Kundalini Rising

What is Kundalini?  The ancients spoke a spiritual life force that flowed through the body in seven chakras, swirling energy centers.  The lowest chakra is located in the genitals and corresponds with fear, procreation, and our innate biological instincts.  In the middle is the heart chakra, which is associated with Love, compassion, and spiritual awareness.  The highest chakra is at the top of the head, the crown chakra, and is associated with wisdom, enlightenment, and intuition.

     The raising of the Kundalini energy pertains to the raising of this yin-yang chi life force, a spiritual resurrection, up the base of the spine, through the heart, and into the mind.  It is an esoteric, supernatural experience in which the successive chakras are opened up to produce heightened states of consciousness and spiritual awareness.  It happened to me once and the experience profoundly changed my life.  Embedded in Kundalini Rising, I communicate that experience.  May the chosen initiate to whom this is written understand.

     The centerpiece is an illuminated cross with entangled snakes that fill the interior.  The snakes are orange and green, representing yin and yang, active and passive, the masculine and feminine energies.  The cross is symbolic of the human body.  Leonardo DiVinci’s sketch of human proportions appears at the center of the cross, but the drawing also has an esoteric meaning.  The figure depicts a man superimposed over himself, a symbol of harmony within duality.  This represents soul and spirit consciously dwelling together; man in communion with God; the perfect rendition of spiritual awareness.

     Two arms extend from each of the left wings of the cross, mirroring the DiVinci image in the center and suggesting that our outward reality is but a reflection of our inward consciousness; that the macrocosm reflects the microcosm.  As it is above, so it is below.  If you want to change the world, you must start by looking to that “secret center” within yourself.

     Eastern mysticism retains a remnant of primitive truth that has long since been corrupted by false religious teachings.  Yoga originally meant “union,” referring to the balancing of these polar opposite energies within the body.  Acupuncture and martial arts are premised upon marrying the active and passive principles, the masculine and feminine energies within the individual.  Arcane knowledge of Holy communion became corrupted by polytheism and the concept that there was no personal God.  Man began to worship the creation rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25).

     But the lost “primitive truths” still remain encoded in the symbology of ancient manuscripts and may still be experienced first hand.  The entangled snakes in the cross form a labyrinth of knots, representing the challenges and spiritual lessons that must be learned—the raising of the Kundalini.  The DiVinci drawing at center represents union, or more specifically, communion between man and God.  This is suggested by the drawing itself which superimposes one man over another, perfect proportions of the inner and outer man.  Michelangelo’s painting of the Father reaching out to Adam is portrayed on each side of the DiVinci sketch, further reinforcing this theme of a connection between man and God within the individual.

     The Divinci sketch appears at the center of the cross.  If the cross represents the proportion of a human body, then the DiVinci drawing appears in the heart chakra, the “secret center.”  Most people have not opened their hearts to Love and compassion; they have not received Christ, the Light of God, into their hearts: “until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).  Most people remain preoccupied with fear, self, security, appetites, and desires—all predominant influences of the lower chakras.  But Christ knocks on the door of each person’s heart, offering to untangle the snakes and liberate the soul.  Love is the key to opening the door of your heart to Christ.

     Did you catch that—Love is the key.  Love is the necessary fifth element, that philosophers stone essential for transmutation.  I symbolically portrayed Love as Venus.  The circumscription of female nudes revolving around the cross are various renderings of Love—Venus/Aphrodite images.  Their configuration suggests motion, a tunnel to another world in which one may gaze at the soul and Spirit in perfect union.  The female nudes present as a spinning vortex, hypnotizing the viewer into this other-dimension of Love.

     The Kundalini begins at the base of the cross, which represents the human body.  A male scribe is depicted at bottom.  His shadow, however, is distinctly feminine, representing this perfect union of polar opposites.  From this mystical union emanates double spiral helixes of white stars with pink trails.  This pictures the Kundalini ascending the vertebral ladder, coiling up the spine and opening up new doorways of perception.  Enter communion, ecstasy, Love, and profound bliss.  The cyclone of female nudes transports the viewer into a higher, spiritual dimension in which Christ is King, preeminent in the body, and the believer’s life force is resurrected.  The adjacent texts read “radiating from within” and “changing the way you see,” which are the effects of the day star arising in the heart (2 Pet 1:19).

