Dear Danielle,
Good to see some discussion on art, so thank you for sharing your work and process.
Here, I would like to share a few thoughts on your Golden Child image from an esoteric perspective, using precessional astrology and a few amplifications. This approach is evident in Jung’s works as we see, for instance, in his Visions Seminars, Liber Novus, his later works as Aion and Mysterium Coniunctionis and also on some of his Bollingen stone engravings.
Considering your image are four more prominent images. If we follow a clockwise arc we get the ram, a fish, an eagles head and the ‘golden child’. Viewing the image in a visionary-esoteric sense, these could be considered as quintessential symbols that relate to the past two Platonic Months, and moving into the current Age. Specifically, the Month of the Ram (Old Testament era), the Month of the Fishes (New Testament, ‘Christian’ era), and the Month of the Water Bearer (the current/coming era). These are the signs of Aries, Pisces and Aquarius. Your image could be interpreted as psyche recapitulating these Great Ages, with the current/coming era in the symbol of the eagle, further differentiated as the Golden Child.
For associations of Eagle with a ‘divine youth’ (Golden Child!) and Aquarius, see:
https://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Aquarius.html
Your predominant image as the Golden Child can be further amplified. Its hand gestures suggest a linking of an above with a below – the adage attributed to Hermes Trismegistus: As Above, So Below. This same gesture is evident in The Magician, in the Tarot pack. Your figure has a more fluid dance-like sensibility, and has a royal head-dress. These elements, as well as the bluish shirt, auric-halo and jewels (the most prominent coinciding with the ‘third eye’), could be amplified with Hindu mythology, as some have already suggested on the forum. The story of Arjuna and Krishna (embodied as an avatar of the ‘cosmic dark blue’ Vishnu) from the Baghavad Gita as a specific association. Further, your Golden Child could be either gender (or both). This, along with its ‘royal attributes’ reinforce it as a symbol of the Self.
This is also particularly interesting as, according to one astrological perspective, we moved into the Age of Aquarius when Star Regulus (Heart of the Lion) changed sign from Leo into Virgo in 2012. Furthermore, on the 21st December 2020 (Winter Solstice) we have a very close conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, at the beginning of Aquarius, which could be interpreted as a further ‘birth push’ into the Aquarian Age (a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Pisces has been associated to the Star of Bethlehem – see upcoming free zoom talk by Bernadette Brady on this, on the 18th December).
Obviously all this could be unpacked in greater detail and with more precision, but hopefully you get the gist!
By the way, on another note, I am the conceiver and director of two programmes at Limerick School of Art and Design, in Ireland. See:
So Jung and the Arts meets a home here. The Certificate in Jungian Psychology with Art Therapy is a part time course currently in its 11th year (run mostly online this academic year, due to the pandemic). The postgraduate Certificate in Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination was run very successfully last academic year as a pilot module. It is currently being developed into a full MA, blended learning mode, over three years.
With best wishes,
Mathew
Mathew Mather, PhD
Lecturer
Course Director (Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination)
Course Director (Jungian Psychology with Art Therapy)
LIT Limerick School of Art and Design
Email: mathew.mather@lit.ie