Helene Lundbye Petersen

The Yellow Book - Ode to Balance Helene Lundbye Petersen

We are faced with a new human condition. Fuelled by the revolutionary possibilities of technology dissolving the traditional borders that once defined life, conflicts are evolving with an overwhelming complexity. This calls for us to face a new responsibility towards life, not just for ourselves, and our immediate local surroundings, but also for the balance of our planet as a global society.

Myths of antiquity have a unique ability to explain complex aspects of existence through dramatic narratives and dense visual language. 'A Mythology on our Current Condition of Life' follows this approach by using myth as a way to navigate and comprehend our complex contemporary life. Unfolding through five books, the Goddesses of Wisdom, Pleasure, War, Love and Balance, each explore a fundamental aspect of existence, seeking to understand their responsibilities in relation to the critical changes of the global era.

The Yellow Book - Ode to Balance is the fifth and last book in the series. The book begins with a Goddess of Balance, who is placed on her throne to rule a world of scales that exist to create Harmony in our lives. Her muscles are tight and she clings tensely to her throne, because these scales stretch in all directions and seem endless; every time one moves or changes, a new one must be created to bring the unbalanced into balance again. A heavy burden. One day, She sees that despite her efforts, things are so out of balance that the point of equilibrium has been completely lost. And so she falls from her throne, only to find Herself mirrored in the yellow golden material that her scales are made of. Seeing Herself for the first time as a human, she realises that her task of creating harmony will never be fulfilled as long as our perception of balance is static. So she melts down all of her scales into one big golden mirror, and begins learning how to navigate in balance, and understand it genuinely.