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VISIONARY REVUE PARIS - SPRING 2003

Johfra completed the first version of The Vision

THE VISION OF HERMES TRISMEGISTOS II (1985)
(Click to enlarge)
of Hermes Trismegistos in 1972. He re-worked it two
years later, and then in 1985 created a second
version (left) which was more colourful and
classical. The painting prefigures the Zodiac Series
of 1973, not only stylistically but thematically. For
many Astrological themes are implicit in its
Hermetic imagery. It becomes, in this way, an
introduction to the Zodiac Series as a whole.
In contrast to the Early Esoteric works, this
painting presents a powerful central figure with
pronounced symmetry. Like Ernst Fuchs’
Transfiguration of the Resurrected and Alex Grey’s
Sacred Mirrors, the painting is designed for
meditation. The viewer is invited to gaze upon the
figure and centre himself in it. Sinking deeper, he
must identify himself with it, until the canvas
becomes a kind of mirror. Not a mundane mirror
reflecting his day-to-day self, but a symbolic mirror
offering an image of his eternal Self.
Comparing symbols to a mirror, Johfra wrote:
“A symbol is like a mirror that, while remaining
itself, will alway reflect a different image, depending
on who is looking at it.” (Astrology p. 2)
To situate ourselves in the sacred mirror, we
begin by scanning the main figure with our eyes,
becoming familiar with its many shapes and
symbols. We note a man surmounted by a light-
filled being that winds seven times around him. This
Being is crowned and has the pentagram on his
chest. Two serpents full of light form a kind of
caduceus behind him; they turn five times and have
lionine faces like the sun. The central figure appears
to be androgynous, which is emphasized by its
placement between the patriarch crowned with the
sun and the matriarch crowned with the moon.

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