Two essays.

On The State of Modern Art. 

William S Burroughs stated ‘’ it is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music,

sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical I mean intended to

produce very definite results. Paintings were originally formulae

to make what is painted happen. Art is not an end in itself, any

more than Einstein's matter-into-energy formulae is an end in itself.’’

When we look into the mythic tradition we see that both the artist and shamans gifts came for entering the ‘’faerie’ land or in other words ‘’the realm of the gods.’’ The shaman is a highly creative being that can use their immense creativity to mold reality. In other words they reach beyond linear reality and transcend into multi-dimensional reality. They mold matter like a sculptor; shaping it to their will. Truly great art is always spiritual; it is that which expands the spirit and not the ego. It is the difference between expressing an ‘’appearance of reality’’ to expressing ‘’reality itself’’. It is expressing the unity of existence into the subjective experience of time and space. The shaman is a master of time and space and thus is beyond it. Thomas Merton said ‘’ “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” 

Art is the great creator and the great destroyer. It is also the great disappearing act and the great discoverer and thus its origins are to be found in magic. 

The Greek philosophers proposed that art was an imitation of reality. I would describe it more as a propagation of reality; that is, bearing the fruits of our own creative eye. We make something exist by observing it, materialising it into existence and therefore we can say silence is the blank canvas in which the individual expresses their observations. Art is a universal practice; it is not merely a hobby but life itself. The greatest artists are those who understand life---When we say ‘’understand life’’ it is not in terms of materialistic life; things such as making as much money as one possible can etc... It is metaphysical understanding---That is, the understanding of unified silence and expressing that into the dimension of time and space. 

Arthur Schopenhauer stated “Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.” It is of course a question of listening to the silence and letting it guide you. As I have said before, all great art is universal and thus does not belong to the century that bore it, but to eternity. Artists create via stimulation from the spiritual world; or in other words they transcend the material world and seduce the angels into being their muses. We can say it is the interpretation of internal signs and expressing them outwardly; evoking a feeling one has experienced and giving it form. Art can only go as far as the logic of the observer willing it---Therefore; a piece of art can only go as far as the artist’s logic will allow. Those who do not transcended the logic of the material world will only ever create finite works of art and thus perish. Austin Osman Spare said ‘’ Only Art is Eternal Wisdom; what is not Art soon perishes.’’ 

This is, of course the state of modern art---That is it will soon perish. . The spiritual aesthetic of modern art concerns and engages with the short-sightedness of intellectual values instead of the eternal values of the spirit. It is exceptionally talented but lacks any kind of genius. “Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.” Arthur Schopenhauer so wisely observed. The target that no one else can see is the metaphysical realm---Where if we delve deep enough the origin of magic will be discovered. Modern art is devoid of eternity and thus cannot be said to be modern. Eternity is always modern; ever new, it is the bearer of wisdom. Modern arts most pressing concern is profit and the shallow intentions of materialistic sentiments. I mean to say: It lacks the innermost desire of spirit and any kind of magical origin. It is restricted by the functions of its own primitive logical language.  

The creative urge is a language in itself; the creative impulse penetrates throughout history. It is the vehicle that permits new ways of seeing; that is it is that that ushers in the onset of new worlds.  It can also be said that a great work of art is a catalyst of evolution. That which does not evolve the spirit is by definition a finite work of art and therefore not a great work of art. Modern art does not evolve the spirit---Be it music, painting, writing, poetry, sculpture etc.…It is at most a series of mechanical expressions. It is art of the lowest vibrations. The psychological nature of the artist is not some mechanical machine; but of a nature that is full of purity and dances with potential. We can say that art is something beyond the limitations of the ego-centric personality and thus something that is of the spiritual-personality, that is that which we are beyond the ego. 

It is safe to say that modern art is gripped by the deafness of the ego. It does not hear and thus does not reflect the spiritual music that vibrates from the silence. 

Carl Jung stated in a letter ‘’Surely modern art is trying its best to make man acquainted with a world full of darkness, but alas, the artists themselves are unconscious of what they are doing.’’ 

The problem here being that modern artists are creating from low frequencies; i.e. from a comatose perspective. They have not wiped the sleep from their eyes and are thus creating from the state of an un-awakened dream. 

We must be reminded that all art is magical in origin; and thus leads us into the inner origin of our spirits. We must observe that modern arts origin is external and thus is leading us away from the very roots that created us.  

On The Psychology of Signs and Symbols. 

To dream is to create: Dreams are a product of psychic functions and thus are meaningful to the evolution of the imagination. The images felt during sleep are signs and symbols of the sub-conscious; that is the psychic processes of that which we absorb into the sea of our inner lives. The sub-conscious communicates via signs and symbols, the vital meaning originating from the unspoken expression. It is these unspoken expressions that give visible signs to invisible realities. The symbolic thinking of the human mind is the subjective language we assign to our environment; simultaneously it is the symbolic thinking of the human mind that also creates the environment in which the individual resides, either consciously or unconsciously. 

