It has been many years since a beautiful symbol caught my eye. Until that moment I knew nothing about its meaning, but I was intrigued and I felt the need to draw it. Soon after I learned it was the Om, OHM or AUM symbol with its roots in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. I learned that This symbol has so many meanings in it’s beautiful shape.It’s considered to be the very first sound of the universe or the whole universe joined into a single sound. By singing or chanting AUM we vibrate with the sound of the universe. By doing so it is called a mantra. A mantra is a sound, word or phrase that is repeated during a meditation or prayer. The word mantra comes from Sanskrit and it literally means freeing the mind. By focusing your attention on a word or sentence, you give your thinking a job while meditating. This makes you less likely to wander off. There are many mantras. One of the most practised mantras is Ohm mani padme hum. 
Now let’s take a closer look at the symbol Om itself and what it means.







As you can see there are curves and lines. They represent our five states of conciousness.  The lower left curve represents the conscious, waking state of being.The top left curve is our unconscious state.The lower right curve is our dream state, the state between being awake and being unconscious.The semicircle at te top is calles the Maya state. Maya means illusion, the biggest obstacle to spiritual development.The dot at the top represents the absolute state. It is the highest state of conciousness, the ultimate state of spiritual bliss when you can just be.
Using only a black fineliner and a cheet of thick  aquarel paper I can totally concentrate on which shapes and forms comes to mind when decorating the OHM Symbol. From the tiniest details to the bigger outer shapes. After drawing many Om symbols I decided it was time to move on and discover symbols with other meanings though the Om will always have a special place in my heart.I hope my work radiates the nice  feelings I felt when creating it