"The Annunciation of the Daimon"

oil on canvas

24"Hx18"W

Signed

"Started as an automatic painting in the Spring of 2023, The Annunciation of the Daimōn portrays the Daimōn, a guardian spirit and guide that has come to announce the birth of a new, miraculous, divine child within the woman in the painting. Her head is the skull of an ibis, the sacred bird of the Egyptian god Thoth, god of wisdom, writing, alchemy, magic, and astrology, among many other attributes and gifts to humanity. The woman has been in state of deathly non-creativity, the ebb of life force and the death of soulful wisdom. Like the virgin mother Mary, it seems impossible that new life should come to grow inside of her. But the Daimōn is the intermediary spirit that connects her with the Supreme and Absolute reality, which works in miraculous ways. As she is touched by the Daimōn, her body is transmuted into radiant gold, and her belly swells with new life. 

This generative moment is reflected in the rich, dense greenery of the surroundings. Like an alchemical fermentation, when divine consciousness descends upon the inert body and brings it back to life, the Daimōn is the ferment enlivening and reanimating the inner world, transforming it from the inside out. Large, trumpet-like flowers shoot up from the ground behind the Daimōn, with golden tongues that spread into waving banners, announcing the new life to come. 

The Daimōn’s body is a composite of alchemical themes and colors, for it is the agent and catalyst for the Great Work of alchemy, the perfection of the soul into its immortal and golden true nature. The lower half of the Daimōn is goat-like and covered in black fur, signifying the blackening (nigredo) phase that begins the work, where we encounter the shadow and the darkness within ourselves. This lower half represents the lower, animal, and irrational part of the soul. Its torso is white, for after the blackening the matter takes on a white color (albedo) as it is cleansed, and the darkness is washed away in the purifying processes of the next phase. Upon its crown, golden flowers signify the third phase of the yellowing (citrinitas), and the golden consciousness that arrives at this point in the work. Above the crown a large red rose floats between its two horns, symbolizing the reddening (rubedo) of the final phase when the opposites are unified. As the heart is opened through transcendental love, the red tincture flows like sanguine joy through one’s entire being. The Daimōn’s wings are rainbow-colored, representing wholeness, completion, and the harmony of seven archetypal energies of life." - Marlene Seven Bremner

Marlene Seven Bremner is a self-taught oil painter, working in a surrealist and allegorical style. Her work explores esoteric themes arising from her study and practice of Hermeticism, alchemy, magic, astrology, and mythology. She is the author of Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy: The Emerald Tablet, the Corpus Hermeticum, and the Journey Through the Seven Spheres (Inner Traditions, 2022), and The Hermetic Marriage of Art and Alchemy: Imagination, Creativity, and the Great Work (Inner Traditions, 2023).