Mike Highlander

Denis Forkas aka Denis Forkas Kostromitin aka Денис Форкас Костромитин (Russian, b. 1977, Kamyshin, Russia) - Commissioned by Serpent Sun Records for the band Hierophany Temple, 2025, Ink and Acrylic on Vintage Paper mounted on Wooden Panel

Hermes Trismegistus - The Cosmic Tree of Universal Matter with Seven Branches and Opposing Triangles, “Occulta Philosophia”, 1613.

Collecting Tree Energy. Taoist Masters observed that trees are tremendously powerful plants. Not only can they absorb carbon dioxide and transform it into oxygen, but they can also absorb negative forces and transform them into good Energy. Trees strongly root with the Earth, and the more rooted the tree, the higher it can extend to Heaven. Trees stand very still, absorbing the Earth’s Energy and the Universal Force from the Heavens. Trees and all plants have the ability to absorb the Light of the Energies and transform it into food; in fact, they depend on light for most of their nourishment, while water and earth minerals make up about 30% of their nutritional intake. Trees are able to live very long lives. The Tree as Healer and Friend Trees are the largest and most Spiritually advanced plants on Earth. They are constantly in Meditation, and Subtle Energy is their Natural Language. As your understanding of this language grows, you can begin to develop a relationship with them. They can help you open your Energy Channels and cultivate calm, presence, and vitality. You can reciprocate by helping them with their own blockages and devitalized areas. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that needs cultivation. Choosing a Tree to Work With Throughout history human beings have used all parts of the tree for Healing and Medicine. The best trees for Healing are big trees, especially pines. Pine trees radiate Chi, nourish blood, strengthen nervous systems, and contribute to long lives. They also nurture Souls and Spirits. Pines are the “Immortal Tree.” Early Chinese poetry and painting is full of admiration for pines. Although pine trees are often the best choice, many other trees or plants can be used. The larger trees contain the most Energy. Among the most powerful are trees growing near running water. Some trees feel warmer or hotter than others; some feel cooler or colder than others. Practice distinguishing the varying properties of different trees. You do not need to go far out into the forest to find an appropriate tree to work with. Trees that are used to having people around understand our Energy and are actually more accessible and friendly than those far out in the wilderness. There is a certain size range within which trees are most accessible to human beings. When a tree is too small, it does not have enough Energy to make much of an impression on you. When the tree is too big, you have the opposite problem, so it takes more persistence to get large trees to take an interest in you. As a source of Healing Energy, it is best to choose a large, robust tree from within the accessible size range. Establishing Communion with a Tree There are certain methods to approaching, interacting with, retreating from and taking leave of a tree. By following specific steps you create a Ritual of Silent Communion that both you and the tree can understand, and so increase the potential for Harmonious Interaction. The steps were derived from observation of the Natural course of events in Subtle Energy Communion, and apply to communion with just about anything: tree, rock, human, or animal, although the following is concerned specifically with trees. First of all, each tree, like each person, has a personality, desires, and a Life of its own. Trees differ widely in their taste for human contact. Some are very generous and want to give you all the Energy you can take. Others are weak or ill and need your comforting and Healing Energy. Some are just friendly Souls who enjoy human company. You can learn and grow by working with all of them. Trees operate on a longer time scale than do human beings. You can help to bridge this gap by returning again and again to the same tree, so that a relationship develops. Visit regularly so that the tree knows when to expect you and can look forward to seeing you. Spiritual communion with trees resembles love more than any other human activity. Let the tree lead you into the wonders of its own inner life. 

Scutum Fidei Diagram. The Shield of the Trinity is a symbol depicting the concept of the Holy Trinity. This diagrammatic representation has been found to have been in use as long back as the twelfth century for helping proclaim the fundamental Christian doctrine that the Almighty God is manifest in 3 distinct ways – as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are many versions of the Shield of the Trinity. Some of these variations include having the triangle pointing upwards, putting curved bars in place of straight bars, putting triangles in place of circles, or having a star in the middle instead of triangle or circle. The main achievement of the Shield of the Trinity diagram is to transfer a large part of the essential “mystery” or “paradox” of the Trinity from the realm of complex verbal philosophical abstractions and esoteric theological vocabulary to the realm of simple logic, as presented in the relatively easily graspable form of a concrete and conveniently compact visual diagram. 

Ancient Glyphs.

The Tree of Life within the Vesica Piscis. The Tree of Life represents a map of Creation, unfolding from the Primordial Unity to the Infinite diversity of Manifested Reality, expressed according to a certain Mathematical progression based upon the square root of three, the Holy Trinity.   The Vesica Piscis signifies the mediation of two distinct entities; the complementariness of polar opposites, as when two extremes complete and depend upon one another to Exist. One circle may signify the Breath of Spirit, which is Eternal; the other may signify the Body Physical, which is forever changing and adapting. The Vesica Piscis itself symbolizes that which mediates Spirit; or the Psyche or Soul.

Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa - The Law of Karma, “The First Principles of Theosophy”, 1921. “The Lords of Karma must use the individual’s own stock of force; they cannot add to it nor diminish it. He comes out of a past, with Karmic bonds to individuals, to a community, to a people; he must be sent to be born where he can “work out” his Karma with respect to these. But also, his life is only one of a series of lives, and at the end of them, he is to become a Master of the Wisdom, a Perfect Man, in the image of an Archetype which the Logos has created for him. The Lords of Karma, then, must adjust the individual’s Karma so that he grows steadily towards his Archetype. There are several types of Karma, and that individuals can be related by one, or more, of them, but not necessarily by all. The commonest “Karmic Link” is of love or hatred; but there are also links of caste, or of race. A man born, for instance, into a priestly caste shares to some extent in the good or the evil done by the caste as a whole; an individual born among a particular people is handicapped or helped by the Karma which that people has made for itself throughout the centuries. To understand Karma in its fullest operation and significance requires the wisdom of an Adept; but to understand the principle 0f Karma is to revolutionize one’s conception of the possibilities of life and of oneself. As Theosophy is intensely ethical in its outlook, there perhaps is no more useful way of summarizing what we know of Karma than as done in this illustration.”

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