The Sacred art of Spiritual artists, or the physical expression that bridges the spiritual experience of the contemporary artist.

 

"The heart envisioned as an altar for the body, expressed as a concept drawing"

THE JOURNEY OF SACRED ART, 

FROM SPIRITUAL VISION TO PHYSICAL EXPRESSION

Robert Ornstein’s research into the hemispheres of the brain, in which he distinguishes between the largely rational functions of the left hemisphere and the intuitive functions of the right, explains the way our mind uses words. Our mind uses words to polarize, differentiate, and categorize. We separate the world into polarities: poor and wealthy, dark and light, female and male, self and other, matter and spirit. Our words describe a dualistic world, defining and limiting our concepts of self. I am of a certain race and nationality. I am a certain age and earn a certain amount of money. I wear my hair a certain way and wear certain clothes. These defining characteristics are only a partial aspect of who we are, a fraction of our true identity. I believe that sometimes we have to disrupt our day-to-day life and appearances to really explore these polarizing characteristics and to further understand who and what the self is, we are. 

"Different symbols to express the many functions of the heart, when it is envisioned as a sacred ritual space for the body"

In life, we all go through the process of discarding or killing our old notions of the self, and initiating ourselves into a newly expressed form of who we believe we are. This process is typically understood as being a spiritual journey, or sometimes the mystical hero's journey, where the treasure at the end of the story is the finding of self. This journey is usually fueled by the search for something, something lost or missing.  For me personally, I tended to reflect on this journey as ‘‘I must be looking for something. I must be looking for God, whatever that is.’’ I was directly invoking the universe to provide answers, through the mystical journey of the hero, where I would find my holy grail of a newly understood version of self. 

The heart is the altar of the body. The heart is consecrated by its association with love and the living light of the soul. The eyes are receivers and transmitters of this divine light. We know another’s soul by watching his or her eyes. Seeing with the eye of the heart, the mystic eye is seeing with the soul.

"Physical expression of the heart as an altar of the body, a carved ivory altar space carved for that purpose"

Artists build a bridge to the soul by doing their art. Building that connection can take an artist through unknown and treacherous regions of the psyche. Sometimes our inner drive toward authentic creation can resemble a regression into the fractured world of madness. To pass beyond the worldview of reason cannot be done through logic and discursive rational thought. 

Awo means sacredness or honesty. Sometimes this can mean having an agreement not to reveal to the public the sanctity of a pact made between two or more people, peoples, communities, nations, continents, and the universe. Because there is value in concealment, and when the sacred is revealed, that thing becomes unimportant, of lesser value, and ordinary. The Babalawo is Bàbá Nlá Awo. The Big Father (full of wisdom) of sacredness, not mundane or ordinary, not to be abused and considered unimportant, to be revered and to be accorded utmost respect. (Babaláwo rere nii d'ífá, eniyan rere níí dìbò) Ifa is Truth. Ọrúnmìlà said Òtítọ́ (Truth) ni Agbara to ju gbogbo Agbara lọ. "Truth is the indestructible word, truth, is the power above all powers." 

"The heart as the centermost part of the body, envisioned as the empowering source of the entire body"

In the tradition of IFA, we say that anything that is considered Awo cannot be known by knowledge alone. To be AWO, a thing must be known and experienced. The connection between knowing and experiencing the thing must understood. For understanding to be facilitated, one must enter into a place of love, and empathy, in connection to things outside of the self.  

The artist leaps into the unknown until love ignites the mystic eye. 

THE JOURNEY TAKEN TO REALIZE A NEW SELF-IMAGE

 IS AN EXPLORATION OF 

THE POLARITIES OF LIFE.

"The Mystic journey, or hero's journey takes place within the heart. The temple within that contains all of the deities and personas of this journey"

Artists are called to fulfill their creative potential. They elect this path for themselves or feel fated to it. In mystical literature there are references to shamans and mystics being ‘‘chosen.’’ Sometimes it is unclear whether an invisible spiritual world is choosing a candidate or whether the innermost nature of the aspirant is the cause. Both factors—an ‘‘external’’ calling and an ‘‘internal’’ calling—goad and direct the will. In my opinion, the innermost nature of the person, the Ori Inu(mystery inner self of the inner self) is the same as being a candidate, chosen by the spiritual world, or the person's Ori(Inner spiritual existence)The artist comes into a synchronistic partnership with a force that broadens and deepens his or her life’s work.

The mission of both mystics and artists is frequently revealed through inner voices and visions. Transcendental reality completely envelops and convinces the experience. Some psychopathologists might misname this as a hallucination or evidence of psychosis, but the mystical experience is of primarily positive effect. Those who heed the call, though their lives or egos come undone in some ways, will be in contact with the most powerful of all forces in the universe, divine creativity, and love.

