Faces in the Mirror
Reflections on the Aquarius Full Moon
While out for a walk the other day, I passed a newsstand and met a pair of pale blue eyes that stopped me in my tracks.
On the cover of a magazine was this photograph by the artist Raphaël Neal. I’d never seen his work before, and immediately took a photo and looked the artist up. Neal paints directly onto a fogged glass window, using his own reflection as a guide. The window is both mirror and drawing surface. The portrait itself seems to hover between the surface and the body behind it, ghostly and uncanny. It is brilliant work.
I’ve been thinking a great deal about self-portraiture these past few weeks while preparing to teach my new leo season course Studio Solar: Inventing the Self. It’s fitting that this reflective surface practice would find me at this particular time, especially now, as I am thinking about the light of the Aquarius Full Moon reflecting the light of the Leo Sun. The Moon gives us reflected light, a mirror does the same. Both depend on reflection to reveal what is already there, ghostly and uncanny. A pair of familiar eyes staring at us. The Sun and the Moon. The individual self and the collective self.
The Full Moon in Aquarius lights up the Leo-Aquarius axis, inviting in personal and collective reflection: what is the face in the mirror, and what is the face that meets the collective? Where do they recognize each other? Where do they remain strangers? How can they work together?
Below I offer you a simple exercise you can do under the light of the Full Moon, inspired by Studio Solar practices.
Happy Full Moon.
Practice:
Find a reflective surface. A mirror, a bowl of still water, or even a window and spend a few minutes looking back.
You can simply observe. You can also speak a few words to your reflection. Or notice a feature that keeps asking for your attention: an eye, the curve of a nose, a wrinkle, a scar, the way the light catches your face, a mysterious twinkle.
Something I personally love to do in my own practice is use this old mirror that I don’t mind drawing on. I’ll take a Posca marker or an erasable pen and trace whatever keeps calling my attention directly onto the glass. You can then transfer it to paper or another surface afterwards or leave it there for as long as you need it.
P.S. We’ve been exploring practices like this inside Studio Solar, alongside the work of Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington, weaving together self-portraiture, art history, mythology, symbolism, and astrology. If you’ve been thinking about joining us, it’s not too late. You’ll receive the recording of our first gathering and can join us live for the remaining sessions. I’d love to have you with us. ☀️We have a great group.