     Double interlaced helixes are also pictured at right, above the pyramids.  Again, this represents the raising of Kundaline energy.  Moses is propelled  into the sky by the mystic union of yin-yang.  His eyes portray an other-worldly perception, another allusion to the heightened consciousness that accompanies communion with the divine.  Juxtaposed at his right, the space shuttle propels vertically into the heavens, paralleling Moses’ spirit “rocketing” skyward.

     The stars adjacent the moon in the upper right corner are outlaid in a pattern that reflects the same configuration of the Gaza Pyramids.  This suggests a connection between these great megaliths and the prophecies written in the firmament.  Scripture declares that the stars were created for “…signs, for seasons, and for days and years” (Gen 1:14); and that “day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard” (Ps 19:2-3).  So if we know stars portend of things to come, that they “utter speech” and “reveal knowledge,” then what exactly is it that the stars are communicating?

     The answer is found in the Savior Himself.  God wrote the story of Revelation in the heavens for all to see.  The creation testifies of the Creator and His divine plan.  Through the “precession of the Equinoxes,” the sun drifts in position a little each year.  Approximately every 2,000 years the sun begins the year in a different sign of the zodiac.  The Sphinx at the bottom right memorializes the beginning and end of this story.  With the head of a woman and the body and tail of a lion, the ancients left us the knowledge that the Heavenly Story begins in Virgo (with the Virgin Birth of Christ) and ends in Leo (with the Lion of the tribe of Judah consummating His triumph over the serpent).  The enlightened understand that God wrote the story of man’s redemption in the stars, where no hands could reach.

     Faith is depicted as a journey in Lady Liberty leading Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion down the yellow brick road.  The story is an allegory representing the essential components in the Christian walk.  The Scarecrow wanted a mind, the Tin Man sought a heart, the Lion needed courage, and Dorothy yearned to just go home.  They went on a journey to find the Wizard of Oz, a picture of God, by following the golden path laid before them.  Mind, heart, courage, and a yearning for a spiritual home—these are the essential components to the perfection of a saint.  In the end, the group discovers that it was the journey itself that refined their characters, and that, with the exception of the tin man who received a new heart, the rest already possessed what they sought but only needed to learn how to use it.

     Christ is depicted in the foreground at right, being condemned to death by Pontius Pilate.  I sought o tie together the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah with the Kingdom prophecies.  The caption to the right reads, “Building the Kingdom” and above reads “Salvation is here.”  A young boy hugs a lion adjacent the pyramids, paralleling the infant petting the Sphinx.  In the Kingdom Age of Christ, the earth will be a utopia and even the carnality of animals will be tamed.  The promise is that “the Lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

     In the upper corner is the invitation to “Join the Revolution” and “Awaken your Spirit.”  An angel extends one hand to the viewer while pointing to the raising of the Kundalini with the other hand.  An erotic image of a female figure sits blindfolded on the grass.  The caption “I Love watching the lights come on” alludes to the new awareness that accompanies an awakened spirit.  Adjacent the blindfolded woman are the captions “Trusting God” and “Faith is Fun.”  This draws reference to faith being blind; that the ultimate commitment of trust is when one is not led by their senses but by the Spirit of God: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).

     The erotic female image may also be interpreted as another Love motif.  The woman sits, flanked by figures from a famous depiction of Venus, the goddess of Love.  The configuration of the erotic woman and the conscription of female nudes around the cross both reinforce the feminine principle as being a personification of Love.

     The raising of the Kundalini represents transcendence from death to life.  It is that new faith in the heart of man, the day star born in the heart.  In the East, these truths are shrouded in a different nomenclature, spoken of as chakras and Kundalini.  But the substance of these truths have their Biblical parallels and may be experienced by believers in a mystic path of personal faith in Christ. 

