The Golden Germ

View the work

About The Golden Germ

This tantric painting is a sacred image of the Hiranyagarbha. The Golden Germ. Hiranyagarbha, The Golden Germ, is the Lord of Creatures, the self-begotten egg. The Golden Germ lived a thousand years in an eggshell floating in primordial waters. She crept into herself, became her own womb, made herself pregnant with herself in order to hatch forth the world of multiplicity.

The cosmic egg hatched herself.

The birth of the cosmos is the source of energy for all beings.

Sadhakas, Tantric Practitioners, can make copies of the image for their own reverie. The images are considered sacred.

One of the surviving original paintings, 1775 AD, is housed at the Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum in Banaras, India.

“Then the One, that was hidden in the shell
Was born through the force of fiery torment.
From it there arose in the beginning love,
Which is the germ and the seed of knowledge.
The wise found the root of being in not-being
By investigating the impulses of the human heart.”

~Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation, The Dual Mother, first published in 1912.

“We asked earth.
We asked Heaven.
We asked the sea.
We asked the wind.
We asked the fire.
We looked for you with all the peoples.
We looked for you with all the kings.
We looked for you with all the wise.
We looked for you in our own heads and hearts.
And we found you in the egg.”

 ~Carl Jung; The Red Book, published circa 1930.

Also, this quote from Ajit Mookerjee’s book Tantric Art:

“In Tantric Art, to get into the form is to get into the thought. Then to realize the impact of the force which that form creates.

Once the work of art is finished, the artist’s power is released and within the form…..its force and form become accessible to one who can see and assimilate its impact.”

The sound accompanying the work is from the NASA Voyager recording, 2009.

The set was constructed in Victoria, BC in 2017 (see note).

Note: The set, as constructed in Victoria, BC in 2017, was designed for the work titled "The Glass Ticker" and has been re-purposed for this work.