Chapter 6- The Arts: Recommended

Activities Recommended:

• Flower growing
• Motions of moving forward: Rollerskating, cycling, striding etc.
• Spontaneous outings
• Comedy
• Cultivation of Art within the inner understandings:

1. Through the observation of differing periods of artistry and their work
2. Participation in some free expression artform

• Homoeopathic prescriptive for tension and muscle fatigue

Flower growing: There is a certain paradox to be understood about the very nature of the Etheric World. The life which has inspired its life–offering properties is still as fresh and youthful (in actuality moreso) as when it first awakened growth within this world.

We may speak of the Etheric World in relation to memory in terms of its pre-material existence, yet the properties that comprise it are imbued with such Christly substance that are exuding new beginnings all of the time amongst the sturdy perpetuity of beingness.

What a comfort to know that the future has a durable nature supporting it. Within the last century there was much dialogue and concern about the natural world and its ability to regenerate - to survive the many interlopers – but we can say that from a spiritual perspective which knows the Etheric World to be implicated in all life manifest here in the Physical existence, the natural world burgeons up from its etheric realities which in essence are SURVIVAL itself - such life, growth, and ongoingness that their existence is never threatened by anything the physical world can lay cause to. Species may sweep in and out of global representation but the parent life from which they spring out from will always remain very much alive and flourishing.

The action of both ageing and death are imbibed in our very thinking because of our experience here in the physical world. Nonetheless, even this shall eventually change in accordance with the supporting principle.

This is an important distinction: that we are not contemplating such a place of the past which ordinarily would be retrogressive to revisit. Untainted and untouched, this realm exists somewhat independent to the impressions of Time and of our usage. This is a pure place, one which is unrestricted and impervious to disease and to the sin and corruption that can follow.

So when we grow flowers, we can rejoice in the existence of their (and our) parent realm. We can plant with a happy anticipation, we can marvel at the bud and the blossom to come; and for the sake of beauty alone may we attend their precious growth.

Trees can be very ancient, having memories which belong to a whole community of nature-spirits as well as themselves. A tree can hold properties alongside their column-like dignity that corresponds to the winds and the rains and the birds and the insects and then even also the planets above. Although they live in a sleep-dreamy annuity our beloved forest folk gather in wisdoms which still hold to their pasts encountered … whereas the flower kingdom arises with a typically elemental-naïve consciousness, ever surprised and delighted and quite innocent to each new moment.

They bring to the world those properties in the Etheric realm which are purely of the new futures to come and we may experience this from them in the meditation of their presence and in the cultivating of their happy and wholesome forms.

Whenever we take up a physical activity, the very action and demonstration of that activity speaks inwardly to us. We can recreate many expressions within ourselves by the gesture or activity subscribed to. This does not only relate to moderate interpretations of body language (which can and do assume also their representation by their employment) but also such larger movements that are signature to an expression of being. 

When people clap their hands, for example, they are immediately discharging the surge of forces which have been summoned by their enthusiasms just prior. We can recall the atmosphere charged by an applauding crowd that appears to give over much strength to the performers or speakers who have earned the enlivening response.

Children will instinctively clap their hands also, in rapture, in joy, with great exuberance. And so, even when we clap our hands for no particular reason, we may not have the excessive vitalities there to release, but what we may experience is the inner motion (the inner language) of this affirmative position. 

When the hands are clasped together palm to palm in prayer, the meridians to the heart through the palms are sealed in a complete circuit. This is the perfect position for an individual to become undisturbed by the influences around him for his period of inner consultation. Where the fingers meet there are balancing influences apparent (the tips of the fingers emanate actively and passively characteristic streams of function: see “The Rosary”). So here we find that the individual is harmoniously contained and the vitalities are transmuted into a higher obeisance. The forces are redirected into a circulatory journey that travels around to the heart and up through its portal in the prayer … rather than actively discharging out through the hands in an action of will. 

But when the hands meet together in the explosive collision of a clap, there is a statement of the heart going out into the world … an affirmation of that ‘something out there’ which has attracted this response and brought much inspiration within, that now seeks to return to its source.

Now, considering those activities which take us in a pronounced forward motion, such as walking or running somewhere, there is a deliberate action within that will correspond to the advancing without. The will is driving us forward with this determined walk and we are, concurrently, approaching the future faster than it approaches us … taking it upon our own selves to go forward, to go towards. This is an action which invokes an inner action that is affirmative of that future that we stride or run into. (Note: Activities such as skiing are not in this category, as the downhill propulsion goes against the act of the will directing the movement with purpose … it runs contrary to the example above.) 
Spontaneous outings give over to a yet higher deliberation: one which says – “this day is my day! This moment is my moment! And I choose to be free of my otherwise tasks to explore something hitherto unplanned, with happy anticipation!”

Anticipation itself invites much new life into us. Just as the spontaneous outing proves – that we can understand that one doesn’t have to grasp the great detail ahead of time of that which is enjoyably anticipated to savour the expectations. It is the sensation of the liveliness which accompanies the spiralling thoughts, and that liveliness adds to the exuberation later which shall take the happy wanderer through the hills and meadows of his findings.