     Primitive truths are corrupted by Satan when Christ, the concept of sin, and a personal God are omitted.  But the promise of scripture is that God reveals Truth to the diligent seeker, regardless of culture (Heb. 11:6).  He has written His plan of redemption in the starry firmament and has invited each person into a covenant relationship wherein He indwells the heart and communes in the temple of the believer’s body.   The Kingdom of Heaven is thus both a future event in the world and an internal awakening in the heart, the “raising of the Kundalini.”

Larry Word

Awaken From Babylon

If Satan is the father of sin than Babylon may be said to be sin’s mother: “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS (unfaithfulness) AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (sin)” (Rev 17:5).  Babylon symbolizes a kingdom for man apart from God.  It contains the full scope of cosmos diabolicus,  Satan’s worldly system, which includes art, entertainment, economics, the media, education, commerce, commercialism, and religion—virtually every aspect of society and culture on earth.  Its spellbinding grip captivates mankind into a mental bondage intent on deifying self and denying God.  Most people do not even realize they are enslaved to this spiritual empire.  They are essentially unconscious, asleep to its influence.  But God offers to enlighten the blind, to wake the sleeper, to free the captive from Babylon: “…Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins,” is the invitation to humanity (Rev 18:4).

     The centerpiece of the artwork portrays the Tower of Babel.  The ancient Babylonians were determined to build a city high in the heavens, a tower that reached up to God.  Motivated by pride, they wanted to be like God, which is the same sin that precipitated Lucifer’s fall: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4). 

     God saw that a single language and culture for all humanity only helped mankind to fulfill the wicked designs of his heart.  Swift intervention was necessary to restrain evil and preserve the human race.  God said, “…they all have one language and this is what they begin to do; now nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them.  Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen 11:6-7).

     God scattered the people.  The confusion of tongues at ancient Babylon gave birth to the various nations and cultures of the earth.  But the system of self-worship, the idea of a society in which man is captain of his own destiny and god of his own life is founded upon the lie Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Satan said, “You will not surely die… you will be like God” (Gen 3:4-5).  Hence, this is the lie that underpins spiritual Babylon and remains ubiquitous in every culture and country to this day.  In this vein, ancient Babylon was but a reflection of spiritual Babylon, the outward manifestation of an invisible cosmic system known as cosmos diabolicus.  Satan continues to strive toward creating an empire apart from God, a world in which “do as thou wilt” is the whole of the law.

     Most people sit upon the thrones of their hearts as kings and queens.  Most people are separated from God and unconscious they live in the mental bondage of spiritual Babylon.  This is pictured by the man in chains and the woman sleeping.  The man in chains emphasizes the bondage of spiritual Babylon.  He is held captive by the beast of Revelation.  A line of skyscrapers soar across the bottom of the artwork, associating ancient Babylon with modern society.  They are different towers, but the same principle applies.  Man seeks to create a name for himself, to obtain glory, to be like God.  The screamer appears adjacent the melting clocks, a reference to time running out before judgment.  The hourglass at the top right and the caption which reads, “The end is near,” indicates that spiritual Babylon will eventually be judged, just as ancient Babylon was judged.

     Whereas the chained highlights the bondage of spiritual Babylon, the sleeping woman at the bottom left represents the unconscious nature of Satan’s spell.  Most people remain unaware of God’s existence as anything more than an abstract concept.  Even professing believers are unwittingly enslaved to a system of self-reliance, for religion is a part of cosmos diabolicus.  Only a personal relationship with Christ, not religion, is the only true path out of spiritual Babylon.  The woman lies asleep and oblivious to where she is and what transpires around her.

     The caption under the woman reads, “The Awakening of Humanity.”  This alludes to the breaking of Satan’s spell.  The miniature empty bed under the sleeping woman symbolizes that more people continue to sleep in Babylon than have awakened from Babylon.  The caption “unknown to the vast majority” indicates that most people remain bewitched, blinded, and enchanted by Satan who deceives every nation and culture on earth: “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 Jn 5:19).

