ShinsungHwa: Visualizing the Spiritual Energy of an Anonymous Client With No Path to the Spiritual Core (2020)
What is ShinsungHwa?
ShinsungHwa is a unique form of spiritual art where drawings emerge through spontaneous, flowing movements. Artists tap into their subject’s energy and let Qi(氣) guide their hands, creating geometric patterns that serve as a universal language.
On a ShinsungHwa Without the ‘Path to the Spiritual Core’
Not long ago, I completed a commissioned ShinsungHwa for a client—one that turned out a little different from the rest. The ‘path to the spiritual core’—that steady, upward line often rising from the head toward the higher realms—was nowhere to be seen. I’m sharing this with the client’s permission. Instead, the image revealed an infinity symbol, bridging the spiritual core and the client’s own sphere.
Usually, the ‘path to the spiritual core’ appears as a clean, vertical line—sometimes a coiled thread, sometimes layered into a double strand. Its tip marks the exact point of the spiritual core. ShinsungHwa artists like myself often interpret its height as one clue to how deeply the core is rooted in the spiritual domain—but height alone never tells the whole story. In ShinsungHwa, symbols shift their meaning depending on their placement and how they interact with each other.
Over the years, I’ve encountered several ShinsungHwa where the path is not visible at all. This doesn’t necessarily mean the path is absent—it could be hidden behind other elements or omitted intentionally to make space for a more significant symbol.
Here are several ShinsungHwa cases.
- In one past-life reading ShinsungHwa, an expanding field of energy seemed to take over the role of the path.
- In part of the ShinsungHwa of the Korean prophet Namsago, a powerful downward curve of energy flowed from the spiritual core, dominating the whole image.
- In the ShinsungHwa of Buddhist master Ilta, a radiant halo surrounding the body took precedence over any vertical line.
- In Nisargadatta Maharaj’s ShinsungHwa, the halo itself seemed to encompass the path entirely.
These variations remind me that the absence of the path is never a flaw—it’s a design choice, a reflection of the unique spiritual structure at work. It can suggest that the self and the spiritual core are connected in a different way, or that the ShinsungHwa has chosen, so to speak, to speak through other symbols instead.
