"Vajrapani" Wielder of the Thunderbolt Linocut

WIELDER of the THUNDERBOLT

Louder and louder the deep thunder rolled, 

as through the myriad halls of some vast temple in the sky;

fiercer and brighter came the lightning;

more and more heavily the rain poured down...
The eye, partaking of the quickness of the flashing light,
saw in its every gleam a multitude of objects
which it could not see at steady noon in fifty times that period...
in a trembling, vivid, flickering instant, everything was clear and plain:
then came a flush of red into the yellow light;
a change to blue;
a brightness so intense that there was nothing else but light;
and then the deepest and profoundest darkness.
— Charles Dickens

Vajrapani is one of the oldest and most revered bodhisattvas in Buddhism (Source).  He represents the personification of awakened power and fearless energy in service of liberation.  He is not power as domination, but power as clarity, protection, and decisive compassion. 

Historically Vajrapani often appears on painted thangkas for meditation, teaching, and altars.  His image serves as a profound spiritual tool, embodying the energy to dispel ignorance, overcome obstacles, and protect practitioners from negative forces (Source).

Vajrapani's Role

"Holder of the Vajra": His name means "wielder of the thunderbolt," embodying the active, powerful aspect of Buddhahood.

Protector: He guards the Buddha and the Dharma (teachings).

Trinity of Bodhisattvas: He represents power, alongside Avalokiteśvara (compassion) and Mañjuśrī (wisdom). 

Meaning of the Vajra in Vajrapani's Hand

Power & Strength: A thunderbolt scepter (vajra) representing the irresistible force of enlightenment and the Buddha's power.

Dispelling Darkness: Its brilliance cuts through the darkness of delusion, ignorance, and negative emotions.

Indestructibility: It symbolizes the unchanging, diamond-hard nature of ultimate reality and the enlightened path.

Skillful Means: The power to subdue obstacles and forcefully guide beings towards awakening, often shown in his wrathful form.

Protection: It's a weapon against spiritual dangers, making practitioners invincible to attacks from negativity. 


Descriptions of Vajrapani

Wielder of the Vajra (Thunderbolt)

He embodies decisive action.  Where hesitation falters, Vajrapani moves, striking ignorance at its root.

Lord of Secrets

Vajrapani is keeper of esoteric knowledge, not hidden to exclude, but protected until the practitioner is ready to receive it.

Wrathful One

His fierce expression is not anger, but compassion moving at full speed.  Wrath here is urgency, not hatred.

Master of Unfathomable Mysteries

He upholds truth even in the densest darkness, remaining unshaken by fear, confusion, or resistance.

"...even those powers which appear to us terrifying and destructive, or hidden in the darkness of the depth, are as divine as those which we worship as embodiments of light and goodness."

— Lama Anagarika Govinda

SKETCH

When sketching Vajrapani I had to decide which form to draw...peaceful or wrathful.  I chose wrathful.  He is always shown holding a vajra in his right hand, but there were several options for the left hand.  I chose a bell, or ghanta.

While the vajra represents decisive, penetrating force, the bell introduces its counterweight.  In Vajrayana Buddhism, the vajra is often associated with the masculine principle: form, method, action, and skillful means.  The bell, or ghanta, embodies the feminine principle: wisdom, emptiness, and spacious awareness.  One does not dominate the other.  Together, they express wholeness.

Below are the important elements in my drawing with their accompanying meanings:

Vajra

Symbol of indestructible truth and decisive action (masculine).  It cuts through illusion without hesitation.

Bell (Ghanta)

Represents wisdom and emptiness (feminine).  Its sound reminds us that all phenomena arise and dissolve.  In ritual, the bell tempers power with awareness.

Lotus

Purity and awakening arising from the mud of samsara.  Enlightenment without denial of the world.

Flames

Transformative energy.  Fire burns away ignorance, delusion, and obstacles on the path to enlightenment (Source).

Crown of Skulls

Impermanence and the transcendence of ego.  The skulls represent conquered poisons of the mind.

Serpent Around the Shoulders

Awakened primal energy, often associated with wisdom transformed from instinct.

Tiger Skin Around the Waist

Mastery over raw emotion and fear.  The tiger’s ferocity is worn, not fought.

Dynamic Posture

His dynamic stance, often depicted in a semi-lunge or warrior-like pose, embodies energy, readiness, and the unwavering resolve to protect the Dharma and practitioners (Source).

Wrathful Expression

The fierce expression of Vajrapani symbolizes his role as a protector of the Dharma, warding off ignorance and negativity.  The wrath is not malevolent but compassionate, aimed at liberating beings from suffering (Source).

