Illuminating Consciousness: The Digital Art of Margaret Phanes

Editor’s Note: Metapsychosis is delighted to present this interview with digital artist Margaret Phanes, originally conducted by Claudia Sanginés Sayavedra for Alasart: Art & Time—a platform dedicated to exploring intersections of art, consciousness, and spiritual traditions. Phanes’ pioneering work in digital visual meditations offers profound insights into how technology can serve as a vehicle for spiritual expression. We are grateful to Claudia and Alasart for graciously sharing this illuminating conversation with our readers, furthering our shared mission of featuring artists who explore consciousness through innovative creative practices.

Introduction

By Claudia Sangines Sayavedra

Margaret Phanes is a pioneering digital artist whose work bridges the realms of art, meditation, and spiritual transformation. Since 1989, she has explored digital media as a form of visual meditation, translating her background in painting, collage, and art therapy into luminous compositions that evoke energy states and higher consciousness. Deeply influenced by Agni Yoga and Integral Yoga, Phanes’ art is not just an aesthetic experience but a tool for healing and self-discovery.

In this interview, she shares her journey from corporate marketing communications to the digital arts, discussing how her practice evolved alongside advancements in digital illustration and photo editing software. She also delves into the profound influence of yogic traditions on her creative process, revealing how Light-Fire energy and the transformation of consciousness manifest in her work. Through her digital visual meditations, Phanes continues to push the boundaries of art as a spiritual practice, inviting viewers into a world where light, color, and form become pathways to inner awakening.

The Digital Mysticism of Margaret Phanes: Light, Form, and Consciousness

Margaret Phanes’ art is more than a visual experience—it is a meditation in itself. Rooted in her profound inner explorations, her digital works bridge the gap between seen and unseen realities, using light, transparency, and symbolic forms to translate meditative states into tangible imagery. With decades of experience in digital illustration and photo manipulation, Phanes has developed a distinctive artistic language that resonates with the concepts of illumination, expansion, and the evolution of consciousness.

Light as a Medium of Expression

At the heart of Phanes’ creative process is her unique relationship with light. Unlike traditional media, digital art allows her to work with light as an intrinsic element of the composition. The luminous quality of pixels, emitting radiance from within the screen, mirrors the way she experiences light in meditation—emanating from above, within, and all around.

This interaction between digital light and spiritual perception transforms her artworks into expressions of inner vision. Through layers of transparency, shifting color modes, and intricate overlays, she captures the ethereal glow of meditative states, where the boundaries between form and formlessness dissolve.

The Power of Transparency, Overlays, and Shape Evolution

Transparency plays a vital role in Phanes’ compositions, enabling a dynamic interplay between different layers of imagery. By adjusting visibility and opacity, she creates an impression of movement and dimensionality, evoking the fluid nature of inner experience. These shifting transparencies, combined with overlays, offer a sense of expansiveness—an open-ended, evolving visual space rather than a static image.

Color blend modes enhance the luminosity of her work, allowing for subtle transitions in hue and radiance. The interplay of these digital effects intensifies the impression of iridescence and energetic flow, echoing the vibrational frequencies of consciousness itself.

Repetition and shape evolution are also central to her creative process. Using vector graphics, she builds libraries of symbolic forms—often circular, representing the wholeness of awareness—that remain infinitely editable. This allows her to refine and evolve recurring patterns over time, much like the progressive deepening of spiritual practice.

Light-Force Meditations: Visual Portals to Awareness

Phanes describes her work as Light-Force Meditations, a term that encapsulates both the visual and energetic dimensions of her artistic practice. Her compositions function as meditative objects, concentrating awareness in much the same way that traditional mandalas or sacred symbols do.

This approach aligns with the ancient practice of Tratak, described by Sri Aurobindo as the concentration of vision on a single, luminous point. In her works, the focused interplay of light, shape, and movement encourages the viewer to enter a contemplative state—one where consciousness expands and perception deepens.

