From Meditation to Creation: The Compositional Geometry of Sky Rose

The painting Sky Rose, (the 4th in my White Rose series,) emerged from my meditation practices around the Spring Equinox of 2023. The Equinox, a time of perfect balance between light and darkness, has become my personal new year—a moment for realignment and planting seeds for the year ahead. During this equinox, I experienced a new terrain of consciousness, a vast, unformed space that felt infinitely expansive.

This experience of a nascent, expansive consciousness inspired me to create a painting that would explore these qualities further. This is how Sky Rose was conceived, involving the symbol of the white rose, and the archetype of the Pentad—a symbol of life’s emergence and the quintessence of nature.

The Pentad: Symbol of Emergence and Life

The Pentad, or the number five, represents a new level of cosmic design—the introduction of life itself. As Michael S. Schneider eloquently states in A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe:

“Beyond the Monad’s point, the Dyad’s line, the Triad’s surface, and the Tetrad’s three-dimensional volume, what remains? The Pentad represents a new level of cosmic design: the introduction of life itself. We encounter the Pentad in all expressions of fiveness, from our hand to the stars on flags. Geometrically, the Pentad is born through the vesica piscis as the pentagon and pentagram (five-pointed) star, as whirling spirals, and as the three-dimensional dodecahedron, the fifth of the five Platonic volumes having twelve pentagonal faces. This last form has been known to philosophers as the Quintessence (‘fifth being’) of nature, encompassing and infusing the four elements—solids, liquids, gases, and electronic fire—with the life they cannot create by themselves alone.”

The energy of the Pentad deeply influenced the composition of Sky Rose. I chose a fivefold geometry to reflect the mystery of new life’s emergence. The image of a white rose unfolding resonated with the nascent qualities of my experiences—the freshness, refinement, and purity of new beginnings. The rose, not yet fully structured, carries the energy of emergence, a process still in formation.

A digital ‘sketch’ of Sky Rose, with the pentagonal geometry overlaid on top.

Compositional Geometry in Sky Rose

Compositional Geometry in Sky Rose
In Sky Rose, the rose petals unfold against a sky background, reflecting light, airy possibilities and the celestial aspects of the creative process. An ocean at the bottom symbolizes the manifesting forces of creation. The fivefold geometry is subtly embedded within the composition, echoing the harmonious proportions and the natural elegance of the Pentad. The careful use of compositional geometry enhances the painting’s symbolic depth, aligning it with the archetype of life’s emergence.

The Pentad also plays a crucial role in Sandro Botticelli’s famous painting, The Birth of Venus. In this masterpiece, Venus is depicted floating to land on a conch shell, blown by Zephyr, the west wind, and Chloris, the goddess of flowers, towards a Horae, the goddess of spring, who is about to dress Venus in a flowered mantle. The painting includes a shower of Damask Roses, adding to the theme of new beginnings and purity.

Interestingly, the composition of The Birth of Venus is also influenced by the Pentad. The five-pointed star, symbolizing the Venusian qualities of beauty and harmony, is subtly woven into the painting’s compositional geometry. This reflects the integration of life and cosmic order, a theme central to both Botticelli’s work and my own.

The White Rose

The mythological connections further enrich the symbolism of the white rose. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Venus (or Aphrodite) was born from the sea foam created by the severed parts of Uranus, the sky god:

“Ouranos (the Sky) came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Gaia (the Earth) spreading himself full upon her. Then the son [Kronos] from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father’s members and cast them away to fall behind him… and so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden…”

In some versions of this myth, as Aphrodite’s feet touched the Earth, the sea foam became white roses upon dry land. This symbolizes the moment of transition between the creative process and manifestation, echoing the purity and new beginnings represented by the white rose in Sky Rose.

The white rose and the archetype of the Pentad, representing purity, the quintessence of nature and the emergence of life, is a profound symbol in both Sky Rose and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Through the exploration of this archetype and the use of compositional geometry, these paintings reveal the deep connections between geometry, mythology, and the creative process, inviting you into a space of infinite possibilities and new beginnings.

If you resonate with this painting and would like to order a print, simply follow this link.

If you would like to purchase the original painting, simply drop me a line at info at yohanna jessup dot com.

Finally, if you would like to learn about Sky Rose’s sister painting “Golden Rose” click here.