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Concept - Native
Spirit
Native Spirit
Throughout the various temples in Malta, the spiral and circle are
predominant. All the cyclical philosophies and concepts of time
employed by man model themselves on the movement of the heavens.
There is a celestial model for this cyclical principle in the 28
phases of the moon.
“Images which prescribe these movements are essentially mandalic,
centring and ordering.
Because on whatever level, the movement is echoing the cosmic movement
of which it is symbolic. All spiral processes pertaining to the
‘Great Work’ of self realization are but microcosmic
analogies reiterated within the body of man, of the universal vertical
order. Furthermore, the energy centres within the individual body
themselves constitute microcosms. These energy centres are the charkas.
Each of them, in the process of developing consciousness, unfolds
like a flower, spirally from within. The Sanskrit word ‘chakra’
means wheel, indicating that the order and law inherent in these
centres is also that of all wheels, whereby the outside or periphery
is kept in place by radiating spokes from an inactive centre……And
that which is kept turning and circulating is the life principle.”
(Jill Purce, The Mystic Spiral, Journey of the soul)
In meditation, the lower vortex spirals up to meet and attract its
spiritual counterpart. The mystical longing of man’s search
for the spirit is here brought to fruition so that the dualities
of spirit and matter are fused in the ‘conjunction’
of conscious and unconscious in the heart. In the heart, the two
interlock. It is when this centre has been reached that the gyration
stops and the neutral point at which there are no conflicts, becomes
the starting point of all transformations.
This understanding led me to develop further the concept of this
balance between earth and sky which I have come to associate with
the symbol of the double spiral from our pre-historic times. I discovered
that beyond balance came the realization that ultimately subject
and object are one, and merely opposite ends of the same axis. This
I illustrated in the work ‘12 steps to Eternity’ (Art
in Malta Today, Inaugural Exhibition of the St James Cavalier Centre
of Creativity, Valletta 2000), essentially describing and depicting
the steps of a journey from earth to heaven or from matter to spirit,
going through the motions of balancing, centring and lifting the
spirit up to God.
Later, in ‘The way of the Heart’ (exhibited at St. James
Cavalier 2002) my aim was to bring awareness to our centre and the
power of love and that our existence is the embodiment of space,
time and eternity. Such a vast thought simplified through the symbols
of the square, the spiral and the diamond, suggesting a balance
between matter and spirit within our time frame of human life and
death. The purpose is to reactivate the vital life force that often
becomes numb because of our modern distractions, our way of life
and separation. Our minds which are even now only just awakening
after years of materialism are infected with the despair of unbelief,
of lack of purpose and ideal. Materialism holds the awakening soul
still in its grip, but when religion, science and morality are shaken,
man/woman turns his/her gaze from externals unto himself/herself,
becoming aware that inner peace and serenity come with acceptance
and are not to be obtained in the external world. This is, in truth,
a state of mind.
Throughout my inward journey I have endeavoured to express the unfolding
of simple truths through my art. I compared these simple truths
to our temple civilization and their close contact with nature.
The laws of nature and their cyclical world view have led me to
understand further that their spirals and circles where not a simple
decorative motif but a language describing the principles of order
and centring and ultimately love: human and divine: God and man.
Anna Grima 11-04
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