For Phanes, digital art is not merely an aesthetic pursuit but a way of expressing and sharing states of heightened awareness. Through her compositions, she invites the viewer to experience a remembrance of inner light, a reconnection with the soul’s luminous essence. In doing so, her art becomes both a personal and universal meditation—a journey into the depths of consciousness, illuminated through the transformative power of digital creation.

Musings on Light: Cosmology of Light—A Visual Manifestation of Unified Illumination

Margaret Phanes’ artwork Musings on Light: Cosmology of Light serves as the cover for Pravir Malik’s book of the same title. This image, an intricate interplay of radiant circles, gradients, and transparencies, embodies Phanes’ exploration of light as an all-encompassing force.

The composition is centered on a divided circle, segmented into four distinct parts, yet intentionally fractured to indicate the evolving aspects of light. These divisions mirror the thematic structure of Malik’s book, which explores the transformational nature of light across dimensions. Beneath these layers, a luminous force radiates outward—symbolizing the ever-present source of illumination that transcends form and space. Additional spheres populate the composition, representing the infinite potentiality of light’s manifestation.

For Phanes, this piece is more than a cover illustration; it is a meditation on the omnipresence of light. Just as scientific and spiritual traditions have sought to unify our understanding of energy, her work seeks to visually express this integration, bridging cosmology, metaphysics, and the aesthetics of light itself.

The Brightness of Soul Power in Visual Meditations

Central to Phanes’ artistic vision is the concept of soul power—an inner luminosity that influences her creative practice. Drawing inspiration from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, she sees the soul as a divine spark, evolving through consciousness and guiding personal transformation. This notion is deeply embedded in her digital compositions, where light functions as an active force of revelation and self-discovery.

Brightness in her work is not merely a technical element but a representation of the soul’s radiance. Mandalas, layers of obscured and emerging light, and the interplay of luminous fire all evoke the process of inner awakening. For Phanes, visible light is a metaphor for spiritual illumination—the connection between the One and the many, the unifying presence that pervades all beings. Her visual meditations serve as invitations to experience this connection, translating the ineffable into imagery that speaks to the depth of the soul.

Evolving Color and Shape in the Light-Based Medium

Phanes’ journey through digital art has been marked by a continuous evolution in her use of color and form. In earlier years, her work incorporated real-world imagery in digital collages, weaving transcendent themes through manipulated photographs. However, she found that these images were limited in their ability to depict energy and consciousness. As she transitioned into digital illustration, she gained the ability to directly render inner perceptions, refining her approach to light and color.

The creation of color swatches has become a vital aspect of her process. Working digitally allows her to fine-tune and store carefully curated color palettes, experimenting with how different hues transform the same composition. Her understanding of color has been deeply influenced by Sri Aurobindo’s writings, which explore the vibrational essence of light. However, digital color presents its own challenges—particularly in avoiding oversaturation and achieving the subtlety of metallic and iridescent effects.

Beyond color, dimensionality has also undergone a significant transformation in her work. Earlier compositions relied on opacity, transparency, and radiating lines to create depth. The discovery of blend modes revolutionized her ability to manipulate color shifts, transparency effects, and luminosity. Layer by layer, these digital tools allow her to expand the complexity of light interactions, creating immersive visual experiences that feel dynamic and alive.

Conclusion: A Visionary Illumination

Margaret Phanes’ work is an evolving dialogue between light, consciousness, and digital form. Her meditative approach to art transforms the digital medium into a conduit for inner vision, where transparency, radiance, and dimensionality become pathways to higher awareness. Whether through the unified cosmology of Musings on Light, the soul-bright presence in her visual meditations, or the meticulous evolution of color and shape in her compositions, Phanes invites viewers into an experience of light that transcends mere sight—it becomes an encounter with the luminous essence of being.

Interview

You began your digital visual meditations in 1989. What drew you to explore a light-based medium at that time?

