A Return to Source

 

Last week, I shared Behold, the first of two Flower of Life paintings that emerged during a remarkable week of meditation and celebration with my online yoga community.

As I mentioned then, two distinct visions arrived almost simultaneously.

One became Behold.

The other became A Return to Source (photo left).

Rather than choosing between them, I worked on both paintings throughout the week, moving back and forth as layers dried.

Although they shared the same sacred geometry, they gradually revealed two very different invitations.

Two Paintings, Two Invitations

If Behold asks us to pause in wonder before the mystery of life, A Return to Source quietly invites us to step into it.

In that movement inward, immersed in meditation, inspiration, and the company of thousands of fellow celebrants around the world, it felt as though every mark and dot became part of my own spiritual practice.

Moving between both paintings, I could sense their interconnectedness—and the interconnectedness of all who were part of the retreat. It was in this spirit that these Flower of Life paintings came into being.

Beginning with a single circle and expanding outward through repetition, the Flower of Life has long been seen as a symbol of creation itself—everything arising from a single Source while remaining inseparably connected to it.

Whether viewed through the lens of sacred geometry, spirituality, or simply wonder, it speaks to the mystery of the One expressing itself as the many.

Because of the mark-making background layers, each flower within the Flower of Life is unique, yet none exists independently of the whole.

That feels deeply symbolic to me.

We, too, are individual expressions of the Divine—beautifully distinct, yet never separate from the Source from which we arise.

That understanding became the inspiration for the title, A Return to Source.

Rather than filling the canvas as it does in Behold, this Flower of Life rests within an open archway.

I never thought of it as a frame.

To me, it became a gateway.

Therein is the threshold between the everyday awareness we so often inhabit and the deeper reality meditation invites us to experience.

One morning, as I stared at the canvas, wondering what wanted to emerge next, I suddenly saw them.

A great pair of angel wings.

They mirror the curve of the Flower of Life above, creating another embrace within the composition.

Throughout my paintings, angels symbolize our Team of Divine Helpers—the unseen companions who lovingly encourage, guide, and support us.

Here, the wings do something more.

They help lift us.

Nestled beneath them sits a small meditator rendered in my familiar style, flowing between solid forms and dissolving fields of tiny dots.

Like all of us, she is both embodied and energetic.

Her hands are joined in Anjali Mudra and lifted above her head.

While hands in prayer at the heart symbolize reverence and gratitude, raising them overhead transforms the gesture into an offering of the whole self—a movement of devotion, surrender, aspiration, and joyful receptivity to the Divine.

I deliberately sized the figure so her hands reach through the opening created by the wings toward the centre of the Flower of Life.

To me, it became a visual prayer: with devotion, surrender, and the loving support of our Divine Helpers, we are gently lifted back toward Source.

The lower portion of the painting evolved layer by layer.

What began as vibrant mark-making beneath a translucent magenta glaze slowly disappeared beneath thousands upon thousands of hand-painted violet and radiant gold dots.

From a distance, they simply harmonize the expressive chaos beneath.

Only when you move in close do they reveal themselves, transforming the surface into a field of living vibration.

That transformation feels symbolic to me.

We often move through life believing that only what we can see is real.

Yet both science and spirituality point toward something deeper.

Science tells us that what appears solid is, at its most fundamental level, dynamic energy.

Spiritual traditions have long spoken of an underlying unity from which all life arises.

Though they use different languages, both invite us to look beyond appearances.

That’s one of the gifts of meditation.

The world itself doesn’t change.

Our perception does.

We begin to sense that beneath all the activity of our lives lies something steady, loving, and profoundly interconnected.

Perhaps that is what a return to Source really is.

Not travelling somewhere else.

Not becoming someone different.

Through meditation, we gradually remember that beneath our names, our stories, and our separate lives, we have never ceased to be unique expressions of the Divine.

The return isn’t a journey across space.

It’s a journey of remembrance.

Back to the Source that has never left us—and that we have never truly left.

Just as meditation invites us to look beyond the surface, this painting reveals new layers the closer you come.

If you’d like to explore its details and textures, I invite you to visit A Return to Source in my online gallery, where you’ll find additional photographs and information.

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