Ascended Master King

One of my best sources for visionary material was the texts channeled from the Otherworld and the Masters by the various seers of the "Saint Germain" tradition. This American sect, based in California and centering its devotions around Mount Shasta, was started in the 1930s as an inheritor or branch of the Alice Bailey teaching community, which itself depended ultimately on Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy. Many texts have been created in this mythos, filled with well-described esoteric adventures. The latest inheritor of this tradition was the notorious "Elizabeth Clare Prophet," who with her various husbands led the "Church Universal and Triumphant." The Ascended Masters still guide their devotees, perhaps through new channelers.

The New Age bookstore where I worked in 1987-1988 carried a good selection of the Saint Germain books. They were little volumes as well as full-sized books, printed all in purple. I bought some of the most image-rich books to use as visual inspiration. This glowing figure was one of my illustrations of the mythology. The spirit world was populated by Ascended Masters, some of whom had been "real" people in this world, others who were purely otherworldly, like this King. I envisioned the Ascended Master King in Byzantine imperial attire. I used iridescent paint for the highlights in the painting, which are now brought back to brightness by the ascended mastery of Photoshop.

"Ascended Master King" is acrylic and mixed media on illustration board, 6" x 9", November 1987.