Conclave of Light Beings

I love apocalyptic writings. These are not necessarily about disasters. They are visionary experiences, usually of a religious nature, written down for posterity. The most famous example is the biblical "Book of Revelation" which is the last book of the Christian New Testament. This classic apocalypse became the model for uncounted later visionary texts, including many in the twentieth century.

In the twentieth century science, or at least its terminology, was blended into religious mysticism, and aliens and UFO's shared chariots with angels. One of the most creative and organized "schools" of apocalyptic thought was (and continues to be, on a lesser scale) the "Unarius" group of UFO devotees. The original seer and founder was a wonderfully colorful lady named Ruth Norman. Her visions and channeled tales were published by the Unarians during the 1970s in a number of volumes. The center of the group is, of course, in Southern California, in El Cajon, near San Diego.

Since I was working at a New Age bookstore in 1988, I was able to order these books and other visionary writings not only for the store but for myself, and I managed to collect a fair number of them. The picture above is an illustration of a scene from a book called "Conclave of Light Beings." It depicts a vast, city-sized amphitheater in which millions of angels, Masters, aliens, and ascended human souls attend a worshipful event: the wedding of "Ioshanna," Ruth Norman's heavenly counterpart, to "Michiel," also known as the soul-incarnation of Leonardo da Vinci.

As she describes it, the enormous amphitheater has seven fountains, each in a different color of the rainbow, and three giant flames of light, all surrounding the crystal dais in the center of the circle where the wedding takes place. To the uninitiated, this intricately detailed text reads like an antique Hollywood glamor epic on major acid. For me, it's imagination candy: wild descriptions of fantastic stuff just waiting to be illustrated. There are contemporary illustrations in the book, but they are not made by professional-quality artists. I dust off my copy of "Conclave" and think, This is what Photoshop was made for. But so far, the "Space Brothers" have not arrived.

"Conclave of Light Beings" is watercolor and gouache on illustration board, 22" x 16", May 1988.