The mystical experience is not some dreamy fantasy, as anybody who has been there can agree. In his book The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto writes of the ‘‘mysterium tremendum,’’ the experience of losing control and of awe, dread, and terror when confronting the transcendental. This is something that a lot of New Age artists and musicians forget about. As Rabbi Hillel said, God is not just flowers and bird songs, God is an earthquake. One is shaken to the core and the ‘‘little self’’(homunculus) dies (rarely permanently). When you are experiencing a universal mind, your identity is not restricted to a little meat-bag body. The constricted ego is gone, and your awareness is infinitely coextensive with the All.

William James and Walter Stace put together a categorization of some of the most important common denominators of the mystical experience. James writes:

Mystical states in general assert a pretty distinct theoretical drift. . . . One of these directions is optimism, and the other is monism. We pass into mystical states from out-of-ordinary consciousness as from a less into a more, as from a smallness into a vastness, and at the same time as from an unrest to a rest. We feel them as reconciling, unifying states.

The mystical experience imparts a sense of unity within oneself, and potentially with the whole of existence. With unity comes a sense that ordinary time and space have been transcended, replaced by a feeling of infinity and eternity. The experience is ineffable, beyond concepts, beyond words. The mental chatterbox shuts up and allows the ultimate and true nature of reality to be revealed, which seems more real than the phenomenal world experienced in ordinary states of consciousness. When we wake from a dream, we enter the ‘‘realness’’ of our waking state and notice the unreal nature of the dream. In the mystical state, we awaken to a higher reality and notice the dreamlike or superficial character of our normal waking state. When mystics describe the experience, reducing it to words, their statements seem inherently paradoxical, such as ‘‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness form’’ or ‘‘Thou art that.’’ These are true statements coming from the perspective of integration with the All, the view of mystic nonduality. Conventional, rational discourse, however, is dualistic.

Perhaps that is why art can more strongly convey the nature of the mystical state. Art is not limited by reason. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a sacred picture is beyond words. The worshiper uses art to see through the rough image made by hand to the transcendental subject that is the archetypal source of the image. The art historian Roger Lipsey recounts an experience of viewing Russia’s most holy icon, Our Lady of Vladimir, in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery.

 "A shabbily dressed older man was reciting aloud from his tattered prayer book, while ‘‘planted a few feet from the exhibition case.’’ The man was undisturbed by passing schoolchildren and continued his prayers as other viewers came and went. "

Lipsey noticed his own irritation at having this man pray openly in a secular museum setting, and the praying affected his impression of the icon, pointing out how spiritual art is a function of its use. The man was using the work of art as a focal point for spiritual communion, and Lipsey was forced to reflect on his own relationship to the object:

The image of Our Lady of Vladimir points far beyond itself. Its traditional mission is fulfilled when the worshiper remembers deeply—remembers and reexperiences the values, sacred narratives, teachings, and characteristic emotions of the Christian cosmos. The work of art preserves and restores a worldview; not merely an intellectual worldview, but the feelings that at best animate and authenticate that worldview.

The attraction of divine beauty and sublime depth shines through and draws us toward transcendental art as the man praying in the presence of the icon was drawn to the roots of his faith. When our dualistic rational mind is temporarily suspended and we fuse with the mystic state symbolically transmitted through the art, the spiritual art has succeeded. The mystical experience provides transformative contact with the ground of being, filling both artist and viewer with an expanded appreciation of life and meaning beyond words.

THE HEART IS THE ALTAR OF THE BODY.

Ivory carving as the physical expression of the heart is the sacred altar for the body"

Unlike religious artists, who are tasked to follow already established traditions, contemporary artists must immerse themselves in a transitional and otherworldly personal state, to experience and effectively convey the reality of the other world. Mystical experiences serve as the initiation for spiritually inclined artists, introducing them to new knowledge and seership, sometimes through secret rites. Aspirants can access the mystical dimension through various methods, such as meditation, prayer, yoga, breathwork, tantric practices, dreams, vision quests, working with a spiritual master, visualization, fasting, sleep deprivation, sensory isolation, shamanic drumming, chanting, near-death experiences, and psychedelic or entheogenic drugs. These methods can shift their perception from seeing objects as separate and purely material to recognizing a divine unity with profound depth and meaning. This is the very basis of IFA initiation and the work that the IFA soothsayers, babalawos, do, in my opinion. 

After experiencing a mystical state, an artist's challenge is to channel these visions and energies into their artwork. This process involves transforming the infinite into finite forms, capturing absolute reality within the realm of appearances. The deeper an artist delves into their own infinite nature, the better they can convey this state. Artists depend on visionary insights that reveal spiritual ideals beyond ordinary perception. By manifesting these symbols in their art, they create a tangible link to the mystical state.