In 1989, I transitioned from corporate marketing communications to desktop publishing. Earlier, I had practiced as a Marriage, Family Therapist with an emphasis in art therapy. Throughout that time, I continued as a painter and collage artist. As I saw more and more examples of digital media, I became aware of the potential of translating my work from traditional to digital media. My work contained symbolic shapes and color, which worked well as digital illustrations. My collage work consisted of images of mythic content. Photo editing software allows separate images to overlap seamlessly and merge revealing new meaning. When digital illustration and photo editing software became available, it was initially used by engineers and marketing departments in high-tech companies. Marketing communications were often staffed with graphic artists who were able to overcome the steep learning curve to use it for personal creative work. I already had an art and psychology background and understood art as a healing tool. At that point, I had also been meditating and wanted to express consciousness and transformation visually.

How did your background in Agni Yoga and Integral Yoga influence your creative and meditative practices?

By 1989, I had practiced Light-Fire Yoga for seventeen years. Agni Yoga or Light-Fire Yoga invokes Life-Force or Light-Fire spectrums of energy for healing and transformation. The themes of healing with Light and using inner laser Light-Fire for clearing and purification were constant in my life and creative work. By 1991, I began my studies with the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (aka Mirra Alfassa). These studies were an extension and amplification of Agni Yoga meditation. Integral Yoga encompassed Integral Consciousness, Integral Psychology, and Integral Philosophy. My creative process began to change from mythic content such as exploring the goddess traditions and the divine in nature to artwork that expressed energy states of consciousness. This was an area of ongoing contemplation and meditation resulting in the expression of visual forms of meditation.

The meditative practices of Agni Yoga and Integral Yoga are related. Agni Yoga is a Light-Fire Healing process. This consisted of opening and directing Light-Fire energy from above the head and centers that have similarities to Indian chakra systems. Because Integral Yoga consists of the Yoga of Knowledge, the Yoga of Devotion, the Yoga of Works, and the Yoga of Self-Perfection there are more expanded methods. In my creative work, I focus on the process of the Psychic Being or Soul Transformation. This focuses on the center behind the heart and the Psychic or Soul-Fire for purification and transformation. The Spiritual Transformation comes from above the head. Agni Yoga and Integral Yoga both invoke the descent of consciousness from above the head. In addition, Integral Yoga employs the transformation of the nature from the Soul-force behind the heart. Both processes are central to my meditation practice. Both traditions have many terms for Consciousness and Energy; Light-Force Energy, Light-Fire Energy, Agni Pavaka, Psychic Fire, and Shakti Force or Conscious-Force.

Can you describe how you use illustration and photo-editing software as tools for your meditative expressions?

The inspiration for my artwork comes from experiences in meditation. Often, with inner vision, I experience a perception of form, shape, movement or rhythm, and dimensionality. In many ways, it is going from a 3D inner world to expressing a 2D outer world. What is distinctive about using digital media is the fact that light is emitting from behind the pixels. I experience light emanating from above, from within, as well as radiating all around me. The connection of light in digital media is a representation of radiance and illumination. In my earlier work, from 1989 through 2011, I used both illustration and photo editing software. One of the strengths of photo editing software is image compositing. This feature allows separate layers of images to be blended seamlessly in the final composite. Depending on the subject, an element of realism or surrealism can be revealed. Images can express inner states through symbolic content, such as, mountains, sea, or sky. The juxtaposition of images, displaying a range of transparency, and light emanating from the images can reflect the peace and awakening in meditation. I began to use Illustration software more exclusively from 2012 to the present. I focused on abstract and symbolic shapes and patterns that resemble the manifestation and movement of energy.

What is the significance of transparency, overlays, and shape replication in your work?

