77

Remedios Varo, The Artist of a Thousand Faces*

Dina Comisarenco Mirkin

"... she is the only real painter of mountain peaks that I know. She has
truly understood that the view from a high peak does not fit into the same
perceptual framework as a still life or an ordinary landscape. Her canvases
admirably express the circular structure of space in the higher altitudes. She
does not consider herself an 'artist ' She paints simply to 'have souvenirs' of
her climbs. But she does it in such a workmanlike way that her pictures, with
their curved perspectives, are strikingly reminiscent of those frescoes in
which the old religious painters tried to represent the concentric circles of
the celestial worids. "
René Daumal, Mount Analogue^

Despite the wide acclaim that Remedios Varo (1908-1963) received

from the general public, even in her own lifetime,^ her recognition by critlcts
came rather late. Her artistic style, decidedly independent in terms of her
themes and small scale of the dominant muralist style of her times,^ the

*l wish dedicate this article to my beloved daughter Raquel who admires the work of Remedios
Varo. She, in fact, is the one who requested that I write this study on the artist. I am grateful to
Anna Alexandra Varosviano de Gruen for her generous reading of the present paper, her
support, and permission to reproduce photographs of Varo's works, which were originally
owned by her late husband, V\/alter Gruen.

' René Daumal, Mount Analogue, Woodstock and New York, 2004, 47, In the text, the French
poet refers from the outset to one of the characters in his novel whom he calls Judith Pancake.
The work, whose complete title is Mount Analogue. A Novel of Symtmtically Authentic Non-
Euclidian Adventures in Mountain Climbing, was originally published in Paris by Gallimanj, If
influence of this text upon Remedios Varo can be recognized, in particular in what refei^ to the
painting by the same name, Ascensión al monte Análogo (1960), the paragraph cited here
seems to correspond to the author's vision of the cosmos and characteristic style,

^ Paradoxically, her success resulted in individuals purchasing her work immediately upon
production. For this reason, very few of her paintings are housed in public museums, limiting
the study of her overall artistic output. This is also why the current lawsuit between the artist's
niece, the Spanish born Beatriz Varo Jiménez, and the INBA (National institute of Fine Arts) in
Mexico, which in 2000 received a donation of 40 of Varo's paintings, the Isabel Gruen
Varsoviano Collection from Walter Gruen (the artist's last husband), takes on a crucial
importance.

^ Despite having had contacts with the Surrealists in France, it cannot be afñmned that Varo had
been an important part of such an historic group, even though they were her main source of
78 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

complexity of her original iconographie repertoire, and the extraordinary

freedom with which she lived her life, are some of the factors that
determined this undeserved earlier lack of academic attention to her work.
Only as of late, numerous studies have been published about her life
and some of the aspects of her rich and complex oeuvre.* However, the
deeper message of her artistic production as a whole continues to elude us.
Her personal image remains as one of the most aloof, mysterious, and
enigmatic among all of the well known women artists of her era, and her
paintings await a clear and detailed interpretation, not merely as
autobiographical testimonies, as is often done with women artists, but for
their internal coherence. Also, her artistic production must be understood as
a complete, integrated system.
The main premise of this study is that Varo's body of works expresses
the different stages of the process of psychological maturation, of human
individualization and spiritual evolution, achieved through the constant
search of self-knowledge and knowledge of the world, and the profound
unity between both or, in the words of the artist herself, of finding "the
invisible thread that unites all things".^ In The Hero of a Thousand Faces,
originally published in 1949, the American mythologist Joseph Campbell^

inspiration and she had so personally identified with them, developing her own style once she
moved to Mexico. See "Una entrevista inédita a la artista" in Remedios Varo, Cartas, sueños y
otros textos, Isabel Castells, ed., Mexico City, 2006, 67-68.

* From the earliest posthumous expositions, the first in 1964, just one year after her death, the
second in 1971, and the third in 1983, public interest grew exponentially within Mexico and also
abroad. The monograph illustrated by the artist and edited by the famous Mexican essayist and
poet Octavio Paz {Remedios Varo, Mexico, 1966) was followed by Janet Kaplan's text on the
subject {Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo. New York, 1988), without
doubt a landmark study of Varo's life and work. In the past few decades, there have been a
number of important international exhibitions of Varo's paintings, as well as critical texts that
have widened our understanding of some of the most idiosyncratic aspects of this exceptional
artist. Then, in 1994, the much anticipated catalogue raisonné of Varo s work (Ricardo Ovalle,
et.al., Remedios Varo: catálogo razonado, Mexico, 1994) was published, providing a solid base
for further hemieneutic studies on aspects of particular pieces as well as general views of her
entire production that her deep symbolism and polished style deserve. Recent books on Varo
include Lourdes Andrade, Remedios Varo: las metamorfosis, Mexico City, 1996; Cartas,
sueños y otros textos, Isabel Castells, ed., Mexico City, 1997, which confinns the high quality
of Varo's literary output and provides primary materials to interpret her paintings; Beatriz Varo,
Remedios Van^: en el centro del microcosmos. Mexico, 1990; Magnolia Ribera, Trampantojos.
El circulo en la obra de Remedios Varo. Mexico City, 2005, which examines the significance of
the artist's depiction of the myth of the eternal return and the circle; Estrella de Diego,
Remedios Varo, Madrid, 2007.

' Here Varo was refening to her work titled Armonía. 1956-

^ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York, 1949. Spanish version: El
héroe de las mil caras. México, 1997.
Dina Comisarenco Miricin, Remedios Varo 79

asserted that such a psychological evolution is essential for the full

development of human beings, being reiterated innumerable times
throughout the history of humanity in all types of formats (dreams, fairy
tales, popular legends, and literary, mythologicai, religious, and esoteric
stories). According to the author, alt works share a structure that is
characterized as "the path of the hero" or the monomyth^ according to which
"the hero of a thousand faces", or rather, the protagonists of each one of the
different heroic stories, must embark on various adventures and meet
challenges that represent their process of spiritual evolution.
The undeniable coincidences of a great part of Varo's paintings with
the different stages and sub-stages of the hero's path, as described by
Campbell, are quite revealing. This shows, just as Campbell asserted, that
such concurrences are universal and that consequently, they transcend all
geographical and temporal limits. In the particular case of Varo's body of
work, the different stages of human maturation, symbolized in the hero's
path, are represented through suggestive visual metaphors acted out by
alchemists and scientists, travelers and explorers, and musicians and
composers, all immersed in adventures of research, discovery, the breaking
of paradigms, and creativity. Without a doubt, Varo's work goes beyond
mere visual illustration of a text to assert the universality and deep
anthropological meaning of the archetypical symbolism that characterizes
the monomyth of the hero's path,® The deep empathy with which Varo
interpreted such a path is undoubtedly due to the fact that she herself
followed it throughout her life, in a well-paced and patient process of deep
introspection and a wide spectrum of readings of literary, scientific, and
esoteric nature^ that nurtured her insatiable inteliectual curiosity.
in this regard, as has recently been shown by Tere Arcq. the work of
the Armenian born George Ivánovitch Gurdjieff and his disciple, Russian
bom mystic and mathematician Piotr Demiánovich Ouspensky, deserve

' Campbell indicates that he took the virord monomyth from James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake,
Cortt, 1939,581.

* Such a parallel, as a source of direct inspiration or rather as a simple coincidence due to the
universality of the metaphor, has already been recognized by some scholars, yet only in temis
of certain individual paintings by Varo and not in her works as a whole. See, for example,
Estella Lauter, Women as Mythmakers. Bloomington, 1984, Kaplan; Sanchez, Elizabeth
Doremus, "Creative Questers: Remedios Varo and the Narrator of Carpentier's Los pasos
perdidos," South Central Review, XXIII/2, 2006, 58-79,

' Included in her library were books by Novalis, Baudelaire, Alejo Carpentier, Antoine de Saint-
Exupéry, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Fred Hoyle, Robert Heinlein; Sigmund
Freud, Cari Gustav Jung, Daisetz T. Suzuki, Helena Blavatsky, Meister Eckhart, Maurice Nicoll,
Alexandra David-Neel, Paramahansa Yogananda, D.T. Suzuki, Sufism, and I-Ching.
80 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

special attention.^" Moving beyond Varo's frequenting of Gurdjieffian groups

and of the literary references to the texts of such authors in her work, what
is proposed here is that the theory of the "fourth path"^^ formulated by these
authors was of interest to the artist on a more allegoric levei, which, in some
cases, is tainted with a certain irony, ^^ mainly because it expresses the
stages of the search of self-obsen/ation and spiritual growth to which she
herself adhered.^^ Some of Gurdjieffs rich and suggestive metaphors,
especially those in his Tales of BelcebCi to His Grandson, which Varo
owned,^^ parallel the artist's pictorial representations. In particular, 1 refer to
Gjurdjieffs description of humans as sleeping machines and his assertion
that work is required to achieve the awakening of consciousness, as well as
some of the concepts of his particular cosmology, with its characteristic
integrated organization. These are topics that shall be dealt with below in
detail in the analysis of each particular work.

