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From the Three Mysteries of Tuatha De Brighid:
THE ART [0] : Since time immemorial, the Ancients believed the Cosmos comes into being according to the inner pattern, living and growing, that is the inspiration of creative genius. It is this pattern, and the process that creates it, that we call the Art. From the primordial Chaos of potential, the Art brings forth the majesty of the Cosmos, growing and weaving like the living branches of the World Tree. The Art lives within each thing, as it does in the Cosmos entire. To honor the Art is to honor the sacred beauty that is the One and the All.
The Art as a Mystery.
Poetry and editing by Wind Dancer
Prose by Briar
From the tangled threads of chaos
By the Pattern, by the Will,
All is braided, woven, structured,
Each its purpose to fulfill.
From Light and Love, emerging, being--
Life takes shape and draws its force
Spreads across the new creation
Sets its goal and steers a course.
Praise the One whose Art makes real
Out of chaos, dream and place
Thanks to all who build and care for
Every particle and place.
From the tangled skeins of chaos
Matter, form and energy—
From the dance of every atom
To vastnesses that we cannot see.
From the vision to the heartbeat,
From the primal stew to this—
All we see and sense and honor
We offer Thanks for All that is.
Praise the One and thank the All;
Thank the One and praise the rest.
Heart felt, soul-known, this our homespace
We give, we get, we meet the test.
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Imagine a leaf. Trace its veins with your eyes, from the stem to the long main artery stretching towards the tip, then to the branchings, ever smaller and more delicate, extending from the center line towards the edges in an intricate web.
Now picture a tree. Do you see the trunk? The branches, stronger and thicker at the base, growing thinner, dividing again and again as they stretch up into the light, as they weave an intricate pattern against the sky?”
These entities are similar, are they not? The two things, the leaf and the tree, are different in purpose and nature, yet they grow according to the same inner principle. One can easily imagine the veins of a leaf as the branches of a tree upon which it grows.
We see this recurring model of similarity in many things, if we only look carefully.
Have you ever noticed the way cream spreads in coffee sometimes looks like a certain kind of clouds against the sky? Or that, if you look on a hill overgrown with summer trees from a long distance away, it reminds you of an old, mossy stone rounded with age?
Hurricanes and tornadoes, great stately galaxies and the most mundane water going down a lowly drain – all shape themselves into graceful spirals.
The electron clouds dance a mad circle-dance around a nucleus as planets orbit around a sun.
Sometimes things look similar. Upon reflection, we often notice that they grow and change in a similar way. A tree grows from a seed, and a leaf grows from a bud. They both unfold into a pattern that never stops growing and changing, and yet remains itself – and it is a pattern that manifests in both things.
The Cosmos is not random. The Order that organizes it exists on many different levels, and we understand it in many different ways. We see it as beauty and harmony. We try to comprehend it by stating some of its aspects as those descriptive laws we call science. We study it as philosophy. We impose it as the laws of society. We express it in our works as we co-create both ourselves, and our world.
We understand, almost on the level of instinct, that Order is what ultimately allows life. Atoms form molecules, molecules cling to each other and form increasing levels of complexity, interaction among them takes place, and ultimately life emerges from the primordial sea of Chaos. It even keeps right on emerging, evolving, and changing.
The Order is also our way of thinking. Humans are gifted with a brain that is programmed to look for patterns. This is how we evolved, and this is how we think: looking for and recognizing patterns is as natural for us as breathing.
There are surface patterns, and there are hidden patterns.
Each thing is put together in its own unique way. A leaf is a leaf because it serves a certain function, looks a certain way, and does a certain thing. Each leaf in turn has its own variation on that pattern – in color, in shape, and biological programming that guides its growth. These things are explicit and easily visible, if not always easily described.
Yet there is also a pattern that makes a leaf and a tree look similar, and develop in similar-appearing ways. There is a pattern that allows us to see things as beautiful, no matter how many different concepts of beauty we might embrace, or that guide our thought when we organize our observations into science. There is a pattern that makes us want to sing, or paint, or write, or cook a good meal. There is a pattern that thrusts us naturally into growing and making. All these are implicit patterns, seen as often by deep contemplation as by direct observation.
And then, perhaps, there is a fundamental mystical pattern underlying and directing them all, that we call The Art.
The word “art” comes from the ancient Indo-European root “ar-“, meaning “to fit together”.
Many words stem from it – some ancient, some modern. Consider these, for instance[1]:
arm, armor, armada;
arma (Latin) – tools, arms;
harmony (from Greek harmos – joint, shoulder)
art, artist (from Latinars – skill, craft, art);
artios (Greek) – fitting, even;
aristos (Greek) – best, most fitting.
