José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) was one of the most significant figures of the Mexican muralist movement, known for his powerful, socially charged imagery that depicted the struggles of the working class, the brutality of war, and the contradictions of human nature. Unlike Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose works were often openly propagandistic, Orozco’s murals were marked by a more introspective, existential, and sometimes apocalyptic tone, emphasizing both the potential and the destructiveness of revolutionary movements.

While Orozco is frequently remembered for his portrayals of Mexican history and revolutionary ideals, his engagement with esoteric currents remains a lesser-explored dimension of his work. In the 1920s, Orozco traveled to the United States, where he gained the patronage of Alma Reed, an influential journalist and art dealer who helped introduce several Mexican artists to international audiences. Reed founded the Delphic Studios, the artistic wing of the Delphic Society (1928), an intellectual and artistic circle in New York that brought together Indian, Greek, and Mexican nationalists interested in the intersections of spirituality and the arts. Theosophy and the ideas of the Russian esoteric thinker P. D. Ouspensky circulated within the Society and influenced many Mexican artists, often through the poet José Juan Tablada, a key mediator and promoter of Mexican art abroad.

With Reed’s sponsorship, Orozco became involved with the Delphic Society and received commissions that reflected its ideals. This experience informed the way he approached spiritual and historical themes in his murals, particularly those painted for the New School for Social Research in New York, Dartmouth College, and the House of the Tiles in Mexico City. Unlike his more explicitly political murals in Mexico, these works explored a broader and more universalist vision, addressing themes such as human fraternity, inner conflict, and the search for transcendence. His time in New York not only solidified his reputation in the United States but also offered him a platform to experiment with more esoteric themes that diverged from the dominant nationalist narratives of post-revolutionary Mexico.