Door Number 2: The Alchemy Door

Please see the important update below from December 2014. This door no longer looks quite the same and has totally different, flowing energy now.

Please also note, the colors look much more yellow in these pictures than the actual door; in person it looks more dreamy and muted. I used a combination of acrylic paints and oil pastels, and the oil pastels seem to photograph more intensely than the acrylics. Anyway, these photos give the general idea:

The Alchemy Door by Laura Bruno

Alchemy Sun

The Androgyne

Phoenix and Peacock

Follow Your Bliss

While I designed the first door as a portal, this one embodies some key principles of Alchemy, which I’ve studied since I read Plato’s Symposium during my senior year of high school. I became so fascinated with the union of opposites that my college honor’s thesis explores Mercury, Hermes Trismegistus (the father of Alchemy), the mythical Phoenix, and Plato’s story of the Hermaphrodite as they relate to Archangel Raphael. This door features something called the Androgyne, a union of sulfur and mercury (that which burns and that which is volatile), and a union of masculine and feminine. (I modified the image from something I found in the Book of Symbols.)

The phoenix and peacock at the bottom also represent a union of masculine and feminine, as well as the ability to regenerate. The phoenix rises from its own ashes, and the peacock’s tale symbolizes the all-seeing eyes of God, as well as the inner astral world. (I modified the bird images from some I found here, because I liked the calligraphic feel to them.)

The words at the top are the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, sometimes translated as JHWH, Yahweh, or “I Am That I Am.” The bottom of the door includes a favorite quote by Joseph Campbell, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” I had intended to paint the back and may do so at some later time. For now, though, this door seems complete. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Many Blessings and Happy Transmutation!

December 2014 UPDATE: Well, it took awhile, but the door did eventually complete itself. I painted the back shortly after originally posting about the door; however, the door constantly reminded me that something was keeping the alchemy in check. On Christmas 2014, for a variety of reasons too long to explain here, I felt led to repaint the top of the door, replacing the demi-urge with Sophia, written in a Rune System whose letters emphasize the Sacred and Divine Feminine, as well as matrilineal heritage. As soon as I shifted the door from a patriarchal “I Am That I Am” to the dynamically creative Goddess embodied in our planet, the door came alive. That’s the only way I can describe it.

The door is already in place in our very carefully arranged, small living room, so I apologize for other objects in the photos. I can only move them so far out of the way. 🙂

Alchemy Door with Sophia in Runes

The energy of our entire home has shifted with this seemingly simple revision. It was not actually a simple process, as it involved many layers of paint, along with brown marker to dull down a too bright red. The net result of that process, however, was that the Runes got traced and retraced many, many times, amplifying the intended shift. Our home feels lighter and with more feminine flow now. The door’s energy also feels like it cycles up and back down and up, like a Tantric circuit, rather than having a patriarchal energy bearing down upon it and keeping the process from completion.

I did not expect it to take me nearly five years to complete this portal door, but due to several other simultaneous developments in our world, Christmas 2014 felt like exactly the right moment to do so.