You only live so long, and all the treasure you have gathered is left behind when you die except for karma. What is karma? It is cause and effect, much like a seed that is planted. You can plant bitter seeds that are poisonous or sweet seeds that will not only nourish you but everyone else around you.
In many Asian and European myths, the human skull is viewed on the same level as Heaven's vault. In the Icelandic Grimnismal, a giant named Ymir had his skull fashioned into the vault of Heaven after his death. Likewise, in the Rig-Veda, the vault of Heaven was created from the first man's skull.
Skull worship has not been limited to human skulls. Hunting tribes used animal trophies in their rituals: the animal, usually big game, elk, bears, wolves, and lions. Man used the skulls to transfer the animal strength for his use during war and hunting. Also, men in the time of mighty hunter warriors may have used the skulls in reverence to the animal giving its life for the health of the tribe.
The head's position, the dome aspect of the skull, and its function as a holy center have frequently pointed to its being associated with the human body's heaven. It was viewed as the seat of life for the body and spirit and cutting off a person's head and conserving the skull as ownership of that person's spirit. The more warrior skulls collected, the more power the king or warrior attained.
Consequently, huge mounds of skulls were found by archeologists. Also, the use of skulls, repositories of life at the highest level, when the alchemists' worked through transmutation processes.
The Free Masons saw the skull representing the cycle of initiation through the body's death as the journey to rebirth in a higher realm of this life in the state in which the spirit rules. The skull represents the physical death of our body and is comparable to the alchemical process of putrefaction.
9 x 11 inches, mixed media paper, watercolor and Posca pens.
Intober2020 prompt (skull)
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