^° Based on the testimony of Walter Gruen, Varo's last husband, several scholars have shown
that Remedios had not belonged to any Gurdjieffian group, but had come to know their theories
through an intimate friend, the Swiss photographer Eva Sulzer. In the recent catalogue that
accompanies the exhibition Cinco llaves del mundo secreto de Remedios Varo (Alberto Ruy
Sánchez, et. al. eds., Mexico, 2008), organized to celebrate her one-hundredth birthday. Tere
Arcq published the results of her research on Varo's relationship with the fourth path.

^^ The fourth path takes its name in opposition to the other three traditional paths toward
reaching wisdom : the characteristic of the monk related with the emotional core; of the fakir with
the physical core; and of the yogi with the intellectual core. The fourth path seeks the
development and harmony of all of these.

^' I refer, for example, to Varo's Ritos extraños (1959), which shows a figure in a pose
reminiscent of the movements from GurdjiefTs sacred dances that fomied part of his exercises
for the development of consciousness. The title, given by the artist herself, reflects both her
interest in and distancing from the esoteric school of thought.

" On the other hand, Gurdjieff himself made profound commentaries on art and was a friend of
many important artists of the period. Also, one of the founders of the Gurdjieffian groups in
Mexico in 1951 was Christopher Fremantle, whose area of specialization was precisely painting
and part of his teachings included plastic exercises in forms and color. The liveliness and
movement that Varo grants to all objects and figures represented, as well as her
characteristically limited two-toned palette to evoke a particular emotion, reminds us of some of
Fremantle's practical and theoretical practices. See the introduction in Christopher Fremantle,
On Attention: talks, essays and letters to his pupils, Lillian Firestone Boal, ed., Denville, 1993,
available electronically in the Gurdjieff International Review, http://www..gurdjieff.org/
firestonei htn-

^* Varo's library included Relatos de Belcebú a su nieto by Gurdjieff, Tertium Organum: el

tercer canon del pensamiento by Ouspensky, 77ie Teachings of the Mysí/cs edited by Watter T.
Stace, and Gurjieff, el meslas del siglo XX by Jacques Dikran. See Lois Parkinson Zamora,
"Misticismo mexicano y la obra mágica de Remedios Varo," in Foro Hispánico. El laberinto de
la solidaridad. Cultura y política in Mexico (1910-2000), Kristine Vanden Berghe and Maarten
van Delden, eds., Amsterdam and New York, 2002, 31.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 81

The Hero's Path. According to Campbell, the nuclear unity of the

hero's path consists of three main stages: separation, initiation, and retum.
In the words of the author, "the hero begins his adventure from a daily world
toward a region of supernatural prodigies; he meets great forces and wins a
decisive victory; the hero returns from his mysterious adventure with the
strength to grant gifts upon his brothers."^^ If the largest part of Varo's
ouevre is fomied by individual works that seem independent from each
other, the triptych she conceived during a period of three years that depicts
Hacia la torre from 1960, Bordando el manto terrestre from 1961, and La
huida from 1962, is an exception. In these works. Varo, already close to the
end of her life, seems to have synthesized the fundamental stages of the
universal adventure of human destiny the way she had experienced them in
her personal life, from serious introspection to observation and interpretation
of nature and the world, and perhaps the deep significance she saw in
artistic creativity.
Due to a literal reading of the commentaries Varo left relating to her
works,^^ the triptych is usually seen as an autobiographical illustration of
significant events in her personal life: her upbringing in conservative
twentieth century Spain and her early marriage and trip to France with her
later partner, both prompted by her need to escape and find freedom.
Nevertheless, the triptych permits other readings that do not deny, but rather
enrich its autobiographical meaning, adding levels of a more reflective,
profound, and universal character.
In Varo's triptych, the heroic voyage begins in the first painting. Hacia
la torre {Fig. 1), with the "separation" or departure, represented by a group
of identical uniformed young ladies who abandon their "beehive house,"
symbol of daily life, to "go to work," as Varo herself explained—that is, to
take on the necessary tasks or tests that are common to the monomyth.
The girts are transported in strange vehicles with handlebars made of
"knitting needles," knitting being an activity frequently shown in Varo's work
to express action and creativity. Along the way, they are guided by a strange
group made up of a "mother superior," a man, and a flock of guardian birds.
For Gurdjieff, humans normally live in a hypnotic state that does not allow
them to see the real world that is hidden behind the walls of their
imagination. For this thinker, the human being can only awake once
remembrance of the self begins and, in this way, he is able to fully live his
human condition.^^ In this sense, Varo shows that only one girl, normally

^* Campbell, 35

^° I refer mainly to Varo's commentaries on some of her paintings made to her brother. Doctor
Rodrigo Varo, published in Ovaile, et. al., 51-60.

' ' Regarding the hypnotic state of common individuals, see the work of his disciple, P. D.
Ouspensky, En busca de lo milagroso. México City, 1952, 181. In psychoanalysis.
82 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Fig, 1. Remedios Varo, Hacía/a ÍOÍTB, 1960, Private Collection (Photo: Walter Gruen).

identified by critics as the artist herself, "resists the hypnosis" that moves the
others.
In the tower of Bordando el manto teirestre (Fig. 2), a symbol
universally associated with ascent, stairs that link earth to heaven, the

remembrance of all real or fantastic occurrences in which the psychic energy of patients has
come to lie remains a fundamental part of treatment.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 83

Fig. 2. Remedios Varo, Bordando el manto terrestre, 1961, Private Collection (Photo: Watter
Gruen).

women, tutored by a "grand master," are "initiated" into knowledge by

completing their tasks, in this case the stitching of the so-called "terrestrial
cloak" with its innumerable "seas, mountains, and living beings".^^ Similarly,
Gurdjieffs fourth path requires group and individual "work" under the
supervision of a teacher who assigns both according to the essence of each
individual. This work consists of self-observation, identification, and rejection
of negative emotions, and the remembrance of the self, and is obtained
through the effort to fight against personal defects and also through physical
exercises, domestic tasks, fasting, dancing, and so-called "interior halting" of
thoughts. According to Varo herself, the girl who appears in the first painting
resisting hypnosis, "has woven a trap in which she is seen together with her
beloved". As can be verified in the painting, such a trap consists of the

' There is a preliminary sketch by Varo entitted Bordando el manto lunar. 1953.
84 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

ability to embroider a barely noticeable image of herself and her beloved

with which she "manages to escape."
The small pair stitched on the terrestrial cloak foreshadow the third and
last part of the pictorial cycle. La huida, where Varo again represents the
lovers, now on a large scale, far from the tower and in an "unusual vehicle"
headed "through the desert, toward a grotto." In this context, the escape
couid be interpreted as the representation of one of the key stages of the
hero's path, characterized by Campbell as the "magical escape." In this
stage, the hero, having obtained knowledge (generally symbolized by some
treasure or extraordinary substance and, in the case of the triptych, the
dominance of the virtuous art of embroidery), manages to elude the fantastic
characters who, in the case of Varo's work, guard her (the grand master and
the flute player), and she carries it with her to the mundane world. Indeed,
the couple is headed toward the grotto, a symbol which, in different mystical
traditions, represents the everyday world that Gurdjieff, inspired by the
Platonic myth, calls "prison".^^ In this way. La huida, couid represent the final
leg of the hero's joumey, "the return," that ends the long march towards self-
knowledge and knowledge of the world and its unity. This takes place when
the hero, after having moved through all of his adventures and initiations,
assumes his commitment to other humans and returns to the ordinary world
to share this true knowledge with those who still require help in obtaining it.
Prior to arrival at this final synthesis that ends the hero's path. Varo
explored its various intermediary phases through each one of her individual
works where, beyond their chronological order, she wove various
associations that, as a whole, allow us to get closer to her view of the
human being, the cosmos, and their complicated correspondences and
interrelationships.
I. Departure or Separation. The first phase of the heroic journey
consists of a departure or separation from the world, in a "self awakening"
that takes place in the presence of a messenger, a historic enterprise, a
religious illumination, or any other type of calling to the adventure. In the
words of Campbell himself, "the mythological hero abandons his hut or
castle, is attracted, carried, or advances voluntarily toward the threshold of
adventure. There he finds the presence of a shadow that guards the path.
The hero can defeat or reconcile with this force and enter the kingdom of
darkness alive (battle with the brother, battle with the dragon, offertory,
spell), or he can be killed by the opponent and descend to death

" In the well-known myth of the cave by Plato in The Republic, the habitat of humans who have
not been initiated into the true knowledge of ideas is a cave where they live shackled, without
the ability to see the light that comes from a far away fire buming behind iL
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 85

Fig. 3. Remedios Varo, La//amada, 1961, Private Collection (Photo: Watter Gruen).

