“The Transfuguration of Thoth [Squaring the Circle]"

Oil on canvas

48”x48”

Signed

"The ancient Egyptian god, Thoth, took the form of an ibis or ibis-headed man and was attributed with bringing the three parts of wisdom to humankind: alchemy, astrology, and magic. He was the scribe of the gods who brought us writing and all the arts and sciences. Like his Greek and Roman counterparts (Hermes and Mercury), he was a psychopomp, guiding souls into the Underworld. As such, Thoth facilitates the healing of trauma by reconnecting the conscious mind (Above) with the unconscious mind (Below), to establish a harmony between them. He guides us into the underworld to discover hidden parts of the self, so that we can bring them into our conscious awareness and integrate them for greater wholeness and self-knowledge (gnosis).

In this painting, Thoth is in the process of overcoming a dark force emerging from the unconscious. Crocodiles in ancient Egypt played the role of the alchemical dragon. Essentially, this powerful creature is that which binds our thoughts in tumbling rotations and disturbs the mind’s clarity with emotional turbidity. It is the conditioned reaction that takes us into the swamps of forgetting and putrefaction. As a symbol of the shadow, the crocodile becomes sublimated into an ally through acknowledgment and acceptance.

Unifying the Above and Below is the way of truth and justice that sways not to extremes but finds resolution in equanimity. Cyclical patterns of the mind return with new opportunities to be courageous and recognize the crocodile for what it is: an invitation to see what's really going on below. So long as we avoid this confrontation, we will not progress in the work. Neither will we progress if we stay submerged in the watery depths. Through integration the crocodile becomes transfigured into its opposite. The swan knows when to dive for sustenance, but then it returns to the surface and the skies of transcendent freedom.

As the archetype of equilibrium, wisdom, and magic, Thoth is being transfigured as they pierce the scales of the crocodile with an artistic variation of the Phoenix Wand. Three aspects of Thoth are depicted: the Egyptian ibis-headed god, the Greek Hermes (Roman Mercury), and the cynocephalic (dog-headed) baboon. Pictured in hermaphroditic form (half male, half female), their body opens and reveals crystals forming within their vessel, the inner results of the work.  

In their left-hand Thoth bears the Ankh, the ancient Egyptian symbol of life, immortality, and the integration of opposites. Thoth holds the ankh over the state capitol building of Olympia in a gesture intimating the supremacy of divine justice over human justice. The ankh is made of copper (metal of Venus) and covered in beautiful green patina, or verdigris, that forms when the metal is exposed to the elements or acetic acid. This splendid green color is significant on account of its imperfection, for the “corruption” is how the soul is purified and redeemed. It is the enantiodromia or transformation of the natural reddish metal into its opposite green by the process of corrosion. This idea of beauty attained through corruption is the necessity of exposing the external, or superficial divinity, to the corrosive action of spirit, so that the true, latent divinity can be born out of it." - 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).