     God tells us to “Go forth from Babylon” (Isa 48:20), to “Come out from among them and be separate” (2 Cor 6:17).  But how can this be done if one is blind, asleep, and in bondage?  The answer is simple.  What is impossible for man is possible with God.  He enlightens, awakens, and liberates.  He empowers people to make the journey from Babylon and accept Christ as Lord, Savior, and King.

     God the Father depicted in Blake’s Ancient of Days appears in the upper left corner.  He extracts an ethereal figure from the sleeping woman, her inner being.  God opens the top of the figure’s skull and removes the brain.  He places His hand upon the figure’s forehead, the location of spiritual sealing and the chakra associated with vision and enlightenment.  This pictures God awakening the sleeper and liberating her mind from its bondage.  He enlightens the blind, opening the spiritual eyes of flesh-and-blood man.  The Satanic spell is broken, and the opportunity to leave Babylon is presented.  The scene pictures that no man comes to Christ of His own volition.  It is God the Father who must first draw an individual, stirring the heart, liberating the mind, and opening the spiritual eyes to inner vision (Jn 6:44).

     While the Father initially draws the sleeper through the Spirit, the Son Jesus Christ is the actual path, the vehicle out of spiritual Babylon.  In the upper right corner, the sleeping woman appears fully conscious.  She peers over a liberated mind, representing that she is out of the bondage of Babylon.  A smaller version of God the Father again appears, opening the “mind’s eye.”  The eye stares directly at scenes picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  This is the offer to humanity, a new way of living.  God invites us to surrender self and accept Christ as Lord.

     Many will count the cost and it will be too much to bear.  God opens the spiritual eyes long enough for people to either accept or reject Christ.  Many will reject the Savior and doze back into slumber.  The lure of living for the pleasure of self is too enticing.  But for those in whom Love germinates, we float around on clouds, encapsulated in a divine bubble of grace and protection.  We live in the world but are not of the world.  And we remain thankful through all hardship and suffering, trusting that it perfects character and builds faith.

     This is the concept displayed at top center by the carefree believer resting upon a cloud.  He escaped spiritual Babylon through Christ and now basks high above the evil of the earth.  The adjacent caption reads, “a unique and individual experience.”  This refers to God revealing Himself to each man in a personal way. 

     American leaders George W. Bush, John McCain, and Barrack Obama are depicted riding the beast of Revelation.  This pictures the infidelity and moral decline of the United States, that there is a special relationship between America and spiritual Babylon.  Because each of the heads and horns of the beast represent kings and their respective powers over nations (Rev 17:10-13), America at the helm demonstrates the extraordinary influence the U.S. exerts over other nations through foreign policy and imperialism.  America, like all governments, is an instrument of supernatural forces.  While purposed to secure individual freedom, powerful governments unwittingly become tools for promoting cosmos diabolicus in the war between good and evil.

     In our computer information age, the protective barriers that language and culture once presented are quickly evaporating.  The world is able to collaborate, a sign we are approaching the end of days.  God said that if humanity were in one accord, the evil would be so great that “nothing that (they) propose to do will be withheld” (Gen 11:6).

     The confusion of tongues brought an end to ancient Babylon but the self-worship that under-girds spiritual Babylon persists to this day.  The only way out, the only escape from cosmos diabolicus is to die to self and accept Christ as Savior.  God enlightens the blind and frees the captive long enough to make this decision.  Those who reject the offer shall suffer Babylon’s judgment, while those who accept Christ shall partake in the promise of a restored language and unified culture, a pure and spiritual tongue: “For then I will restore to the people a pure language; That they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord” (Zeph 3:9).

      May the Lord enrich your life in the encapsulated grace bubble.  If His love has touched your life as it has mine, then indeed we float around on clouds.  Amen.

Larry Word

Fork in the Road on the Way to Judgment Day

The destruction of the world and the end of civilization as we know it is an unsettling thought to most people.  But to those in whom the Lord abides, Judgment Day is welcomed, even something longed for and eagerly anticipated with great hope and expectation; for believers are not the subject of God’s wrath.  Believers understand that Judgment Day is that time in which God executes perfect justice on an evil world.  The Spirit shall destroy and purge by fire, but for those in Christ, the Spirit shall be as Living Waters of eternal life.

