Sapientia Circularis
8x10
AD. 2014
Original watercolor paint & coffee
Arches watercolor 100lb cotton archival paper
No prints, one off original hand drawn and hand painted by brush
Stained with coffee
Signed in pencil
Never offered for sale until now, original personal collection for presentation in my original studio in Point Pleasant, NJ
Sapientia Circularis (latin) embodies a symbolic rendering of the idea of "Cyclical Wisdom" - an unending cycle of birth, knowledge, death and rebirth. Long explanation below.
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Symbolic Commentary Upon the Emblems:
The First Crescent:
The crescent moon has long signified generation and becoming. To the Hermetic philosophers, all things entering the sensible world pass beneath the government of the Moon, which presides over change, growth, conception, and decay.
Its thin form indicates the hidden, invisible seed that has begun to manifest but remains incomplete. It is the beginning of the soul's descent into corporeal existence.
The ancients often called the moon Luna, Selene, or Cynthia; while medieval philosophers referred to the lunar principle as the inferior light, for it possesses no illumination of its own but reflects a higher sun.
The Full Moon:
The black full moon does not represent an astronomical phenomenon but a philosophical one.
Among the alchemists, blackness marked the dissolution of the old nature. It was the state in which outward form perished so that the hidden essence might be revealed.
The black sphere therefore signifies concealed perfection. Though outwardly deprived of light, it remains complete in substance.
Hermetic writers often taught that truth is veiled from ordinary sight and that the highest mysteries dwell in darkness rather than brilliance.
The Final Crescent:
The returning crescent signifies withdrawal from the material world.
If the first crescent marks descent into becoming, the second marks ascent toward incorruptibility.
Thus the two arcs form the gates through which the soul enters and departs temporal existence.
Ancient mystery traditions frequently understood all life as proceeding through procession and return, descent and ascent, generation and restoration.
The Three Lunar Forms Together:
Taken as a whole, the three lunar emblems represent the totality of cyclic existence.
Beginning, fullness and dissolution as well as birth, manifestation and return.
They signify the eternal rhythm governing all created things beneath the heavens, and the symbolism follows the Hermetic / cosmological principle that all generations proceed through perpetual cycles.
The Fish (Ichthys / Piscis):
The fish is among humanity's oldest sacred symbols.
To Greek philosophers, creatures dwelling beneath the waters represented realities hidden from ordinary perception.
Water itself symbolized the undifferentiated substance from which manifest existence arises.
Within early Christianity and several Gnostic traditions, the Greek word ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthys) became a sacred emblem of divine life concealed within the world.
The fish therefore signifies the living soul, moving silently through the depths of material existence while retaining memory of its heavenly origin.
The Pearls:
Among the earliest Christian and Syriac mystical writings, the pearl represented perfect wisdom.
The "Hymn of the Pearl" describes the soul descending into the world to recover the precious pearl before returning to its Father's kingdom. Likewise, Christ's "pearl of great price" became a universal emblem of wisdom worth surrendering all earthly things to obtain.
Natural philosophers also admired the pearl because it is produced slowly within darkness and hidden waters. For this reason it became an emblem of hidden perfection through endurance.
The Fish Enclosed by Pearls:
When the fish is encircled by pearls, the image expresses the soul adorned with acquired wisdom. The image therefore recalls the Hermetic conviction that wisdom is not bestowed suddenly but accumulated through repeated transformation.
The heavy usage of black:
Modern thought associates blackness with negativity, yet ancient and medieval esoteric traditions often regarded darkness as the veil of the unknowable; much like how before creation there was a dark void of nothingness and unknowing. These dark moons therefor signify not evil, but mystery concealed from profane sight.
The hidden is more sacred than the visible.
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Read together, the painting presents a meditation upon the soul's journey:
The lunar emblems govern the cycles of becoming, the fish signifies the inward life moving through the waters of generation, the pearls proclaim wisdom gathered through suffering and remembrance, and the darkness enveloping the celestial forms declares that the highest truths remain hidden from ordinary vision.
This image teaches that the divine spark passes through cycles of manifestation and concealment, acquiring wisdom until it returns to the eternal source from which it first descended.
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Created back in 2012, completed in 2014 during my early years of studying ancient texts and wisdom (2007 I began deep learning into esoteric wisdom after years of studying books on economics and geo-politics) from the Gnostics to the druids, the Hermetics and ancient philosophers on a quest to find out what we are, who we are, and why we are here.
Much has changed in my theoretical thinking & philosophy since then - but this is what I had written at the time and been reading into; and what I was designing with great emphasis on symbolism.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
