VISIONARY REVUE
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VISIONARY REVUE
LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS
1974 1974 1974
The strange arrangements of symbols in his
works intrigue us. They delight the eye and draw us
in. And so, to understand them better, we freely
engage on a quest for understanding, discovering in
this text and that certain passages which elucidate
the imagery, rendering it transparent to the
transcendent source.
The Hermetic philosophers are agreed that our
initial fascination with a symbol is, in fact, a kind of
recognition. We are drawn to the image because it
shows us something that we knew once, but had
forgotten.
Certain key works from Johfra’s Hermetic
period have that ‘initially intriguing’ quality. They
draw in the eye again and again until, at a deeper
level, they become objects of meditation. For the
artist himself, who spent many hours each day
looking at the images as he rendered them into
form, this practice of ‘meditation on images’ arose
naturally. In the process of painting the Zodiac
Series, Johfra wrote that “as I worked, each painting
became an act of meditation.”(Astrology p.1)
And so, Johfra’s Hermetic works must be
approached in this way - as images for meditation.
The deeper we penetrate into the symbols and their
elucidating texts, the more we will discover their
implicit Hermetic message: that to know ourselves is
to remember our forgotten origins in the divine.
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PARIS - SPRING 2003
CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES
1974 1974 1974
“The man who has learned to know himself will at
the same time discover whence he comes,” Plotinus
said (Enneads VI. 9. 7). And the Poimandres added,
“He who has understood himself, advances towards
God.” (Corpus Hermeticum I. 21). Johfra’s images
serve to initiate us in this way.
In examining these works as objects of
meditation, their Hermetic philosophies will be
offered only as an aid to ‘enter through the image.’
This expression is taken from a Gnostic text, and
describes their belief that images, fundamentally,
are a means of returning in our mind’s meditations
to a remembrance of our origins.
Especially under consideration will be three of
Johfra’s early works, and their Gnostic philosophy.
Then, we shall turn to his Vision of Hermes
Trismegistos and its Hermetic philosophy, followed
by his Unio Mystica and its Neo-Platonic philosophy.
Finally the Gemini painting from the Zodiac Series
will be offered as an example of how each of the
twelve paintings in that series manifests all these
philosophies in combination. In each case, we shall
not attempt merely to interpret or elucidate their
symbols, but to enter through them in an act of
mindful contemplation.
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JOHFRA: HERMETIC PANTHEIST
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