Balder (1996)
The most beloved of the Gods in the Norse pantheon, Balder is usually portrayed as the embodiment of light and virtue. In this image, which was definitely an imaginal journey, I have focused on the “Mystery Tradition” aspect of Balder– the Balder who has died and is emerging from Niflheim, the realm of the dead, of the Goddess Hel.
In this darkness, the egg shape, the sprouting seeds, and the skulls (which harken to the skulls on the path to Baba Yaga’s house), combine ideas of death and rebirth. Balder is related to the germinal power of seeds that allows them to grow again after the harsh death of winter, hence the germinating, almost uterine shapes in his lower body.