Fig. 4. Remedios Varo, La/?upfura, 1955, Private Collection (Photo: Walter Gruen).
86 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Fig. 5. Remedios Varo, /Wimef/smo, 1960, Private Collection (Photo; Walter Gruen).

(dismemberment, crucifixion").^" In the initial stage of the departure,

Campbell distinguishes various successive phases that, as we shall see, are
echoed in the works of Varo: 1- The call to adventure or signs of the hero's
vocation, 2- the negative call or the insanity of leaving God, 3- supernatural
assistance, 4- the crossing of the first threshold and 5- the belly of the whale
or passage into the realm of night.
1- Call to Adventure or Signs of the Hero's Vocation. In "the call, "
the first of these phases, something extraordinary interrupts the
protagonist's daily life, hurling him into the world of the unknown. Varo's
work aptly called La llamada (Fig. 3), from 1961, represents the vocation of

Campbell, 223-224.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 87

an ethereal woman who radiates a supernatural light In esoteric rituals,

receiving light is a symbol of initiation. The glow emanating from the figure
distinguishes her from the drowsy and dark individuals who begin to emerge
from the walls, thusly visualizing the call, indicator of her true heroic
vocation or divine essence of that which lies beyond contained in her
person.
The phantasmagoric characters bring to mind the legend of the bitter
rose by the French poet René Daumal, follower of Alexander Salzmann, the
direct disciple of Gurdjieff, in his Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically
Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing. It speaks of the
hollow men who "live within the stone [and] stroll around its mobile caverns".
Varo's female hero, armed with only an alchemist's mortar that hangs from
her neck close to her heart and a flask containing a red liquid in her right
hand, symbols of the process of evolution and transformation upon which
she is embarking, passes by the phantasmagoric figures guided by a star
that weaves her destiny and leads her by her wavy flaming hair.^^
In some of Varo's works, the parallels with the stages of the hero's path
are not as direct, yet still revealing. For example, in a group of her paintings,
the artist seems to identify the call toward the Other, the unexplored and
unknown, and the definitive break from the mundane world that resists being
interpreted based on her familiarity with the scientific realm, paradigm of the
rationality of modern life. In these works, which stem from the deep interest
Varo had in alchemy and science, as evidenced by her ownership of the
Ciencia inútil o el alquimista (1955), Planta insumisa, and Descubrimiento
de un geólogo mutante (both 1961). a rebellious and mysterious reality is
quickly and unexpectedly presented (the transformation to which the
alchemist himself is submitted when being integrated into the floor of his
room, the plant that paradoxically the mathematician cannot find because he
bears a flower that common sense dictates is more natural than the
mathematical fomnulas to which he is accustomed, or the gigantic mutant
flower that the geologist finds in the desolate landscape). These things
cannot be explained within the framework of rationality that normally guides
such areas. Consequently, the breaking down of the hero's familiar horizon
shows him the insufficiency of his model of normal parameters, and this
propels him to take other paths. This epistemological rupture can be
interpreted as "the call" that brings the protagonist to Initiate a quest for
knowledge in which nothing is certain nor absolute, yet grants him a greater
certainty that the quest must be undertaken without delay.

^' The image coincides with the metaphors expressed by Victor Brauner in a letter to Varo that
reads: "Your hairs are the roots of invisible stars... it is your liquid mane or rather a liquid flame
that licks the air surrounding the objects that I vi/ish to be..." In Kaplan, 73.
88 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

In Varo's La Ruptura (1955; Fig. 4) is depicted the necessary

separation of the hero's life from her quotidian surroundings, with their
conventional social ties of family, religion, or the palace, an action that will
permit her to "go beyond" her daily circumstances. The female figure,
mysteriously dressed in a cape and hood of the same color as the lit sky,
abandons a classic grey and oppressive building while balanced on the
delicate tip of her only visible foot. The wind blows the white curtains in all
directions, allowing a glimpse of giant windows, from which peep six
identical faces with large eyes. These, according to Janet Kaplan, represent
"the watchful eyes of tradition and the past",^^ with whom the female
drastically breaks to respond to the call. The winter trees, dry leaves,
papers, and snail shells included in the painting come out of the building and
blend into the stairwell and walls, symbolizing the process of transformation
and unity that, for Varo, animates all existing things and which the figure, as
the rhythm established between the cape and heaven suggests, must
discover through the long and heroic journey she has just begun.
2- The Negative Aspects of The Call or The Insanity of Leaving
God. Campbell points out that, as is natural, in many cases the hero resists
"the call". Often, in myth and in real life, the call stresses us or, because we
are so tied to our childlike egos or the familiar models of daily life, we ignore
the call, no matter how clearly we hear it. The temptation to stay where we
are, without taking on adventures down unknown paths, seems to be at
times much more powertui and threatens the very undertaking of the
adventure that can lead to knowledge or, in other words, to achieving our
fullest human condition.
Varo's Mimetismo {1960; Fig. 5) could be interpreted as an example of
such initial resistance. Unlike in La llamada, the main figure perceives the
existence of strange phenomena, such as the clouds entering the armoire in
the room. Nevertheless, she ignores them and continues. Her indifference
moves her to the point of showing signs of her process of transmutation into
an object: her face and neck already show the pattern of the fleur de lis on
the chair upon which she comfortably sits, her hands have been
b'ansfomied into wooden volutes that duplicate those of the chair's aims,
and her feet now resemble those of the chair.
The woman, like many of Varo's figures, is in an hypnotic, unconscious
state which, as previously mentioned, coincides with Gurdjieffs theory on
the state of mental inertia or lack of consciousness and memory in most
people. A cat observes in awe the strange process through a small hole in
the floor. The chair, perhaps motivated by the misfortunes of the woman-
object, begins to reveal a dangerous identity, as one of its legs shows a pair
of dentiled pliers that are about to clip one of the supports of the basket filled

^ Ibid-, 24.
Dina Comisarenco Miricin, Remedios Varo 89

Fig. 6. Remedios Varo, Una visita inesperada. 1958, Prívate Collection (Photo: Walter
Gruen),

with sewing implements, once again associated by Varo with action and
creativity. Since the woman does not respond to the call to begin her
initiation or humanization process through knowledge, she instead initiates
the inverse: objectification by literally mutating into a chair and, therefore,
threatening any possibility of "transformation," in Gurdjieffs sense, through
the cultivation of creativity.
3- Supernatural Assistance. In spite of the initial rejection, at times
the call is heeded because of the presence of a messenger, a strange,
unusual being who can be sinister and whose appearance leads us to
permanently break with our pleasant daily life as it connects us with the
archetypical childlike images necessary for the undertaking of the quest for
adventure.
Varo's Una visita inesperada (1958; Fig. 6) may represent such a
monstrous and dreadful being, seen in other works by the artist and
associated by her with sickness." The figure gives us the signal that