     Scripture portrays the Holy Spirit in seven distinct emblems.  It is depicted as any of the elements of “fire” (Mat 3:11; Acts 2:3), “water” (Ezek 36:25l John 3:5; John 7:38, 39), or “air/wind” (Ezek 37:1-10; John 20:22).  The Holy Spirit is also represented as “oil” (Isa 61:1; Heb 1:9), a “seal” (Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30), or a “guarantee/down payment/earnest” of our salvation (Eph 1:14).  Finally, the Holy Spirit is also portrayed as a “dove” (Mat 3:16).  In Fork in the Road on the Way to Judgment Day, the Holy Spirit is represented as fire and water.

     The Holy Spirit is represented as water for believers on Judgment Day because we hunger and thirst after God: “I shall give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts” (Rev 21:6).  The artwork depicts a giant tidal wave, building in strength, ready to come crashing forth upon the observer.  Similarly, believers have been given a foretaste of the spiritual life through the Holy Spirit on earth, but we will not realize spirituality in its fullness until Christ comes and we receive our resurrection bodies.  Until then, the heart of the believer is but a small oasis unto others: “He who believes in me... out of his heart shall flow living waters” (John 7:38).  The text in the upper right corner reads, “Living Waters” and “share your thirst,” thus reinforcing this Holy-Spirit-as-water theme.

     The Holy Spirit is represented as fire for believers on Judgment Day because that is how our works shall be tested: “…each one’s work will become clear, for the Day will declare it; it will be revealed by fire… If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so through fire” (1 Cor 3:14-15).  All self-willed “good deeds” shall be burned.  Only works performed in the Spirit shall receive reward.  Fire is a picture of judgment.  Believers are baptized “with the Holy Spirit and with fire” but unbelievers receive a fire that is “unquenchable and consuming” (Mat 3:11-12).

     In this artwork I sought to portray that perfect balance between water and fire, between the Holy Spirit washing and purging.  The Kremlin, Statue of Liberty, Eifel Tower, and Golden Gate Bridge appear across the middle.  These monuments draw from a variety of locations and cultures so as to symbolically portray the world and humanity as a whole.  They are angled in a V-like formation, suggesting they are being folded up and put away behind Christ.  The city behind the bridge burns at right, while the other monuments at left appear washed away in a great deluge.  A giant toothbrush appears to be “scrubbing away” their very existence: “…when the Lord shall have washed away the filth… by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning” (Isa 4:4).

     (After the Genesis flood, God promised He would never destroy the earth with water again (Gen 9:11).  Thus, the cataclysm by water should be viewed figuratively while the cataclysm by fire may be viewed in a more literal way).

     Christ is depicted upon a fork at center.  The fork appears at the end of the road to Judgment Day.  Christ levitates with open arms, as if to invite the traveler on the road of life into a covenant relationship.  The fork represents choice—we all must individually decide whether to accept of reject Christ.

     The natural inclination is to reject Christ: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

     People naturally reject God.  This is portrayed in the angry protests and overt hostility displayed by those individuals in the boats at the shoreline.  They are uninterested in the Living Waters, unwilling to be immersed in the Holy Spirit.  They are juxtaposed against pawns, a reference to their spiritual rank.

     Accepting Christ runs contrary to our instinct toward self-preservation.  It carries with it the implication of death to self and letting go of the world.  The signs on the road to Judgment Day read, “I’m not done yet.”  This refers to the difficulty of self-denial and separation from the world.  For the natural man, the end of the world brings sorrow.  It is only through God re-creating a new spiritual identity in the heart that we are able to accept the end of the world with joy.  This spiritual regeneration is portrayed by the King and Queen.  When we accept Christ, we are elevated from pawn status to the royal rank of King or Queen.  We are re-created as children of God, a new spiritual species on earth (John 1:12; 2 Cor 5:17).

     The Fork has three prongs, an allusion to the trinity.  At top, a woman’s eyes are shut, representing the choice to reject Christ. However, the fork stabs the one eye in the middle of the woman’s forehead, which is open.  The opening of the “third eye” in the forehead is a symbol of wisdom and of the sealing of the Holy Spirit.  This represents the choice to accept Christ: “And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads” (Rev 22:4); “…if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Mat 6:22 KJV).

