Oil and Gold leaf on Linen Rotunda Canvas 50cm long by 40cm tall by 3cm deep

The Austrian mystic Guido von List is pictured with a chimerical wolpertinger animal on his head. Part Owl, squirrel and deer. This Austrian taxidermy folk art tradition was very popular in late 1800's whilst Guido was working on his seminal text the Secret of the Runes. His main thesis was to uncover the syncretism of a pagan believe system interwoven into the Habsburg Christian cultural paradigm. He discovered new levels of meanings in the ancient runic alphabet Armanen Futharkh. List promoted a religion termed Wotanism, which he saw as the exoteric, outer form of pre-Christian Germanic religion, while Armanism was the term he applied to what he believed were the esoteric, secret teachings of this ancient belief system. He believed that while Wotanism expounded polytheism for the wider population, those who were members of the Armanist elite were aware of the reality of monotheism. This painting pays homage to his magical system and 3 of his runes form part of the composition.