The Iron Pentacle: Sex
A couple of weeks ago, I had the idea to create a portal painting for each point of the Iron Pentacle. If you're unfamiliar with the Iron Pentacle, check out T Thorn Coyle's book, Stars of Power, which also covers the Pearl Pentacle and the Pentacle of Autonomy. In short, the Iron Pentacle is about finding balance within yourself, while the other two pentacles add interpersonal and leadership dimensions.
The Iron Pentacle starts with what is called Sex, although it involves much more than the literal. Everything to do with creativity, generativity, and play has a part. You can have Sex and the entire pentacle in balance without ever having literal sex...or you can have tons of literal sex if it's done with educated consent.
While I did everything for this painting intuitively, the colors in question also worked very well with my color magic and I was able to see clear symbolism in most of the things my intuition wanted.
The first layer was written in yellow, magenta, and purple watercolor pencil on aquabord:
The gate is open
The heart is free
Embodiment roots the soul
And life takes form in play
The second layer was a simple watercolor wash in dark yellow and a brownish color. Some of the text was still visible.
The third layer of a portal is normally loose symbols to release what no longer serves and unleash new creative powers to help, but in my last two portals, I've felt pulled to do something different: masking part of the substrate to draw attention to a focal point. I wanted to use purple again, here. And I already knew how I was going to use the focal point.
The fourth layer is short and simple: a shape to physically represent the portal and two crossing lines to represent time and space. I used brown for these.
The fifth layer is like a skeleton that the portal is built upon. The center in this case is an abstractified vulva, and around it there are flowers. The outer flower didn't quite go as well as I'd hoped, so it ended up getting modified later.
The sixth layer is acrylic "skin" upon the "bones", in creamsicle orange, pink, and lavender. Normally, there would be a seventh layer after this, to refine the lines and shapes - but I was happy at this point so I skipped it.
After that point, it's all patterns, details, and final touches. I decided to play with two different sizes of white Posca marker and a bronze Posca for the star. The star can stand for the Iron Pentacle, the Star Goddess of Anderson Feri Witchcraft, and the individual potential of every human being.
The dots and parallel lines are the only part that didn't immediately jump out as having symbolism to me, but they're evocative of primitive art that humans have been making ever since we've been human.
