The Purpose of Art - The Opposite is Also True

This past weekend I went camping with Lisa, Irv and Alden. My first time camping in my adult life. My only memories of sleeping in a tent are from too early in my life to remember them vividly. I took a backpack full of books just in case, but spent most of the time observing my surroundings. I should have more than enough material to finish The Apostle in Triumph through the winter, its a painting that is painting itself.

On that note, my most important triumph this weekend was an epiphany that occurred to me while reading Nichol's Jung and Tarot, an Archetypal Journey. I was reading about the Angel of Temperance and the mixture of opposite elements into perfect harmony by the hands of the Angel. everything clicked. I thought of the Alchemical process of the Great Work, the gentle heat of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes which brings us in union with the Holy Guardian Angel, taking us by the hand and elevating us up the Tree of Life. I thought of Crowley's change of the name of the card to ART. ART was the answer. I looked at its path in the Tree of Life, path 25 joining 6 Tiphareth - Beauty and 9 Yesod - Foundation.

This is not one artistic discipline, or magical art, it is all ART. Its Hebrew letter is Samekh (serpent) it is infinity, the serpent tattooed on Irv's right forearm, with the Beauty of the Rose on his left forearm, thus his Avatar in Dusk of the Dead is aligned with this force. The path is intersected by path 27, The Tower, with a God-inflicted lightning overthrowing this tower of human thought and reason. One cannot ascent to the Sephirah of Beauty without overthrowing this tower of rationality. Beauty can be studied, perhaps even approximated in the Golden Means of 1.618, but at a certain point logic is breaks down as we ascend in the Tree. We try to analyse it, explain it, but that certain mystical power of a great work of art always transcends words. Art history is filled with seemingly opposing forces which overtake one another from age to age, forces that can be best exemplified by Classical vs Romanticist, thought vs emotion, reason vs passion, Man as the measure of all things, and our own insignificance in the face of the great Universe. Art joins the Sun and the Moon together ala Michelangelo's Creation of the Sun and the Moon in the Sistine Chappel ceiling. The mixing of fire and water, polar opposites at the hands of the angel prepares us for what is to come in the abyss above the 4th and 5th sephiroth where our logic fails and opposites are harmonious (Sheehan's words ring in my head "everything I tell you, the opposite is also true") This first level break down of coherence is experienced in our world through Art-painting, music, sculpture, poetry. Music, being the most abstract and accessible these days, often propels me past the path of the Tower, putting me in a trance from where I get most of my inspiration and channel it down to earth through color pigments, where in a fixed painting, it exists beyond the constraints of the 4th dimension, time. Many people will never ascend passed the Tower, but if you can get passed it, everything connects, everything is a mirror of something else, and everything reveals divinity. One of many songs that occurred to me, some of which i jotted down in my sketchbook, is Epic. One of my favorite songs by Faith no More, that up until a few months ago I had no idea what it was about, as I'm sure most people still don't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AMS3XNK9CU&feature=player_embedded

Can you feel it, see it, hear it today?
If you cant, then it doesnt matter anyway
You will never understand it cuz it happens too fast
And it feels so good, its like walking on glass
Its so cool, its so hip, its alright
Its so groovy, its outta sight
You can touch it, smell it, taste it so sweet
But it makes no difference cuz it knocks you off your feet
You want it all but you cant have it
Its cryin, bleedin, lying on the floor
So you lay down on it and you do it some more
Youve got to share it, so you dare it
Then you bare it and you tear it
You want it all but you cant have it
Its in your face but you cant grab it
Its alive, afraid, a lie, a sin
Its magic, its tragic, its a loss, its a win
Its dark, its moist, its a bitter pain
Its sad it happened and its a shame
You want it all but you cant have it
Its in your face but you cant grab it
What is it?
Its it
What is it? ...

As determined by my birth date, my soul card is the Hierophant, path 16, joining 2 Chokmah - Wisdom and 4 Chesed - Mercy, with Art as my personality aspect as the Hierophant. The path which joins the both, Art and the Hierophant is the Hermit, path 20, joining 4 Chesed - Mercy and 6 Tiphareth - Beauty. So now I understand why the Apostle in Triumph is a painting that is painting itself, the Hermit being the Hierophant as seen in an earthly nature connecting Art, Beauty with higher, transcendental levels of consciousness. This is my purpose as the Hierophant, this is the purpose of Art in the Universe, to reveal "mystical truths." I understand that the path of Art does not lead all the way down 10 -Malkuth - The Kingdom, Earth. As much as I try to be accessible to everyone, there needs to be a level of afford for the common man to meet me half way in The Foundation, so that Art can lead them higher. Its the nature of fine art and esoteric mysticism.

I also took the time to practice meditation by myself, sat too close to the fire and breathed some smoke, otherwise it was very good progress. My mind still fights to project pictures, I shush it when I can, but at deeper levels its much easier to ignore it, much like a distant barking dog. It was the closest to a voluntary outer body experience that I've ever had.