The Planetary Archons

ByVeronica Leandrez

This is a series of contemporary male portraits that reimagines the ancient Gnostic idea of the Archon through the faces of figures who have come to embody particular forms of masculine power in the modern world. In Gnostic cosmology, the archons are rulers of the planetary spheres: intermediary powers standing between humanity and the transcendent divine source. They govern not only a physical cosmos, but also the forces that shape human consciousness—desire, identity, conflict, communication, authority, illusion, limitation, and fate. This series relocates that cosmology into the present. Rather than depicting gods, the paintings assign contemporary cultural figures to planetary archetypes. Each portrait becomes a confrontation between ancient cosmology and modern power. The individual is simultaneously a historical person and a symbolic mask: a vessel through which the psychological and political qualities of a planet are explored. The portraits are therefore not intended as literal statements about the people depicted. They are archetypal transformations—using recognizable contemporary faces to ask what the planetary powers might look like if they appeared in our own civilization. Together, the portraits form a contemporary pantheon of planetary power. Mercury governs information. The Sun governs attention and identity. Mars governs force and conquest. Neptune governs illusion and collective imagination. And there are more to come... The remaining planetary figures extend the system into other dimensions of contemporary power: desire, wealth, law, limitation, time, technology, sexuality, expansion, and social order. The ancient Gnostic question remains at the center of the series: Who—or what—governs human consciousness? But in this contemporary version, the archons no longer appear as distant supernatural rulers hidden beyond the stars. They appear through the faces of our own age: politicians, entrepreneurs, communicators, technological visionaries, and cultural icons. The paintings invite the viewer to look beyond the individual portrait and recognize the archetype operating through the individual. And the question is... Are we ruled by the archons—or can consciousness see through them?

5 artwork(s)