“Harnassing the powers of the body gives the Daoist access to a unified, cosmic energy that allows him or her to create thunder and lightning. Daoist scriptures often speak of “an Original Energy that gives you control over thunder and lightning, clear sky and rain, and life and death”. It is obtained through a meditational regime focusing on the energies of the five organs (liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys) of your body, a sublimation of the five phases (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), which are also expressed in five correlative colors (blue, red, yellow, white, black). The painting depicts the process of creation of this cosmic power, in which the five energies are represented by the five colors in dynamic cloud forms – the traditional shape of energy in Chinese art – unleashing the forces of thunder and lightning.”

(Lennert Gesterkamp, 2025)