I experienced an instantaneous moment of recognition and emotion the first time I saw this painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. There are so many interpretations and angles that can be shared when we observe art together. Some profound moments have been created for me by artists like Burne-Jones. I know that a Real moment has been gifted to me by an artist when I have a first contact with a painting and my heart opens and is filled with Love. It is an instantaneous, almost indescribable feeling that keeps bringing me back to paintings as a source of nourishment for my Soul. This is what I experienced upon first meeting with Jones' The Heart of the Rose.
There are three figures shown yet I feel that they do not represent separate people. Together they could be symbolic of what can be achieved through Work in a School.
The Lady represents a state of Presence. Through Self-Remembering, she is experiencing the first moment of balance and Union between her machine (the cloaked beggar) and her Soul (the Angel). The story of what is happening in this Woman's Inner World is represented by the actions of the two figures in the foreground.
The cloaked beggar (the machine) looks at the Lady with some hesitation as he walks through an open archway. He is accompanied by birds, symbolizing the messengers who have come to tell him that there is a Higher Way. The machine enters the garden and slowly takes the hand of his Angel (his Soul). The Angel's expression is one of Knowing that this is an important moment; The Angel's gaze is fixed on the face of the Lady in Presence. The Woman's machine is finally coming forth into the Garden as a willing participant in Mervyn's "great experiment", of which we in the Academy are all a part. The machine has finally taken the hand of the Soul.
The Angel's right hand holds a bow and arrow, which I see as a symbol of the need to be protective of the Inner World. To his right He is flanked by white lillies. White lillies are a symbol of the Soul that appear in many examples of Conscious Art. His left wing is raised, revealing to us the Lady's face as if to say, "this is what Presence looks like." That same wing is ready to envelope the machine in an embrace of Love.
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