There are many technical features that allow my work to explore inner perception. Transparency is the ability to have any part of an image display from 0% to 100%. Combining transparency with overlays or layers can extend the ability to show multi-layered images in different positions. Image composition is therefore movable and not static. It also increases the perception of dimensionality. There is another aspect that allows transparency and layers to be more luminous and distinct and that is the use of color modes or blend modes. These filters provide shifts in multiple qualities such as hue, saturation, color, and luminosity. Combining these color and transparency shifts with different levels of transparency can heighten radiance. iridescence, and subtlety.

The shapes I use are often circular which refers to the wholeness of consciousness. Shapes are drawn vector graphics, which means they are continually editable with no loss of quality or resolution. These qualities make creating a library of shapes and patterns which are a combination of colors and shapes very effective. Accessing a library of shapes and patterns facilitates repetition and evolution of forms. I can see the evolution of these forms when I look at my work from year to year.

You describe your work as “Light-Force Meditations.” How do these meditations concentrate awareness and connect to the “descent of conscious-force”?

I have used the title Light-Force Meditations to describe my visual meditations. I use this title because it is what I invoke during meditation and is the source of my inspiration when I create them. In many of my pieces there is a concentration or focus of form and energy. With this concentration, there is also radiance and luminosity. Sri Aurobindo, the founder of Integral Yoga, gives a description of Tratak, a form of concentration. “Tratak is a concentration of the vision on a single point or object, preferable a luminous object.” This helps to explain the power of concentration on a luminous object and how it expands consciousness. Visual meditation can focus concentration and expand consciousness. That expansion can take the form of perceiving a descent of conscious-force or an opening of the center and energy behind the heart. Many of the practices I follow have been known in many wisdom traditions for millennia. I created this work to express states of consciousness that help my growth and foster soul and spiritual connection. I share my work to stimulate an inner perception or memory of opening to light, soul, or spirit.

One of your works is titled “Dawn of Flame-Beings: Mythology of a Cosmology.” What inspired this evocative title, and how does it connect to the concepts of powers, forces, and entities in your work?

The title is the cover illustration from Pravir Malik’s book, Dawn of Flame-Beings: Mythology of a Cosmology. I was able to create complementary illustrations to the text because Pravir and I share a similar vision of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In this piece I invoked the evolution of beings of light. It could be one of humanity’s future forms of being or enlightened beings who work with humanity’s evolution. The background is a gradation of light to dark representing ascending planes of consciousness. Within the piece there are numerous sources of light. An iridescent eye is at the center of the creation. A blue transparent Sun symbolizes the divine overhead or overhead chakra. The flame beings have transparency with the impression of a warrior robe of their power and strength. Flames move up their central cores as a testament to their presence and tantric power. There is also a golden child with a flame heart which signifies the new creation at one with the soul or psychic being. There is also a unifying gradient glowing orb that surrounds all the three beings with an emanation of light.

Your piece “Musings on Light: Cosmology of Light” is described as a meditation on a unified field theory of light. Why did you choose this particular title, and what does it signify about your vision of light as immanent in all things?

The title “Musings on Light: Cosmology of Light” is the cover image for Pravir Malik’s book by the same name. The image is a composite of many radiant circular shapes, gradients, and transparencies. A circle is divided into four sections with distinct gaps in the divisions which express the four aspects of light that evolve through many levels and forms in the book. There is an underlying source of light radiating through all dimensions. The background gradient shows another layer of the four aspects of light that are always present. There are spheres and worlds that represent potentiality for manifesting light in forms that are ever new and evolving.

What role does the brightness of soul power play in influencing your visual meditations?

In Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s teachings, awakening to one’s soul is one of the essential elements in the evolution and transformation of the individual consciousness. They describe the soul or psychic being as an evolving spark of the divine that can develop into a soul personality. Its role is to guide and transform the mind, life, and body which constitutes the personality. There are many ways to discover the soul or begin to experience the soul’s influence or guidance. One of my central practices is to aspire and experience the soul-force or soul agni and be guided by its influence. Because it is essential to my consciousness growth, its essence figures prominently in much of my work. The brightness of an object can represent the soul’s power and presence. But, also, the shape of a mandala, the coming forward from behind a layer of partial obscurity, the many forms of light, and light-fire working on many levels. Even the connection to the center of our being and our connection to the One Being can be rendered through the play of visible light. The fact that we are One and the many of that One, all souls as part of the one source of all light and beyond influences my visual meditations.