All of these meanings have a bearing on our modern understanding of the word “art”, as well as on understanding The Art as a Mystery.
In the modern context, “art” usually means one or more of several things[2]:
Art is a process of deliberately arranging elements in such a way that they appeal to our sense of the aesthetic and our emotions. It may be said that appreciation of artistic value of something – seeing beauty and reacting emotionally and spiritually to it – is what makes us human. It is, in a sense, a human (though perhaps not uniquely so) virtue. But, more to the point, humans seem to be driven to also make that which is beautiful, and to derive a sense of value from the process itself. This aesthetic drive is what propels us to make beauty – though not always, and not solely, for its own sake. In this narrow interpretation of the term, aesthetic drive promotes creative drive.
Art is also a result of a creative and organized process. We are all familiar with describing a sculpture or a poem, as “art”. But, in fact, anything can be so termed, as long as it is beautiful, evokes emotional and, perhaps, spiritual response – and as long as it is something that someone has created. Art does not even have to involve material objects – it can be an experience, even an environment, such as a religious Rite, for instance.
Art is also a skill in any field, elevated to such a level that it transcends mere utility. Anything that is done particularly well – be it cooking a meal, fixing a car, arranging flowers, or placing dishes on a shelf – may evoke within us a response that is both aesthetic and emotional, and possibly even spiritual.
Finally, art can also be looked upon as communication. Consider this: an artist paints a picture. As she does so she may, deliberately or not, imbue it with a certain amount of meaning which can be anything from a basic emotion to something quite intellectually involved. Now the picture is hung in a gallery and another person looks at it. Will the observer derive exactly the same meaning from the painting as the artist put into it? Will he feel exactly the same emotion? It is likely that this inner content of the work will never be transmitted exactly, but it is equally likely that if the artist is skilled at her art, at least some general gist will be communicated to the observer, and in any case, the art that is most appreciated is the art that evokes a strong response in the recipient.
From a certain point of view, a work of art becomes its own living entity. The artist creates it, or co-creates it as the case may be, but most artists, even in the process of creation, will admit that the work takes on a life of its own. It is this new creature that then speaks to the audience – in a language both simple and direct, but also symbolic and thus difficult to define. In a sense, the work is not only defined by the artist who creates it, but by the audience who observes it. This interaction between the artist and the work and between the work and the audience is also, in and of itself, art.
Finally, from the religious perspective, there is yet another way to look at art – and that is as a fundamental aspect of the Divine.
As pointed out above, art implies – even demands – creativity, and creativity is an aspect of the nature of the Divine. From the panentheistic perspective, creativity is in the nature of all things. To quote Charles Hartshorne, “To be is to create.”[3] Thus, if we consider art as process, creativity is that quality which makes art possible.
And so we come to the thought that Godde is an artist... Perhaps the ultimate artist! Divine creativity makes possible the Art that is the Cosmos.
Why is The Art our first Mystery? First, what is a religious Mystery? It is, simply put, the Divine Unknowable. A Mystic seeks to merge with this Great Mystery, to realize herself as a part of it, as one with it, to seek the Divine within and to understand and to live from that perspective. Many ancient Mystic traditions teach that to merge with Godde one must become as Godde, or put another way, to be a mindful participant in Godde. Thus, if we call Godde an Artist, then so must we become – in whatever manner our nature leads us.
Another meaning of the word Mystery is a Sacrament – that is, an act within which the Great Mystery which is Godde is an active participant and presence. Is an artistic act, then, not a sacrament?
So Art as a Mystery can encompass all of these concepts:
The Art is the inner order, the pattern within the Cosmos. It is also the Cosmos itself and all things in it – indeed, each thing has its own Art. It is a pattern that is never static, because it changes, grows and evolves – and, indeed, it is that which organizes the emergence of all things as a living reality. It is the shape of the veins in a leaf, it is the shape of the branches in a tree, and it is the growth and beauty of both. It is the beauty of science, and the beauty of a song. It is the act that creates beauty, and the act that understands beauty. It is the creative impulse and power that is the living heritage of all things. It is a pathway, a Gate into the Great Mystery, along which our innate divine creativity leads us towards the ultimate reality of ourselves, and, as with all Mysteries, there is only one way to understand it – and that is to participate in it.
[0] This concept is similar to the concept of *Xartus, which, to the best of the author’s knowledge, was introduced in the context of Proto-Indo-European religion by Ceisiwr Serith. You can read more about it here: http://www.ceisiwrserith.com/ritual/theory/ritualessays.htm
[1] The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots
[2] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “The Definition of Art” by Thomas Adajian
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/
Wikipedia, “Art”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art
[3] “Religion and Creative Experience” by Charles Hartshorne
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