Monday, September 15, 2008

Latest Masters Soul Portrait: Lady Portia



Artist’s Notes for the Soul Portrait and Energy Signature of
Lady Portia / the Four Gateways.

August 2008

One of the main themes associated with Lady Portia is the theme of ‘righteousness’ and it is the flame of righteousness that burns within a silver crucible in the centre of this portrait. The flame burns with a silver/violet flame. When we have dilemma’s or difficult decisions that we need to make in our lives and wish to clarify what is the ‘right’ thing to do, we can take this image of Lady Portia’s ‘inner flame of righteousness’ as an object of inner contemplation in order to help develop insight into what may be the best thing to do, and clear away any confusion or ‘darkness regarding the situation.
In the intermediate directions, on either side of the flame and crucible are two rose flowers and two sprigs, or branches of hawthorn. These are further objects of meditation regarding Portia’s theme of righteousness. Both the hawthorn and the rose bush bear flowers of great beauty, but have branches covered by thorns, which may cut and hurt us if we move carelessly. To my mind the beautiful flowers are representative of the great beauty that we can build and allow to blossom within our inner being, which in order to nurture & enjoy we need to carefully avoid the ‘thorns’ of negative &/or destructive actions that can ensnare & cause us pain, cutting ourselves off from the natural beauty of our inner being.

In my experience of her, Lady Portia seems to have a strong connection to the elemental, devic or nature kingdoms, & this is represented in the portrait by the four elemental or directional doorways on the four sides of the picture:
At the top of the picture there is the gateway to the north, to the powers of the earth element, night time and winter. This is represented by a cave & a night sky with stars & moon.
To the right of the picture (as you look at it) is the gateway to the east, the element of air, the light of dawn & the season of spring. This is represented by a dawn sun rising over a rolling grassy landscape.
At the bottom of the picture there is the gateway to the south, the element of fire, the light of noon-day, & the season of summer. These powers are represented by the mid-day sun, in between a gateway of two trees, one having green leaves, the other being a tree of fire & flame.
In the left of the picture there is a gateway to the west, the powers of the water element, the light of evening & the season of autumn. This is represented by a sun setting over a lake or ocean.
Together these four directional gateways offer an image of an ‘earth mandala’ which we may visualize around us at any time in order to attune ourself to the power of the land within which we live, & receive healing and balance from the power of the elements and the elemental devas of earth, water, air and fire..

Image and Text ©Toby Ouvry August 2008.

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