How has your color and shape evolved over the years through your ongoing exploration of the light-based medium?

Looking back over the decades, I can clearly see distinctions in themes and emphasis. Before, 2012, I used real-world images to create digital collages. Their manipulation portrayed inner experiences and transcendent themes. Real-world images were not as conducive to depicting energy and states of consciousness. Illustration software creates work that renders inner perception more directly. Creating color swatches is one of the joys of working digitally. Color selections can be fine-tuned and saved in color swatch libraries. I have worked on color development with many similar shapes and layouts. It is always surprising to see how different colors change the perception of the same arrangement of shapes and layout. Sri Aurobindo’s writings on color in light has influenced me greatly. One of the limitations of digital color is that it can be too saturated or neon. Also, it is not easy to render metallics or iridescence. I also want to mention how dimensionality has evolved in my work. In my early work, I used image opacity and transparency to increase dimensionality. Also, radiating lines with different intensities and angles on multiple levels were effective. However, when I discovered color modes or blend modes my ability to shift colors, effect transparency, and display iridescence increased dramatically. These changes can be applied on every layer, so complexity of effect allows for even more depth.

What challenges or breakthroughs have you encountered in working with such a dynamic and radiant medium?

In 1989, digital media was relatively new. I faced some criticism from the San Francisco Bay Area art world. The biggest concern was that digital media prints could have unlimited multiples and would degrade the art market for originals. The high-tech world had created these tools for marketing products and not for individual fine art. Neither group was interested in themes of consciousness. Both groups were unfamiliar with consciousness themes. Eventually, I found groups that tolerated the cross-fertilization of high-tech tools and consciousness material. Even with strategic marketing, I had modest success with exhibitions or open studios. In 1990, I intensified my Integral Yoga study and practice. Working with a transformative consciousness I slowly took a step back from the ego-bruising world of art and high-tech. I also learned more about practicing the Yoga of Works, a surrender to the Divine and/or the Divine Mother. Surrendering lets you become an instrument of their works. This helped, tremendously with healing the bruises of being a pioneer in a new medium that was consciousness based. Moving forward, I offered my work to the Integral Yoga community. It was chosen for several covers for Collaboration: A Journal of the Integral Yoga. I began doing digital presentations and videos of my work at Integral Yoga conferences called AUMs, All Universal Meetings, the Cultural Integration Fellowship, and retreats at the Lodi ashram. As I deepened my practice and service in Integral Yoga, I found a place for my inspiration to be shared and appreciated. In the past few years, sharing my work has accelerated to include illustrating books, covers for three books, and music albums. The healing within has been essential to the increased inspiration and dissemination of my work.

How do you approach translating abstract concepts like cosmology, powers, and forces into visual forms?

I may translate abstract concepts into visual forms, but not just as abstract concepts. Perception can be multi-faceted. Concepts can be perceived beyond the senses and mental processes. I might want to remember what I know or what I might want to learn about a specific concept. However, that is just one level of knowing. There is also a subjective inner perception that is not limited by mental knowing. Concepts can be perceived abstractly, but also symbolically, energetically, or even as manifestations of the Divine. Meditation or contemplation brings a more discerning inner knowing to external perceptions or beliefs. Meditating with Light-Force can bring awareness and knowledge beyond external facts to an experience of intuitive knowing. Also, inspiration comes in many forms. It expands the knowledge of a part to the whole, or larger connection. Intuition and inspiration can be seen through mental processes, or through aesthetics, or as a felt sense of qualities. I may be aware of many of these streams, but the visual channel is usually the strongest. Often, it comes through an inner vision of radiance or luminance radiating from a center sun. After this initial visual experience, I concentrate on the vision or memory, so that when I am at the computer, I can continue to access the inspiration. I also feel guided in my drawings and color shadings. There can be the feeling of guidance, or of being in alignment with the vision, or a harmony that continues to support the next steps in the project.

