Door Number 7: The Lovers

I finished The Lovers Door last night but needed to wait for daylight to get reasonable photo quality. Inspired by the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, this Lovers door also features a strong sense of Alchemical Union with the Divine. Thus, Archangel Raphael has healing coming out of his palms, and the Runes I used to code this painting evoke not just earthly soul-mate or twin soul union, but also the union of divine masculine and divine feminine energies into a trinity of one. I show two trees in this painting, but without implication of a “Fall from Grace.” This is meant to be a redemptive door, a return to the Garden after many years of exile.

** Please see the note and images below this original post. As of January 2015, the symbolic redemption has occurred even in/on/through the portal door itself, which got a major facelift. On a personal note, I had felt led for years to replace the center writing between the panels with “Gaia,” the name of the Mother Earth Goddess, originator of all fecundity and physical abundance. Humans are natural bridges between heaven and earth, and the star-shaped HAGAL Rune that runs through the lovers as light is itself a union of a deeply rooted feminine YR Rune and the masculine spiritual MAN Rune. (It also combines other Runes, as well, but I painted the portal with the intention of integration to create something new.)

You can see the original version immediately below, followed by close-ups and then the most current iteration as of January 2015.

The Lovers Door by Laura Bruno

Having written my honors thesis on Paradise Lost and having Plato’s Symposium as one of my very favorite books, I’ve long had a fascination with sacred union as a rejoining with the Divine.

Detail of The Lovers Door by Laura Bruno

For the bottom panel, I chose to include a red lotus, which symbolizes hridaya, the heart chakra. Those of you who read Schizandra and the Gates of Mu may recall that the word hridaya is also the same as the Sanskrit word for the “gateway to the highest reality.” The bottom quote emphasizes that the gateway happens without barriers: “Between God and the soul, there is no between.” –Julian of Norwich

Lotus Panel of the Lovers Door by Laura Bruno

The back of the Lovers Door features two quotes. The top panel is a chant called, “Om Radha Krishnaya Namaha,” which, again, honors the union of divine masculine and divine feminine. Deva Premal features this chant 108 times on her new CD, “Mantras for Precarious Times.” I awoke to it playing nonstop in my head last week during my final day of painting the Freya and Frigga door, which I had originally planned as the Lovers.

The bottom back panel has written in Runes a sentence from the Song of Solomon: “I am my Beloved’s [and] my Beloved is mine.” The middle of the door says “Reunion” and the other Runic inscriptions also emphasize this sacred union of divine feminine and divine masculine.

Back of the Lovers Door by Laura Bruno

I hope you enjoy this door. It’s huge! After moving it into my bedroom, I discovered that I may only have room left for one additional door in this apartment. I’ve been “told” that I’m painting 78 doors, so that tells me something’s in process of shifting. I don’t know exactly what, but I’m sure curious to see. 🙂

Close-up of the Lovers by Laura Bruno

JANUARY 2015 UPDATE:

As part of the redemption and reclaiming of humanity’s deep connection to both God and Goddess , to heaven and Earth, I finally received the intuitive instructions that now was the time to replace the original “Elohim” with “Gaia” (written in Greek), thereby grounding the lovers back to Mother Earth instead of leaving them as separate creations. On the left, you’ll see a Wheel of Being and on the right a Destiny Knot. Both Celtic designs come from necklaces David bought me on his 2012 trip to Ireland. The message of the Destiny Knot felt especially appropriate to this portal reclamation:

“Carried as a symbol of Hope and Faith, it is believed that once a person comes to a certain time in their lives, it is said that the knot will then unwind, showing you the true path your life must take.”

Close-up of “Gaia” revision of Laura Bruno’s The Lovers Door

Please click images if you’d like to enlarge them. Below, you can see the full door as it now stands, although I feel I will at some point add a lightning bolt into the center of the red lotus — symbolizing a shamanic union of male and female. As of January 28, 2015, the time is not yet ripe for that one. 🙂

The Lovers Door with “Gaia reclamation” by Laura Bruno

Many Blessings!