The King and Queen, first fully clad and later naked, are the subject of many alchemical texts.  They are shown clasping left hands, showing their union to be an unconscious one. The partners then immerse themselves in the alchemical bath, thus allowing the force of love to engulf their conscious egos; in this state of passionate engulfment the psychosexual union (coniunctio) takes place.  This union brings forth a newly formed androgynous being, the Rebis.

Hermaphroditus
1997
Colored pencil on paper on canvas
9 by 14 ft.

In Hermaphroditus the Veil of Veronica is held by the Rebis.  The Rebis represents  the product of a coniunctio; this hermaphroditic winged figure can represent a transitory state.  In the drawing the background is filled with a tower on fire, and a volcanic landscape. These hopefully also remind the viewer that the Rebis represents an unstable part of the process, with may go through many transformations.

Splendor Solis
1995
Colored pencil on paper on canvas
9 by 14 ft.

My Splendor Solis is from a dream I had which closely resembled plate eight of the Splendor Solis, an alchemical manuscript.  In my dream there was a difference.  Instead of a black man (the Ethiopian) coming out of the foul smelling bog to marry the Queen of Heaven, in my dream it was a red man.  Here passionate love emerges from the bog, and the process becomes highly erotic.

The Alchemical Doors for C. A. Meier
1991
Lithograph on Arches Paper, 350 gr, with metal leaf
4 Prints
180 cm X 91 cm
Edition 25

Alchemical Doors

C.A. Meier was Carl Jung’s right hand man and heir.  He was my teacher of alchemy for over twenty-five years in Zurich.   The Alchemical Doors represent four possible paths to the development of the soul.

1. The Golden Child is not meant as a Christ figure, but is the divine child that exists as a potential in all people.  Sometimes this inner light is snuffed out through childhood trauma.  We all need to connect with this divine possibility which is part of us all.  the child represents possibility.
2. The Silver Goddess is the divine feminine.  She is Aphrodite, positive Eros, positive human relationships and love.  Both men and women need to find this goddess within to help them develop their potential for love.  This silver goddess is surrounded by water, the flowing part of the psyche which breaks down our rigidity.
3. The Copper Hand is our “hand we have been dealt”, out fate and our potential.  The lines on the hand represent our life.  Here we are presented with a meditation on how to take the fate we have been given and to transform it.  The copper tub is a symbol  of baptism. In ancient Rome, the “hand of the mysteries” was a bronze hand representing a person’s life in the mysteries.
4. The Androgyne represents the union of the male and female half, called “the mystical marriage”.  Both men and women must find the counterpart, their other half within themselves before they can relate to the opposite sex in a profound way.