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If we believe that the spirit soul is eternal and exists beyond the physical body, there must be a moment when the spirit soul joins with matter to create a living soul. This painting is an attempt to put a visual image to that moment.

Two DNA spirals form from two spiral galaxies and surge up into one strand of DNA. The DNA forming from galaxies is a reference to how all matter is connected and what once made up the atoms of a star could now make up the atoms of a person.

The central flame is meant to represent the eternal divine spark that is the eternal potential of the soul. The birdlike shape of clouded sky outlined with flames represents the soul coloured by the path it has chosen. The light of the spirit shines out from the soul and joins with the physical. The light pouring out from the soul is selecting colours of DNA from the two spirals; in this way I was aiming to depict how the condition and destiny of the soul has an affect on the body it merges into.

I believe that the circumstances we are born into are chosen for the perfecting of our spirit soul and for the perfection of creation. Our gifts and talents in this life may be no part of our spirit soul, but how we use them in this life may determine whether we deserve such talents of expression in the rotations of life that follow.

Our personality and all aspects of this living soul, which we identify as ourselves, can be affected and altered with physical damage to brain chemistry and neurological workings. This does not lead me to the conclusion that there is no eternal spirit soul beyond this physical form. The divine spiritual spark holds the true potential of our personality and is only limited by the current condition of the physical form it illuminates. The paths we choose colour the soul but the potential of our soul is eternally present in our divine spiritual spark. The current manifestation of that potential is affected by the circumstance we find ourselves in and the choices we make.

The Upanishads form the core of India’s most sacred scriptures and they describe our immortal self as the atman:

“The self-luminous being who dwells within the lotus of the heart, surrounded by the senses and the sense organs, and who is the light “

This heart like shape of this painting acknowledges the “lotus of the heart” where the atman is said to dwell.