"The heart as the sacred source of the spark of life or the soul"

Spiritual imagery can profoundly impact viewers. It can feel like encountering an awe-inspiring "other" while being deeply personal, connecting one to the universe's creative force as intimately as one's own blood. Such imagery unites opposites, facilitating psychic integration and healing. Religious symbols often merge dualities like spirit and matter, heaven and hell, male and female, yin and yang, and life and death. Spiritual imagery can also offer a new perspective on reality, empowering us to transform our thoughts, feelings, and actions by awakening our creative spirit. Mystic artists provide not only aesthetic beauty but also contribute to spiritual growth.

I have successfully used visualizations, meditation, and shamanic drumming to reach powerful visionary states. However, since I have mentioned drugs several times in this book, I want to share my thoughts on artists using visionary drugs, a practice that could be called experimental mysticism. These substances include marijuana, hashish, DMT, LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, MDMA (Ecstasy), 2CB, ketamine, ayahuasca, Salvia Divinorum, and many other natural and synthetic compounds. Each has unique properties, such as duration and mental effects. For example, LSD can induce visionary states but may also lead to hellish experiences, while MDMA is known as an "empathogen" for its ability to foster a fearless appreciation of existence without the intense visions of LSD. These drugs, often referred to as Phantastika, psychomimetics, hallucinogens, psychedelics, and more recently, entheogens, can provide glimpses of the divine within. However, artists with unstable mental health, such as those with borderline personalities, should avoid these substances as they can exacerbate mental instability, potentially leading to psychotic breaks. 

Visionary drugs have provided crucial insights to artists, as is obvious by Haring’s testimony and many other artists. A study of LSD and creativity was performed by Oscar Janiger, M.D., and many painters during the 1960s before LSD was made illegal. By their own assessments, the art produced by the artists while under the influence was more creative. In my own experience, LSD has provided access to very high spiritual realms, but the artwork that I produced during that time was not very accomplished. Later, when my hands are steadier, I recall the peak visions and sometimes base my work on them.

Unfortunately, in America at this time, the entheogens remain illegal substances, with stiff penalties for use, unless one is a Native American pursuing the religious freedom to take peyote. This is a grossly unfair restriction of religious rights for non-native peoples, which I hope will be rectified in the twenty-first century. One of the main problems is finding proper sacramental support structures and environments for the elixirs’ responsible use. Various ayahuasca churches are now cropping up where small groups of people can journey in a supportive group setting. Rave events, where participants take psychedelics with large numbers of others while listening to trance-dance technomusic, have also provided a means of experiencing group soul. But because of religious persecution of ‘‘illegal users,’’ there remain great dangers in this pathway.

The first hurdle that an entheogenic visionary encounters is ensuring the purity and effectiveness of the sacrament. That is, given the illicit status of the drugs, can you find pure enough and heavy enough dosages to catapult you into the oversoul? Concerns about purity have steered many toward natural or plant-based compounds. Given that one can find such a source, two other main factors determine the degree to which an entheogenic session will be successful, and these have been described as ‘‘set’’ and ‘‘setting.’’

‘‘The Set’’ means the psychonaut’s predetermined attitude, that is, his or her preparation and willingness to experience directly the infinite spirit within. There are cases of completely jaded cynics having mystical breakthroughs, but mystical experience favors the spiritually inclined mind. Pray for a positive, transcendental experience. Be clear and state your intentions to use your insights for the benefit of all beings. Perhaps you may find a ritual way to rid yourself of considerations and obstructions to accessing ultimate reality. One way is the Native American ritual of taking a section of string and tying a knot for every emotional or intellectual obstruction that you can name. After a period of meditative knot tying, you take the substance and then burn the string. Other people go through a period of fasting and meditative orientation before ingestion.

‘‘The Setting’’ refers to the physical and psychological environment one chooses to surround oneself with during the period of the session. A meditative environment where one feels secure and supported by the beauty of nature, art, and loved ones is an ideal setting for eliciting mystical visionary states. Adequate time allotted to the journey is essential, to minimize causes for anxiety. A spiritual setting can be greatly enhanced, even defined, by the proper use of sacred sound. The mind is incredibly suggestible and sensitive in the entheogenic state, and choosing the most uplifting mantras, music, or sounds of nature optimizes the experience.

Whatever vehicle your journey takes, be it meditation, prayer, yoga, breathwork, shamanic drumming, or vision drugs, may it take you to the highest heavens where you come face to face with your spiritual source, and may the insights gleaned from such a journey be brought directly into your sacred art.

-Awo Faladura Oba'lanu St. James