Beyond the Ice and the Fire
The painting Rose is closely connected to almost all the other painted artworks I have created: Lucia, Faith, Two Roads, Blue Star, Violet Flame, and Rebirth.
This was not intentional on my part, as I did not plan it this way. Over the years and through the development of these texts, it becomes increasingly clear that this is all part of a larger Plan from the World of Light. We are being told something, but what exactly is the message? This will become clear to you while reading. The order in which things happen, the chronology, is very important, as is my word that I am telling the Truth.
About the subtitle Beyond Fire and Ice
The subtitle Beyond Fire and Ice refers to a special song by the Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt, Dante’s Prayer. This song is about the path we take on Earth, through hell on our way to Heaven.
As you may know, Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265-1321) was an Italian writer and philosopher. He is the author of one of the greatest works in world literature: The Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia).
It is a poem about the journey of the Soul through the afterlife: through Hell (the Inferno), through Purgatory (Purgatorio), to Paradise (Paradiso). He was also a contemporary of Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), who also lived and worked in Florence. It is often said that with Giotto, the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, began. I seriously think that Dante laid the spiritual foundation for this and that Giotto elaborated on it in frescoes.
Below, you can see one of their main themes, the Last Judgment, as Giotto depicted it in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, based on Dante’s La Divina Commedia.
Below is a small excerpt of the text written and sung by Loreena herself.
Dante’s Prayer – Loreena McKennit
http://www.quinlanroad.com/
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
A request from Linda, 2010
Linda
Shortly after the passing of Linda, my beloved in the Afterlife (I now live with another beloved, Marianne :-)), I expressed to ‘Above’ that I would like to be in collaboration with the Hereafter for the rest of my life. I had already asked Linda to inspire me, if possible, but in the months following her death, I added this wish.
However, I am not clairvoyant: I cannot see them or talk to them. I do notice, however, through the many ‘coincidences’ how much they, the light beings who help me, are involved in everything I do. So, in a way, I am a medium. I have just always struggled to express that or… to write it down. There is a reason for that, and you can read the reason on this page: Atlantis Reloaded. By writing texts like this, and by describing all the paintings and objects I have created, how they came into being, what effects they have, and what special things happened during and after their creation, I cannot avoid it.
Before I start something new, there is usually a feeling that I can best describe as ‘a desire to create something.’ But I have no image of it, no representation, just a ‘feeling’ that I could at most describe using a lot of words. It is not as simple as, for example, saying that I want to create something with the theme of Friendship. That way you could be done with a simple red heart.
However, when you start to think about how you could depict friendship in a painting, the possibilities turn out to be endless. Every artist will give it a different expression. Every person who goes deep within themselves will give it a different expression. That is the beauty of Humanity: we are all one, but each one is unique.
Once I have started, it often turns out that the painting becomes completely different from what I initially thought. I have learned through experience that detours can also serve a purpose, or that an accident during the work is not really an accident, but that it can even be intentional, as in what happened with the painting Blue Star. The shortest path is rarely the fastest or the right path, and this often requires you to adapt and sometimes completely switch gears. I often struggle with that: I then resist, I can become angry… until I begin to realize that it may have been very good that this or that happened. Typical human, one might say. The Akaija also came about this way.
This painting, Rose, began in an unusual way. I believe it was the spring of 2010 when we were at medium Loes van Loon. She plays a significant role in the Akaija project, and I often mention her name. Loes is a clairvoyant woman in North Holland (the province that Amsterdam is part of). Together with her guide Hébenes, she has written several wonderful books about the Afterlife, and her messages have always proven to be very accurate. Moreover, her guides are very loving and direct (and confrontational if necessary), so it would be unwise and definitely not smart to ignore her words.
Note on Mediumship
Here I want to add a note, almost a disclaimer…
Using the messages conveyed through a medium has the disadvantage that you do not know, do not see, who exactly is giving you the message sort of thing. So the logical question is: How can you be sure that what is being conveyed through a medium is accurate?
After all, it is very easy to be deceived by a medium, isn’t it?