Scarf

Movement and wind energy.  It suggests the unseen forces that carry action into the world.

Complexion

Vajrapani is often depicted with a dark blue or deep azure complexion, symbolizing his vast, boundless nature and connection to the sky and primordial wisdom (Source).

Ceraunoscopy, n.  Divination by thunder and lightning. — The Century Dictionary, 1909

CARVING

This sketch sat around for a couple months as I got distracted by other projects.  The good part about that was every so often I would see it and make a minor improvement.  My schedule finally cleared, and in mid-November I was ready to carve.  I transferred the image to my plate by flipping it over and rubbing the back with a credit card.  Then the carving fun began! 

One of my favorite parts of the process is making these short videos.  This one shows days of carving in a little over a minute.  Turn your volume on! (Music by Vishal Sehgal from Pixabay)

“Girls like her were born in a storm. They have lightning in their souls. Thunder in their hearts. And chaos in their bones.”

― Nikita Gill

Below are a couple images of the plate after I removed the pencil marks.

TEST PRINT

Once the carving is finished it is wise to make a test print before officially printing.  Below you can see my original sketch, the plate, and the test print. 

I almost always make corrections to the plate at this point.  

I spent a day making fidgety corrections and then George helped me print.  Below I am looking very happy because all went well and printing was finished!

I realized Ma's extreme gentleness

and her extreme power

were the same force. 

— Andrew Harvey

BLACK AND WHITE PRINT

I knew this print would need some color to delineate the important elements, but it is always a good sign when I like it even in black and white.  And I felt happy when I saw the first print of Vajrapani staring up at me. 

If we didn't have cats I would dry all my prints on our radiators.  But we do have cats, and I had to use radiators that the cats can't reach.

For these two photos I shooed the cats out of the computer room for a bit because its the only place where the light is good in these darker winter days.

COLOR TEST

I rarely do this step, but I used colored pencil to make a guide before I painted.  This print had a lot going on and I didn't want to mistake a body part for a flame.  I found it very helpful to have this while painting.

Below is a video showing both the printing and coloring process.  (Music by Graham Capstick from Pixabay)

WATERCOLOR

For this print I started with watercolor and then used a few watercolor pencils to darken the color.  My desk is always a mess at this stage.

Below you can see the finished print.

I used metallic watercolor for the vajra, the bell, his jewelry, the lotus, and the tips of his fiery eyebrows.  It was hard to see in the photos, but is a fun touch to see in real life.

FRAME

I had to include a photo of him framed because this frame was weirdly part of my reason for making this piece.  When JoAnn fabrics was having their going-out-of-business sale I came across a three-pack of frames I liked.  I knew it was the perfect size to do a small icon painting and bought them with that intent.  One thing leads to another!

GOLD PRINT

While printing the black and white version I noticed I had quite a bit of gold ink in my supply.  I thought it might be fun to print this on blue paper.

I was happy to find this blue banana paper at Plaza Art and was pleased with how it turned out.

George says they look like prayer flags.

Here is a short video of printing gold Vajrapani. (Music by Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay)

I had a very specific idea in my head how I would frame this one...with dark wood and a gold fillet.  I mocked it up below.

CONCLUSION

She,

In the dark,

Found light

Brighter than many ever see.

She, 

Within herself,

Found loveliness,

Through the soul's own master.

And now the world receives

From her dower:

The message of the strength

Of inner power.

—Langston Hughes

I know some of you might be wondering why I chose Vajrapani as my subject.  After purchasing the frames, I knew I wanted to do a small icon print.  Around this time I was also reading the book, "The Way of the White Clouds" by Lama Govinda.  His book is a spiritual autobiography and travelogue chronicling his travels through Tibet in the late 1940s, capturing the landscapes, monasteries, people, and spiritual atmosphere before the Chinese invasion.

One of my favorite scenes of the book is toward the beginning where he was seeking shelter for the night.  He came across the crumbling ruins of an ancient monastery built into the rocks of a high-walled gorge.  There, he met a small group of lamas who directed him to sleep in a room with a rock wall.  During the night he woke to a powerful and terrifying vision of Vajrapani.  "His body was thick-set and bulky, his feet wide apart, as if ready to jump: his raised, flame-like hair was adorned with human skulls, his right arm stretched out in a threatening gesture, wielding a diamond sceptre (vajra) in his hand, while the other hand held a ritual bell before his chest."  The vision morphs several times from the Buddha, to Vajrapani, to Manjushri, to Tara, to Avalokiteshvara (all great Bodhisattvas).  He is left with a feeling of great awe and joy and wrote, "'Who art Thou, Mighty One, Thou, who art knocking at the portals of my heart?" 

