Cilla Conway

The Devas of Creation

You may not have come across the Devas of Creation. If not, welcome! If you have, this will be a reminder to revisit their incredible universe.

Devas have been seen and talked about for at least 4000 years by Sanskrit scholars and priests. They were seen as gods (like Shiva, god of creation and destruction, and Vahyu, god of fire. Today we experience them as primordial energies, invisible energy patterns in theuniverse, which contain the blueprints for every aspect of existence, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the universe itself. I had come across the Devas in Finhorn, Scotland, but it was only in 2002 that they called me into their world – rather as the Fool had called me so many years before.

In November 2002, I went to a talk on angels (probably the first, and last, of my life). At the time there were scores of angel cards on the market but most consisted of effete, anaemic creatures., like the sweet Victorian cherubs whose very creation I found an affront. So at the end of the talk, I said as much to the speaker, ending with ‘someone should paid a deck of angels as they really are – if you met one, you’d be shaking for a week’. I added ‘maybe I should paint it’. (I had already painted my first Tarot, but that was all – it hadn’t even been accepted for publication at that stage.) The speaker – no doubt wondering who this crass female was, said, ‘Go for it.’

Next morning, I woke up thinking why not? After all, everything I painted were energy beings (at the time I called them eldils, spirits of planets), so why not try for angels as I saw them? I pulled out some paints and a bright yellow card, and began. What appeared wasn’t an angel, but it was definitely a Deva – the Deva of the Sun.

The power of that first card shook me, but (as I’d already been introduced to the Devas in Findhorn), I wasn’t too surprised, and continued painting for a week or so. Then came The Grace and Ecstasy. I had never painted anything so numinous and, in fact, hadn’t considered that I could paint anything like that. My work to date had been pretty dark. It seemed that the angelics had decided to show me what real power was!

With these cards under my belt, I continued painting, and gradually saw that the images were forming a kind of story – my view of Creation. There were The Unmanifest, pure energies that were creation itself (I also had three images that were before creation itself – what the Kabbalah calls Ein Soph, and Ein Soph En); then creation itself, and the highest shining energies like The Grace, Ecstasy, Love, Majesty, Flight. I could see that the power would then start to diffuse slightly, and we would get the fundamental laws of the universe, numinous qualities, and then, as the energies slow and diffuse more, we would get the shadows – fundamentally important but not particularly attractive energies, which we ignore at our peril, as they are our greatest teachers.

As I see it, creating the physical Universe – the Manifest – would be the most difficult act of divine Consciousness. Energies such as Love and Compassion are part of that Consciousness, but to make energies physical must be a million times harder. The creative Being must have reached through into the void in itseslf (the Shadow part of Divinity?) and from that void, forms the swirling mass of gaseous energy which become the stars, the galaxies and, in an obscure part of one of the magnificent spiral nebulae, our Sun. Gradually the planets become part of the Sun’s solar system, and after many millions of years, tiny living cells form. Out of those miniscule atoms of life emerges the amazing diversity of life on this planet – life we now take for granted but, for all we know, is the only place this extraordinary even happened.

We can contact the Devas easily enough – walk outside and become aware of the bird song, insects on the wing, the seeds from the trees. The universe is alive, and conscious. Now ask yourself if there’s anything that is calling to you. Some find this awareness difficult, some find it easy. Even if you live in a high-rise, you can stretch your awareness out past the walls, to the sky, clouds, and stars – or as you walk along, extend yourself out and down to the earth on which you walk. The Devas are waiting to talk to you.

This deck was printed in 2014 by my publishing company (cc3 publications, London), and is by far one of the most profound decks I have produced. Its companion deck, the Multi-Dimensional Devas, which (in my view) is probably by most beautiful deck, is also now available (multidimensionaldevas.com).

“I want to also thank you so much for sharing your beauty with us! This deck has struck a deep chord with me: both satisfying a desire for more abstract oracles (and abstract beauty) – form is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but often quite limiting – as well as stirring the desire in me to nurture my own painterly expression! I also find your life path very interesting. I loved what you said about it being no wonder that you were depressed because you were working a 9-5. I semi-quit my job in January this year – it’s wonderful!”

 

N Simpson – February 2019