Yes indeed. Mediums have a rather poor reputation in western culture, especially in religious circles, and it is certainly true that there are many charlatans. This explains why many people want nothing to do with it. Linda and I have experienced this firsthand. That was a hard lesson!
Still this question also applies: How can you be sure that other people talk the Truth?
The fact that you can see someone does not guarantee that what they advise you is correct. In fact… what you do see can mislead you. He or she might give you advice while dressed in a neat suit, uniform, doctor’s coat, or in a super sexy body, but that beautiful body can sometimes be miles away from the essence that resides in that body. Just because someone is wearing a white doctor’s coat does not mean that person knows anything about health. After all, it is not forbidden to appear on television in a white doctor’s coat to suggest that you know everything about the medical profession. Television employs actors, not always, of course, but often.
If only we could see the inside, the ‘resident’ of the body better!
Does someone speak the Truth? How do you know that?
Let me give you an unpleasant example to clarify this problem… the Corona period, especially the years 2020 and 2021, just before and just after the rollout of the vaccinations. The media were flooded worldwide 24/7 with advice from ‘experts’ about how safe and effective they would be. But they were still experimental… the research had just begun. They couldn’t even be sure!
By now (summer 2024), it should be clear that the advice given over the past years by countless politicians and health professionals was not always based on Truth and Love. The misery they caused is unprecedented in world history, and reports are finally starting to emerge about what really happened and what is still happening: Declining birth rates and excess mortality in nearly every country, from the moment these experimental vaccines were introduced.
People trusted them blindly!
What matters is that you are always responsible for what you do with the words you hear, whether they are spoken by a medium, a politician, a doctor, a friend, or anyone else… Our life is our own responsibility given by ‘God’ or, if you will, by the Universe Source or the Allmighty, and that is a cosmic gift. No one, by Universal Law, is allowed to take that away from you, because the consequences are ultimately always yours: you will have to live with the consequences of the decision you made based on someone else’s advice.
That is the great lesson that humanity is currently learning. This applies to the Corona crisis, the Ukraine war, the Israeli genocide, and the climate crisis. These four themes are the curriculum for humanity at this time.
This means that it is incredibly important to check whether something is True. Fact-checkers and influencers would like you to think that only they possess the Truth. Of course, you often do not have the time and resources to check everything yourself. You also do not have all the information available, and often that information is shielded. So how do you find out?
That is precisely where your Heart can play a role, provided you are willing to listen to it. After all, the outside world calls much louder. The flashing images on TV, the screaming headlines, the tempting advertisements, the predicted profits easily drown out your Heart.
But you don’t have to watch TV, and you don’t have to read the newspaper! No one is forcing you! There are many other sources of information.
By your Heart (written with a capital letter), I mean your Inner Connection with the Higher, with God if you will, your inner voice, your Guide(s) or Guardian Angel(s), the Source of Love… whatever words you want to use. You surely understand me when I write it this way. That Connection to the ‘Higher’ is currently very weak in most people, and precisely because of that, they have become very manipulable. Dark forces take advantage of this; that is their nature.
What helps is to ask your Guide (or God or the Light world) to help you make the right decision, to gain insight. Then you will certainly receive answers, indications, hints, and you will see random messages, hear casual remarks that strangely linger in your mind. Do you pick them up? Or do you shrug them off and forget them again?
Realize this: Just by asking this question to ‘Above,’ you begin to take self-responsibility for the decision you are going to make, and you try not to place your responsibility outside of yourself. Whether you catch the answer or not, whether you are aware of it or not… that is not even so important anymore.
What matters is that you start looking for… and thus take responsibility for it.
That is the very first and very important step!
One of the goals we have set under the name Akaija & Art is to restore that Connection with the Higher, with Above, to become aware of that Connection. And also of our Connection with each other… We are one is central. And I am not talking about a religion, but about what has always been… rediscovering who we are, where we come from, how Life on Earth works, how the cosmos works.
