Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic painting Salvator Mundi (“Savior of the World”) has fascinated scholars, artists, and mystics for centuries. But beyond its divine imagery lies a visual code—subtle, deliberate, and possibly timeless in meaning. From the ethereal blur of the Savior’s gaze to the translucent sphere in His left hand, this masterpiece offers far more than religious symbolism.
Could it be a cosmic message? A depiction of forgotten epochs? A remnant of ancient wisdom buried beneath layers of modern interpretation?
The Savior in Darkness
Leonardo’s choice of a void-like, pitch-black background in Salvator Mundi is no accident. It immediately centers the viewer’s focus on the Savior himself. In esoteric traditions, darkness often symbolizes the unknowable, the void before creation, or pure potential. The emptiness behind Christ may represent the pre-cosmic state—non-being. Contrasted against this is the figure of the Savior, who emerges as the embodiment of existence itself.
Leonardo’s brush invites us to interpret this stark duality | Behind Him is nothing; before Him, everything.
The Face of the Savior | Why It’s Intentionally Unreadable
At first glance, we are naturally drawn to the Savior’s face. But Da Vinci defies our instinct. The features are soft, unfocused, almost otherworldly. The eyes, though technically directed at the viewer, reveal no emotion, no story. Why?
This deliberate obscurity suggests that the truth Da Vinci wants to reveal is not in the face. It is elsewhere—in His gestures, His hands, and the celestial sphere He cradles. The ambiguity redirects us away from the human and toward the divine message encoded below.
A Dual Nature | The Symbolism of the Raised Right Hand
The Savior’s right hand is lifted in benediction—two fingers extended upward, two folded down. This classic Christian gesture has long symbolized the dual nature of Christ | divine and human. It’s also a reminder of the unity between heaven and earth, the spiritual and the material. This duality is essential to the painting’s deeper narrative.
In theological tradition, this hand blesses. In esoteric thought, it also points upward to the metaphysical realms—a nod to consciousness, transformation, and ascension.
The Left Hand and the Mysterious Sphere | World, Portal, or Memory?
Now we arrive at the painting’s most cryptic element | the transparent sphere held delicately in the Savior’s left hand. At first glance, it appears to be a globe—a representation of the world. But there’s more.
The sphere doesn’t distort the fabric of Christ’s robes as a glass orb should. This has led many to believe that it is not solid, but hollow. Perhaps it’s not a realistic object at all, but a symbol—the universe encapsulated, the physical world as we perceive it.
Inside the orb, we see two significant color gradients:
- Blue at the top – representing the heavens
- Earthy brown below – likely symbolizing Earth or the material realm
But hidden within this transparency are three white dots—mysterious specks that break from the surrounding bubbles and take on a celestial, even prophetic, quality.
The Three Moons | Echoes from Forgotten Epochs
What are these white dots? Air bubbles? Artistic artifacts? Or something else?
To the speculative eye, they resemble three moons—three distinct satellites orbiting the Earth, captured in a time long forgotten. Esoteric literature and tribal myths from around the world speak of ancient epochs where multiple moons once graced the sky.
One such story comes from German ethnographer Klaus Müller, who lived among indigenous tribes in Peru. Initiated into their shamanic rites, Müller experienced visionary journeys revealing a pre-diluvian civilization known as the Chikhi. According to these accounts, their era occurred 150,000 years ago—when three moons still floated above Earth.
Modern science, too, is beginning to catch up with ancient myths. Studies from the University of California propose that Earth may have once had two natural satellites. One eventually collided with the Moon, creating geological differences that puzzle scientists to this day. Could the third moon be a metaphor for lost epochs? Each moon a symbol of a past human age?
Three Moons as Three Epochs
In this interpretation, the moons could be cycles of civilization:
- First Moon – The primal age of giants and divine beings.
- Second Moon – The age of advanced civilizations, like Atlantis and Chikhi.
- Third Moon – Our current era, dominated by technology and materialism.
Each moon dies or vanishes, signaling the end of an age. The sphere in Christ’s hand then becomes a cosmic time capsule, preserving the knowledge and tragedies of past worlds.
Leonardo da Vinci | More Than an Artist?
To see this painting only through the lens of art is to miss its layered genius. Da Vinci was not only a master painter but also a philosopher, mystic, engineer, and possibly a keeper of esoteric knowledge.
His other works—Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and numerous sketches—contain symbolic codes, mathematical patterns, and metaphysical allusions. In Salvator Mundi, Da Vinci may have been preserving truths he could not speak aloud, truths about cosmic cycles, the fragility of our civilization, and the divine essence within the human.
The Chikhi Civilization and Visions of the Past
Returning to Müller’s experience with the Peruvian tribe | he drank a sacred decoction during a rite and witnessed a shimmering world of golden pyramids, voice-controlled machines, and beings in white robes. The tribe claimed descent from the Chikhi, a race of the Wise, who lived in the time of the three moons.
Was this merely a hallucination? Or a quantum glimpse into a forgotten past, preserved by ritual and encoded in collective memory?
Müller’s account, while controversial, mirrors mythologies from ancient Sumer, Vedic India, and the Hopi. They all speak of prior human ages—each destroyed by fire, flood, or cosmic shifts.
Emptiness Behind the Savior | A Portal to Origin
The darkness behind Christ isn’t just absence; it’s cosmic emptiness—the zero point. From this nothingness emerges everything. Philosopher Alexander Genis writes, “Emptiness is not a cemetery, but a spring of meanings. It structures being, gives form to things.”
Leonardo placed this emptiness deliberately. It symbolizes what was before time, before form—the divine potential that births reality.
In front of that void, the Savior holds our fragile, enclosed world, hinting that we are living in the final act of a great cosmic story.
Are We Running Out of Time?
The message of Salvator Mundi may be a final warning. The sphere in Christ’s hand is a world sealed in fragility, a shell enclosing heaven and earth. If Da Vinci’s vision holds truth, then this is our third epoch—the last chance to evolve beyond greed, materialism, and spiritual amnesia.
The story of Noah, the fall of Atlantis, and Müller’s visions all echo the same warning | when humanity forgets its soul, the sphere shatters.
A Painting as a Mirror of Destiny
Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is not simply a painting of religious reverence. It is a philosophical mirror, a cosmic message in paint, possibly one of the most profound artworks ever created.
It tells us:
- The past is deeper than we know.
- Civilizations rise and fall in cycles.
- Our world is fragile, encapsulated in divine hands.
- Emptiness is not an end, but the beginning of meaning.
- And perhaps most importantly | time is running out.
Whether literal, symbolic, or prophetic, Da Vinci’s vision invites us to look beyond the visible—to question what we value, and what we’ve forgotten.
