The Symbols of Beauty

Santiago Calatrava – Auditorio Adán Martín, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
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Pure music helps the transmission of the current.
We pray by sounds and by symbols of Beauty.
The heart and mind do not conflict
when they sail the Ocean of Creative Labor.
And the wings of the bird of the spirit, atremble,
will soar upon the breeze of harmony…
(Leaves of Morya’s Garden I § 181)

Shostakovich – Piano Concerto n. 2, Andante
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Learn the Wisdom of the Creator through life’s symbols.
Those who fulfil their accepted mission unmask the fact of earthly life,
And understand the true meaning of their own path…
(Leaves of Morya’s Garden I § 14)

Pure thought imbued with beauty points the way to truth…
A seeker who proceeds with awareness of beauty cannot be confused.
(New Era – Community § 27)

Stephen Knapp | Lightpaintings – Castled Void
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Much that is inexpressible by words may be supplemented by symbols. Thus, in every symbol there will be the element of the inexpressible. It is possible to perceive the significance of secrecy, but words will be inadequate. One should refer very attentively to symbols. As secret hieroglyphs they preserve the essence of the great Universe… A disregard for symbols can deprive us of a concept inexpressible in words. Furthermore, a symbol is a reminder of the entire Teaching. The secrecy of the symbol is, as it were, a tension of energy. (AUM § 437)

It is the consciousness of harmony and beauty which drives the human unit along the path of evolution to an eventual return to his emanating Source. (Alice Bailey – Education in the New Age, p. 21)

Jan van Eyck – The adoration of the mystic Lamb | God Father (detail)
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What is there in this objective world that is not the inadequate symbol of a divine idea? What have we in our outer manifestation but the visible sign (at some stage of the evolving purpose) of the plan of the creating Deity? What are you yourself but the outer expression of a divine idea? We must learn to see symbols all around us and then to penetrate behind the symbol to the idea which it should express. (Alice Bailey – Glamour: a world problem, p. 13)

In Beauty the Infinite will manifest. In Beauty the teachings of the seekers of Spirit are illumined. In Beauty we are not afraid to reveal the truth of freedom. In Beauty we kindle the radiance in every drop of water. In Beauty we transform matter into a rainbow. There is no ugliness that will not be swallowed up in the rays of the rainbow… There are no fetters that will not decompose in the freedom of Beauty. How can we find words to discuss the universe? How shall we speak about the evolution of forms? How shall we raise the consciousness to a level where it studies the fundamentals? How to advance humanity to a point where it cognizes the world scientifically? Every cognition is born in Beauty. Learn how to think luminously… (Leaves of Morya’s Garden II § 322)

Yayoi Kusama | Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life
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J. S. Bach – Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1055 (version for oboe)
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Gabriel Loire – Symphonic Sculpture
Stained-glass tower – Hakone Open-Air Museum (Japan)
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The symbol is what fuses a divine idea and a form into a fiery synthesis that illuminates Life, enriches it, helps us to understand it ever more deeply, and to manifest it in all its authentic magnificence. Our very existence is a symbol of the art of union, which places the high and the low in a dialectical relationship of communication and mutual enrichment, contemplating the higher model and reflecting it in all the hearts with which it comes into contact. Beauty is the means by which we come to know the constitution of the Universe, its order and its stability; those who understand and express it evoke the creations of the spirit and its freedom, which obeys that order and rebuilds it in thousands of ways. It is up to us to ensure that our existence is a symbol of something ever deeper, more harmonious, resplendent and musical, so as to lead us to inhabit the world poetically and transform our everyday lives into a work of art.

Sandro Botticelli | Venus (detail) – Royal Museums | Turin
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On the day when our Earth and its Solar Angel, the resplendent Venus, Lady of Golden Proportion, are in conjunction in the sparkling waters of Taurus, the sign of vision and enlightenment, let us draw inspiration and guidance from these loving and beloved Luminaries to train ourselves to resonate with the splendour of truth and with the radiance of the Mother of the World – another way of defining all the Beauty that surrounds us. Let us take most seriously the commitment to learn to align ourselves ever more fully and ever more effectively with that transcendent Model towards which the Fourth Ray of Taurus impels us, so that we may imitate and manifest it here below, through the constructive power of Venus and her Fifth Ray; let us make every effort to strengthen and refine our awareness and understanding of that Beauty, so that we ourselves may become creators of symbols capable of expressing it and unleashing its saving power in life.

 

Thus triumphs the beauty of Be-ness!
(Infinity II § 33)

 