What role does mythology play in shaping the themes of your digital visual meditations?

My earlier collage work had a direct connection to mythology. My background in psychology and art was an advantage in collecting images from many of the goddess traditions. I also used symbolic images from the natural world. I took photographs of the divine feminine, as well as nature scenes and objects. As I began my studies and practice in Integral Yoga, I focused on states of consciousness in my artwork. In digital illustrations, shapes and colors can be symbolic or reflect mythic ideas, a quality, or state of consciousness. For example, a mandala is a symbol for wholeness and a centering practice. A geographic symbol can work on different levels, as a myth, as a symbol, as consciousness, or energy. My meditations include surrendering to the Divine Mother. Surrender may take an archetypal form or quality of the Divine Mother, such as Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati, or her qualities of wisdom, strength, harmony, and perfection. I also surrender to the Mother (aka Mirra Alfassa,) Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator. Depending on the consciousness, archetype, myth, symbol, and quality can be expressed in myriad creative ways.

You mention that meditation and consciousness studies are central to your portfolio. How do these practices inspire the imagery you create?

Beginning in 1973, I received ongoing training in Agni Yoga. The daily practice of Light illumination and Light-Fire purification for transformation influenced every aspect of my life. As a Marriage and Family therapist and art therapist, I experienced the relationship between art, healing, and wholeness. In 1990, my Integral Yoga studies and digital learning tools overlapped. I joined an Integral Yoga study and meditation group in the Santa Cruz mountains. The mantric power of Sri Aurobindo and Mother’s teaching was unmistakable. Ongoing group meditations supported daily practice. I continued to practice the descent of consciousness from an overhead center, which I had done in Agni Yoga. I added the aspiration of the soul fires or Agni pavaka radiating from behind the heart. I now perceived, more clearly, how conscious-force worked to free all levels of consciousness and heal all parts of the nature that have been separated from wholeness. With intensified practice deeper obstructions or limitations due to past trauma were lifted. These energy shifts are a freeing of energy, a flow of healing, connection, and well-being. Inspiration, intuition, and vision followed. There is a well-spring within all of us for clarity, healing and peace. I was very lucky to be given two wisdom traditions that help connect the spirit and the soul as centers of life. It is a gift to be able to create from a space of expanded consciousness or inspiration. I work to clear obstructions, receive inspiration, and be a clear channel for an enlightened consciousness and the Divine Mother.

Can you share a specific meditation or moment of inspiration that profoundly influenced a piece of your work?

Many years ago, I attended a Savitri reading in the Santa Cruz mountains. For those who are not familiar with Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, it is founded on an earlier Indian story. It is a symbol of “the human soul’s spiritual destiny.” The Mother said of Savitri, “To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find here all that is needed to realize the Divine.” At the reading, I heard someone repeat a line from Savitri in which I heard the words, Deathless Sun. At the time, I answered that I had waited all my life to hear about a Deathless Sun. Years later, I remembered this experience, and I realized that I heard the call of Light and the Divine Consciousness. The Deathless Sun symbolized an inner connection to the eternal Light and the Light within. In 2022, I created an article and an illustration for Sri Aurobindo’s 150th Birth Anniversary edition of Collaboration. It was titled “Imprint of a Deathless Sun, The Effect of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga.” The illustration was in square format. Splitting the square, it was divided into a dark golden-brown sky and a gradation of golden light to dark rectangles encompassing the ground. The sun is a large radiant circle where some of the shadings of the sky and ground can be seen through the sun. This gives the piece an integration of opposites because the top part of the circle is slightly darker than the bottom half of the circle. The sun is divided into segments of light and dark radiating lines. The circles transparency reveals the gradation of light and dark and the underlying dimensionality of all layers. There is a spiral of glowing spheres and smaller spirals that overlay this radiance with a movement of time and evolution. There are contrasting smaller spirals in the corners of the background square that continue the central larger spiral’s movement. The combination of radiance, layers, and transparency expresses the manifestation of the eternal in time. The eternity of Light, and the manifesting of Light are symbolized in a radiant sun that is divided and yet one.