     The opening of the third eye, or mind’s eye, enables individual believers to understand spiritual matters.  But with great wisdom also comes grief and sorrow (Ecc 1:18).  By accepting Christ we receive not only His glory and blessings but also His sufferings: “…it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil 1:29).  The fork stabs the third eye, extracting a tear.  This pictures the pain, sorrow, and suffering believers must endure “for His sake” (Phil 1:29).

     Finally, Judgment Day boils down to the choices made during one’s life.  It shall come as a thief in the night to those who say, “I’m not done yet.”  These people have not surrendered their own lives to God.  They are like the wind-up doll depicted at right, enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil.  For the unbelievers, the choice is about accepting Christ to avoid the unquenchable fire.  For the believers, fire merely purges unclean works, but they themselves are saved.  Believers look forward to Judgment day because we long to see the appearance of the Lord.  We look forward to Judgment Day because we know that, on that day, the tidal wave of Living Waters—God’s Spirit—shall be opened in its fullness.

Larry Word

Spiritual Home in the Sky

This collage has several Biblical themes but one central motif—that God has called us out of the darkness of this world and has prepared for us a glorious heavenly city in the sky, a spiritual home that is constructed as a house made without hands: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1).

     The Star of David in the upper right corner has its center hollowed out, filled by a doorway labeled, “Home.”  The caption superimposed over the Star reads, “The secret of the Jews.” This refers to the original promise of a spiritual home made to the great Patriarch Abraham (Gen 12:1).  God committed the Promised Land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendents.  But this also pictures a heavenly application.  Like Abraham, believers are pilgrims and sojourners on the earth, looking ahead to the Promised Land, a spiritual city which God prepared for us in the sky (comp. Gen 12:1; Heb 11:12-16).

     To obtain this Promised Land, God told Abraham to leave his Father’s house and his country.  God told Abraham to forsake his whole life and wander to “a land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1).  Similarly, believers must forsake the world and follow Christ to that spiritual country in the sky.

     The iconography of the artwork reflects these themes.  At left appears the Gate of Ishtar, which is the entrance to Ancient Babylon.  At right is the Roman Coliseum.  These two kingdoms, Ancient Babylon and Rome, share a connection, suggested by the pig-priests that stand adjacent to each.  Pigs symbolize that which is “unclean.”  In the Old Testament, God forbade all contact with pigs (Lev 11:7-8).  In the New Testament, demons entered pigs when Christ ordered them out of the possessed man (Mk 5:8-13).  Thus, the pig-priests symbolize something “unclean” about Babylon and Rome, a picture of demonic influence.

     John Trumball’s Declaration of Independence juxtaposes with Ancient Babylon, intimating that America is like a modern Babylon.  On top of the Declaration’s table sits the image from King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Ancient Babylon, dreamt of successive worldly empires that would come before Christ’s millennial reign (Dan 2:36-45).  To the door of Babylon, Martin Luther nails his famous protest addressed to the Catholic Church, further reinforcing the concept that Ancient Babylon, the Roman Empire, and America are an amalgamation of the same type of spiritual apostasy.

     Taken in their entirety, these various kingdoms represent the whole world under satanic control.  The magician who stretches forth his hand symbolizes the devil, that great deceiver: “…Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9).  The magician reaches over the brick edifice, bewitching in a cloud of smoke.  Like Satan, he casts a spell over the worldly kingdoms.

     When believers forsake the world, we run to God and never look back.  God instructed Lot’s family to flee the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah and to “not look behind” (Gen 19:17).  Lot’s wife did not heed this warning.  She peeked back at Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a picture of the believer looking back upon the world he/she was supposed to forsake.  God turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, while the rest of the family escaped to safety in the mountains (Gen 19:26).

     The artwork portrays this forsaking of the world.  A family at center flees Babylon, escaping Satan’s worldly system with great urgency.  They run toward the safety of the golden city in the distance, not looking back but keeping their eyes fixed upon the Savior, depicted at right.  This brings to mind the scriptural metaphor of life being a race:  “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:1).