^^ These works are two preliminary studies for a mural project for the Cartcer Wing in Mexico
City's Medical Center, which were never carried out. They were entitled Microcosmos (originally
90 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

prompts our departure, forcing us to leave the mundane and convincing us

of the importance of embarking upon the adventure into the unknown. This
messenger/visitor is a hybrid being, something between a ship and a
human, an object with wheels, with a pot of flowers for a body and half a
head that is shown backwards, ending in a strange feathered hat. At the
same time, before the strange image, revealed by small white half open
doors, is the fearful main figure who is extended a mysterious hand that
emerges from the wall, granting her the strength to resist this untimely visit.
Presencia inquietante from 1959 also underlines the important role of
dangerous messengers who, in Campbell's words are "diabolically
fascinating because they carry the keys that open the entire kingdom of
desired and feared adventure of self-discovery. Varo's painting parallels a
description of a dream she left that reads, "at that moment 1 felt terrible
horror over something behind me that came from within myself..." Speaking
as the intruder, she continued, "This is so you don't awake, I don't want you
to awaken. I need you to sleep deeply so I may do what I have to do... This
didn't hurt me, nor did I feel pain, yet 1 felt a much greater terror and I didn't
want to fall asleep".^^ Since the monstrous being wished for her to sleep,
she became conscious of the crucial importance of waking up, understood
once again in terms of Gurdjieff theory. The unsettling presence of the
monstrous being destroys the upholstery on the chair, causing the explosion
of the fleur de lis, symbol of royalty in its spiritual sense, and frequently
included in Varo's works.
Campbell asserts that, at other times, the external assistance appears
more benevoient: a protective figure, such as a friend, a dream of some
unexpected yet pleasant event that causes the hero to reconsider his initial
denial. Symbolized in many stories by a supernatural presence, the hero
receives an amulet or some instrument that grants powers to facilitate his
journey and guide him through it. This phase, which Campbell calis
"supernatural assistance," may be represented in the various works by Varo
that include some protective figure that expresses confidence in the benign
force of destiny. Campbell states that "fantasy is security, the promise that
the peace of Paradise, first known only within the maternal womb, and must
not be lost; it holds the present and is in the future as much as in the past (it
is the omega and the alpha); that, although omnipotence may seem
threatened by the passing ages through life's thresholds and awakenings,
the protective force is always present within the sanctuary of the heart and

Determinismo) (1959) and El visitante (1959) or the so-called "horrifying ship" that exudes a
horrifying substance representing illness.

"Campbell, 15.

'^ Remedios Varo, Sueño 9. in Castetls, 31.

Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 91

Fig. 7. Remedios Varo, Locomoción capilar (detectives), 1960, Private Collection

(Photo: Watter Gruen).

Fig. 8. Remedios Varo, Nacer de Nuevo, 1960, Private Collection (Photo: WaHer
Gruen).
92 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

exists immanently within or behind the strange appearances of the world.

The individual must know and trust, and the eternal guardians will appear."^^
In Hacia acuario (1961), a boy (identified in a drawing by Varo from 1952 as
the Angel Milfastos as a child) walks while guided by a mysterious female
who wears a large ethereal and luminous hat and rests comfortably upon
her wheel/knee a cane in the shape of a key. In Niño y mariposa (1961) the
boy is protected by a giant butterfly with human features that extends its
sheltering wings over his body. It should be mentioned that in the esoteric
tradition, in particular the Kabala from which Varo took various iconographie
symbols, the age of Aquarius is also known as the Golden Age, an era of
mystic revelations and true liberation of the mind where all religious beliefs
will be synthesized and in which the unity that animates the world will finally
be recognized. In Varo's Invocación (1963), a small female figure uses the
power of music to invoke magical beings like Campbell's eternal guardians,
who immediately heed the call. As Campbell has noted, once the hero
assumes his destiny, the world begins to facilitate the conditions needed for
him to reach his goals.
4- Crossing the First Threshold. The moment arrives when the
hero must finally break through the threshold, normally guarded by a
powerful keeper who impedes passage to anyone who wishes to move
toward the unknown. The boundary between the two worlds, the possibility
of access to a superior reality, is symbolized in Varo's work by seemingly
opened doors, yet guarded by frightening custodians who are virtually
unconquerable. In Varo's Caminos tortuosos (1958) and Locomoción capilar
(detectives) (1960; Fig. 7), there are certain elements that can be viewed as
references to the implicit danger Involved in crossing the threshold. On one
side of the composition is the female hero, determined to continue her
journey/adventure and on the other, one or several males with beards or
mustaches who try to stop her.^^
For Varo, who was a free and independent woman, patriarchal society,
particularly the Mexican artistic environment of that era that emphasized
muralism and was almost entirely dominated by male artists, was without a
doubt one of the greatest hurdles to overcome in order to achieve her fullest
professional development. Just as this had happened to Varo in her own
life, her work was also able to transcend fiercely guarded thresholds, not

* Campbell, 72.

" According to Kaplan, 136-137, the drawing was made by Varo as a birthday greeting card for
her friend, the Mexican painter Juan Soriano, as a portrait of an invented historical figure. This
reflects Varo's typical humor.

^ Hair in biblical and mythological stories usually symbolizes strength, power, and virility. One
example is the story of Samson and Delilah. Also, in many religions, tonsure is a symbolic
gesture of renouncing these qualities.
Dma Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 93

necessarily the traditional door, but paths that were more arduous. In
Locomoción capilar (detectives), the handle-bar mustache of the second
guardian is similar to Gurdjieffs ostentatious whiskers, suggesting that
perhaps, even in this area, Varo may have been submitted to and resented
male prejudice, either latent or explicit.
From this perspective. Coincidencia (1959) and Luz emergente (1962)
may represent the moment when the hero successfully crosses the
threshold to reach a superior reality. She does not cross a door, possibly
guarded by powerful keepers on the other side, but rather some magical
permeable wall which, as scholars of Varo have asserted, recall vaginal
openings, insinuating that the passage represents birth or renaissance. In
this case, such a rebirth is of a spiritual nature, and according to Gurdjieffs
ideas on the remembrance of the self, a process understood as
synonymous with the true human condition.
5- The Belly of The Whale or The Passage into the Kingdom of
Night. What follows in Campbell's phases is the stage of the "belly of the
whale", a symbol that is, once again, quite generalized in universal
mythology to express the idea that the passage through the magical
threshold means that the hero is swallowed by the unknown and seems to
die, to later be reborn and renovated. When the hero crosses, he has made
a definitive break with his daily world, has died, and arrives at the initiation
through his own resurrection.
The work by Varo that expresses most clearly the amazement and
pleasure of such a resurrection is Nacer de nuevo (1960; Fig. 8), its title
again matching the corresponding phase of the hero's path. The central
figure of this painting is a young woman who enters a space that is about to
be overtaken by the surrounding forest. She does not use the open door,
possibly guarded on the outside by one of the long haired and bearded
keepers, but mysteriously through a wall that once again resembles a
vagina with clearly-denoted labia to reinforce the idea of birth.
While moving through this magical threshold, the female finds a
chalice, traditional symbol of womanhood, in which she discovers an
enlarged reflection of the moon that is seen from afar through an opening in
the ceiling. The chalice is often compared to the matemal breast that
produces nutritious milk.^ Kaplan rightfully points out that "there are several
legendary traditions that relate the moon to the realm of the powers of
women, and by associating this moment of the psychic awakening with a
waxing moon that emphasizes the virginal breasts of the young woman.
Varo presented this as an essential feminine proposal."™ Once again

Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Diccionario de símbolos. Barcelona, 2003, 338.