How do you hope viewers experience your visual meditations?

I hope viewers give themselves the time to experience all kinds of visual meditations. Whatever allows them to be present and spend time with creative work. To breathe and take in a creative work. To feel the aspiration and intention of the artist or to receive its meaning can facilitate an opening to an inner experience of their own. I hope that viewers can resonate with a vibration in my work or at least are open to exploration. It could be a memory, a dream, or an intuition. There could be an opening to something inside them. Many things in our lives connect us to our soul and spirit and to our own inner light. I hope my work provides a connection to a deeper truth, to an authentic truth. Something that could support turning within to nourish thoughts and perceptions. It might also help someone to see that rationality is not the only function of the mind. We have other parts of knowing and vision that can be experienced and expressed. My work comes from a realm of inner consciousness, from an inner cosmology of planes of consciousness and parts of being. My work can focus on what is beyond the surface of things. It focuses attention on inner sources of light and force for inner clarity, peace, and wholeness. Any or all these possibilities are available through intuition and inner vision. My work represents many kinds of perception. May everyone be able to more deeply align with their own inner perception and receive from it what it has to offer.

How do Agni Yoga and Integral Yoga complement your artistic practice?

There is a continuity between working with Light-Force energy and directing light that is coming through the computer. The similarity is being an instrument of Conscious-Force. The process of surrender also helps you become a more conscious instrument. In Integral Yoga this is known as the Yoga of Works, or Karma Yoga. The Yoga of Works teaches a surrender to the Divine or the Divine Mother and a letting go of desire and the fruit all works. Aspiration and surrender help the instrument evolve and sustain a deepening connection to a flow from the divine. This connection and divine flow changes consciousness and it can take many forms of support, guidance, intuition, and vision. It fosters the descent of a higher consciousness from above the head and the connection to the soul and a process of purification and centeredness. All these practices and contemplations free creative forces. I can’t separate working with conscious-force within my own nature and the manifestation of the inspiration I channel.

In what ways do these yoga traditions inform the deeper meanings or intentions behind your pieces?

The California Institute of Integral Studies offers a program in Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies. The program is offered in the field of scholar-practitioner. This includes courses in Contemplative Arts. I would identify as an artist-practitioner who creates from inspiration and intuition, but the making of the art is also a contemplation that helps its evolution.

Integral Yoga encompasses a vast territory. Although Sri Aurobindo translated many ancient texts including the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, his Yoga is unique. It is a departure from many Indian traditions because of its evolutionary approach of involution of Spirit and the evolution of Matter. I have mentioned a few essentials of Integral Yoga that can be known and experienced. That is different from just a mental understanding and why experienced truths or ideas can be explored and practiced in visual medium. My meditation practice focuses on the psychic being or soul transformation, and the spiritual transformation. These experiences also have a vibratory quality, and I feel them when I create a piece that expresses states of consciousness. In my work, Integral Psychology, the understanding of inner planes and transformation of parts of the being, is also included. Along with explaining the paths of transformation, there is also the surrender to the Divine Mother. This is expressed clearly by Sri Aurobindo as “Aspiration, Rejection, and Surrender.” Aspiration plays an important role in the intention of my artwork. Aspiration may start as inspiration from an inner experience, but it becomes more focused as an Aspiration. It is an intention that can manifest that inspiration. Rejection is everything that stands in the way of our truth or wholeness and must be removed. As Divine Light or Soul-Fire works through us, we can let go of what is not aligned or useful. Letting go is a surrender into the consuming fires of light and to the Divine Mother. Receptivity to the Divine Mother can provide a stream of love and compassion that brings deep peace, harmony, and oneness.

