Once again, I'm delighted to be able to publish a picture that I commissioned from the fantastic artist  Jadan, who is one of my all-time favorites.

With the “Year of the Horse” according to the Chinese calendar ahead of us, I wanted to see a Far Eastern-inspired scene realized.


This time, we were musically inspired by the song “Unforgiven” by Thomas Bergersen, whose album “Battlecry” has already brought many an epic battle scene to life before our eyes.


Finally, I wanted to subtly incorporate the symbol of Yin and Yang (Taijitu) into the image. If you take a step back, you can surely recognize the symbolism – in my opinion, Jadan has once again done an excellent job here!

In Taoist philosophy, Yin and Yang do not represent good vs. evil – they are rather two aspects of a whole... two directions of the same reality. Yin and Yang are not subject to any evaluation... it is about principles and change in a dynamic polarity.

Thus, the fight between the two characters is not an attempt to defeat the other – because neither has moral superiority. Rather, the principle of Yin and Yang unfolds between them – a constant change in which each force finds its origin and its limit in the other... both know that they cannot exist without the other.


~~~ ☯ ~~~

Slowly, the sun sank behind the mountains, melting the gold of the day into soft evening tones.
Beneath it, the wide grassy plain spread out like a sea of stalks.

Above the peaks, a last strip of embers glowed before night soon spread its veil.
There they met: the stallion and the mare.

Two currents that had orbited each other since the beginning of time.

He was black as a moonless night, yet enveloped in a robe of light fabric that seemed to capture the fading light.
She was white as freshly fallen snow in the silence of the high mountains, yet clothed in dark robes that wrapped around her form like shadows.

The air between them was tense—invisible and charged.

In their hands rested lances, their tips seeking each other without touching.

A mild evening breeze glided across the plain,
making the grass whisper in soft waves,
ruffling manes, tails, and robes,
as if nature itself knew the rhythm of this encounter.

They looked at each other.
Not fleetingly...
Not hostile...
Just knowing, like day and night meeting each other.

And just as the sun gives way to the moon without one defeating the other, this encounter also seemed to be part of an eternal cycle.
A circle that was constantly redrawn.

~

No call broke the silence - only a breath.
A barely noticeable shift in weight.
A tremor in the grass,
a flicker in the twilight.

Then they moved

The stallion sprang forward, gripping the lance with both hands.
The mare responded at the same moment and turned in a flowing movement

Her dark robe described a semicircle,
carrying his force further... absorbing it... and directing it
When their weapons clashed, the air vibrated with a clear, deep sound.

Light and shadow intertwined.
He pressed forward... she dodged
She countered... he jumped back

And as if in a dance, they alternately led each other's movements.
Their robes swirled through the air like spirals... drawing arcs in the twilight.

Black in white.
White in black.

Two halves that struggled to maintain balance and at the same time conditioned each other.
Neither sought the fatal blow.
Neither retreated definitively.

They struggled to maintain their balance instead of letting it flow.
And in the midst of the storm of fabric, wind, and breath,
their lances became entangled.

They stood so close to each other that their breath mingled.
There was a dark core in his eyes.
In hers, a bright spark.

For a heartbeat, there was no thrust, no evasion...
Just a circle that was almost closed.

But something inside them held them back.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
But the refusal to recognize the other within themselves – and to accept it.

~~~ ☯ ~~~