Kundalini Splendor

Jeff Richards is the author of the following reflection on the relation of art to the subconscious, including the transpersonal realms. Jeff is himself an amazing artist, someone fully dedicated to his vision rather than commercial success arising from his work. I find his art (as well as his comments) extremely refreshing, for he writes from the vantage point of one who has in fact thought about things--he writes from the depths of his soul/intellect, and not from the surface of his thinking apparatus. He is conversant with literature and music as well as visual expression, and he perceives the interrelatedness of the various genres.

Most important, Jeff includes the realm of the transpersonal in his perspective. The transpersonal realm is often meticulousl6 excluded from much post-modern discussion, as if it were in bad taste or a breach of an unwritten code to acknowledge that such realms exist.

Now, you may ask, what does such philosophical/aesthetic pondering have to do with Kundaini? The answer: everything (at least in my point of view). Kundaini is what lies at the very depth of the subconscious, the realm that exists after all the thought, all the personal issues and impulses, have been stripped away. It is feeling that occurs often without even symbols to convey its presence. It often wraps the practitioner in a state of "beingness" that does not depend on set form or expectations to exist. It is the raw, unmediated, unconfined energy of the absolute, tamped down sufficiently for the merely human to experience a taste of this infinite and ineffable wonder. It lies at the base of much if not most artistic expression--it is the subconscious in its most basic form, straight from source.

Here is what Jeff wrote on his blog only yesterday. Thank you Jeff, for this powerful and provocative article.


MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012

My Significant Other is the Kosmos Part 1 - Postmodernism Takes a Hike

For some artists, engaging in the practice of art making leads them to an exploration of subconscious and unconscious territories of the psyche. When this happens one finds that the unconscious - that which, by definition, was unavailable to conscious attention - is far richer and deeper and wider than was anticipated. This is certainly true of the personal unconscious, that region mapped and explored by modern psychology in the last 150 years or so and creatively utilized most notably in the first half of the 20th century by the Surrealists. Even today many, if not most, artists working intentionally with the unconscious park their wagons here, unearthing the depths of their personal experience to uncover deeper truths about life and culture, truths rarely visible on the noisy, flatland surface of day to day reality.

But there is another realm of the psyche that can become available to creative exploration - the illusive, sometimes mysterious, sometimes scary, always surprising transpersonal unconscious. It's here, outside of the personal both above and below, that creativity starts tapping into energies never imagined and rarely understood. From far below the region of the personal unconscious, the deep unconscious reveals species instincts and urges that are so raw and formless they can barely be contained in cultural symbols, yet manage to find creative form in myth and ritual that is often shimmering in numinosity. This is the descending path - to use Jung's terminology, artists working here are mining the collective unconscious, Anselm Kiefer is a contemporary artist who is a master in this region of creative expression.

And then, from far above the personal, some artists find themselves drawn to the heavens, embraced unexpectedly by grace or agape, hearing and seeing messages and visions emanating from mystical regions, the far regions of the infinite above and beyond anything not only of the personal but of the Earth itself. This is the ascending path, the transpersonal unconscious territory of the creative mystics - William Blake and J.S Bach; Rumi; the late Beethoven. This is the ineffable brought to manifestation, or more correctly a glimmer of the ineffable brought to Earth not by the effort of the artist but through a kind of invisible guidance reaching down to commicate unlimited possibility.

There are other regions of the transpersonal unconscious; in fact, it's infinite, unlimited, endless, awe inspiring. This is where the artist in his/her creative practice finally stops seeking and begins to be guided. This is where the artist steps through doors never before recognized into territories never before intuited. This is where the artist steps back from the work, looks at it and wonders, who the hell did that? This is where I am. And how I got here is mostly a mystery to me, though in looking back I see a long and battered journey that was somehow fueled and inspired by a crazy intuition, a pull from far off, dimly perceived but undeniable.

There were many turning points, many forks in the road, many dead end paths, none of which are important to anyone but me. But there was a moment that was especially crucial, a coming together of many unrelated elements that led to an emergance that changed everything. And that moment came on a beautiful Spring Sunday morning....

See Jeff's blog at http://www.hexagonart.com

The image above is one of Jeff's own artworks. All rights reserved.