Do you see digital art as a bridge between individual spirituality and collective consciousness?

All art can be a bridge between an individual consciousness and the collective consciousness. It depends on the consciousness of the individual artist, the intention and effectiveness of the art, and the receptivity of the collective. Using those criteria, digital art can be a bridge between individual spirituality and the collective. Because of its light-emanating qualities, digital art may have some advantages in expressing spiritual themes. Then, there is the state of receptivity of the collective. The state of the collective is hard to quantify. There is data suggesting that people are more interested in spirituality, but that traditional church attendance has dropped. At the present time, the collective has issues of stability, sustainability, and security. However, during times of uncertainty, people search for ideas or processes that represent new or ancient ways of coping. It is deeply gratifying when all those elements come together. An artist’s work that comes from intention and inspiration and where there is guidance or a flow through its creation may be helpful. When an audience is receptive to an idea or form, it could give meaning to the collective and help its growth.

What does the future hold for the evolution of Light-Force Meditations?

How will Light-Force Meditations evolve? I am sure I will continue my meditation practice with Light-Force, Conscious-Force and surrendering to the Divine Mother. I will focus on the inspiration that comes from the psychic and spiritual transformation. Visual meditations are an extension of inner experiences, so they will continue to express those inner realizations. One of the aspirations that the Mother (aka Mirra Alfassa) suggests is the aspiration for progress. She uses it not in the modern sense of external progress, but the progress of individual growth. I can’t predict in what form the insights may come because there are times when growth takes an unexpected turn, and you realize an expanded part of yourself you didn’t know was there. The same thing is true for visual meditations. I may use the same tools, but with a new insight and outcome that explores new heights, energies, dimensions, or states of being. It is useful to remember that consciousness and evolution is not predictable, nor is human growth. That is even more true when a form of Yoga accelerates the pace of human evolution and growth.

What advice would you give to someone interested in merging digital art with meditation and consciousness studies?

In 1989, when I started my digital journey, I couldn’t ask this question to anyone I knew. Because I had been training in Light-Fire meditation for over ten years, I had some understanding of consciousness and transformation. If an artist wants to combine digital media with meditation and consciousness studies, I would direct them to pursue an essential knowledge and experience of the subject. There are many pathways to becoming a scholar-practitioner. Consciousness studies are a vast subject. I would recommend starting with personal referrals. Is there someone you know or a learning center that you trust that offers a course in consciousness and or meditation? Check out the website or educational materials in depth and talk to a facilitator and or participant for the validity and usefulness of the material. Working with awareness and meditation can open your intuition and inspiration. It can also help with healing on many levels. This can expand into new directions in creative work and move past old biases and reactions. Coming from a center and being a channel of awareness can produce work of truer meaning and reflect deeper experiences of surrender, peace, and oneness.

Where can people engage with your work?

My work can be viewed on my website at www.margaretphanes.com. The covers for Dawn of Flame Beings and Musings on Light: Cosmology of Light are listed on my website. The two books with my illustrations are available under the author, Pravir Malik, on Amazon. The cover of the Time-Steps of The Cosmic Horse can be viewed on my website. The book by Debashish Banerji can be purchased from D.K. Printworld. It soon will be available on Amazon. My visual meditation videos can be viewed on the Sri Aurobindo Association YouTube channel under the Meditation Category. Further material can be found on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Can you describe in a few words your work?

My work reflects Light and Conscious-Force. My visual meditations channel intuition and inspiration into forms to reflect soul and spirit. As I continue my soul journey through conscious evolution, I surrender to the Divine Mother for guidance in my work and in my life. Union with the Divine and conscious growth are the center of my work.

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