Prayers in the Buddhist sense are not requests to a power outside ourselves and for personal advantages but the calling up of the forces that dwell within ourselves and that can only be effective if we are free from selfish desires.
— Lama Anagarika Govinda

So when I began looking for an image for my print, Vajrapani came to mind.  As soon as I saw his stocky blue body and hair of flames I knew he was a strong contender.  I researched the other boddhisattvas in the trinity of Tibetan Buddhism, Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara, and again felt most drawn to Vajrapani's wrathful image.  In addition, out of the three essential qualities for enlightenment that they represent...power, wisdom, and compassion...I felt I needed some help with the first.  "Powerful" is not a word I think of when describing myself.  So I embarked on a journey to make an image of Vajrapani with the hope that I might learn something about power and myself along the way.  

As you know if you have been following this blog, I do not undertake projects lightly or willy nilly.  And I believe that life has a way of teaching me with each and every project I take on.  I am dead serious when I talk about finding my power.  I believe that we should be careful with our words, our intentions, and our time.  Because where we put our attention is where our life flows.  I don't know where this endeavor will take me, but I am both nervous and excited to see what the Wielder of the Thunderbolt has to teach me about power.  I bow deeply to the Wrathful One and his Unfathomable Mysteries.

"You will have to be very brave, my dear.  The process is no joke."
—Astrid Delleuze       

"Perhaps more than anything, to become Elder is to be comfortable with your place in the world, finally to have understood where all of your various journeys have been leading you, to understand your gifts as well as your limitations, and to tightly focus those gifts on service to the Earth and community.  To become the Elder who can express her wrath rather than her rage, and warn of the dire consequences of ignoring it, is to have stepped fully into your own power as a woman.  To become Elder is to have found the courage to reclaim the moral authority which we once lost.  That reclaiming takes courage, because women have been so very well trained to be afraid -- and it isn't always our impotence which makes us most afraid: it's our power.  We are not accustomed to it, and so we fear its consequences.  To step into your power means to trust yourself, your instincts and your intuition.  To let the fear go, and the shame, and tell the stories which need to be told."
—Sharon Blackie

This print is now available at NessyPress.com.

Folk Stencil Doorstep

"There are doors that feel as though they're leading you,
pulling you, to somewhere enchanting". ―HeartFireAtHome

There are three reasons I began this project.  First, I wanted to get rid of the old, cracked concrete paint that has greeted us for twenty years on our front doorstep.  Second, I wanted the step to match not only the painted lintels of the windows on either side of the door... but also the recently added folk-painted shutters on the second floor dormer windows (click here to see them.) And the final reason is that I have been attempting to make my inner appearance match my outer appearance on all levels of being...I know...a lofty goal.

I have always wanted my house to be a reflection of myself.  When I thought about adding a painted stencil to the entryway, it made me think about doorways and what they mean.  I asked myself the question, "What would a folk-painted doorstep imply to someone entering or exiting my house?"  What came to me was "When you enter this house, you are entering a magical space."  I wanted the step to welcome people into our home and to communicate that you are entering a sacred, enchanting, and delightful abode.

And it occurred to me the same was true in reverse,..."When you are leaving the house and stepping out into the world, you are entering a magical space."  Every time a person leaves the house, the step is a reminder that the world is full of splendor, if one has eyes to see it.  In a sense, the step would be a visual mantra to look for beauty on one's path. You are entering a magical space whether you are coming or going!  

"The door is always a threshold for wonder". ― Unknown

PROCESS

Old Paint Removal

When we bought our house twenty years ago the front porch was covered in old, chipping concrete paint.  Just last year we paid a contractor to remove the paint.  They were not overly successful and did not scrape the entryway step at all.

So, for my birthday this year, George borrowed my neighbor's heated paint remover (thank you Mark) and spent many hot days trying to remove the paint.  It was not easy, but it is one of the best birthday gifts a girl could get IMHO!

PAINTING THE STEP

 I spent A LONG time chatting with the man at Sherwin Williams about the best paint to use.  He told me not to use a primer if people would be stepping on the paint, and to simply use their floor paint straight onto the stone.  One problem we encountered was the floor paint color match was not the greatest.  I took the paint that we used on the lintels and they tried to color match it, but the base used for floor paint was a little different.  You can sort of see in the photo below, the step paint was more "purplely."  I ended up buying two different colors and mixing them to try to remedy the situation.  In the end it worked OK, but I wish I had made more to use to seal the stencils.  I just barely had enough. 

