For this year’s International Self-Portrait Day, I’ve created this follow-up to the project I completed a year ago for @leticiagillettart ‘s course on Schoolism.

This is a scene that occurs for me poetically and psychologically again and again, which is me jaunting into the past to protect the younger version of myself. In a sense, this is happening literally, because the body experiences trauma as if it were happening now.

In the tradition of Odysseus, I’m depicting the current version of me as wearing attire and wielding implements I’ve inherited from deities who’ve guided me over the years:

On my torso, I wear the armor of Athena.

Around my neck, I wear the protective “sa” scarf of Anpu (Anubis).

Underneath that scarf, I wear a white mantle with an Asian-dragon brocade, which symbolizes the purity of Vajrasattva (i.e., the insight of non-dualism).

From my belt loop, I carry the cane of Legba, with which he taught me to harness the swirling energies of the Crossroads.

Around my waist hangs the chain of Kronos.

From that chain hangs a skull that belongs, in a sense, to every deity in this list, but especially the chthonic ones.

From that skull hangs the iron hook of White Mahakala, my yidam. I have a fuller form of the iron hook tattooed on the back of my right arm (thanks to @tattoo.chavez).

In my right hand, I wield the harpē, the sickle-shaped dagger of Kronos, with which his grandson Hermes severed the head of the one-hundred-eyed Argos.

In my left hand, I carry Hekate’s wheel as a shield.

Around both wrists, I wear bracers with the crossed keys of Hekate and Legba.

On my feet, I wear the winged boots of Hermes.

And over my heart, I wear a jade pendant of Quanyin, styled after the one my late grandmother used to wear.