The Mirror was about a four year process with long periods of dormant time between painting sessions. The two nagas, or snake women mirror each other, though they are the same being. Uadjet, the winged serpent goddess, the protectress of Lower Egypt, also known as the goddess of childbirth and protecter of children and kings, is in the center. Nekhbet, the vulture goddess and protectress of Upper Egypt, appears on both sides of the bottom of the painting, holding the shen, a symbol of eternity. The ankh: key of eternal life, the djed: representing stability and strength, and the Ieb: the heart, unite in the center. Above are the sun disk and three hieroglyphs that look like heart-shaped stringed instruments, but may also be symbolic of the lungs, represent unity and perfection. This arrangement of symbols are found on a ben ben stone (pyramid capstone), held in the Cairo museum. The winged sun disk is emanating a geometric pattern, called the “breath of the compassionate”, where the expanded, eight sided stars indicate the inhalation, and the contacted shapes, the exhalation. A golden eye lashed in dark feathers is representative of the higher perspective of self. Cosmically filled void spirals through the space like eloquent music.
I had put this painting on the back burner for about a year before I began my final work on it. As soon as I began to add the Egyptian elements into the piece, I was invited to dance at a priestess convocation at an Isis temple, where I danced the vulture goddess, and was ordained as a priestess of Isis.