STENCILING

Determine location

The first step was determining the location of the stencil.  I measured the entire step and put the middle flower exactly in the center.  If I had it to do over again, I might have centered the whole thing where the two doors meet, which was slightly different.  In the end no one will notice but me.  But it's something to think about if you are reading this and considering your own project.  Please note my adorable supervisor inside...also, yes, I am wearing my ridiculous mosquito net getup because they were eating me alive!

Base coat

The next step, which is super important, was to paint a layer of the base paint color.  This helps to seal the stencil and prevent leakage of the colors beneath the stencil.  (I have also read you can use Mod Podge for this.)

Thin layers

It is also best to do thin layers of paint.  I did three layers and later learned it is best not to let things sit too long.  Do each layer as soon as the paint dries and then take it off ASAP!

Remove stencil

  Below you can see the first stencil worked fairly well, with only a few spots needing touch-up.

“You who long to step over this threshold, do you know what awaits you?”

― Ivan Turgenev

Clean stencil

I planned the design so that I could flip the stencil around to the left side and line up the flower.  I spent a LONG time scraping the paint off the stencil using an old credit card.  When George got home he said, "You could have just rotated the stencil instead of flipping it over."  I don't know why that hadn't occurred to me.  But as I found out later, it is always a good idea to clean the stencil even if you simply rotate it (or make multiple stencils!).

Rotate stencil

 Here you can see the stencil rotated and ready for the next round of paint layers.

Front stencil done!

I was pretty happy with the way everything went on the front stencil.  There were touch-ups to be done, but overall things went pretty smoothly.

Top Stencil

 After completing the top stencil on the right-hand side I decided to chance it and not clean the stencil before using it on the left-hand side.  

Stencil disaster!

 As you can see below, I had what I would call a stencil disaster.  When I went to remove the stencil it was seriously stuck.  When I tried pulling on it, I could see the paint was stretching the design and even pulling up the base paint!  I was a bit distracted because George was making a video of me pulling it off.  I probably should have stopped sooner and gotten an exacto blade...which I eventually did...but not before causing some damage.  It did help tracing around the edge of the stencil with the exacto knife, but I didn't like cutting through all the layers for longevity reasons.  Any time you create an opening you are creating a space for water or dirt to get under your paint.  I wasn't sure if the cause was not cleaning the stencil or leaving it on too long or a combination of the two.  You really can't see how bad it was from the photo below.  

I was also worried the whole darn thing was going to peel off.  When we lived in Houston we painted our kitchen cabinets with acrylic paint.  It turned out the cabinets were originally painted with oil paint, and it all just peeled off the next day.  That memory kept terrorizing me.  To keep it at bay I decided to forge ahead with my touch-ups, shown below.

VIDEO

Below is a short video of the entire project from start to finish.  It is quite satisfying to watch the stencil being removed.  Turn your volume on! (Music by Hung Tran from Pixabay)

Polyurethane

Because of the stencil disaster, I made sure to seal the whole thing with polycrylic.  Hopefully this will keep any water or dirt from getting under the stencil where I might have cut it with the exacto knife.

FINISHED

It is super satisfying to compare the before and after photos below.  As you can see by my decorations, summer turned into fall during this project.  

“Once you cross the threshold,
you will never be the same.
That is a fact.”
― Kamal Ravikant

I'm not sure how well you can see below, but the front step now matches the shutters!

“You come to these thresholds in your life where you need to remember
why you do what you do, to reconnect with yourself.”
— Neneh Cherry 

There always comes a point in every project where things get "a little rough"...in this case "a little sticky."  I have to admit I had a meltdown when I thought the whole thing might peel off.  I was frustrated and I remember saying to myself, "I am tired.  I am tired of doing hard things.  Why do I always choose difficult things?"  I think it is an important point to ponder.

My sister reminded me that I love to create beauty.  And its true, I am always on the lookout for beauty and joy in this world...and it feels like a deep calling to create both in whatever project I am working on.  Why?  I think it's a way of reconnecting with who we really are at the core of our being.  These projects are a way of bridging the inner and the outer.  The process might not always be easy...but through the overcoming of obstacles and the very act of creation we come to know ourselves one small step at a time.  We come to realize we are joy...we are beauty itself.  

"The purpose of craft is not so much to make beautiful things,
 as it is to become beautiful inside while you are making those things."

―Susan Gordon Lydon

A big thank you to my husband George who always encourages and supports my crazy projects.  Also, thank you to Mark for loaning us your heated paint-removing tool.  And thank you to Tiffany and Brian for cutting the stencils!