My name is Steven Soeten. I do automatic writing and drawing using the name Aster. I am 46 years old, live and work in the Netherlands and have been devotedly doing automatic writing and drawing since 1983. I am convinced that automatic writing was latently present before this time. From 1994 until 2002 I have been working fulltime committing myself to the "ideomotor" experiencing and researching of automatic writing.
My quest started in 1983 with messages of my brother Bobby, who was killed in Israel in 1983. Bobby would write through me, but his messages were often unclear. In 1985 a spirit entity who called herself "Margaretha" channeled through me, with a series of short messages that have kept me busy with automatic writing and drawing work and research until this day. Finally, in the year 1999, I drew her picture (center image) or perhaps I should say she drew her picture through me.
Margaretha's message is as important as it is cryptic. It took me 20 years to learn about its profound meaning and I still am learning... The message is about the afterlife and a certain sphere called the 'realms of Anstar' where my brother was taken two years after his death. My brother never contacted me since then, but occasionally I am sure of his presence. We continue to have a working relationship in transcendental consciousness as brothers. Margaretha was the first spirit to write through me but after her followed many others, human, non human, animal, hybrid, extraterrestrial, past life presences, native spirits and more (two of these entities are pictured above in addition to Margaretha). I have done writing as well as drawing but drawing works better for me, because the process of drawing is equally fast as the automatic thought.
My work as an ideomotor automatic writer and artist is researched in Minsk, Belarus, by a doctor in psychology, Vladimir Sivitsky Ph.D, head of the psychology faculty of the International Humanitarian and Economics Institute in Minsk, White Russia. Mr. Sivitsky has made it possible for my work to be exhibited in the prestigious Maxim Bogdanovich's museum in Minsk and has been arranging many exhibits elsewhere in Russia. He also made my work subject to many a scientific conference amongst Russian researchers. Last year Sivitsky wrote a small book about his research with regard to my work as an automatic artist. The book is presently being translated into English.
I could write on and on about this subject, I live with it every day, day in and day out. It is not an obsession, it is my way of being the artist and ideomotor communicator that I am and love to be. Automatic writing is my life work and purpose in life. I have never sold one of my works of which there are plenty (over 400 original large size drawings). The public seems not to be ready and is often scared away by the images. It is therefore very hard to build an audience.
Thank you for this opportunity and idea to put automatic writing into the spotlight. It is a phenomenon that is often misunderstood. It should get the in-depth attention and consideration that it deserves. Automatic writing and drawing, and in fact any other ideomotor effect should be studied in depth, as it is an unnoticed and forgotten language that bridges reality as we understand it with the surreal existence of a life beyond time and space.
Many warm greetings,
Aster
info@aster-media.nl