Kaplan, 166.
94 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

c p <D
8 (O ±£
5
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 95

showing her visionary feminism avant la lettre, Varo expressed that the
initiation journey, the spiritual rebirth, the necessary force of self-knowledge,
begins, in the case of her heroic figures who are generally female, with the
rediscovery of their own "essence" that, in this case, resides in the
knowledge of her own sexual identity.
It. The Initiation. Once the hero has resigned daily life, he begins his
initiation adventures. Along the way, tests are placed on his path or partial
challenges which he must complete successfully in order to arhve finally at
the most profound restoration of his personality. Campbell mentions that in
order to achieve such a restoration of identity, the hero must undertake a
series of challenges that, through the discovery and assimilation of
undistorted archetypical images will gradually lead him to victory at the end
of the path. Most of Varo's works that represent travelers, such as
Vagabundo (1958), Caballero en monociclo (1959), and Taxi acuático
(1962), represent "the effort of those who try to rise to another spiritual
level."^'
Unlike the majority of Varo's works, one of the traveler paintings,
Ascensión al Monte Análogo (1960; Fig. 9), was directly inspired by the
literary work of Daumal. Though the author died suddenly, leaving the work
unfinished, the text permits an appreciation of his stylistic combination in
which the adventure novel mingles with the characteristic initiation journey
of different esoteric sects. The journey presented in the text is much more
transcendental than physical since the mountain represents the soul, turning
it, as it does in Varo's painting, into a suggestive metaphor of human life in
its maturation process through which knowledge is obtained.
In Lady Godiva (1959; Fig. 10), Varo alluded to the Anglo-Saxon
legend of the beautiful and generous Godiva, wife of Leofric of Coventry
who abused his vassals by charging excessive taxes. The legend states that
Lady Godiva interceded on behalf of the suffering vassals, either voluntarily
or by her husband's order, riding through Coventry on horseback covered
with no more than her own flowing hair. In sympathy, the people of Coventry
locked themselves in their homes to preserve her modesty, with the
exception of a tailor, thereafter nicknamed Peeping Tom, whose indiscretion
caused him to lose everyone's trust. Varo depicted Lady Godiva, the female
example of courage and social responsibility, as a selfK;onfident woman
moving through the streets of her city in one of the artist's many unique
locomotive devices, equipped with just one wheel, a seat formed by the
woman's long hair, and a torch that guides her and illuminates her path.
Godiva's face is once again related to the feminine symbol of the moon
which, in this case, appears as a mask that allows her large eyes to be
seen, focusing not upon the exterior world, but on the profound ideals that
move her.

" Paz, 176.

96 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Fig. 12. Remedios Varo, Ei encuentro, 1959, Private Collection (Photo: Watter Gruen).

Fig. 13. Remedios Varo, Cazadora de astms, 1956, Private Collection (Photo: Walter
Gruen).
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 97

In Campbell's words, after crossing the threshold, "the hero advances

through a world of unfamiliar, yet strangely intimate, forces, some of which
threaten him dangerously (tests), others grant him magical assistance
(assistants). When the nadir arrives from its mythological periplus, he must
pass a supreme test and receives his award. Triumph can be represented
as the sexual union between the hero and the mother goddess of the world
(sacred matrimony), the recognition of the father-creator (concordance with
the father), his own divinization (apotheosis) or also, if the forces seem
hostile to him, the robbery of the gift that he has come to win (theft of his
newlywed, theft of the fire); intrinsically this is the expansion of conscience
and thus of being (illumination, transfiguration, liberty)."^^ As a result, the
main corresponding phases to this stage of initiation, according to Campbell,
are 1- the path of tests or of the dangerous aspect of the gods; 2- the
meeting with the goddess Magna Mater or the happiness of childhood
recovered; 3- woman as temptation, the sin and agony of Oedipus; 4-
reconciliation with the father; 5- apotheosis, and 6- final grace.
1-The Path of Tests or of The Dangerous Aspects of the Gods.
The tasks or adventures in the initiation journey appear in many of Varo's
works. The main metaphor for this group, as anticipated in her Bordando el
manto terrestre, the central scene in her triptych discussed earlier, is
manual work, particularly embroidery and knitting, activities that in spite of
being traditionally related to the generally less valued feminine domestic
realm, in Varo's work are given new value as symbols of the activity and
transcendence of the creative human being who challenges the gods.
As in Bordando el manto terrestre, in La tarea (1955), the task imposed
upon the initiated consists of forging the world. In La tejedora de Verona and
La tejedora roja (Fig. 11), both from 1956, the female figure projects her
creative skill toward the external world from the intimate setting within the
tower. In l e s feuilles mortes (hilo) (1956), she does so to extract the
magical substance from the depths of the human spirit.
The dangerous aspect of the gods mentioned by Campbell can be
seen in Varo's La tejedora roja, where a faded female is shown knitting next
to a threatening noose and a stiff red human body that hangs from the
ceiling. These elements bring to mind the Greek legend of Arachne.
According to the tale, the young woman from Lydia, disciple of the goddess
Athena, had learned to weave extraordinary tapestries. Yet, vain due to her
high mastery, she no longer recognized her teacher's superiority. The
offended goddess challenged and punished her severely. Arachne wanted
to end her life by hanging, but the goddess stopped her and turned her into

Campbell, 223-224.
98 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

a spider, since then a symbol of the sorrow of those who dared to rival the
gods. As often occurs in Varo's work, the mythological reference is clear
(especially through the representation of the stiff body and noose that
accompany the knitter). At the same time, it is significantly altered since the
knitter is not transformed into a spider, but steadfastly continues her task.
Through such work, she creates her own alter egos, young women who,
despite their ethereal substance, possess the necessary energy to escape
by flying out the window to take on their own journeys of adventure. In the
foreground, the paradoxes of life and destiny appear symbolically as a black
cat determined to play with a ball of wool and oblivious to the fact, or
perhaps in spite of realizing it, that the game is to attack his own tail, which
unravels at a dizzying frenzy.
2-The Meeting with The Goddess Magna Mater or The Happiness
of Childhood Recovered. Campbell calls the second sub-stage of initiation
the meeting with the goddess Magna Mater, a supreme being who
represents the totality of what can be known, or the happiness of a
recovered childhood. In Varo's oeuvre, there are severai paintings aptly
entitled "meeting," which seem to allude to this phase of the hero's path.
One example is Encuentro (la cita) (1959), which shows the hero as
personified by a classical marble statue descending from his pedestal to
meet a glowing magical figure that could represent the light he would find
through the union or fusion of the mystical encounter.
In the case of El encuentro (1959; Fig. 12), the heroic character is a
woman and the meaningful encounter is produced when, upon opening one
of the many trunks she has stored in her room, she discovers herself. In this
case, the meeting would signify, in accordance with Varo's visionary
feminism, that the woman is the same goddess whom she must discover or,
in other words, she possesses within herself all the qualities needed to take
on her adventure with success. From GurdjiefTs point of view, the woman
must recover the memory of her archetypical creator role.
Finally, in El encuentro from 1962, a woman dressed in a flowing
organic gown holds a head in her womb that repeats her own facial
features, expressing the classic paradigm that a woman is her own mother.
The discovery seems to come from a supernatural being, a hybrid between
human and owl, a night bird related to the moon and the feminine, present in
many of Varo's works. The owl is also the emblem of Athena, the Greek
goddess of wisdom, yet in this case, it is reinterpreted in terms of the value
of intuition more than of rationality.
3-Woman as Temptation, The Sin and Agony of Oedipus.
Campbell's next phase is the "woman as temptation" in her most negative
facet, or the sin and agony of Oedipus. According to the author, the
archetype comes from the fact that nature can be as docile and peaceful as
it is terrible and destructive. In many adventure stories, the dual nature of
the archetype is manifested in the fact that the hero may meet a princess or
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 99

a fairy, or also a wicked stepmother or a witch. Through this encounter, the

hero discovers that good and bad, love and hate, construction and
destruction are no more than facets of the same essence of the Everything.
Varo's Cazadora de astros (1956; Fig, 13), with its powerful protagonist
who is armed with a strange butterfly net with which she has captured the
moon, seems to express said duality. Once more, the figure suggests
associations with an Olympic goddess, in this case Artemisia, the hunter
who is chaste, beautiful, and athletic, the epitome of the independent female
spirit and consciousness of her own feminine power. As the goddess of the
moon and protector of ali women, she is traditionally represented with a
small moon on her head. Instead, in Varo's work, the goddess carries the
luminous astral body in a smaii cage that protects yet imprisons it. It is said
that Diana, the Roman name for Artemisia, is a contraction of diviana,^^ "the
brilliant one," an essential quality made visible in Varo's work through the
fantastic light that seems to emanate from the captive moon, as well as from
the huntress' ethereal garments.
The theme of the imprisoned moon reappears in Varo's Papilla estelar
(Fig. 14) from 1958, Although at times interpreted as a paradigmatic
example of women's captivity within the domestic realm,** in the context of
the heroic journey, it presents a rather different meaning, deeply and
transcendentatly relating woman to temptation. For Gurdjieff, the moon, a
new, budding planet, is a living being, a type of vampiress who feds upon
large quantities of "fine substances" that emanate from the earth and the
human spirit over which it casts decisive influence, particularly in terms of
wars and catastrophes.^ Varo's woman who feeds the moon with star dust,
with her somber costume and peaceful look, fulfills a fundamental task
related to the understanding of the dual aspect of life. Consequently, she
could represent Gurdjieffs Regina Astris or Queen of the Heavens who,
according to the ancients, was the superior feminine intelligence, with Love
springing from the feminine principle of Creation, and ruler of human fortuity.
On the other hand. Papilla estelar, like many of Varo's works, presents
a unique compositional structure that can be interpreted in the framework of
the esoteric traditions of such interest to the artist. In the painting, this
structure corresponds to the "enneagram", a geometric model consisting of
a nine-pointed star. For Gurdjieff, this star can be used to trace the process

" At the same time, diviana suggests roots in the Indo-European word deieu which means
clarity, heaven or, by extension of divine natura.

