What does it mean to Know?
Some Thing, Some One, One’s Self?
This may sound like an obtuse question, but it is really an ever-evolving quest along the journey of life, IF we are of a curious nature, and more so, not willing to accept all we are socialized to believe.
When I was learning meditation, a profound simple axiom arrived as part of the tradition’s spiritual wisdom. When meditating, one becomes hyper aware of all the thoughts going through the mind. So, this teaching states ‘Don’t believe everything you think’. Let it pass through the mind… float off like a cloud. I’d suggest that one is better off not believing most of what one thinks. The mental ruminations are fragments of experience, translated into words. Accompanying feelings, emotions and memory snippets support our versions of ‘truth’. But most of this hubris is simply that…a traumatized nervous system trying to make sense of daily life, according to cultural assumptions we soaked in from birth. Vastly differing ‘truths’ create judgments and conclusions that impose separation. Me from you, us from them, humanity and nature, the very source of our nourishment. From my point of view, this is a problem of consciousness. When we operate primarily from the duality ego perspective, we remain stuck in a 3-dimensional reality where separation rules. But what if…
Humanity/We/Me/You raised our consciousness to a plane where our experience is ‘I and other’ are the same? Just contemplate that for a moment. Perhaps a long moment. This is the foundation of all spiritual knowledge… that each of us is a unique expression of the universal consciousness. Separation is the illusion. This is why I’ve been driven for years to visualize what this means. Can art as a meditation tool, help shift humanity? Can visual symbols awaken some ancient wisdom within? Can words provoke some guidance, inspiration or light a fire within the soul? I’m both trying to find the right recipe for myself to embody this type of Knowing, AND to disseminate art that might spark something in the viewer. I have no idea if it lands in this manner, but I do know the very act of contemplating and engaging in creating art with these concepts and vibrations, helps me show up in daily life experience with less judgment, more compassion and conversation around the possibilities for humanity’s positive future.
So here is recent example of a work in the continuing body of work arising from my soul:
Title: Transmute~Transpose
Size: 16” h. x 12” w. x 1.5″ d.
Price: $235 Date: 2026
Media: Encaustic & Mixed Media (image transfers, transfer foil) on cradled Panel board.
Transmute: To change or alter in form, appearance, or nature.
Transpose: To reverse or change the order of 2 or more things; swap or interchange.
In the watery realms of origin, aspects of the self reach towards the light, emerge, flower, die back, dissolve and return to the darkness. As does all life. Over and over, another layer seeks expression, resolution, integration into an ever-changing matrix. For a soul seeking evolution, the lotus symbolizes a fruition of spiritual practice. A trinity of lilies references a perfection of sorts: we nourish body, heart, mind; masculine, feminine, androgyne.
Detail of the full/new moon with waxing and waning phases.
Lunar cycles provide support for psychological expansion and contraction, seeding and harvesting of our efforts to evolve into more conscious versions of self. When we stabilize within unity consciousness, compassion & service are central to our life; this contributes to the creation of a higher vibrational reality upon Gaia. Feeling the push and pull of the moon upon are psyches, and responding to her rhythm helps us touch into the magnanimous universe. Nature is a profound teacher; when fully present, her wisdom speaks to us in a universal language.
Detail of the Lotus Trio, the grounding triangle formed with words, acting like ritual spells for conscious expansion.
The triangular structure, rooted to a spiraling shell, a home in the shadow, reminds us that for every summer there is a winter, where we can tuck into our shell and transmute the gnawing edges of our own shadows. Afterwards, when we rise up and out again, we have transposed how we fit into life; we’ve swapped our old victim story for an empowered version. We have transmuted our beliefs to recognize the limitless expressions of the one universal life force energy… and can marvel again.
Is your framework of ‘how you know’ changing? Let me know, one way or the other.
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have a wonderful second half of the year.