SPIRITUAL ARTS
We cannot talk about art without also talking about beauty. For the search for beauty and its expression in form is one of the main reasons for the existence of art. At a materialistic and superficial level, art is often used to divert and entertain, but throughout history we find that art has also been consciously employed as a spiritual tool to awaken us to the beauty of the soul at the heart of the cosmos, and the beauty in every human soul too.
It is perhaps true that the greatest artistic achievements of the past have flowered as an expression of the religious impulse. But spirituality embraces a far wider panorama of human thought, aspiration and activity than the purely religious. Beauty can be perceived in all things, and artists of every kind have always known this. Whether we look at music, painting, drama, poetry or dance, examples abound of composers, artists, actors, writers, and choreographers whose work is inspired by the soul. They have taken the mythical events that eternally express the great archetypes of the human psyche, embodying them in a form that has given these a meaning and power for their own time. Through their own sensitivities they have enabled us all to become more sensitive to the wonders of our environment. They have also grappled with the mystery of the unfolding divine plan and through their work have been able to focus our thoughts on a constructive use of the new energies that are constantly making an impact on human hearts and minds.
A wonderful example of this is the collaboration of the artist Nicholas Roerich, the composer Igor Stravinsky and the dancer and choreographer Nijinsky in creating the famous ballet “The Rite of Spring”. This caused a riot when it was first produced in Paris in 1913. Yet now, many more years later, we can see it as an archetypal embodiment of the incoming energy of order, ritual and regeneration, with the potential to bring new life, new understanding and new civilisation to a humanity about to be ravaged by the first World War in 1914.
Great art, spiritually inspired, is never bland. It always breaks new ground in ideas, frequently in style and especially in the evocation and perception of beauty. As such it often has an initially disruptive effect as it breaks down conventional attitudes and accepted standards of taste. But if it is truly great, and therefore spiritual, it will also be able to reveal hitherto unrecognised aspects of beauty and truth embodied in the universal mind.
The best of television drama does just this. When the British screenwriter and journalist Dennis Potter died, commentators spoke of his stature as an artist. His work had always been controversial, at times portraying the more sordid side of life. Yet, as critics made clear, he used his art with intensity and integrity as a mirror so that we could see ourselves as we truly are, souls embedded in a material world with personalities which can sometimes measure up to the noblest ideals and transmit with purity the qualities of the soul, but which can at other times block these out.
The artistic life of humanity is immensely rich and varied. To get an idea of its range, think for a moment of the long tradition of imaginative storytelling, Italian renaissance painting, indigenous peoples' art, Greek tragedy, Indian temple dancing, Beethoven – that great musical apostle of humanity's search for and realisation of freedom, and the many contemporary experiments in new forms of expressing beauty.
Nevertheless, we can see that from a spiritual point of view the purpose of art is surely something very simple. This something is the recognition that beauty can powerfully reveal the deep truths of existence; in fact more than this – in a mysterious way beauty is this deep truth. As Khalil Gibran wrote in The Prophet: “Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.”