The Creative Arts And The Divine

(Photo by Robert Els for Quechua Benefit 

A POWERFUL FRESH APPROACH TO SPIRITUALITY

From the new book, PRESENCE Recognizing the Divine in Your Everyday Life 

by Mary G. Jackson

As I was writing the spiritual book PRESENCE Recognizing the Divine in Your Everyday Life, I came upon some ideas that seemed to form a foundation for my experience of the Divine. I called these philosophical and spiritual ideas, Concepts. Currently there are 22 concepts that have become the framework upon which PRESENCE is built. 

Let’s explore the eighth concept, The creative arts invite us to touch the face of the Divine. The Biblical story of creation is so fundamental to our understanding of God and the relationship with each of us that it isn’t surprising that we, too, yearn to create. We have a universal desire to connect to that which we call art. We deem as a favorite thing our drive to express beauty, emotion, and meaning through artistic creations. We experience the creative arts opening the connection between our earthly, bodily, survival-mode existence and the dimension sometimes called heaven. Whether painting, music, dance, or the many creative activities in which we may engage, the creative arts raise us to understand our partnership with the Creator. That feeling is transformative. To be the creator or performer is to experience an almost out-of-body sensation that has no equal. 

The arts have so much power that you don’t even have to be the creator. Listening to great music, viewing beautiful art or dance, or just being close to them can give you that euphoric feeling. I think of the performances I have attended and had that rush, the high, the tingling from the inside out as the witness of a transcendent experience.