^ Kaplan, 160,

" Gurdjieff, in Ouspensky, 57.

" In this sense, it corresponds to the D note on GurdjiefTs great cosmic octave.
100 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Fig. 14. Remedios Varo, Papilla estelar. 1958, San Francisco, Garry and Kathie
Heidenreich Collection and Frey Norris Gallery (Photo: Walter Gruen).

Fig. 15. Remedios Varo, Aurora (espías internacionales), 1962, Private Collection
(Photo: Walter Gruen).
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 101

Fig. 16. Remedios Varo, La revelación, 1955, Mexico, Hanny Bruder Kafka Collection
(Photo: Waiter Gruen).

Fíg. 17. Remedios Varo, Tránsito en espiral, 1962, Private Collection (Photo: Watter
Gruen).
102 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

of any occurrence, from beginning to end, for cosmological processes and

the development of the human consciousness. According to his vision of the
cosmos, the so-called "Great Cosmic Octave," the radiation of the original
creative force stemming from the Absolute, which penetrates our Ray of
Creation and progresses toward the moon (the earth's satellite and the last
step of Creation) following the cadence of the octave, is contained in the
enneagram- According to Gurdjieff, in the process of adapting to the world,
humans disconnect from their own essence and, although they ttelieve to be
awake, they go through life as if asleep or in a hypnotic state. Through work
with the enneagram, they may awaken and reunite with their lost essence
which, in Varo's case, is identified with the feminine, symbolized by the
moon, and its destructive and dangerous aspects. The setting in the painting
evokes the never finished project of the Englishman Rodney Collin-Smith,
one of the founders of the Gurdjieffian groups in Mexico in 1948, to
construct an observatory inspired by the design of the enneagram.^^
4-Reconciliation with The Father. Just after the recognition and
ascent of the double facet of the feminine, the hero arrives at the stage
Campbell calls the "reconciliation with the father." As with the personal
development of individuals, the child only overcomes the Oedipus complex
(or Electra complex, according to gender) when he has understood the role
of the mother (or father) in the family and his relationship with her In the
heroic myth, the protagonist reconciles with the father or authority figure (an
ogre, dragon, monster, king, or anyone else who keeps a woman captive)
after having reconciled with the feminine. When the hero understands that
the father represents the facets of himself that prevent him from getting
close to the feminine he can reconcile with the father and, therefore,
manages to also reconcile with himself.
In Mujer saliendo del psicoanalista (podría ser Juliana)^ (1960), as
Varo explained, "this woman takes leave from the psychoanalyst and throws
her father's head into a well (as is proper upon leaving the psychoanalyst's
office). In the basket she carries other psychological waste: a watch, symbol
of fear of arriving late, etc. The doctor is called Dr. FJA (Freud, Jung,
Adler)".^^ The symbolic distancing, the throwing of the father's head, allows
the female hero to reconcile with him, and thus, with herself in order to
continue on her path to achieving her goal of self-knowledge. She

" See http://www.bardic-press.coni/rcollin/collinindex.htm, Collin Smith was the founder of the

publishing house Ediciones Sol, which released various titles related to the fourth path that had
a great impact upon the establishment of South American groups.

" The subtitle makes reference to Varo's Intimate friend, the Mexican philosopher Juliana
González.

^ Ovalte, et. al., 58.

Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 103

symbolically discards as well the patriarchal authority that holds her captive.
In Aurora (espías intemacionales) (1962; Fig. 15), the nuclear family (child,
mother, father) is represented in complete harmony, each holding a scroll in
which his or her archetypical role might be specified.
5-The Apotheosis. In the next phase, called "the apotheosis" by
Campbell, the hero is recognized as such and attains glory. Reconciled with
his father and mother, he recognizes that they are nothing more than an
apparently polar, yet tme reality. The apotheosis occurs when the hero has
finally overcome the dual vision and perfectly understands the originating
unity of the Everything, the most profound knowledge of reality and its
multiple forms.
In this case, it is the metaphor of scientific knowledge that serves
Varo's purpose of expressing the apotheosis, one of the main phases of the
initiation adventure. In her La revelación (1955; Fig. 16) and Fenómeno de
ingravidez (1963), she represents various scientists in the moment in which,
upon breaking an epistemológica! boundary, they finally come to see the
profound unity of what is real. Kaplan rightly points out that, in terms of La
revelación, "unlike the obstinate botanist who cannot admit that a plant from
his laboratory escapes from his control, the watch maker, though amazed,
looks openly toward the challenge. Thus, in this work, instead of ridiculing
the n ears Ig h ted ness, arrogance, or dementia of scientific rigidity, what the
artist does is illustrate science in a more satisfactory way, that is, as a
creative discipline that is open to the marvelous."^
Tejido espacio-tiempo (1954) is related to another one of the dreams of
the artist of which she also left written testimony. In this dream. Varo
discovered a major secret for which she was condemned to death. When
she begged the executioner for clemency, he asked her why she feared
death if she knew so much. She then realized that what the executioner said
held true and that she need not fear death since there was only one more
important thing for her to do. The artist continued, "I explained to him that I
loved someone and that I needed to knit his 'destiny' with mine, since, once
this knitting was done, we would be together for eternity. The executioner
seemed to find my petition quite reasonable and he granted me ten more
minutes of life. So, 1 moved quickly to knit all around me (in such a way as
baskets are made) a type of cage in the shape of an enormous egg (four or
five times larger than myself). The material with which I knitted was ribbons
that materialized in my hands, and, without seeing from where they came, 1
knew they were his substance and mine. When I finished knitting this type of
egg, I felt peace, yet I continued to cry. It was then that I told the executioner
that he could now kill me, since the man I loved was now woven with me for

Kaplan, 175.
104 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

all eternity."*^ The apotheosis consists of this deep understanding of the

unity of everything, obtained through love and eternity.
In Daumal's text, which inspired Varo's Ascensión al Monte Análogo
previously cited as an example of the beginning of the spiritual search or
initiation, to climb the legendary mountain of knowledge where heaven and
earth unite, the protagonist and his mountain climber companions must pass
through a "curved" region, a topological, non-Euclidian space, as indicated
by the subtitle of the novel, which is precisely what is also represented in the
pieces mentioned in this stage of the path as a symbol of the apotheosis of
initiation. The concept of a curved space with a mystical sense of knowledge
had been widely developed by Ouspensky, an author with whom Varo was
already quite familiar during her stay in Europe.
6-Final Grace. The final stage of the initiation is the "final grace" which
in reality hides within the hero's heart, but it is typically represented as the
discovery of a treasure, a miraculous substance, or some sublime
knowledge that confers upon him a great power, such as "the eternal
fountain of youth," "the golden bull," "the holy grail," or "the philosopher's
stone," metaphors of the treasure we keep within our spirit. In the words of
Campbell: "The anguish of breaking personal limitations is the agony of
spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and the occult, philosophy and the
ascetic disciplines are instruments that help the individual to pass from his
limited horizons to wider and broader spheres of self-development. As he
crosses one threshold after another and subdues one dragon after another,
the divine status of the entity to whom he begs for his greatest desire
increases until the cosmos become one. Finally, the mind breaks the limits
of the cosmos toward a realization that transcends all experiences of the
form, of all symbolisms, all divinities: the appreciation of the inevitable void
[...] This life source is the heart of the individual and, within it, life must be
found if one can succeed in breaking through its layers."*^ For this stage,
Varo's main metaphor is once more that of joumey and exploration,
understood as symbols of the interior journey and personal investigation of
the self for the sake of truth.
In Tránsito en espiral (1962; Fig. 17), Varo shows a mysterious floating
construction similar to a walled medieval castle in the shape of a spiral. In its
moats, adventurers float about in ships that move slowly down the channel
toward truth, which could signify the slow process of personal perfection the
true hero achieves. Other figures that circulate in the opposite direction,
after having discovered the mysterious bird that lives in the tower or spiritual

*' Varo, Sueño 10, in Castells, 132-133,

*^ Campbell, 175-176.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 105

Fig. 18. Remedios Varo, Exploración de las fuentes del río Orinoco, 1959, Mexico, José
Luis Martínez Collection (Photo: Watter Gruen).

