With the ornate border representing the gated fence surrounding Eden, the viewer is given a hint that this icon represents something profoundly generative. Perhaps it is the riot of foliage and color. Perhaps it is the cascading iconographic mountains called “gorki” that represent the variegated paths taken in ascending to spiritual wholeness. Perhaps it is the strange bright red pod-shaped pillow upon which an adolescent Christ reclines. Strangely, his halo bears an eight-pointed star. Strangest of all is that in the center of the icon is one open eye.
If it were possible to detect time in the instant of God’s creation, this icon represents the second half of God’s creative action and the eight-pointed star in his halo visually indicates that this “event” occurs prior to Christ’s incarnation. Here, Christ is the spoken Word of the Father through whom the Father said, “Let there be….”
In the second “half instant,” resting on a pod-shaped pillow, is the Logos Spermatikos, Christ, the seed-Word, who imprinted a bit of Himself inside every person. This very particle of the seed-Word is called the Image of God. The inclusion of The Unsleeping Eye in this exhibit highlights a major theme of the Prosopon School and its method. The Image of God within us is like a seed, covered over with layers of dirt, which needs watering, warmth, and light to push past earthen clay and burst into bloom in the light of sun. The seed-Word within each person is watered, warmed, and given light by noetic energy sent from God’s Holy Spirit. This noetic energy is sometimes called “angelic energy,” so it is often visually represented in iconography by angels.
In The Unsleeping Eye, we witness a type of pre-incarnation Annunciation. The mother of God, Mary, holding a scroll that reads, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” and the Angel Gabriel offering a cross, bending toward the seed-Word, humbly ask that he make manifest his Image within humanity. The original Paradise was created to be a training ground for humankind, a place of preparation for the future meeting of God in the Divine Paradise.
A truncated angel flies toward Christ with the tools of the passion. It is as if everything in heaven and earth is turned toward the young Christ, calling him into the world of his creation, knowing that the moment of the revelation of the Image of God is the same moment as his sacrifice. “Behold,” says the Psalmist, “he that keeps watch over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” The unsleeping eye of Christ watchfully prepares for his holy work.