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 and philosophical currents remains a lesser-explored dimension of his work. In the early 1920s, Orozco traveled to the United States, where he gained the patronage of Alma Reed, an influential journalist and art dealer who introduced Cordelia Urueta, and other Mexican artists to international audiences. Reed was one of the founders of the Delphic Society, an intellectual and artistic organization in New York composed of Indian, Greek, and Mexican nationalists who explored spirituality and the arts. Theosophy and the ideas of the Russian esoteric thinker P. D. Ouspensky circulated within the Society and influenced numerous Mexican artists, often through the poet José Juan Tablada, who acted as a key mediator and promoter of Mexican art in the United States.

Under Reed’s sponsorship, Orozco became involved with the Delphic Society and received commissions that reflected its ideals. This exposure influenced the way he approached historical and spiritual narratives in his murals, particularly those created for the New School for Social Research in New York, Dartmouth College, and the House of the Tiles in Mexico City. Unlike his overtly political murals in Mexico, these works explored a more abstract, universalist vision, incorporating themes of human fraternity, spiritual conflict, and the quest for enlightenment. His experience in New York not only solidified his reputation in the United States but also provided him with a platform to experiment with a broader, more esoteric and spiritual themes that diverged from the dominant nationalist themes in Mexico.