We live on Earth to experience those laws, to learn to deal with them, to apply them. Those cosmic ‘laws’ take precedence over earthly laws, regardless of whether they are of a political, religious, or corporate nature. One of those cosmic laws is that you shall not harm or commit violence against one another, and that you shall allow each other to be free. This applies here on Earth, and the same applies to every life form in the Universe; it is a cosmic principle. The earthly word ‘law’ does not cover it as that is an ‘obligation’ that must be ‘enforced’ with certain ‘punishments.’ A cosmic principle is like: Action causes reaction. The reaction of your action will sooner or later come back to you. You could describe this principle as: what you radiate, you attract or what goes around comes around.
Cosmic principles apply to all of us. We should not dictate to each other, nor determine for another what you think is good for him or her. For children, it is of course temporarily necessary to support them, to guide them, to make decisions for them, and during that time our responsibility is even greater.
Returning to the messages from mediums. Keep in mind that a good medium will never want to push you in a particular direction. Light beings will always respect your Free Will. They live according to these cosmic laws or principles.
Well, where was I? Let me continue telling… Linda’s Request. That was in 2010.
This painting, Rose, started unusually. We were at Loes’s, and of course, Linda is always part of such visits, happy as always to speak with us (Wim and Marianne) and pass on things. On the Other Side, they know everything about us, and also when there is a chance to pass something on to us directly. That is the special nature of the work that mediums like Loes do… being a channel for that other World where our invisible loved ones reside, and later we all will too.
At some point, Loes told me that Linda had a special request for me, and of course, I was free to refuse, she added immediately. “Normally,” she said, passing on Linda’s words, “you get an impulse to create something new from our world, but this is different. Now Linda is asking me… to ask you… if you would paint something for her, because she has a special intention with it.”
Of course, I wanted to do that! I was even eager to. ‘Just the idea of refusing,’ I thought to myself.
Loes said that this painting would be a rose. A very special rose, because it had to be made in a certain way… as if the rose is given from the Afterlife to the one who views the painting. It is meant as support, as comfort for all those who are struggling in life on Earth: lonely people, sick people, elderly people who feel forgotten, desperate people. It is meant to remind people that they are not and never truly alone, but always surrounded by Love, even if they do not see it, even if they do not know it, even if they deny it, and even if they are going about it the wrong way.
Loes made a rough sketch and mentioned that Linda had called upon the help of an ‘old master’ (whom she had seen with Loes once) to guide me in working out certain details well, particularly one specific detail. The sketch that Loes made is depicted here. The partly unseen words in Dutch read: I give you clarification. (Ik geef je verheldering).
With that remark about ‘an old master,’ I felt uneasy. I wondered how that ‘old master’ would judge my workspace. It could definitely be a bit neater and tidier. So the first thing I did when I got home was to take care of that room. :-).
Face it... You can't avoid it
Of course, I was quite happy with this request from Linda, but I did wonder about something… why did she have to ask me that through Loes? Couldn’t it just have been done through an impulse to create ‘this or that’, just like before? Why all the fuss?
Nevertheless Loes had already passed on so much that matched so eerily that I dared to trust that this course of events must have a special reason as well. However, I can already say that it would take years before I began to get an idea of that reason. I am talking about 2010 when this was happening, and I am (re)writing this text in the year 2024. A lot has happened, and I now have much more insight into the backgrounds. If you want to read something about that, then read The Role of Atlantis in the Akaija story.
A few months later, I got around to starting this painting, Rose, but I noticed that it wasn’t easy. To begin with, that ‘old master’ was… bothering me, to put it mildly :-). Loes had given the name of this master: Lion. A code name, of course, that much is clear.
It sounds nice, of course, and you quickly feel special when someone tells you that this or that master is working through you, but it seemed more of a burden than a blessing to me. Moreover, to be honest, it raised doubts for me about Loes as a medium, because where had I not heard this before… mediums telling you that you are special… Everyone is special! Or that someone very special will do something just for you.
With Loes we had experienced so many extraordinary things that I took her very seriously, and so did Linda. She had already proven herself, so to speak, but I still had to be on my guard, always keep thinking and feeling for myself. The bit about that master, Lion was bothering me. Maybe that was exactly the point :-).
