Rebecca Rachael Youssefi

What is your artwork about?

Very basically, my work is all about spirituality. It’s about my experience of the spiritual energy that we have in our lives, that many of us are unaware of… but its there nonetheless. I’ve gone through different stages of awareness in my life, and my artwork reflects these different stages.

Can you explain what spirituality is?

The way I experience it is there are different levels to life, and the physical world is only one level. The physical is just like the surface layer to us, and we have to go deeper inside ourselves to create a life that is whole, peaceful and balanced.

So what you’re saying is what we see in the physical isn’t all that there is?

Yes. It’s definitely not all that there is, and that’s what my work is all about.
Spirituality is the experience of life though different dimensions that exist in our world, rather than just the physical.

Can you tell us how becoming more spiritual has changed you?

It has given me more peace, balance and sense of freedom. Freedom is very important to me. I love to feel this freedom that I create my life and that I’m the only power in my world. I’m where I choose to be and I’m doing what I want to do. That’s the freedom that I’ve always searched for. Spirituality helps me to remember that we have all always been free. We are all creating everything in our lives. Like an artist, you create your world.

Can you tell us about your most recent work, your Mandalas?

Mandalas are something I began to make about a year ago. I started doing them just because I felt the need to draw these circular shapes. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. I didn’t know what meanings they had, but now I’ve realised that there’s a lot more to them than I first thought…

Can you tell us what Mandalas are?

Mandalas are circular drawings (or paintings…) associated with spirituality. Tibetan monks make sand Mandalas as a form of meditation, but I don’t know very much about it. From my understanding the circle is a divine shape. It’s perfect and it’s never ending.

So what meaning do Mandalas have for you?

I have discovered that my mandala drawings are tools for healing. They are codes for healing. They are symbols. Our language uses words and sounds as symbols. The language of spirit is coming through to the physical world through these drawings. That’s what the Mandalas are. They are codes for unlocking our potential, for creating healing in our bodies and in our world.

So how would you use your Mandalas for healing?

Right now I’m not sure exactly how you use them, but by spending time with them I will learn. Right now I know that just by looking at them and by them being in your environment they can create change. Everything has an energy vibration, and the vibration of the Mandalas is very high and it radiates into the environment. Just by being near them, by looking at them regularly, they are going into your subconscious and creating healing within you. I know that there are other ways to use them, like you can look at them while you are meditating and some of them can transport you to different dimensions, through wormholes, different times, different places… but I have to look into that more. So, they are not just pretty drawings.

Can you tell us a little bit about your older work?

Well, angels have been really prominent in my work. I always felt that there was something more than the physical world, and I started reading about angels. That was where it all began. I then started communicating with them, talking with them, and I began to see them. I began to develop more, spiritually, and they just became part of my everyday life. I started painting them because they brought me so much comfort and love. I hope that the paintings bring the energy of the angels to everyone who sees them.

So would you agree that healing is a theme for all your work?

Yes, it is a constant theme. All that I hope for my work is that it can help with the healing and enlightening of the planet and it occupants, even just a little bit.

How do you think that your artwork can heal?

Well, I believe that all physical illness stems from emotional and energetic imbalance. That’s where the Mandalas come in. Specific mandalas can heal emotional imbalance, and that’s where the physical healing will happen, when the emotional gets healed.
The angels bring comfort, they bring hope. They remind us that we have these guardians who are there to help when you ask and look over you. They remind us that we are not all alone on this planet with no one to help, because there are so many other beings that many of us are unaware of.

So are you saying that all illnesses are caused by emotions?

Yes, and energetic imbalances. That’s what I have experienced. It’s like your body is trying to show you and tell you that something is out of balance. That you need to look deeper and heal it. And it can manifest into an illness if you let it.

For the benefit of the readers, the digital recorder we are using was on low battery when we started so Rebecca asked her angels to make the battery hold out, and 13 minutes into the interview, we now have full battery.

That worked better than I thought it would!

So can you explain how you create these healing mandalas?

Well I began meditating about three years ago, with an amazing teacher, Tove*. I did a course called Awakening the Light Body with her and she taught me how to meditate. I didn’t do it so regularly when I began, but as I realised the benefits of it and how it can change you and your life completely, I began to do it everyday. Now I meditate at least three times a day.
I’ve developed a practise where as I’m drawing I go into a meditative state. I go in between the physical and the spirit and that’s where I can draw these codes. I’m just the scribe, that’s what I’ve been called by my guides. They call me a scribe because I’m not really creating them out of nothing. I’m bringing them into the physical world, but they exist as their own codes, by themselves in different dimensions. I’m just like a messenger.

But a scribe is someone who listens and writes down what they hear, or someone who copies texts.

Yes, and that’s exactly what I do. I copy these mandalas from a book that I have inside of me.
As I’m meditating I can travel to different realities, different planets, different dimensions. Through meditation I have discovered that a very large, powerful being called Ra put a book inside of me. It’s an energetic book, not a physical book, and it’s full of these codes, these mandalas. That’s what I look at when I’m drawing. I mentally take out the book and look at the drawing, and then recreate it on paper in the physical. I didn’t even know what a scribe was when I began and they called me a scribe, and it just fits.
The meaning of the mandala comes to me over time, I don’t know what it means as I’m drawing, but the meaning will come to me afterwards.

What would you like to happen with your work?

I’m not sure if I would call these Mandalas artwork. I think they are practical tools for healing. I’d like to see the current medicine industry gradually go. All the drugs, the paracetamols, the antidepressants, all of that gone, and more natural, alternative ways come into popularity. So that would be crystal healing, Mandala healing, meditation… all of these ways that heal us naturally and heals us in ways that we really need, rather than just the surface.

Right, because as you said, you believe illness is caused by emotions.

Yes and tablets don’t heal the emotions. They just cover the pain in the body, or numb the emotions usually temporarily. But I’m not an expert on that…

So you believe that medicine only heals temporarily?

Yes, and if the emotional root isn’t healed it will return.

So sort of like they’re mopping up the floor instead of turning off the taps.

Yes, nice analogy.

So what do you think the purpose of your art is?

Well, my art is a bridge between the physical and the spiritual.
I hope to bring healing, peace and harmony to the planet, through my work. That’s what I’m contributing to and what many others are contributing to.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

I am. As well as my paintings and drawings, I’m starting my own business called Astaran on Earth. The business will start with producing greeting cards, and then I’m just going to see where it takes me...
I’m also going to start a new magazine. The idea came to me quite recently and I need to do that. It’s again going to be focusing on spirituality and on a higher evolution for Earth life. It will focus on creating a more peaceful, whole and happy planet.

Is that what you mean by evolution? Becoming more peaceful and happy and less stressful?

Less fearful. The fear needs to go.

*Tove teaches various meditation classes and crystal healing in St-Leonards-On-Sea, England. Tove's email is: tgambetta@googlemail.com