In the initiatic Sumerian lunar cosmology, the four phases of the moon mark a structure for planning any human endeavor, from a project to a life. Each phase corresponds to a stage of work, from beginning to closure, and the cycle repeats with every lunation.
They believed the moon activated one of the four classical elements at each phase, and each element gave the person undertaking the work the kind of energy that stage required.
Moon Force translates this framework into five large-format originals: four moon cycles and a fifth piece that stands beyond the cycle. Each one studies one stage:
- New Moon activates Fire. The phase of beginning execution. Fire gives the impulse to choose, commit, and begin.
- Crescent Moon activates Earth. The phase of execution. Earth gives the discipline to show up, build, and refine.
- Full Moon activates Water. The phase of adjustment and presentation. Water gives the openness to present, listen, and adjust.
- Waning Moon activates Air. The phase of closure. Air gives the clarity to finish, review, and plan the next cycle.
The fifth piece, Courage, stands outside the cycle: it corresponds to Ether, the fifth classical element, and to the development of the eighth chakra according to certain European alchemical branches. Courage is not another phase of the cycle, it is the condition under which all four phases can be walked from the heart. The work becomes an offering.
Visually, the four elements draw from their classical alchemy symbols, the upward and downward triangles, with and without the horizontal bar. Courage draws from the iconography of the eighth chakra, the pair of wings that opens behind the heart chakra in the symbolic alchemy tradition.
Moon Force is a record of how initiatic schools entered into dialogue with nature to achieve mundane goals, and how that dialogue could, over time, produce the superhuman. Not the warrior, but the one prepared to lead and be led by the heart, the one whose work becomes an offering.
Roberto Simões, Berlin, 2020–2022