Because the first thing I did before I started painting was vacuum my workspace and tidy everything up. Just imagine what ‘he’ would say if he saw my workroom. That was simply unacceptable! Nothing wrong with cleaning, of course :-). But painting was also much harder because I kept asking myself: Am I doing it right? Would he mean this? Shouldn’t it be different? This looks like nothing! Etc., etc. In other words… I was getting quite nervous about this and I mentally scoffed at Linda with remarks like: “Well, thanks a lot! Oh, how happy I am with this!”
But to return to that old master Lion… Before I started the painting Rose, but after we had been to Loes, I first made another painting, titled Face It or Rebirth. I still don’t know which title is the ‘correct’ one. But Face It was the first title I thought of. Now that I write this: maybe that title was meant as a message for myself: Face it! Look at it! You can’t avoid it…
I had a problem while making that painting that I won’t describe in detail here, but in short, it came down to this… I was trying to visualize a mathematical principle. I didn’t understand how to do that because it just didn’t feel right… it didn’t feel good. I kept searching and searching, and only around lunchtime, just before I wanted to stop, tired from the frustrated search for the right movement, I painted a diagonal line across the middle of the painting as an experiment, and then suddenly everything changed! That was the exact solution to the problem I had been struggling with for hours, which I hadn’t seen all that time. Relieved, I stopped to really eat something before continuing.
In the living room, with a plate of bread or whatever it was on my lap, I did something I never did during the day: I turned on the TV. And I was surprised by a documentary about… exactly that same old master that Loes had talked about!
“It can’t be true, can it?” I carefully concluded, doubting my eyes and what just happened. “Is he already helping me?”
I just couldn’t ignore it… because the theme, the central symbol of Face It was one of the most important symbols that this master had dealt with in his time, the torus. Also, from Loes I had understood that he, the personality he was then, still inspires artists and inventors all over the Earth today. Face it… you can’t avoid it… hmm.
Below, you can see a few stages of the painting work on Rose.
I started on the painting Rose in the spring of 2010, but I worked with long intervals because it wasn’t progressing. I was not satisfied with what I was creating, and I felt very insecure. I think that had to do with that ‘old master’ (for sure 🙂 ). As a result, I became blocked and it was difficult to continue. I couldn’t easily surrender to the process of painting. In the autumn of 2010, it came to a complete standstill. At that point, I had roughly reached the 3rd stage as photographed just above. Quite nice, but…
Here I need to add something, another remark, so to speak…
During the conversation where Linda brought Lion in as the old master, Loes had mentioned that she needed him to achieve something he was a specialist in. Linda’s intention was that the rose should be a gift from the Light to the people on Earth. So, the rose had to somehow detach from the painting, come forward to ‘hang’ in front of it, emerge from the painting so that people could, so to speak, take it as a gift.
To accomplish this, a certain technique was necessary that Lion mastered like no one else. Loes talked about it and sketched it while she spoke: a greenish ‘shadow’ needed to be applied alongside the red rose. That was what was shown to her, but that requires a specific technique, a very particular shade of green, a certain way of applying it, to achieve this effect.
I had of course remembered that well, and you can see that I have been ‘playing’ with it in various ways. Could he mean this? Should it be like this? Or like that? Am I doing it right? Sigh :-).
Eliza White Buffalo - 2011
In February 2011, Marianne and I came into contact with Eliza White Buffalo, a medium in Northern Ireland, through Facebook, no less. We were looking for Native American contacts. Eliza was not Native American (and at her request, I will not mention her Irish name), but she was deeply involved in that world. She has a special mission for the world, which she shares in her book ‘Two Roads.’ She sent us a copy, and I sent her an Akaija. You can read all about the symbol Two Roads in Eliza’s role in this here.
I was very impressed by her book Two Roads, which is why I wrote this review on Amazon:
“Although English is not my native language, I read this book in just a few days. I was particularly impressed by Rose and the incredible and beautiful story presented in this book. As an author, I know from experience how reluctant publishers are to release spiritual novels like this. They prefer to publish educational books with pictures, research results, charts, and testimonials. Apparently, that sells better.
But Eliza, together with Nicholas Black Elk, proves with this book that this kind of information cannot be taught in a documentary report or by listing facts and concepts. Because how do you teach… Love?
