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Neophyte


26" X 36"

1976-78

original sold

(click on picture to make larger)

Neophyte jpg Neophyte large jpg

Notes on Neophyte

This painting was the third in a series from the 1970's that were meant to be a means of inquiry into ideas engendered by my studies in the 1950's and 1960's of Western mysticism, Hermetic philosophies, and Gnosticism.

The neophyte is a manifestation of the puer aeternus archetype and as such also reflects the hero and the trickster. He is on the path of "self-realization", emerging from the waters of the collective unconscious into the light of consciousness. He possesses a foundation in the ancient traditions but is still connected to his instincts. He is the harbinger of creative and distructive energy. Will he bring about a new order or or a new chaos? Does not one ultimately demand the other?

An ogre goes with every rose,
a bee sting guards the honey.
Immortality must disclose
Endless death. The sunny
youth sets forth a lunar wrinkle.
Poetry runs from pros,
Tibetan gongs make little tinkle
to Buddha's silent nose.

Why do brazen bearded dogs
Guard the Gates of Heaven?
Why do Angels make such fogs
around the Highest Seven?
Because the hells of Paradise
Make all Creation even,
God keeps adding to his eyes
to watch the outside Heathen.

O What an ocean! whoever seeks
the land of illumination:
That is to say, the life boat leaks,
hunger is theration,
thirst is the First and only water;
There is no salvation,
Eternity gets shorter & shorter
To finish its Creation!



Allen Ginseberg,  Indian Journals  1970