EXPLORING MYSTICISM THROUGH ART

Dostoevsky once said, “Beauty will save the world”. While much has been written suggesting different interpretations of that short sentence (here, for instance), I would like to suggest that it takes on a special meaning for those who are “spiritual, not religious”.

The theologian Walter Brueggemann has maintained that spirituality that supplants dated, ossified religion must be rooted in the arts. He elegantly presents this in his books The Prophetic Imagination and Finally Comes the Poet. Another theologian, Urs von Balthasar, claimed that aesthetics, and particularly beauty, is a means by which God apprehends us, and by which, in our response, we can apprehend God.

In the philosophy of post-postmodernism, which may or may not espouse religious values, there is the concept of “performatism”.  The scholar Raoul Eshelman defines this as “an epochal development that replaces postmodern irony and skepticism with artistically mediated belief and the experience of transcendence.”

With this in mind, contemporary spiritual guides, such as Matthew Fox and Bede Griffiths, have urged those who are distancing themselves from the established church to explore the arts and to create art that expresses emerging theologies and spiritualities.

Exploring mysticism through art.

What draws me to produce art? For me to produce images and explore symbols is a form of meditation that goes deeper than words. It is a form of praxis theology, ruminating over and gestating the words of theologians in the non-rational, non-verbal, intuitive parts of my brain (My heart? My soul?), and sharing them with those who seek a post-postmodern faith, a faith that embraces tradition and that stands in wonder of a pluralistic world.

“Not everything can be named. Some things draw us beyond words. Art can warm even a chilled and sunless soul to an exalted spiritual experience. Through art we occasionally receive— indistinctly, briefly—revelations the likes of which cannot be achieved by rational thought.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
 
“We need you [artists].We need your collaboration in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as you know, in preaching and rendering accessible and comprehensible to the minds and hearts of our people the things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And in this activity … you are masters. It is your task, your mission, and your art consists in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words, colours, forms – making them accessible.” -  Pope Paul VI

INNER HEALING & GROWTH THROUGH ART

Psychological healing and wellness is a whole-body experience. To limit the process of therapy to cognitive analyzing misses the whole process of how we understand the world and understand ourselves in the world.

Put very simply, we encounter the world through our senses – touch, sound, sight – which creates intuitive impressions. These intuitive impressions are then picked through by the logical, analytical parts of the brain, which organizes and catalogs the impressions. If all you get in touch with are the highly edited synopses of experience, then you may be cutting yourself off from how you genuinely engaged with the world.

Wholeness and healing, then, should embrace the entire experience. You can smell an orange, note its beautiful shape and color, and savour the taste. But in going back to that experience you miss so much of your engagement when you recall the experience as having ingested 73 calories, 1.3 g of protein, 16.5g of carbohydrates, and 0.2g of fat.

Sound therapy, aroma therapy, and massage therapy then can activate, or reactivate our total experience of life. Colours can do the same. This opens the possibility of integrating thoughts and feelings. I endorse such resources in support of therapy.

But while art can do this, it can also go beyond. Through symbols, forms, colour combinations, and the presentation of beauty and order, art can provide what iconographer Aiden Hart calls a “threshold experience”, an opening of the heart and mind to our deeper selves. I like how Nicholai Gogol puts it:

“Art reconciles us to life. Art is the introduction of order and harmony in the soul, not of trouble and disorder… If an artist does not accomplish the miracle of transforming the soul of the spectator into an attitude of love and forgiveness, then his art is only an ephemeral passion.”

Art can also speak truth to our souls. It can present harsh realities that our psychological defense mechanisms would like to avoid.

But not all art does this. As I see it there are four forms of art:

·        Sacred art. This is art that is incorporated into religious rites and assists in the engagement of the rituals. Examples are icons, decorated altar items, Islamic Mosque architecture, and Hindu friezes that lead a person through a meditation process.

·        Existential/spiritual art.  This is art that engages in the bigger picture of what the nature of existence is, what life is all about, and how the artist engages with this. This comes in two forms:

o   Self-disclosure – “This is how I am experiencing myself in the universe.”

o   Inquiry – “Consider this…”

·        Narcissistic art. This is art that says, “Look at me! Notice how unique I am!”

·        Technique art. I don’t even consider this art. A person learns a few techniques and they make something pretty or interesting. Think of Bob Ross and of prints on motel walls.

Art that transforms is that in which there is a three-way relationship between the artist’s soul, the subject matter, and the materials/technique. This relationship is expressed, and the result is significant whether anyone sees the piece or not. But for those who see this piece of art they may find their own soul stirred and have their own inner journey of exploration.

The art I present here comes from my journey of psychological and spiritual wellness, and through many years of walking along side clients as they explored the depths of their beings. Maybe one or two of them will resonate with something deep inside you.