To help the reader understand the true significance of such transformation processes, you must immerse him or her in that process. This way, you experience the moments of despair and joy alongside Rose. Only then can you begin to understand what happens on a deep soul level.
Rose’s experiences are unique in their intensity, but somehow we all undergo such processes, and often we lament our situation to Above, calling for help, wondering why this is happening to us. Eliza and Black Elk provide the answer, not by simply giving an answer, but by allowing you to experience it yourself. In this way, you will never forget it, as it becomes a part of you! In my eyes, that is what makes this book so special, a combination of an educational book and an extremely exciting story.
Eliza… thank you for living your life and sharing it with us!”
When my friend Marianne started reading the book, she exclaimed after just the first two pages, “I know for whom the painting is!”
“Oh really?” I asked, wondering what she had read that I had apparently overlooked.
“What name does Eliza use in her book?” she asked.
Oh my goodness…! Indeed! Rose… And the painting had already received that name, even in English: ‘Rose.’
We both thought Linda must have a special connection with Rose. Whether that connection truly exists, we dared not say. We thought I should ask Linda sometime. Given the remarkable events surrounding the creation of this painting, we certainly began to suspect it. Be that as it may… Linda recently indicated through Loes that she has this painting hanging as an astral reproduction in her House in the Spheres (I don’t know how else to refer to such a ‘location’). I now wonder if that copy is the original and if the painting I made is a reflection of it. Anyway, perhaps it is not so much about the paint colors used, what earthly eyes can see, but rather about the energy with which it was painted, the Love embedded in it. And that is very visible on an astral level, but not for us humans on Earth, except for some mediums. So with that, I had already received Linda’s answer… already :-).
So it was initially made for Linda, and it tells her story, her journey through fire and ice, always heading towards the Light, perhaps with a detour, but always accompanied, never alone. It is, in fact, a very different way of visualizing Dante’s Divine Comedy like Giotto did.
And it also tells Eliza’s life in this incarnation, because when you read Rose’s story, you will understand that this is truly a journey through fire and ice. It is even the case that at the moment I am editing this paragraph (August 2024), we are with Eliza in Northern Ireland, and she has just told us about the new developments in her life related to this.
The rose is, as it were, drawn upward by the Light from the depths. That is exactly how I experienced it during Linda’s illness in 2001. Time and again, at moments when we were once again struck down by yet another disappointment, I felt as if it had to be this way… no matter how miserable what was happening was, there was a very good reason for it. Then I felt something of the special energy of ‘you are not truly alone.’ The feeling was there then, very fleeting, but I only understood it afterward. Linda received healing during this difficult time, and if you read Jonette Crowley’s words on the page ‘Professional Insights,’ you will understand that I also needed healing. Also, and strangely enough, guiding Linda during this dreadful illness and even her passing was part of my healing. Jonette conveys: “He (the Akaija) is not hers; she only knew how to find him because it was part of her destiny to… open you and receive him. And you were opened by your receptivity to her.”
Linda’s story and also Rose’s story is the story of everyone. We all walk a road (the two roads in fact) that is sometimes very heavy; we are all guided from the Light. We usually do not realize it, we overlook it, but we are never alone. No one is left to their fate, no matter how heavy their path is. In fact, as Linda surprised me one day through Loes: “It’s no matter even if you do it all wrong.”
Yet… sometimes we feel so abandoned that we blame the Light for having forsaken us, but it is not that the Light no longer shines on us; rather, we shut ourselves off from it by blaming the Light for what happens to us because we have not yet understood the Cosmic Instructions.
That is the unconditional Love that surrounds us all. Or as Loes puts it in her books: We are all on the path to Perfection, connected by the Light.
Marisun
The painting Marisun was created by me in 2002 for Marianne as the very first painting after Linda passed away. For me, it was a challenge to find out if I was truly inspired. Once it was finished, I could no longer ignore that, as you can read on the page dedicated to Marisun.