Fig. 19. Remedios Varo, Despedida. 1958, Private Collection (Photo: Walter Gruen).
106 Aurora, Vol. X. 2009

Fig. 20. Remedios Varo, Expedición del aqua áurea, 1962, Private Collection (Photo;
Walter Gruen).

Flg. 21. Remedios Varo, Vuelo mágico (Zanfonla), 1956, Private Collection (Photo:
Watter Gruen).
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 107

center of the mysterious aquatic city, seem to have embarked upon their
return journey. A third group shows empty ships that have lost their captains
at some point along the way.
The journey, a traditional symbol of the search and discovery of truth or
of expansion of consciousness also becomes one of the main visual
metaphors in Varo's work used to represent final grace. Her Hallazgo
(1956), Elixir (1957) and Exploración de las fuentes del río Orinoco (1959;
Fig. 18), also represent this phase, the apotheosis of the heroic character
upon discovering the substance or divine object, symbol of the capacity
human beings possess to achieve, conserve, and transmit true knowledge.
Once again, the sphere, symbol of perfection and totality, the elixir that
generally symbolizes the state of conscience transformed or immortality,
and the cup, a shape traditionally associated with the feminine, prove useful
to Varo in giving visual expression to the discovery of such a treasure.
III. The Return. In the majority of the heroic stories that make up the
monomyth, the protagonist, after having triumphed in his adventure, must
return to the world he left to share the knowledge he has acquired, thusly
reintegrating himself into society. This phase also poses difficulties since,
once knowledge is attained, it is difficult to find the strength to return to the
world of ordinary experience and to fight against the lack of understanding
and recognition of others.
Campbell states that the heroic figure in his final stage must pass once
more through different phases to be able to conclude the cycle: 1- the
negation of the return or the negated world, 2-the magical escape or flight of
Prometheus, 3- the rescue of the exterior world, 4- the crossing of the
threshold of return or the return to the normal world, 5- the possession of the
two worlds and, 6- the freedom to live, the nature and function of final grace.
The author states that in the final effort of retum, "if the hero has been
blessed by the forces, now he moves under their protection (emissary); if
not, he runs and is pursued (escape with transformation, escape with
obstacles). In the threshold of return, the transcendental forces must remain
behind; the hero emerges again from the kingdom of anxiety (retum,
resurrection). The good he brings restores the world (elixir)."'*^
1-The Negation of The Return, or The Negated WoHd. The first sub-
stage consists, as it did in the departure, of an initial rejection that must be
overcome, in this case the negation of the retum, or the negated world. If
the complete cycle requires that the heroic character bring the mysteries of
wisdom for the benefit of the community, on occasion it is more tempting to
stay in the other world and reject such responsibility.
Both Despedida (1958; Fig. 19) and Fenómeno (1962) by Varo include
rebellious shadows that take control of their actions and resist following their

*^ Ibid., 223-224.
108 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

bodies. These could allude to the hero's reluctance to leave the superior
world and return to the ordinary. These units divided among conscious
bodies and their rebelling shadows would symbolize the internal struggle
one must defeat in order to leave the newly attained comforts in the spiritual
world and return to fulfill the hero's mission.
2-The Magical Escape or Fiight of Prometheus. Once responsibility
of the return is assumed, the magical escape begins which, at times,
consists of an agitated persecution so as not to be trapped by the peace
offered by the found treasure. This fiight is commonly threatened by
fantastic characters who want to impede the hero's escape and his taking of
the treasure back to the ordinary world. Varo's Esquiador (viajero) (1960)
shows a strange character who brings to mind once again Daumal's text.
Specifically, the painting could allude to Pierre (previously Father Sogoi)
who, having recovered the memory of his self, symbolized by the magical
substance from the "peradam" ["hard crystal"] that hangs around his neck,
takes off, armed with his flexible skis, from the slopes of the glacial
landscape.
In addition, the Expedición dot aqua áurea (1962; Fig. 20)
communicates the sense of magical escape characteristic of the monomyth.
In this work, a group of strange characters who, due to their similarity with
other figures rendered by the artist, could be identified as alchemists and
other explorers in search of truth, like those described by Daumal, escape in
a strange ship in the middle of a barren snow-covered landscape. In their
hands, they carry a cup possibly filled with "a magical curative elixir," the
"aqua aurea" in the painting's title, inspired by "May fiowers" whose magical
function is to improve memory.*^ Once again, there are concordances with
Daumal's text and Gurdjieff theory, specifically in the treasure that
symbolizes the process of recovering memory of the self.
Varo's Emigrantes, Arquitectura vegetal and Catedral vegetal from
1957, or Camino árido y Acantilado, from 1962, among others, seem to
represent this magical escape to safeguard the treasure and the hero on his
way back to the daily world. ^ For someone like Varo, who had experienced
exile more than once, be it voluntarily or to save him or herself from political
threat, such as the rising tide of Nazism, the message is dear when
knowledge (or the soul) is part of the person, despite adverse historical

** The mythological story goes that the goddess Freya, who was taken hostage and brought to
Asgard, was saddened by the harsh winters. Longing for spring flowers, she oied arid her
tears, upon falling to the ground, produced May flowers.

** In tha esoteric tradition, the carriage represents the structure and physiology of man
conceived as an organic system: physical, psychic, and spiritual. It is also a parable of self-
knowledge lA^ich can be divided into four parts: the body is a carriage, feelings are horses,
reason is the driver, and the person seated on the carriage is the master of tha spirit.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 109

circumstances, it cannot be taken away by real or fantastic monstrous

guardians.
3-Rescue From The Outside World. What follows is the so-called
"rescue from the outside world," in this case of "supernatural assistance" of
"the separation" since, to retum to the normal world, the hero might require
the assistance of some magical power. In Varo's Vuelo mágico (Zanfonla)
(1956; Fig. 21), the stringed musical instrument of medieval origin
mentioned in the work's subtitle, seems to be a talisman that gives the main
character the ability to fly and move through walls. The figure who plays the
special musical instrument is dressed in a tunic patterned with the traditional
fleur de lis, classical emblem of royalty which, in this case, is associated
with such condition as a strong spiritual nature.
Also reappearing in Aprendiz de Icaro (1959) are the magical butterflies
(bringing to mind Niño y mariposa from 1961), which aid the figure (whose
facial features are similar to an aged Angel Milfastos) in passing through a
door and reaching the light. The desire for sublimation associated with flight
is represented in Varo's work as a symbol of the ascending path and the
inevitable danger of falling, implicit in the classic legend that inspired Varo to
render the painting.
4-Crossing The Threshold or Return to Normal Life. In the next
phase, "the crossing of the threshold of return" or "return to the normal
world," the hero may confront the lack of understanding of his newly attained
knowledge by his oid mates. His message may be stagnated and his living
word transformed into dead letters or dogma. The savior hero may become
a tyrant, the ogre against which he had fought. Nevertheless, the true hero
will find the necessary strength and conviction to also surpass this phase.
Varo's Retrato del doctor Ignacio Chavez (1957; Fig. 22) may illustrate
such a period of transition. The figure portrayed is a famous Mexican
cardiologist of her era,^ He is represented wearing the vestments of a
priest, an individual generally associated with superior spirituality. His power
seems to have reached tyrannical dimensions since he peers out from his
crystal cave on the other side of the worid only to wind his patients who
move toward his threshold by their long white hair to continue their journey.
Only one of them, represented as well in £//x/rand perhaps favored by the
stars that direct his destiny, includes on his costume the fleur de lis, symbol
of high spirituality. His arms and legs, like the others' chests, seem like
wood, a symbol perhaps, in Gurdjieffs terms, of his initial hypnotic condition.
S-Possession of The Two Worlds. The authentic hero overcomes the
risk of transforming into the ogre he had fought against and leams to use
"the possession of the two worids," an ability that implies not letting himself

** Chavez, founder of the National Institute of Cardiology, received numerous honorary

doctorates and national as well as international recognition.
lio Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Fig. 22. Remedios Varo, Retrato del doctor Ignado Chavez, 1957, Unknown Location (Photo:
Watter Gruen).