The wise student will likewise regard all forms of expression as in the nature of symbols. A symbol has three interpretations; it is itself an expression of an idea, and that idea has behind it, in its turn, a purpose inconceivable as yet. The three interpretations of a symbol might be considered in the following way:
1. The exoteric interpretation of a symbol is based largely upon its objective utility, and upon the nature of the form. That which is exoteric and substantial serves two purposes:
a. To give some faint indications as to the idea or the concept. This links the symbol in its exoteric nature with the mental plane, but does not release it from the three worlds of human appreciation.
b. To limit and confine and imprison the idea and so adapt it to the point in evolution which the solar Logos, the planetary Logos and man have reached. The true nature of the latent idea is ever more potent, complete and full than the form or symbol through which it is seeking expression. Matter is but a symbol of a central energy. Forms of all kinds in all the kingdoms of nature, and the manifested sheaths in their widest connotation and totality are only symbols of life—what that Life itself may be remains as yet a mystery.
These exoteric symbolic forms are of many kinds and serve many purposes, and this is largely responsible for the confusion in the minds of men on these matters. All symbols emanate from three groups of Creators:
The solar Logos, Who is constructing a “Temple in the Heavens not made with hands”.
The Planetary Logoi, who—in Their seven groups—create through seven ways and methods, and thus produce a diversity of symbols and are responsible for concretion.
Man, who builds forms and creates symbols in his work of every day, but who as yet works blindly and largely unconsciously.  Nevertheless, he merits the name of creator, because he utilises the faculty of mind and employs the rational quality.
The lesser devas and all the subhuman entities and all those builders who must in some distant future pass through the human state of consciousness are not regarded as creators. They work under impulses emanating from the other three groups.  Each of the three groups is free within certain specified limits.
2. The subjective interpretation is the one which reveals the idea lying behind the objective manifestation. This idea, incorporeal in itself, becomes a concretion on the plane of objectivity, and as stated above, an idea lies behind every form without exception and no matter which group of creators is responsible for its construction. These ideas become apparent to the student after he has entered the Hall of Learning, just as the exoteric form of the symbol is all that is noted by the man who is as yet in the Hall of Ignorance. As soon as a man begins to use his mental apparatus and has made even a small contact with his ego three things occur:
a. He reaches out beyond the form and seeks to account for it.
b. He arrives in time at the soul which every form veils, and this he does through a knowledge of his own soul.
c. He begins then himself to formulate ideas in the occult sense of the term and to create and make manifest that soul-energy or substance which he finds he can manipulate.
To train people to work in mental matter is to train them to create; to teach people to know the nature of the soul is to put them in conscious touch with the subjective side of manifestation and to put into their hands the power to work with soul energy; to enable people to unfold the potencies of the soul aspect is to put them en rapport with the forces and energies hidden in the akasha and the anima mundi.
A man can then (as his soul contact and his subjective perception is strengthened and developed) become a conscious creator, co-operating with the plans of the Hierarchy of Adepts who work with ideas, and who seek to bring these ideas (planetary ideas) into manifestation upon the physical plane. As he passes through the different grades in the Hall of Learning his ability so to work and his capacity to get at the thought lying behind all symbols increases. He is no longer taken in by the appearance but knows it as the illusory form which veils and imprisons some thought.
3. The spiritual meaning is that which lies behind the subjective sense and which is veiled by the idea or thought just as the idea itself is veiled by the form it assumes when in exoteric manifestation.  This can be regarded as the purpose which prompted the idea and led to its emanation into the world of forms.  It is the central dynamic energy which is responsible for the subjective activity.
These three aspects of a symbol can be studied in connection with all atomic forms. There is, for instance, that unit of energy which we call the atom of the physicist or chemist. It has itself a form which is the symbol of the energy which produces it.  This form of the atom is its exoteric manifestation. There are likewise those atomic aspects which we call—for lack of a better term—the electrons; these electrons are largely responsible for the quality of any particular atom, just as the soul of a man is responsible for his peculiar nature. They represent the subjective aspect or life. Then, finally, there is the positive aspect, the energy responsible for the coherence of the whole and for the uniformity of the dual manifestation, exoteric and subjective. This is analogous to the spiritual meaning, and who can read that meaning?
In man likewise, the human atom, these three aspects are found.  Man on the physical plane is the exoteric symbol of an inner subjective idea which is possessed of quality and attributes and a form through which it seeks expression. That soul in its turn is the result of a spiritual impulse, but who shall say what that impulse is? Who as yet shall define the purpose behind the soul or idea, whether logoic or human? All these three factors are yet in process of evolution; all are as yet “imperfect Gods”, each in their degree and therefore unable to express fully that which is the spiritual factor lying behind the conscious soul. (Alice Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 1233-36)

Those who live under the power of Beauty are attracted toward constructiveness. They create by their potentiality the mastery of spirit. They regenerate life through Beauty. … The domination of spirit and heart is a great cosmic law. Therefore the Fiery World creates through the power of spirit. (Fiery World III § 28)

Levalet – Accrochage (Paris, 2013) + anonymous graffiti
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Truth is veiled in symbols.
The mind cannot comprehend their relevance to life,
and their meaning must be revealed by everyday events.
(Leaves of Morya’s Garden I § 130)

Verily, the pearls of art bring exaltation to humanity,
and the fires of spirit-creativeness give
a new understanding of beauty to humanity.
(Hierarchy § 359)
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Apollo and the Muses | Musikverein – Vienna
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orpheus and Eurydice | Dance of the Blessed Spirits
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Remember, Art is the one vital medium of the coming culture.
Through Beauty will you approach.
Understand and remember.
I have entrusted you to pronounce Beauty.
I bid you pronounce Beauty…

There is one thing alone—Beauty.
And to you I say:
Guard, expound, and affirm this Beauty.
Therein lies your way.

With Beauty shall I meet those who will come to Me.
And they are already on their way.

(Leaves of Morya’s Garden I § 333)