Wrote the other day: "You are holy, wholly complete holographic fractal of the Whole. Thou art that."
One poet-visual artist (practically second half of myself) friend writes back: "Yet, you are holy, wholly complete holographic fractal of the Whole. Thou art art."
I reply:
"Thou art art.... almost wrote that but stuck to conventional, so few understand what I mean when i say i don't segregrate my life from art, or art from life. life is art. not so much the writing.
saw a beautiful bumper sticker in nola, it read: EARTH
cept because of the colors it clearly said: e ART h
or, E art H "
My life is my poem. Sometimes in invisible ink.
Ive always believed the byproduct of a artist is shit. Its only in the process, that one becomes delivered. - a visual artist text message to me
I adore paper in all its skins and colors and aromas and tastes, so I had to check out the new Paper Source store at Santana Row this weekend. Though I nearly choked on the way out - the birthday card and the this-and-that card 'kits' were bad enough as half the joy in creating is the serendiptious discovery of objects to construct cards with and of. But it was their tagline that threw me. Their motto's stencilled in the window: "Do something creative every day."
"The act of focusing our consciouness is an act of creation. Consciousness creates!" - Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix
What? They're meme-ing out the same ol' let's segregate creativity from the rest of our life thoughtform. Here we have the the 'creating' part of our day (which assumes a tangible doing product is produced) and this over there is what? Our destroying part of the day?
Too much like God is for church on Sundays theory for me.
"We need to look at how every single action we take can be made into an act of magick. People miss this concept all the time." - AngelPaths Tarot on the Magus
"The Secret" is at this level of wizardry and mastery: "We are aware of our tools, and we use them in building and improving our lives. We have grown into our magic, and it helps us. We manipulate it. It becomes another tool."
However, THIS is what I'm aiming for personally, and what I'd like to see with the beyond "The Secret" series: "We are beyond worrying about moving or manipulating the Magic, beyond feeling the need to stick to convention: As Shaman, we DANCE the Magic. We are the Magic, the tools companions in our work." (from "Psychology of the Magus", Enchanted Spirit)
We are the Magic.
Thou art art.
Even my text messages are as poems. A friend texts, "resonance with the world and everything in it"
Reply: "renaissance w world cosmos & every blooming thing sentient being and"
A little later: "could not decide betw white peach or chocolate at store. chose prana"
Next: "bus stop ad can u believ sez: a whole new world is opening soon"
And later: "bus blissfully late"
Much later that evening he writes: "I rember sharing a cup wth u. In the 1200s."
Then: "The aura the cup.the grail.the body the stone.philosophy.philo y sophia.balnce.the blood.ruby cinnabar.liquid light"
I speak in symbol, signs, archetypal image to my poetically embodied friends. It makes utter sense to us -- more so than complete sentences. And it's how I began to understand the hieroglypic language of birds without the benefit of any translation to English thoughtforms. To see with the eyes of an poet, an artist, to surrender to art in every way every moment, is to meld with magic.
"People think they are seeing a forest of facts; it's a forest of symbols." - Vladimir Kush, private conversation
Artist and filmmaker Melissa Ulto shares this 15 second trip into her psyche. (I've included the screenshot below, you need to visit the link to play "Be Art".) That simple: Be Art.
Oh, and, never ask an artist-magician HOW questions. It's more difficult than asking a bird how they know to migrate south in the winter.
The answer to How is Yes. And what follows Yes is a serendipitious spontaneous discovery and collaboration with inspiration. Director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, and upcoming The Golden Age film) writes in his blog about the creative process:
"When asked by a studio head once how I would direct the film, I said, well ..... Ummmm ..... I would put some film in the camera ..... And umm .... I would find a nice place to put the camera and umm ..... Needless to say I did not get the job, nor would I work with anyone that asked me that question.....
The process of creativity, if not a great adventure of exploration is flat and unimaginative... Like job work. We thrive on being surprised by our own work, while increasingly we are asked to be able to explain exactly what we are planning. Like asking Piccaso to explain the colour schemes of his paintings before he has done them.
So what others see as chaos, independance, or even arrogance is nothing but us protecting that child within us that is completely at play. For on the child's naïve and innocent play, or on that child's anguish, depends our ability to create." - Shekhar Kapur
Bonus: "The Fool represents the seat of the imagination, The Magician represents the seat of the intellect, and the two delight in their endless dance. It is this dance that the mage knowingly participates in as the basis of magick; to be open like The Fool, yet active like The Magician; to first recieve [inspiration], then project, to resonate with determined intent. But, the recieving is endless, as is the projecting and resonating. That is true for all of us, regardless of our self-attunement, or intent. Focus is the key that bridles chaos, that opens the door to the Eternal for the mage." - The Philosopher's Stone Tarot
p.s. Apologies...this being one of those duller explanatory rant posts. Just had let it off my chest and reinterate my position on the inseparability of Art, Life, Magic once again because it is the cornerstone of everything I'll be blogging about... as it is the cornerstone of my expression on this Earth.
images Morgan Le Fay, by Johanna Pieterman; The Soul of a Rose, by John William Waterhouse; Be Art video clip, by Melissa Ulto
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