Ftg. 23. Remedios Varo, El minotauro. 1959. Unknown Location (Photo: Walter Gruen).
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 111

Fig. 24. Remedios Varo, Música soiar, 1955, Private Collection (Photo: Walter Gruen).

Fig. 25. Remedios Varo, Naturaleza muerta resucItarKio, 1963, Prívate Collection (Photo:
Watter Gruen).
112 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

be trapped by the "treasure," or rather, by conquered knowledge, and never

allowing the adventure to end. Varo's El minotauro (Fig. 23) from 1959, a
unique adaptation of the tragic mythological minotaur transformed and made
more complex by the artist, seems to allude to this phase of possession of
the two worlds indicated by Campbell. The minotaur is a key figure for the
surrealist movement*^ for its half human and half bull nature, as a
representation of the power of the forces of instinct and its dark labyrinth,
which suggests analogies with the world of the sub-conscious and
generates some associations to the surreal world that the artists of this
group were after. Varo, who also searched for liberation from the domain of
reason as the root of the evils that plagued the period between the two
world wars, assimilated the surrealist interest in the minotaur, adding other
particular meanings to it.
According to a version of the classic legend, Theseus managed to
escape from the labyrinth not by Ariadne's thread, but by his own luminous
crown which could light the darkest corners of the maze. Varo's minotaur,
with its various attributes, is Ariadne for being a woman, minotaur for its
animal horns and the work's title, and Theseus of its crown of light. Varo's
feminine minotaur is rational and irrational, passive and active, and victim
and hero. Its possession of the key held confidently in one of its hands
sheds some doubt upon the direction and motives of the apparent captivity.
The woman on the outside is just Ariadne. She is not free, but in the deep
labyrinth where one relives long lost experiences and, in contact with every
part of her being, she is transfomied into a minotaur and also Theseus.
Once her self-knowledge, her illumination, her complete and independent
transformation and personal accomplishment are achieved, she can enter
and leave the labyrinth at will, thusly possessing the two worids.
6-Freedom to Live, The Nature and Function of Final Grace. The
final phase of the heroic journey consists of what Campbell calls "the
freedom to live, the nature and function of the last grace". This is to say, the
absolute randomness with which the hero, now a mature and wise being,
manages to reconcile with death and, consequently, with life.
Many of Varo's most famous pieces represent the freedom to live,
understood as the fundamental task of the heroic joumey through the
metaphor of musical creation that for many civilizations had a mediating role

*^ The surrealist journal Minotaur, edited by Albert Skira betvreen 1933 and 1939, took its name
from this mythological being, a favorite of surrealist artists. On its covers, some of the most
outstanding masters of the group, such as Salvador Oali, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, and René
Magritte, illustrated the minotaur, recovering common symbols and enriching them with their
own references and personal styles. André Masson introduced the minotaur iconography into
the surrealist circle with his Masacre (1930-1934) and The Labyrínth (1938). For Picasso, the
minotaur was one of his favorite alter-«gos and a masculine symbol of irrational sexual energy.
Also, for some of Varo's favorite authors, such as Jorge Luis Borges in La cass de Asteríón
(1949), gave the theme of the minotaur a fascinating reinterpretation.
Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Remedios Varo 113

in the divine world. Varo relied on Pythagoras, a source of inspiration for

many of the esoteric thinkers who nourished Varo's own life and artistic
production. Along the Pythagorean line of thought, music was considered
eternal and through it one could achieve contemplation and knowledge
along with purification of the soul. According to the Pythagorian theory of
harmony or music of the spheres, the universe is an instrument that
produces a series of sounds through the movement of the spheres. Such
sound is not perceived by man who, after some time, became used to it.
Nevertheless, depending upon which sphere is moving, each sound is
different and the distances between the spheres or planets have the same
proportions as the musical scale, then considered harmonious. When all
sound simultaneously, they create perfect harmony.
In Varo's La creación de los pájaros (1958), a woman owl confers life
upon the birds, those creatures considered to be the mediators between
heaven and earth, through a feather connected to her heart through a
stringed musical instrument that hangs from her neck and a triangular
magnifying glass that multiplies the moonbeams. Also in Música solar
(1955; Fig. 24), the female hero, in total harmony with nature, stmms a
melody with the rays of the sun, which liberates all the plants and birds
trapped within paralyzing crystals and thus returns their color and
movement. Armonía (autorretrato sugerente) (1956), joins many of the
themes and metaphors that are characteristic of Varo's works mentioned
above. Alchemy, science, nature, culture, different times and worlds, all take
place within this exceptional workshop-laboratory in which the artist herself,
assisted by the fabulous beings who emerge from the walls, constructs the
harmony of the cosmos.
Naturaleza muerta resucitando (1963; Fig. 25) was the last work Varo
painted. The apparent paradoxical bringing to life of inanimate objects and
fruits that explode and release their seeds takes on meaning when we
consider that for Gurdjieff the so-called fourth path would allow the external
man to reach a state of quasi-interior man to form a magnetic center, a
necessary condition to breach the second threshold and to obtain the
second birth by beating death. Arturo Schwarz points out that "art is the
expression of the individual impulse to create, an impulse which lies in the
unfailing faith of man in immortality. Art attempts to elevate the
psychological being to the supernatural, and in the work of art, it aspires to
make eternal our much too mortal being.'"*^ For Varo, this extraordinary
miracle was achieved precisely through her pictorial production, which,
despite the passing of time, continues to reveai new and ever more
passionate metaphysical meanings.
Conciusion. Through her rich pereonai experiences, her wide-ranged
intellectual curiosity, her awareness of gender, and her poetic sensibility.

' Arturo Schwarz, Introduzione. Arte e Alchimia, Venice: 1986, 11. See also, Castells, 29.
114 Aurora, Vol. X, 2009

Varo achieved a unique wisdom and understanding of life and the creative
process. Through her original production, she was able to explore each and
every one of the phases of the "hero's path," a symbol of the process of
human individualization, because she herself traveled it through refiection
and observation of her self and the world.
Campbell believed that the dislocated Western society of the mid-
twentieth century, sadiy a still current situation in many ways, may be due to
the progressive discrediting of mythology and the exaggerated rationality of
the Western view of the cosmos. For this reason, symbolic images took
refuge in their place of origin, the subconscious, and humans lost their
capacity to share them as they had done previously. The deep
anthropological and metaphysical knowledge that Varo gained through
meditation and the wide spectrum of literary and religious sources that
fonmed her personal library enabled her to recover the archetypical
dimensions of human individualization, thus reaching tnjiy astounding
dimensions.
Varo's enigmatic characters, represented in their daily, scientific, and
artistic activities, sublimated by her detailed brushwork, reach the deepest
symbolic and psychological meanings, showing the experiences and
aspirations that motivate the human race. The psychological substrate,
common to all eras, that resides in the most intimate layers of our
subconscious, is poetically expressed in the works of Varo with an
extraordinarily suggestive communicative force. That, as I hoped to have
demonstrated, is worth exploring not only as individual works, but in her
artistic production as a whole from the perspective of the archetypical
symbolism of the hero's path.

Dina Comisarenco Mirkin is Professor of Art History at the Universidad Iberoamericana in

Mexico City, and a member of the Mexican National System of Research (SNI), She received
her Ph.D, from Rutgers University. Her scholarly interests are the interconnedions of gender
and culture in the history of modem and contemporary Mexican art. Among her latest works
are: "La representación de la experiencia femenina en Tina Modotti y Lola Alvarez
Bravo,',Revista de Estudios de Género La Ventana, Universidad de Guadalajara, XXVIII,
2008, 14&-190; Women, Agricultura and Civilization in Diego Rivera's murals of Chapingo,
Aurora, The Joumal of the History of Art, IX, 2008, 101-115, "7b Paint the Unspeakable:
Mexican Female Artists' Iconography during the 193O's and early 194O's,' Woman s Art
Joumal, XXIX/1, 2008, 21-32; and "Luna, Sol, ¿Yo? Frida o una alegoría real del México
posrevolucionario," in Frida de Frida. México, D.F., Fomento Cultura! Banamex, 2007, for which
she and her co-authors were awarded the Antonio Garcia Cubas prize by the Instituto Nacional
de Antropología e Historia (tNAH) of Mexico in 2008,
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