We can say that symbolism is the language of the mysterious, that is to say it is that which we cannot comprehend or understand through lower dimensional language. Symbols are the language of nature; it is that which manifests itself to the limited sense perceptions of the human mind which transcend the limitations of its dimensional language. Our capabilities of interpretation and misinterpretation are bound to our understanding of the linguistics of meaning and the understanding of linguistic codes. It is the formations and patterns of these codes that the human mind finds hard to fathom. The reason for this being those who identify with the psychology of the ego cannot see past the veil of their human senses and thus cannot identify with the higher dimensional language of symbols. 

The secret to understanding the language of symbols is not in the seeing of said symbols but in seeing through them. The symbol contains within it a meaning with which the psychology of the individual attaches to it and thus those who do not reflect the psychology of our thinking will misinterpret the meaning of our expression. This is neither good nor bad; that is unless we attach judgment to it and thus we will search for a symbol that expresses such judgments. 

Judgments are a precursor to confusion; that is we have judged the world through our own psychological perception and misinterpreted the meaning of the world. Another way of putting it would be we misunderstand the meaning of our very own interpretations; that is we do not understand our own nature. 

Gaston Bachelard wrote in The Poetics of Space “When the image is new, the world is new.” We can call this creative evolution---That is the pure present of infinity is expanding in complexity/simplicity; it is an endless creation of oneself. It is said in the bible that man was created in Gods own image. Man himself is a symbol! Man has been described as a micro-cosmos and this is true, yet also man is the cosmos itself. A common symbol we use for the cosmos is the ocean---The mystic and poet Rumi stated “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” 

But using the image of the ocean does not fully allow us to understand such cosmic truths. To understand we must go beyond the image and experience the cosmos fully as ourselves. The butterfly is the symbol of profound re-birth; it is the letting go of old behaviour and entering into the next phase of existence, it is the cosmos continually ever re-inventing itself. Psychologically we must keep re-inventing ourselves or we end up stagnant like an undead star. If an individual finds themselves in such a state they will be forced to burst open and spiritually evolve or suffer until the pain is too much to bear and do nothing other than evolve. As we evolve our linguistic codes evolve and psychologically we mature; our patterns become more sophisticated. We can see this by seeing sound visible through cymatics. The higher the vibrational frequency, the more sophisticated the pattern. Sound influences matter and thus the cells and molecular structure in the human body. This is mirrored in the signs and symbols that human nature has attached themselves to; the higher the mind is in its psychic life, the more sophisticated their thinking. The psychological implications of this are of higher dimensional living; that is the wider the space of the individual’s awareness and thus the signs and symbols of their consciousness become more bewildering. The bewilderment is being in harmony with the divine; it is the subjective at one with the objective. 

The psychology of civilization is a psychology of spiritual poverty. That is we are a civilization in the state of ignorance in search of personal and collective liberation. Moksha is the most popular word used in Hinduism to describe ultimate liberation; other Sanskrit words which are used to describe it are Mukti, Kaivalya, Laya, Nirvana, Sayujya, Jnanodaya, Siddhi and Samadhi. The swan being a symbol of spiritual perfection---Sarasvati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, learning and creative arts, the symbolism of Sarasvati and the swan together is that of knowledge and moksha combined.  I tend to agree with Joseph Campbell when he said ‘’Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.’’ The psychological symbolism of myths is significant if we understand the metaphorical reality and how to read its narratives. ‘’Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world’’ Robert Frost asserts. It is of course of psychological importance to educate oneself on the metaphorical reality; for it is the reality where the abstract truth of divine nature is understood.  

All signs and symbols that we come across direct us to particular realities and it is important to consider their meanings in relation to our current psychological state. For it is the symbols that belong to the individual that are the psychological images that one becomes the audience to its own divine drama. It is through the divine drama that we give meaning to the divine condition; the audience being that of the pre-condition condition. In Neoplatonism, the divine symbols have metamorphic power, noetic rays being regarded as being demiurgically entwined into the very source of existence and thus unified with the gods of higher dimensional living.  It is important to understand the cosmological genesis of the divine essence and that which becomes visible through certain patterns: Such as numbers, sounds, images, visions etc…The Egyptian term kheperu indicates the universe as manifestation; thus indicating that all manifested phenomenon being symbols, images and expressions of the divine oneness. The individual who knows the power of symbolic utterance has the power of the universe upon the tip of their tongue. 

James Russell Lowell, the American poet said ‘’Light is the symbol of truth.’’ Psychologically, it is like the sun; that is it gives light and exists from its own source. Yet, in a symbol there is mystery and epiphany simultaneously. We can say metaphorically the sun is its own source of light and its own source of darkness.    

The psychic reality is a sea of symbols in which we swim towards the shore of meaning. There is no real distinction between the material world and the abstract world of symbol; we are in fact creating the material world in the form of symbolic hallucination. That is, the material world is a dream made from the language of dreams. We must not mistake the dream for reality, for reality is beyond the dream. It is the realization of this within the individual that indicates the dawn of psychological maturity. Therefore; invoking a new manner of seeing, that is the inner sun matures like the blooming of a flower.