Journey of the Wounded Healer (Panel 2 of 3) by Alex Grey

In the first panel we see the self trapped in a dizzying vortex of evolutionary descent, paralleling the hallucinatory descent of the initiate shaman into the underworld or realm of the dead. The prisoner yearns for freedom and becomes sick with the materialist limitations of his genetic chains represented by entrapment in a spiraling DNA molecule.In the central panel the self explodes into space, dismembering into a mysterium tremendum, a powerful confrontation with forces on all levels of reality; subatomic, cellular, planetary, galactic, psychical, spiritual. The energy which animates the All, the force of God, erupts through the embodied self and destroys identification with the sickly contracted ego, opening the self to merge with new powers. An alchemical serpent power with three heads (representing body, mind, and spirit) weaves an integrating and transmuting energy which binds together the new self.In the final panel the reintegrated man ascends into the middle and upper worlds