The artist shares in this ‘anticipatory unknowingness’. He is prepared to submit to the unplanned moment – invoking the imaginative awareness so that it may keenly implicate the task before him. We may sense this from the products of his outcome. We may feel the startle or the surprise that he himself may have encountered along the way, within this experience.

Comedy surprises us also and invokes this sense experience of ‘anticipatory unknowingness’ as well. If you observe folks who have been partaking in good comedy (not ‘black’ or bleak comedy that defiles its subjects as it goes along) the attitude aforehand is very much awakened to the predisposition – being open and in anticipation of yet another laugh.

And interestingly enough there is always a certain disappointment which is apparent when the episode has finished, and there are no more unusual turns and comical quips to further expect. The primary experience of enjoyment here comes, in itself, from the lively position of this anticipation. The surprise finding of the funny which closes the joke can be enlivening also, if it is free yet in keeping with the natural context … however, what we have smiled about, been enthused and attentive with moreover, is that of our own precondition and our freedom to participate.

When we come to make a study of Art through the Ages we may feel such a freedom emanating out from the canvas or the prose. Most art does not strive to become photographically correct in that which it portrays, it seeks to communicate the inner realities which attribute aspects to form and color that are sensed inherently, and known within.

Such an ability to know the esoteric qualities of something or someone arises out from our own personal freedoms within the ego. This is not a matter of becoming relaxed (and therefore unguarded) as to various influences indiscriminately around us – nor that we are to be coerced into an identity which is not profoundly that of our own … yet, paradoxically it is a regard for the living nature within us which refuses to atrophy, that part of ourselves which is awakened with wonder afresh and anew – learning over and over – and excitedly so, hearkening to its yearnings and illustrations of soul.

If we examine and contrast the many beautiful works from differing eras we may come to recognize certain periods we have known also – eyes we have looked through – perceptions perceived – that live in the psyche today within us. We are composite of all past thought and experience collectively. Each individual enjoys reference to the communal experience of humanity – and the artists, through their imaginative documentation, have heralded advancements and changes in overall perspective, in processes of thinking, and of being. From their work we may gain impressions and insights of this happening.

To contemplate a creative expression invites us to divine that era and that experience within our own soul’s gallery. From this we can not only realise that distinction, but find also our community of experience – which goes on to teach us that for every endeavour we ourselves attempt and complete, humanity is enhanced and is sharing in the qualities. 

Participating in free art forms has long been a prescription curative for melancholy. Whilst it is true that many an unusual artist has also been a depressive, it is still truer to add that much of their working would have alleviated that condition and brought them the more happier moments of their life through their creativity.

It is important to recognize the liberality of this expression – especially in that self-criticism at the outset may thwart our attempts to venture into the imaginative realms and report our findings. It goes without saying that fine art holds an aura most holy, however we need not attempt to create something which is beyond our skill or development and then be deflated because it is less than what was unrealistically hoped for.

In this sense we can differentiate our objectives, and firstly be content in attempting the creative expression with a raw and unfashioned presence. In this way the criticisms will not prevail over our initial strivings and the imaginative process may be given free licence to ‘sense out’ that which intrigues it and commits it to recall.

The imaginations not only deliver extrasensory perceptions to us, they also embody a further innate understanding of those things we perceive- an inner window into their very nature and heritage if you like. Such imaginative faculties are true clairvoyance … being more comprehensive and interpretative of that which has been extrasensorily observed. 
 

Just as one may see images in this world, yet not see with any great detail or understanding that which is before them, psychic experience may lead men to experience, but that does not necessarily denote that they are able or equipped to interpret, to understand that which they perceived. It is with this element of artistic observation that we may go on to achieve this – to imaginatively sense the inner natures and so translate them further into a soul’s perspective, whilst also being practiced in the precondition of ‘anticipatory unknowingness’ in order that we may come freshly to our subject and understand it personally as it presents to us. 

Our creative attempts within this world shall carry over to our spiritual perspectives as we journey along – having more significance in that condition, being immediately apparent, as the spiritual worlds require this very process simply for their passage.

One more additive: A keynote to this predisposition to the imaginative forces is that of HUMILITY. Arrogance blocks men from true spiritual perception because it is eventually confining them to the limitations of their own self’s experience. 

It requires a humble undertaking to begin to venture into the creative unknown – not a suppression of self, but rather an apportioning of self. Arrogance is suppressing by nature, not only to those outside of the arrogant but also to the self inside, for it assumes a stifling self-sufficiency, disallowing the individual to enjoy and assimilate the possibilities amongst his freedoms. New thought, new hope, new perceptions become painful, and as a result from this incapacity the individual will eventually refuse life itself because life’s offerings of newness will upset his defined ‘stability’ of self. 

To apportion oneself correctly is to come to find certainty not in an unreal expectation of our own self’s competency, but rather in that of our beloved Father God. In this we can safely admit our own deficiencies, whilst also welcoming them (relative to the creative unknowingness), for it is through Him that we do meet and share minds with all other beings, and through Him this may truly become creative.