The ability to create must be the most enjoyed of all the gifts Love
has bestowed on us. To be creative is to be partners with Love for whom
creativity is what life is all about. The angels exercise their artistic flair
when they swoop and tumble across the sky, making swirls and billows with cloud
fluff as their medium. Their divine creativity strikes us with awe whenever we
pause to gaze at the sun rising or sinking in a blaze of colors; the graceful
design of a single iris petal; or the lacy pattern of autumn leaves glistening
yellow against a topaz sky. The angels of beauty delighted in demonstrating
their art to primeval people, and showing them how to use available materials
to create their own art.
One of the
earliest art forms was engraving, with the artist using flakes of sharp flint
or stone picks to etch designs on rock formations and cave walls. Just as a modern art student masters the
fundamentals of art by learning to draw before moving on to the colors and
texture of paint, primitive artists had to learn to draw before they were
taught how to mix and use paint.
The first paint colors were
red, iron oxide, and black, which were created by mixing mineral fragments with
cave water and vegetable and animal oils in barnacle shells. Different methods
were used to apply the paint, including hollow bird bones that served as tubes
from which artists could blow the desired colors.
The angels
encouraged the people of ancient times to paint on cave walls where their art
would not be destroyed by the elements. These etchings and paintings were
humankind’s first creations that were not necessary for daily life. They did
not aid them in the attainment or preparation of food; and they did not keep
them warm or safe. Many of their family members thought the artists were
wasting their time! But some experienced awe and joy when they beheld the
handiwork of their comrades who could actually duplicate the image of an animal
with their own hands.
The act of producing these paintings gave their makers a
taste of the joy that Love experiences when creating something unique or
beautiful in nature. Other cave-dwellers saw the light in the faces of these
artists as they worked, and realized they were experiencing a kind of bliss
that transcends the everyday pleasures of life. Although they could not explain
their feelings to anyone, these cave artists were lifted from the material life
into the spiritual realms as they worked, where they experienced oneness with
the divine, with the animals they painted, and with other artists they would
never meet in the physical world.
The act of
creating a piece of art can be so transformative that some artists are willing
to sacrifice their place in society or the security of a regular income in
exchange for a life co-creating with Love.
Although other people admire the artists’ work, some look down on them
for “wasting their time” on impracticalities. In ancient Greece, where
intellectual pursuits were valued above other types of work, those who practiced the visual arts were
looked down on as manual laborers.
Plutarch, a Greek historian and essayist wrote candidly in Life of
Pericles, II: "we admire the
work of art but despise the maker of it.”
The artists
of ancient Greece produced some of the finest sculpture and architecture the
world has ever seen. Some of their masterpieces were inspired by the gods and
goddesses that they worshiped; and while the intellectuals of the day relied on
reason as their source of knowledge, the artists exercised their imaginations
along with the required technical skill to create the beautiful statues they
were known for. Those who scoff at the imagination as the source of pure
fantasy do not recognize what artists know, that the imagination and the creative
arts flow from a sacred unseen place, through the human mind, and into the
material world where they can be shared and enjoyed. The Greek artists were
able to ignore the derision of the upper class because they treasured the
meaningfulness of a life spent so close to divinity. The statesmen who hired
them to sculpt statues for public monuments and temples would walk past the
artisans with their noses in the air, not realizing that the sculptors were
engrossed in a godlike experience as a chunk of marble turned into a
magnificent form beneath their hands.
Their gods and goddesses encouraged the artists
throughout the Greek mainland and colonies to compete with each other, to
see who could produce the best and most novel creations. Love knew that competition
among artists would be a healthy substitute for violent conflict, and also prod
each individual to strive for excellence. The
gods and goddesses, and the angels, knew that a desire for excellence in a
person’s work will stimulate a need to excel in all facets of existence, and
sometimes that quest for excellence will spill over into the spiritual life. In
their spiritual lives the ancient Greeks worshiped a pantheon of gods and
goddesses to whom they attributed numerous human frailties, thus bringing the
divine down to their own level instead of raising themselves to a higher one.
But in the process of chiseling and smoothing the marble features of a divine
or human being, the artist, so deeply focused in the present moment, would find
himself in a lighter, more peaceful place, where thoughts of greed and violence
could not enter.
 |
| Venus de Milo |
Love delights in the companionship of artists immersed
in their creative work. However, in ancient Greece, Egypt, and Babylonia, the
images made by painters and sculptors evoked so much awe and reverence in the
beholder that many people worshiped the statues and painted images as if they
were gods. The worship of stone and metal idols increased the separation of
humanity from Love because it emphasized the concept that gods have physical
bodies that set them apart from us. And because these gods were endowed with
human traits such as greed, envy, and revenge, they were blamed for any
disease, drought, or storm that threatened the lives of their worshipers.
Blood sacrifices were made to appease the idols, but the fear and horror that
accompanied these rituals just amplified the negative energy that was already
swirling around those people who had lost their inner connection with Love.
When Moses wrote down the ten commandments of Love for
his people to follow, the first commandment was: “You shall have no other gods
before me,” and the second one was:
“You shall not make for yourself
any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that
is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not
bow down to them nor serve them. “(Exodus 20: 3-5) Moses assumed that Love made
this law due to a jealous streak. But the real reason was simply that Love
wanted people to seek within for their own divine light, the same way that
Moses had, and to realize that the true nature of all creation is spiritual.
Worshiping images made of gold or bronze solidified their dependence on the
material world to take care of their needs.
The Egyptians went a step further than the
ancients of other cultures in over-emphasizing the importance of the material
world, believing as they did that the dead had to be protected and provided for
by the living. If a soul was to enjoy the afterlife, its body had to be
preserved; food, clothing, and tools were to be placed in the tomb with the
body; and artists had to be hired to decorate the tomb with wall paintings and
models of the deceased engaged in those earthly activities that he or she would
not want to give up. Survivors were
comforted when they stood before the scenes of their loved ones hunting,
fishing, or sitting at a banquet table.
The Egyptian
deities and angels sighed over the vast amount of resources and effort spent on
the souls of the royal and noble dead, while their living slaves had to make do
without any of the same luxuries. In the
earliest days of Egyptian civilization, live slaves were even buried with their
masters so they could continue to do their dirty work in the next world. But
the servants of Love laughed among themselves when an upper class Egyptian
passed over and discovered that their slaves were working alongside the angels
to teach other souls how to be more loving and compassionate toward each other,
no matter what their station in life. One of the first lessons that Love was
able to impart to the Egyptians was that small figurines could serve as
substitutes for live slaves in the tombs of the dead. And so the art of
sculpture actually saved human lives, and the spirits of Love rejoiced
throughout Creation.
No comments:
Post a Comment