     Christ appears on a crucifix at right.  The Father holds up His arms for support, while the serpent eats the base of the cross.  This pictures the fulfillment of what God promised regarding our Beloved Savior.  In Eden, God told the serpent that Messiah, “shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15).

     The serpent bruised Messiah’s heel in that Jesus suffered and died on the cross.  But a heel wound is relatively minor compared to the “crushing of the head.”  Jesus “crushed the serpent’s head” in that He rose from the dead.  The resurrection of Christ destroyed the seat of Satan’s power, which was death itself.  Through Christ, we have eternal life, victory over death and the grave (1 Cor 15:54).

     Two angels flank Christ.  They worship in due reverence, gazing upon the Savior on their knees.  A hummingbird punctures the side of Christ and feeds.  This parallels both the Roman soldier who pierced Christ’s side with a spear and the believer who eats the body and blood of Christ: “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out” (Jn 19:34); “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (Jn 6:56-57).

     The caption, “delivered” appears at the left of Christ, adjacent a ladder.  The ladder connects the earth with heaven, that spiritual home in the sky.  Through Christ, we are “delivered” and have access to the ladder.  Conversely, the caption, “Lest We Forget” appears at the right of Christ, adjacent a woman with her back turned on the Messiah.  She extends her arm behind her as if to reject the Savior’s offer of salvation.  She stands upon the Roman Coliseum, the same structure from which the serpent’s head protrudes.  This woman represents the person who prefers Satan’s worldly system to the Truth: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19)

     Two other women appear in the Babylonian Castle next to the magician.  One of the women personifies outward beauty.  She is half-naked, hanging upon a rope from the sky.  This woman is flesh and bones, representing the carnal nature.  She is firmly entrenched, captivated by the satanic-Babylonian system.

     The other female figure personifies inner beauty.  She is not flesh and bone, but rather, displays an etheric, spiritual quality.  She leans over the edge, upon an arrow which points to the heavenly home in the sky.  She appears to blow bubbles, but instead casts a link between heaven and earth, which a skateboarder happily glides.  This refers to the Holy Spirit, the power of God often portrayed in the symbol of air: “He breathed on them and said to them ‘receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22)

     Fire is another symbol of the Holy Spirit.  The seven-sticked Menorah kindles Elijah’s chariot in the sky.  The Menorah appears behind the woman who represents inner beauty and our spiritual nature.  The seven flames portray the perfect balance in seven chakras, the mystic spiritual energy pathways that pervade throughout the body.  Just as the woman is associated with breath and fire—two symbols of the Holy Spirit—so too was it by fire and a whirlwind that Elijah was translated into heaven (2 Kings 2:11).  The implication conveyed is that believers must receive the Spirit to fly, to transcend this material world and enter the spiritual home in the sky.

      The left corner of the collage depicts the four creatures of Ezekiel chapter one.  This pictures, “the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezek 1:28).  Only those whose spiritual eyes have been opened shall behold His glory.  Only those who enter that spiritual home in the sky shall commune with face-to-face with Christ.  As the text in the left corner states, when the glory of Christ is revealed, “Some instinctively cover their face.  Some look up with calm assurance.”

     There are many uniquely Jewish elements in the collage.  I sought to portray the importance of Judaism being the forerunner to Christianity.  The Menorah and Star of David are distinct Jewish emblems.  Also, the twelve apostles sitting upon twelve thrones at the top of the Star of David is a reference to Christ’s promise that they, “…shall sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Mat 19:28).

     The church did not supplant Israel, as so many falsely believe.  However, faith in Christ individually baptizes Jews and Gentiles into one collective body.  The glory of Israel shall return during Christ’s millennial reign, and the “Secret of the Jews” is that the Promised Land represents not only the land of Canaan on earth but also has a prophetic, heavenly application.     At the end of Christ’s millennial reign, God will re-create a new heaven and earth, opening that spiritual city in the sky in its fullness.

Larry Word