This painting actually represents the Sun Cross, and the Sun Cross is essentially the same symbol as the Two Roads symbol, but illuminated in a different way, viewed from a different angle of knowledge. The emphasis is not on the cross as a symbol, but on solar energy as a transformative source of power and life. Two Roads is about the Heart as the Red Stone of Power.
For me, the Sun is the origin of the fundamental cosmic energy – Light is merely one component of that – that makes Earth habitable and also the most important form of energy on which astrology is based. This is related to the energy of the magnetic fields of the Sun.
Only in 2023 and thereafter was this information further developed, and I began to realize that the Sun is on the brink of a cyclical change that will profoundly affect all life on Earth. The Sun has been doing this for decades, but it is becoming increasingly clear. And time is running out, as a significant change, a major transformation, is coming. It is too far-reaching to explain that here and now, but it forms the core of the message that is conveyed through all these paintings and symbols from the Light. Something is being communicated, and understanding it is important. With that knowledge, we have the opportunity to navigate the transformation successfully.
Lucia - White Rose - Two Roads
Above, I refer to the painting Two Roads, which is also the symbol Two Roads.
I had already created the painting Lucia in 2002. The title of that painting is the real name of medium Loes: Lucia. Lucia means Light. When you look at this painting, you see that it is actually a cross, and the Cross stands for Love. Now, I am certainly not religious, but I have great respect for the role that Jesus plays. And with good reason, because if there is anyone who can be mentioned in the same breath as Love, it is he, one of the greatest world teachers. By the way… Jesus was also a medium. He does not belong to any religion. The books of the Bible were originally written by mediums and later edited by people who were not always connected as the original writers were. Thus, much original information has been lost from the Bible.
In any case, it is about Love, whatever religious interpretation you want to give it. Love is the only thing that matters.
The cross, on which Jesus died before rising again (resurrection, rebirth…) also stands for Love, and therefore for Light.
Note… at the top, you can also see a rose, a white rose. If you could view this rose from above, you would again see a perfect round bowl above which the rose hangs, just like with Two Roads and with Faith. And the rose is positioned above a cross!
Something strange happened when I framed this painting in a metal frame with thick matting and a glass plate in front of it. A few weeks later, I noticed that the white rose, for which I had used chalk pastel among other materials, was stuck to the inside of the glass plate. This was obviously a result of static electricity from the glass plate pulling the chalk-like powder I had used to create the rose towards it. That was not my intention; it just happened. I wanted to achieve a certain effect in the white colors of that rose, and I found that using pastel chalk worked best for me. Well, that pastel chalk was now stuck to the inside of the glass, so the rose was now floating above the cross or in front of the painting. Unfortunately, it was lost during photographing, but the message was already given then. So the rose, whether it is white or red, floats above the cross! It symbolizes a gift to you, from the Hereafter, from the Light. The painting Lucia also shows this in the form of flowers abundantly flowing over the Holy Grail.
When we offered Loes this painting Lucia in 2002, she only wanted to accept a reproduction of it. During that visit, I heard her make a casual remark, namely that I would be making a very large cross. “So big!” she said, holding her hand about a meter above the ground.
I then thought of a metal cross object and was already wondering how I would get all that silver. That would be quite an expense.
Really? What did I know…
Now, this cross has become the painting/object Two Roads, the large Two Roads. You can read that story on the relevant page. What I want to emphasize here is that there is also a rose depicted on it. That rose symbolizes the Heart. Inside that rose is the Red Stone of Power… the Red Stone of Strength. Read that page to learn the longer story about it.
Lion’s inspiration
What matters is that the painting, when it was finished, stood in our living room for weeks, and when we sat on the couch, I often looked at it, meditated on it, and I was pleased with the result. But every time I looked at it for a bit longer, I noticed something that I definitely had not painted. I saw very faintly a greenish haze, like a border around that red rose. Almost mint green. When I blinked my eyes, that border disappeared again. But when I looked again for a moment, I saw the mint green border, just as Loes had drawn it, like a kind of shadow, coming around the rose. I asked Marianne if she saw it too, but she did not.
Only then… finally… did the penny drop.
I very subtly airbrushed that greenish ‘border’ along the rose in exactly the color I thought I saw, almost invisible.
Thank you, Lion!