This painting could be included as part of my planetary series, though it is more about the astrological sun signs of Libra and Scorpio.

Libra is the mid point of all the signs in the zodiac, between the daylight and night time signs. It is the only sign represented by an inanimate object, a set of scales. The scales are a symbol of justice, that we see every where in the law courts.

Here I have chosen to represent Libra as Anubis who is an Egyptian god of the underworld, said to have invented embalming. He is together with Thoth a judge of souls, here he holds in one hand the feather of truth against which all souls are measured for their lightness. in the other hand, the heart of a deceased soul.

The female figure, representing Scorpio is a little more complex. Scorpio is ruled by the planet Pluto, god of the underworld, but I wanted to represent the plutonic energy in feminine form, the obvious choice was Kali, who is the destructive warrior /slayer side of Devi the mother goddess.

In her hands she holds; an egg which is a symbol of life, a skull which is a symbol of death, a dagger which is a means of slaying, and a serpent which is a symbol of transformation, like the sign of Scorpio, from scorpion to Phoenix.

On the other pair of hands she shows the symbols for Pluto, one mundane and the other (now more favoured in the astrological world) more esoteric.

The legs are made of scorpion tails, which is something that I added and is not part of the Kali myth.
There is also another myth which relates to this figure, she is called Tlazolteotl, and is part of an Aztec myth. She is the goddess of pleasure, intoxication and death. Her name means 'dirty lady' and she is associated with witchcraft and sexual passion. A man's virtue was tested by her, he failed by succumbing to her charms and trying to embrace her, the gods punished him by cutting off his head and turning him into a scorpion.

I chose to execute this painting in encaustic wax, as I thought the fiery element suited the subject, the molten wax being applied and then finished with a blow torch. The ground on which I painted was prepared with volcanic sand, both black and white, which I had bought back from Lanzarote a few years ago.