Purplehaze magazine

To be alone is to be complete — the one, not the half. The word originates from all-one, a state of wholeness. Shakespeare later transformed (a)lone into lonely by adding the suffix -ly, giving it a sense of melancholy or isolation. Yet before that shift, being alone was never tied to weakness or sorrow; it represented strength, self-sufficiency, and pure existence.

This series reimagines aloneness as an empowered and enlightened state of being. Drawing from Zen philosophy, the lotus, and the serene purity of Buddhist thought, it seeks to visualize solitude as completeness— a quiet, radiant form of strength.