the three main stages of Alchemy . These stages are 'the blackening' (negredo), 'the whitening' (albedo) and 'the reddening' (rubedo). on the stems of the flowers representing the first two stages of Alchemy, I have included 7 thorns on each stem. On the stem for the flower representing the final stage of Alchemy (the red flower in the middle or the centre ) I have put 7 little leaves.

The line tied to the tree branch hangs down and has a worm which almost is the shape of the symbol for eternity. The fish poking his head above the waters can be like 'subconscious thoughts' entering the conscious attention (subconscious being below the surface of the waters and conscious being above the waters). There is the idea that he may go to grab the worm on the line which would start start his ascension upwards along that line of symbols.

In the middle of the line is a red heart. So in one way, the worm could represent Mercury again (a worm being like the inwtined snakes on the Caduceus) and the Heart could be like Venus above that level. The two crows on the branch can be thought of as like two sides of duality and the space between them can be like being in a centred mental state. These crows can also be thought of as being past and future or 'memory of the past' and 'thinking of the future'. Worrying or obsessing about either of these things is away from the centred, peaceful state of being 'in this moment' (which would be the gap between the two crows. These two crows or ravens can even be connected to the two Ravens of Odin in Norse mythology ... Huginn ('thought') and Muninn ('memory'.

Above the level of the dualistic crows is the dove flying up to Venus and above Venus is the symbol of the combined Sun and Moon at the peak of the house.

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It is interesting to note that our days of the week go in a sequence exactly like a certain spiralling order through the the chakras (represented by planet/god labels from mythology) representing the final stage of the Alchemical process (rubedo).

Days of week = sequence through chakras in Rubedo stage of Alchemy

Saturday ... Saturn (end point of sequence)
Friday ... Frigg or Frigga (Frigg's day) = Norse = Venus or Aphrodite
Thursday ... Thor (Thor's day) = Norse = Jupiter or Zeus
Wednesday ... Woden or Odin (Woden's day) = Norse = Mercury or Hermes
Tuesday ... Tyr or Tiwas (Tiwas-day) = Norse = Mars
Monday ... Moon
Sunday ... Sun (starting point of the sequence)

So, symbolically in the levels of the body, this spiral through the 'chakras' would go out from the Solar plexus (starting with Sunday as the starting day), down to the lowest level of the Moon, then to Mars above the Solar Plexus, then down to Mercury above the Moon level, then to Jupiter or the Brow Chakra, then down to Venus or above Mercury and then to Saturn at the crown chakra. What all of this means to some type of spiritual technique of states of consciousness, I do not know. I have felt how through the painting process, solar plexus 'fire' can lessen and mild peacefulness is attained and their is a mild sensation between the eyes but I don't fully grasp the finer details of that these symbolic systems are about.

I find it very intriguing why a concept that practically nobody has ever heard about became the basis for the ordering of the 7 days of the week (apparently the Roman's had 8 days ... so I guess this change came into being after that era). It would be interesting to find out who in history influenced this particular order and why. (The alchemical diagram of the body I attached has a spiral through the chakras for a lower stage of alchemy).

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I don't mean for any of this information to sound like "New Age" since actually all of this is extremely "Ancient Age" going back more than 5000 years or longer.