The Psychopomp - L'Ankou. Death and all that it Brings.

The Psychopomp - L'Ankou.  Facing the unknown gives us all the creeps when it is right up-close and personal.

There are a few paintings that I have done that I have been driven to paint.  Sometimes the subject matter is quite palatable   but occasionally, it is downright uncomfortable, even to myself.  

The Psychopomp was an image that I kept seeing over and over again, and I have actually painted vague variations of it elsewhere but hadn't realised it until I completed this painting.  As the Watchtower of the North, this image was most insistent that I paint it and it was also silver.  I would see this image in the mind's eye, especially at night.  At first, I was seeing the face on the Northern Watchtower and there was, and still is a really uncomfortable energy with it.  I was getting to the stage where my sleep was being disturbed, I'd wake up and see this and feel this strange energy, which I cannot really put into words as much as that is was flat, dead, uncomfortable and in a vacuum where most of us cannot go.  I do not know why I kept getting this image and still don't but I must say, I have felt much better since I painted it!

Psychopomps are escorts to the spirit world, in mythology they come to us when we pass over and need a guide to get where we need to go.  They do not judge us, this is not their task, they provide safe passage on our journey to the afterlife. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp and see suggested reading).

Psychopomps are known to be benevolent but as you will seeing, the painting was eerie and does not look that friendly.  However, appearances can be deceptive and this painting is not about death itself but the FEAR that some people have of death and this is any kind of death, from the journey into the great unknown to transformational circumstances in ones life.

 

The Psychopomp L'Ankou. - Trac Davies ©

This painting is monotone, black, grey, white and silver paint are the only paints that I have used.  The image is self - explanatory but WHY is the psychopomp like this?  Usually when we imagine a psychopomp from the other side, we think of friends and family that have already passed over, we think of Angels, certain Gods and Goddesses.  Yet, we can also think of the Grim Reaper, or in Brittany the Breton's version is  L'Ankou and this is my version of L'Ankou.  I have lifted this text from the third link in suggested reading below to describe the Ankou.

(http://www.psychopomps.org/psychopomp-guide.html).

Ankou (L'Ankou) — In Brittany, Ankou comes for the souls of those who are about to die. A true shapeshifter, he appears in many guises, including a tall, thin man with a long, hooded cloak, or as a skeleton with a scythe who often wears a broad-brimmed hat. He generally travels on foot, but sometimes comes in a carriage, which is often pulled by four black horses.

Here he is a tall, thin man but he has no hat or cloak so we see him as he is.  His eyes are black pits because he looks into infinity, into depths that we cannot see.  He only takes us onto the next stage, he does nothing else but escort, and his eyes are black, deep holes because there is no judgement there,  they are empty.  His mouth opens wider than humanely possible. When we step into the unknown, we stand on a lip or precipice and in this painting, the mouth is the way in and depict the "Jaws of Death".   Everything surrounding L'Ankou is black, why we can't see a tunnel of light (which is how I perceive death); or the rainbow bridge or the pearly gates or a field of flowers is  BECAUSE HE TAKES US THERE BUT HE DOES NOT GO IN.  Entering the unknown is our task, not his, he guides us over, he sees we are safe but he does not come with us.

The Psychopomp is a disturbing image because death is a disturbing part of the life-death-life cycle.  Some of us do not fear death, although we have no wish to leave our loved ones behind but many people do fear death because although mankind has all sorts of ideas of what must lie on the other side, none of us truly know.  So what we are facing with The Psychopomp is our fear of the unknown, he or she does not judge us for this but it is there all of the same.

The same can be said for any huge and transformational change in our life, which is why many of of fight it.  Usually change is welcomed but sometimes it is as huge as it is scary.  I personally am on a road towards transformational change, I have no idea of what is to come and at times I am scared witless because I can't plan for anything so in this case you could say that I am facing my own personal psychopomp.

When I started painting this, one night I had to get to the toilet.  It was past midnight and I have to go down a flight of stairs, into open-plan living space, then the studio and into the utility where our humble loo awaits.  Thus I usually pass by my paintings and they are a welcome sight.  When I saw this one for the first time in the middle of the night, I nearly didn't get to my destination and this image almost frightened me to death.  However, eventually I got used to L'Ankou's presence, and this is what happens when we get older, we get used to the fact that one day we will die.  We become more careful with what we do, we don't take the same risks as we would have done when we were younger, we slow down, nobody wants to race into the "Jaws of Death".  Yet one day this time will come, who knows what we will face but the unknown part is only one small step of an already, very long journey.  

There will be another painting to balance this one up, maybe two and I am looking forwards to painting them.  Since painting The Psychopomp - L'Ankou, have have been full of happiness and love & this I feel is the next step.

Links and suggested reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou

http://www.psychopomps.org/what-is-a-psychopomp.html

http://www.psychopomps.org/psychopomp-guide.html 

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Trac Davies - Artist ©