Hikurangi Rising

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Print sizes and editions

• Regular museum archival paper print - 700 x 700mm (limited to 275)
• Large museum archival paper print - 905 x 905mm (limited to 195)
• Extra Large museum canvas print - 1100 x 1100mm (limited to 175)

Your unique limited edition fine art print

1. Sofia creates your signed, museum archival print 
2. We ship for $25 in NZ and from $50 internationally 
3. Your artwork arrives rolled, ready to be framed - do you need help? Request framing guidance

Original painting SOLD, oil and flashe (vinyl paint) on canvas, 1250 x 1250mm, 2021

The story of Hikurangi Rising

My intention is that people all over the world can see themselves reflected back in the elevated energy of this piece. Just as I experienced during the painting process, I want viewers to know themselves as the radiant, worthy, connected beings that I know they are.

"As the people rise, everything rises." 

More of us are coming to realise (i.e. 'real-eyes', which is to make real) our personal wholeness and our connectedness with all things. When we do the work to shift our perspective, life becomes a more fun game to play.
 

Hikurangi

Hikurangi is the mountain of my Ngati Porou ancestors from the East Cape of the North Island. Its snowy peaks are pictured here in fine detail on the distant horizon. 

Hikurangi is one of the first places in the world to see the sun every day. I have painted a luminous circle around the silhouetted mountain, representing the sun rising.

Hikurangi is also the name for the primary feathers on the wing of a bird. The 'hikurangi' feathers on the outer part of the wing are especially important for flapping flight. They are the principal source of thrust, moving the bird through the air. 

Hiku in te reo means tip and Rangi means the heavenly realm of the sky.

 
Water is life

The Waiapu River is sacred to Ngati Porou. It flows here in silver swirls to the ocean, met in ecstatic celebration by breaching whales and playful dolphins. 
 
"Water is life. And it is the star of the show of this painting, taking up most of the canvas space."

Humans are made of 70% water. This water within us and the rivers, lakes and oceans around us contain intelligence and memory. 
 
"Alchemically, water is the element of love and emotion." 

It is also an incredible conduit for frequency and vibration. Just have a listen to the beautiful song of whales and consider the complex sonar system of dolphins. 

"Our emotions are our superpower, radiating a vibrational match for what we desire to experience in our lives."

Many times I have received dreams from the Waiapu, transmitting ancestral messages. In these dreams I was shown just how connected all the people are who whakapapa to certain bodies of water such as the Waiapu.  
 
 
 
The Dolphins and Whales

Our cetacean friends have always been considered highly intelligent beings with sophisticated languages and behaviours. 

To many, dolphins and whales are revered as kaitiaki or guardians of the deep. I believe they have been caretakers of the consciousness of our planet, holding a high collective frequency while most humans have been asleep for thousands of years. 

"This painting shows a breaching of the surface of these friends of ours as they play and celebrate the joy of being alive."

The patterns I've painted above and below the dolphins symbolise both the double helix of DNA, holding the potential for evolution and activation, and also the dolphin's sonar waves.

Dolphins and whales have much to teach us as we hone our senses to receive. As many of us become more liberated and alive, I believe there will be a sharing of kaitiaki and cosmic wisdom with us too. 

The Phoenix

Great people throughout history, from Buddha to Heraclitus, have all said the same thing... 

"The only constant in life is change."

The phoenix, depicted here in gold in the form of a pouakai eagle, symbolises death and rebirth. 

These enormous eagles had a three metre wide wing span and soared through the skies of Aotearoa until their extinction c.1400 A.D. 

"In this image, as a mythic phoenix, the pouakai emerges from the alchemical fires of transmutation and arises as a new Being in every moment. It is always in a state of becoming."
 

The Heart

I have painted the sacred heart of the phoenix in very fine detail. On its chest, a petalled, double spiral unfurls within a diamond - a shape that combines an upward and downward pointing triangle, unifying the polarities of fire and water, masculine and feminine energy and active and receptive principles. 

"Te tōrino haere whakamua, whakamuri."
"At the same time as the spiral is going forward, it is returning"

- Whakatauki (ancient Māori proverb)

Spiralling in and expanding outward, the heart of the phoenix expresses wholeness, coherence and connection.

Similarly, the humpback whale breaching the surface of the ocean leads its dramatic ascent from its heart.
 

Heaven and earth

Just like the Christian cross and the Egyptian Ankh, the phoenix reaches up vertically to the heavens and stretches its wings out horizontally in this earthly realm.

The greatest point of empowerment is balanced in the centre. This neutral point is where trust, flow, love and gratitude meet and dance with each other. 

"He who looks outside dreams. He who looks inside awakens."  

- Carl Jung

When we activate our hearts, our inner and outer worlds sync into harmonic, syntropic play. 

Syntropy is the increase of order and creativity that happens when conscious awareness is applied to anything in the universe. This is the opposite of entropy, which is the gradual loss of energy and order and the breakdown of matter.

In a great thrust of upward motion, the phoenix receives from the loving intelligence of its inner universe and it spreads its wings out wide, embracing life. 

"Feeling completely worthy, this great Being opens up. It courageously takes up space in the world and radiates its energy out to the four corners of Te Ao Mārama."

The two pyramids

The most fertile place, the liminal place where the earth meets the ocean, is where the upward pointing golden pyramid emerges into the sky. 

The larger pyramid higher in the sky is pointing downwards to this same convergent point of earth and ocean.

Together these pyramids are the unity and collaboration of yin and yang forces; masculine fire and feminine water energies; that we all have within us. 

The All Seeing Eye

The all seeing eye in the pyramid is our connection to ancient origins, across all mystery traditions and their schools and symbols of wisdom.

It is seen here vertically aligned, in the shape of a vagina or birth canal with a double spiral emerging from the centre.

All eyes have the sacred geometric shape known as the vesica pisces. This geometry describes constructive interference of two intersecting spheres or circles of awareness. The shape contains enormous amounts of mathematical information about the building blocks of our reality and light.

In this painting the eye is situated at the base of the phoenix, stoking the energy for this fire. 

I am suggesting here that the purification of our points of view causes renewal and expansion into greater, more evolved versions of ourselves.

A new story

We are reflected in this image of dynamic change. As we elevate our energy and heart coherence, we help each other rise, activating our cosmic connection with the natural world.
 
As we open our hearts, the phoenix rises within us from the ashes; from the oceanic depths.

Is anyone else bored of the old stories of the past? Let's let go of identifying with them and create a new story. Many of us and our ancestors have been subconsciously looping on our limited beliefs for generations, due to the trauma of stress, suffering and despair. 

I'm so grateful to our ancestors and I'm so grateful to be alive right now.

A new choice is available for us. A new paradigm is emerging from the depths of the unconscious; from the fertile darkness. 

This painting celebrates the infinite psyche or soul, transmuting the past and arising as a new Being.  

"The Waiapu river's swirling silver spirals and playful, dynamic dolphins, whales and the golden phoenix all herald a new age of possibilities."

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Sofia Minson Paintings | New Zealand Artwork