The Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov offers a particularly original, vast and light-filled conception of art. According to him, a work of art has the mission to remind the human soul of its heavenly origin, its longing for its true homeland and the desire to resume its path to the lost paradise.
Yet this is not a call to leave and desert the earth. On the contrary, it is an invitation to love it and, through love, to descend into earthly life, to explore it and to know both its heights and its depths, to sublimate and harmonise it.
The work of beauty is an incarnation of the ideal in matter.
Being creative expresses the desire to surpass oneself
Since the beginning of their evolution, humans have been eager to create.
Look at children: from an early age they begin to build sand castles, draw, colour, invent stories, songs, dances, disguises, and use all sorts of objects like musical instruments, and so on.
Art reveals to us that all human beings feel the need to become creative and that it is not limited to reproduction, to reproduce for preservation of the species, an instinct that animals already have: it manifests itself as a need to go always further, to always go a step further, to replace an old form with a new one, more subtle, more harmonious, more perfect. The creative power of human beings resides higher than their ordinary level of consciousness; it is found in a part of their soul that manifests itself as a faculty to explore, to contemplate realities which surpass them and to capture the elements from there.
Creating means to exceed ourselves, to surpass ourselves.
Synopsis 2, part III, 4 « Art and Life »
Inspiration: a celestial touch
Anyone can claim to be an artist, of course.
The true artist however is one who is able to relate internally with the divine world and to maintain this connection. Be they painters, sculptors, architects, dancers, musicians or poets, it is only this link with the divine world that can introduce into their creative work this element of the eternal that gives a work of art its worth.
Before they set to work, artists must collect themselves, meditate and ask heaven for its blessings if they wish to become true creators, for only heaven can bring them this light which illuminates the imagination. For their efforts to rise in themselves, to project themselves into higher realms, they are given the revelation of true beauty, as well as the ability to express and transmit it. When they are inspired, humans are able to create masterpieces, because their whole being is impregnated with this spiritual light they have received. Only the spirit within them is capable of producing creations that are immortal.
Daily Meditations 2005, 25 October
Works of art are made to be shared
Whether they are musicians, poets, painters…, the majority of contemporary artists have settled on concepts of art which most people find completely incomprehensible.They keep the meaning of their works to themselves – and you can’t be sure that even they know what it is! – But then, how will the public be able, thanks to them, to refine its sensitivity and understanding?
Artists are endowed with faculties of perception which put them in contact with a world different from the ordinary world; the realities they touch on are not those just anyone can grasp in their everyday life, of course. But to translate their discoveries, artists must strive to use a language accessible to all…at least to those who want to understand and be enlightened. Otherwise, what good are their works? People have the right to write a poem or to paint a picture for themselves, of course, but then let them keep it to themselves. It makes no sense to address the public in a language it cannot understand…or in a language some pretend to understand in order to appear more enlightened than the crowd.
Daily Meditations 2006, 17 October
Beauty, incarnation of the truth and the good
Art will save the world, an art that is conscious and lit by the truths of initiatic science.
But how do we know who a real artist is if the first crank who comes along can claim this name?
A true artist is an interpreter of philosophy, science and religion. For being an artist, means to realise on the physical level what the intelligence conceives as fair and true, and what the heart feels as good, so that the higher world, the world of the spirit, descends to incarnate in matter. The artist in the initiatic meaning of the word is one who has known how to put order and reason into their thoughts and has introduced peace and love into their heart. Everything they achieve is then harmonious and full of meaning.
Œuvres Complètes, chap. 22 (2006), 24 août
The arts participate in the meaning of Creation
From disorder to order, from chaos to harmony: such is the law of creation, and this law is observed everywhere in the universe. Yes, everywhere, except in what our contemporaries persist in calling art and which is in reality more often than not a return to the formless.
We look at a painting or a sculpture without being able to distinguish what they represent; inarticulate sounds pass for a song, cacophony and noises for music; words thrown together haphazardly for poetry; disorderly movements for dance…The intelligence of living nature works always with a sense of differentiation and organisation. A single cell which divides itself, and at the end of nine months a magnificently structured human being arrives.
Should we now take the opposite path and return to being single or chaotic cells? How is it that artists, who are by definition creators, have not understood what laws should govern their creations?
Daily Meditations 2003, 26 july
True art is to create ourselves
We appreciate the works of some artists, painters, poets, musicians,…but when we meet them, we are often astonished to discover that the beauty of their creations is totally lacking in their being and their behaviour: they do not emit any light, poetry or harmony…
Why? Because the majority of artists are content to create in a matter which is external to them, works that are outside them, and they concentrate their efforts on that. Well, that’s not enough: art must not only be confined to these works, it must also exist in daily life. True artists are those who are able to take themselves as their creative material.
All the methods of the spiritual life are there at our disposal in order to help us and inspire us in this task. Yes, it is within us first of all that we must create poetry and music, harmonious forms and movements, sparkling colours, so that all the beings around us, both in the visible and invisible worlds benefit from it.
Oeuvres complètes, chap. 21 (2006) 24 october
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