The Awakening Fire

An acrylic painting on canvas by Lexi Sundell

An Awakening Fire is a visual translation of the past two years of my life, shown in the form of a shamanic dismemberment. Actually, this may also be a visual translation of the enormous changes the Earth herself is experiencing at this time.

For those of you who have not experienced a shamanic dismemberment, it occurs during a shamanic journey when the power animals and others suddenly shred you to pieces. If received without resistance it is not painful and when you discover yourself reassembled, you have been purified in unexpected ways.

I wish I could say that the real life equivalent was as easy as a shamanic dismemberment, but that, alas, has not been the case for me or for many of the rest of you.

In fact, creating the painting was itself a drastic event, due to the powerful energies it evoked in such a highly compressed manner. Five feet wide, the painting engulfed me for weeks.

Detail from The Awakening Fire

The eyes of the hawk have the intense focus of a being on a great mission. After all, delivering the fire to ignite awakening instead of burning destruction requires a precisely coordinated use of power.

The painting allows you to move backwards and forwards in time. The flaming hawk has clearly just flown through the fragmenting figure ignited into an explosion of light near the center. At the same time you can see the flaming hawk flying straight for your own heart and you know you will soon be that exploding figure yourself.

Poppy Detail from The Awakening Fire

Poppies, especially Shirley poppies, for me always represent transformation at the deepest levels. Ethereal, ephemeral, and yet stubbornly enduring, they are a beautiful expression of the transformative powers of light.

Leaf Detail from The Awakening Fire

The leaf dressed in fall colors exemplifies the old falling away, a necessary part of any transformation. Another beauty and grace finds expression in the leaf.

Eye Detail from The Awakening Fire

And what shall I say of the eye? Is it the eye of the fragmenting figure, startled awake? Is it the eye of the observer, watching all that unfolds?

The Earth has been caught up in the process as well, or perhaps the Earth has caused it. After all, how can we live on a transforming planet without feeling the same impact ourselves?

A shimmering crystalline pattern descends on the left. Perhaps it is the web of life connecting all life. Perhaps it is the crystalline grid that allows change to process more rapidly and easily than our electro-magnetic systems have been able to manage.

So the golden music sings to us, opens our hearts to a greater vision, a new receptivity to divine harmony. After I finished this painting, I slept, dreaming of myriad layers of information in the painting.

I woke at 3 a.m. For the one and only time in my entire life my biological mind had stopped its incessant chatter. Suspended in an unmeasured time of divine harmony, an exquisite stillness was my only awareness. May you find your way there too.

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Artist’s Note: Contact RiverStone Gallery for information about the original acrylic painting and limited edition giclee prints.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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