The painting Weaving Golden Strands began not as an idea, but as a visitation. The image came to me in a dream: a vertical column of floral strands, interwoven and rotating, alive with motion and meaning. It appeared with a clarity that felt both intimate and otherworldly — a form that was not invented but revealed.
The dream arrived after a long period of immersion in sacred texts and the creation of more than a hundred works inspired by them. Something in that sustained engagement with ancient symbols, stories, and archetypal patterns seemed to open a door. The dream was the threshold. When I awoke, I felt compelled — almost instructed — to paint what I had seen.
When the painting was finished, I recognized something startling: the structure I had painted resembled the DNA double helix. Not literally, but symbolically — a spiraling ladder of life, a woven ascent, a pattern of becoming. It was as if the dream had offered a glimpse of the underlying architecture of reality, expressed through color, motion, and form.
This painting became the beginning of a series. Only later did I realize that the series was not simply aesthetic but deeply symbolic. It embodied a mystical vision of reality — a vision in which everything is interconnected, everything participates in the same unfolding, and everything is part of a single, living continuum. At the heart of this vision is a simple but profound truth: we are all one in infinite time and space.
Mystical vision is not about seeing supernatural images or escaping the world. It is about perceiving the deeper coherence within the world — the unity beneath diversity, the pattern beneath chaos, the meaning within experience. It is a way of seeing that arises when the mind becomes quiet enough, open enough, and receptive enough to notice what is always present but rarely observed.
Each of us has the capacity for mystical vision. It does not require special training or esoteric knowledge. It requires attention. It requires curiosity. It requires the willingness to let perception move beyond the surface of things. Mystical vision begins when we stop insisting that reality must fit our expectations and allow reality to reveal itself on its own terms.
There are many ways to open the mind to this deeper seeing:
through art, which teaches us to follow the movement of form and meaning
through contemplation, which quiets the noise of thought
through nature, which reveals the unity of all living things
through study, which connects us to the wisdom of those who came before
through dreams, which speak in the language of symbol and metaphor
Mystical vision is not a destination. It is a practice — a way of being in the world with greater sensitivity, greater humility, and greater wonder. It reminds us that reality is larger than our concepts, richer than our assumptions, and more interconnected than our senses alone can perceive.
Weaving Golden Strands was the first glimpse. The series that followed continues the exploration. And the journey itself — like the spiraling form in the painting — is ongoing, ascending, and alive.