Hi Im Hans Wilhelm. As a mystic and artist, I will share a few
personal thoughts on art and its relationship to spirituality. My hope is to inspire us to look at art a
little differently and use our artistic talents with greater focus. Is there anything that can transform our senses
faster than art can? Just a few notes and we are drawn into another
mood, another world, another reality. Or just a few paragraphs of a good book make
us forget our own daily worries. And paintings can have the same effect. It is no wonder that most popular visual art
are images of beauty, loveliness, skies, flowers, and so on. These are works that we feel drawn to because
they are mostly hopeful, if not to say uplifting. It is a powerful antidote to all the bitterness,
the sadness and the hopelessness that many feel in their daily lives. Therefore, more than ever, people are flocking
to museums in ever larger numbers to nourish their soul and be embraced by art. Beautiful art has always been an effective
medicine to bring us back into harmony. For celebrated artists like Matisse this was
their main focus. He hoped that his art of balance and purity
would have "an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair
in which to rest from physical fatigue." And Pablo Picasso said it more precisely,
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Sometimes we are attracted to art because
it gives us what we feel is missing in our own life. For instance, if we feel hectic, we may want
to listen to serene music or look at images of calmness and tranquility. Art brings us back to our inner strength and
balance that we have temporarily lost touch with. But art can also help us to see and appreciate
the world anew. To look again at a sunset. To appreciate the movement of light. To listen anew to the sounds of nature, to
discover the exotic and the strange and the unexpected. It broadens our horizon as it draws us into
details of life and shows us the richness of Creation in paintings, music, literature,
dance, architecture and many, many other artistic ways of expression. For some art is also a means to make us feel
less lonely. It can reconnect us with divinity -something
larger than ourselves. It can reawaken our compassion for others
and for ourselves. As Vincent van Gogh said, "Art is to console
those who are broken by life." The actual artistic creative process varies
from artist to artist. But let us reflect on the spiritual aspect
of the artist's creativity. We know that the universe is nothing but a
constant sending and receiving of energy vibrations or frequencies. In other words, we humans are also nothing
but vibrational entities that constantly send out our individual vibrations through our
thoughts, words and actions. This applies even more so to any artist. She does this very consciously as she creates
- meaning projects - a piece of art into the world. May it be a piece of music, a painting, a
dance or anything else. The question is, from which part of her being
is she creating? What is the source of her creativity and inspiration? Is it from her own true essence - which some
call our Higher Self - which is LOVE, harmony and joy? The divine inner well spring of inspiration? If so, her art will reflect and vibrate that
beauty in many ways into the world. Mozart is a typical example here who apparently
channeled his divine music without ever making a single mistake or correction as he wrote
down his compositions. In her creative process the artist beholds
and feels that beauty, that harmony, that balance and then seeks to duplicate it in
her own way via her individual expression. Any creative act is a recombination of existing
bits of universal intelligence, be they in the form of words, notes, rhythms, colors,
shapes and so on. Possible combinations are infinite and so
is Creation. As she is expressing and sending these aspects
out in her art, they may then stimulate the same noble qualities in those who come into
contact with her work. But other artists prefer not to work with
this particular source of inspiration. These artists draw the source of their inspiration
from their sub-conscious - not their Higher Self but their personality, their ego, the
unquestioned and often troubled mind. They are comfortable to connect more easily
with their own personal unresolved issues or their anxieties or struggles which the
world around them reflects back to them. As we know, the outer world is always a reflection
- like a mirror - of what goes on within us. I have explained that in greater detail in
my video "the Law of Projection". This form of artistic expression is a powerful
tool for self-discovery. It is basically art therapy where we can learn
what it is that we have not yet overcome, loved, forgiven or questioned and resolved. It's more like an honest diary entry that
tells us what goes on within us in our life. Some artists are very attached to their issues
and feel they have to share this inner hardship and struggles with everyone else. A classic example is the artist Louise Bourgeois
who discovered as a young child that her father had an affair with her governess. She felt so betrayed that she kept expressing
her anger in her work for the rest of her long creative life. "The motivation for the work is a negative
reaction against her. It shows that it is really the anger that
makes me work. She turned me into a wild beast. Right?" In contrast, the artist Niki de Saint Phalle
took a very different route. Initially she also expressed her difficult
childhood in very violent and aggressive art which included shootings and destruction. But she eventually transcended her personal
issues and began to populate the world with her famous delightful nanas and colorful creatures
that enchant millions every day. Isn't it interesting that most famous art
that has endured and attracted generations after generations is not an expression of
unresolved personal issues of the artists. I already mentioned Mozart. Did he ever conveyed in his compositions the
misery and disappointments he was going through as he grew older? Did van Gogh complained in his vibrant paintings
that nobody wanted to buy them? Certainly not. Did grumpy Beethoven lamented in his symphonies
that he was stone deaf? The problem with all our unresolved emotional
issues is that we are constantly sending these vibrations into the world. And they can be attractive entry ports for
negative astral entities who resonate with these issues and then can manipulate and even
dominate the creative process of an artist to gain energy, influence and control. We see their malicious expression in many
examples of violent and destructive art, like in some video games and extreme musical expressions
that enforces harmful emotions and actions in the musicians and the audience. For an artist it is usually easy to determine
from which level we are working by the way we feel. If we open to our Higher Self and let the
divine creative energy and inspirations flow through us, we usually feel more invigorated,
energized during and after our creative process in spite of all the temporary artistic challenges
that we may encounter. The result is often that we can't wait to
return to the studio and make more art. But when we only work from our ego and our
own unresolved issues and unquestioned mind the artist very often feels tired, drained,
depleted and mentally exhausted. In some cases, it can even cause depressions
or burn-out. And if a cup of coffee doesn't help some artists
may even reach for alcohol or drugs to regain their depleted energy. This is exactly what these guys here want
us to do. Sadly, the list of artists whose inner struggle
caused their own early death is long. It always comes back to the Law of Cause and
Effect: absolutely anything that we send out and is not love-intended or love-based will
always have karmic consequences for the sender to wake us up. Yes, it also includes the art that we produce. Anything that is unloving or from our ego
- like from these lower levels - will inadvertently come back to us as karma until we question
it and love it. So much of today's art is shock value for
an easily bored art community with the fragile egos and bloated vanity of collectors. I am always thinking of the poignant words
by the writer Tom Wolfe: "Contemporary art would be considered a ludicrous practical
joke if otherwise bright people hadn't elevated it to a higher plane... upon which a lot of
money changes hands." Can we now see that the spiritual perspective
of art differs vastly from a purely intellectual interpretation of art? It is my understanding that as we as a society
advance spiritually our art will serve exclusively for the glorification of the Creator and Creation
in as much as the human expression is able to do it. It is the celebration of the all-unity, a
symphony of harmony, balance and beauty. Or as the painter, poet and printmaker William
Blake wrote some 200 years ago: "The artist's business is to transcend earth-things and
reveal the glories beyond." If the soul of the observer is lifted to such
high vibration as to be closer to his own divine state and closer to God, then the work
of art has achieved its aim. A typical example is music. It is a vehicle to loosen up the connection
between the external frame and the body of the soul. This results in a feeling of floating, freeing
oneself of material bonds. Art can remind us that we are eternal and
divine light beings beyond space and time.
