Exegesis THE EMPRESS (III) Sentences 7–9
7 Images will emerge through spontaneous contemplation
8 By disrupting what should be, another will be uncovered
9 Like an apparition, images have the power to open the eye completely
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7 “Images will emerge through spontaneous contemplation”
The Empress is the mistress of Life, who always proceeds through abundance and surprise. Revelation is not linear: it “emerges” from contemplation, like a plant sprouting from the earth. Its mechanism is that of a creative rupture. The artistic image “disrupts” the normal course of thought (“what should be”) to give birth to a new perception (“another”).
The expression “Images will emerge through spontaneous contemplation” describes a state of total receptivity, where the artist, listening to the unconscious (symbolized by water and night), allows forms to arise without the directive intervention of the self. This is the essential prerequisite of creation.
8 “By disrupting what should be, another will be uncovered”
The essence of this teaching lies in the following continuity: “By disrupting what should be, another will be uncovered.” This “rupture” is the fundamental creative act. “What should be” represents established order, rational perception of the world, expected and conventional form.
The connection with pareidolia and the paranoiac-critical method is immediate: the act of “disrupting” precisely short-circuits normal perception to activate an alternative mode of vision. This is the principle of pareidolia, the faculty of perceiving recognizable forms (faces, animals) in ambiguous stimuli such as clouds, water stains, or, in this case, watercolor drips and splotches. Salvador Dalí, with his “paranoiac-critical method,” systematized this disruption to induce a state of “interpretative delirium,” perceiving multiple subjective images in reality and transcribing them through rigorous pictorial technique.
Maa’s teaching is therefore a prescription: the artist must cultivate this active “disruption” of their own perception. By refusing to see “what should be” (a mere watercolor stain) and welcoming the “spontaneous contemplation” of “the other” (an archetypal vision, a personal symbol emerging from the unconscious), the work becomes a channel of revelation. The first fruit of this contemplation is the vision of the “three circles of fire”: their role is alchemical, to “illuminate water through fire,” so that the divine vision, captured through this contemplative rupture, is fixed within the fluid matter of watercolor, awakening the sleeper to a lucid dream.
9 “Like an apparition, images have the power to open the eye completely”
Like an apparition, images have the power to open the eye completely. The artistic image functions as an epiphany, a sudden appearance that imposes a new way of seeing. “Opening the eye completely” means activating unitary vision, perceiving the unity behind diversity.
Like a discreet agent, this light infiltrates toward the center: unlike a thunderous revelation, the action of art is subtle. It does not force the defenses of the ego but seeps like grace, touching the “center” of being, the soul. This is the Empress’s gentleness, which persuades rather than commands.
