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VISIONARY REVUE
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- PART II -
L. CARUANA
SEEING PERFECTLY
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Paris, Oct 13, 2004 - A new supply of hashish has come to me, complements of an acquaintance (a professor of Philosophy at the university here...)
At first, I allowed my eye to roam over Fuchs' altarpiece, marvelling at its mastery. Just the foot, for example, was not only a correct, proportional rendering of a foot. It manifest so much more. It manifest a perfectly harmonious relationship of lines both on the two-dimensional and three-dimensional planes.
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In normal vision, we are unaware of this 'tension' between the painting's second and third dimension. A foot may manifest perfect proportion in 2D (relating to an invisible square on the painting's surface), or in 3D (relating to an invisible cube in the perspectival depth), but it is extremely difficult to find the intermediary point in which these two different but perfect proportions meet.
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FALL 2007
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE RESURRECTED
(Detail)
Ernst Fuchs
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Beyond that, Fuchs had managed to convey a state of repose in the foot that amazed me. I then looked up at the entire figure, and saw that Christ was indeed ‘standing at rest’ as the Gnostics would say - attentive but relaxed, calm but aware. The finest Buddhist and Hindu sculptures manifest this graceful state of repose.
I also marvelled at the hands for some time. At first, I sought out their 'restful' quality. Instead, I was met by the enigma of the mudra in this painting - the strange manner in which Christ gestures with his hands (a feature common to Hindu, Buddhist, even Byzantine art).
To understand it better, I assumed this position, both with my body and my hands. Is this mudra - like a magic 'signing' of the hands - a kind of ritual gesture for initiating us deeper into the image? Don't Buddhists perform distinctive hand gestures while praying? (And - how else can we explain many of Mati Klarwein's works, which are filled with such mudras?)
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Through this ritual act, I found myself seeing much deeper into the painting. As my eye wandered over the fleshtones on the chest, I had to marvel at how magnificently Fuchs had rendered volume and the gradual transition of light and shadow over its surface. The skin took on a metallic sheen and finesse.
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I also admired many other qualities in the work: how the jewels glowed marvellously. The lightning bands of yellow and purple in the background also took on an extraordinary quality.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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At first I realized (why hadn't I noticed this before?) that, in the painting's two-dimensional space, these bands of light are perfectly symmetrical. Their form is not haphazard, but carefully designed to situate us in the centre of a its 2D colour space.
Then I saw how these bands of light (again - why hadn't I noticed this before?) were carefully contrived to manifest depth. At the bottom of the picture, they became a carpet of flowing light, cascading over an altar receeding into the background. The colours possessed depth in the third dimension. I was reminded of something that Fuchs had said to me repeatedly: colour is space.
Before breaking off my regard, I had to acknowledge to myself that I had indeed entered through the image.
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* * *
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As a result of this experience, I've gained some important insights. People have been trained, over the last five hundred years of painting (from Rubens to Modernism) to look at the paint rather than the image.
By looking at the paint, we tend to look at the flaws in any work that claims to be representational. Meanwhile, we fail to see the image - the image on the other side of the painting... what Plato called the ideal image or archetype. And it is precisely that image which leads us to experiencing 'perfection'.
When meditating on a painting, we must stop focussing on the flaws. Of course, 'seeing the flaws' is important for a painter if he wants to improve his technique. But, in meditation, we don’t need to see those imperfections. On the contrary, we need to see how the painting is perfect.
If I see perfectly, I will enter into a state of perfection - a state of divine perfection. What did Fuchs write? That the main figure of this altarpiece is "...transfigured in a universe that he perfects by, himself, being perfected."
The purpose of a sacred work of art is to awaken us to the particle of the Divine that is in us. Such a particle, when we are truly aware of it, alters our perception of the world radically. God is perfect, and the particle of the Divine in us is also perfect. Thus, through it, we are able to see the work of art perfectly.
The ‘heightened’ forms of perception evoked through entheogens are, in the end, ‘perfected’ ways of seeing... Perhaps I could also call them 'entheogenic' ways of seeing.
And yet - how hard it is to attain and sustain this! We begin, as always, by seeing the faults. Those faults - I came to realize in a thunderous moment - are like so many walls blocking and obscuring our perfect perception of things.
Because the perfection is there - it is inherently there - but we fail to see it!
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FALL 2007
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE RESURRECTED
Ernst Fuchs
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Imagine a painting which evokes tears - and which must be seen through tears... tears of suffering transformed into tears of ecstasy and joy.
In entheogenic seeing, a watery light emerges, which defines all forms in our field of vision with a heightened clarity, focus and precision. This acute sense of precision - from Van Eyck all the way to Fuchs and Klarwein - is an aspect of psychedelic experience all-too-often neglected in art.
I also reminded myself that I must focus my eyes, not on a point on the picture surface, but on a more distant point beyond it. The moment I did this, the image appeared - the ideal image or archetype - that which was hidden behind the painting's surface.
Slowly, I'm learning to see. Through my heightened entheogenic states, I can more fully appreciate the incredible degrees of perfection which Visionary artists, throughout history, have achieved in seeing, and in representing that manner of seeing.
Recognize that, while they painted, the greatest artists were in a state which allowed them to perceive things more perfectly than we normally do.
To render figures three-dimensionally, they gazed into the depths of the image to render that distance and distortion. The same is true with compositional balance, gradations of light and darkness, colour harmonies, textures, the tension between two and three dimensions, dynamism, stillness, energy etc. With each painting, the Visionary artist must strive to manifest perfection in each of the painterly skills that have arisen over time.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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The accuracy in perspective, or in the rendering of the outlines - all of these speak of the power to see things in a more eternal manner. The light, the volume - all of these give the objects presence. In the end, the artist is creating the painting for himself as much as for others.
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Visionary artists seek perfection while they paint, to enter into a state of perfection.
Why did Van Eyck take such pains to accurately transcribe a crown with all its jewels? Because this object transported him during the very moment of rendering it.
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Just as we must stop seeing flaws, so must we stop looking at shadows. By nature, our eye traces a path along the outline of a figure, seeking to reconstruct the image through its dark silhouette. That is why, when we first learn to render, we pick up a pencil.
Instead, we must learn to 'see the light...' We must pick up a brush and dip it in white tempera or casein to render the transluscent volumes. But, how hard it is to render the 'highlights' - the point on the outermost surface of the volume, where all colours and shades unite in white.
And yet the moment we, in our meditations, concentrate on that unified point - and so, on the light - the image as a whole comes alive... We see it differently. We see it as a unified.
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COLOUR IS SPACE
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A bleak November morning. The zinc rooftops of Paris appear lifeless and grey under a leaden sky. The most prevalent of colours, in the world of everyday perception, is grey...
While in Bourgogne this weekend, I sought out Claus Sluter's Gothic fountain The Well of Moses. What a masterpiece! |
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LEFT: THE WELL OF MOSES
Claus Sluter
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FALL 2007
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I became obsessed with one angel, sculpted in the upper portion, that seemed to be making a 'secret sign' to me: it had covered one half of its face with its hand.
Back in Paris, I felt an odd compulsion to look through books on Michelangelo. Sure enough, in his Last Judgement, I found it again: a figure covering one eye with his hand. The derelict I met on Rue Faubourg St. Antoine - blind in one eye - is haunting me still...
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THE WELL OF MOSES
(Detail)
Claus Sluter
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THE LAST JUDGMENT
(Detail)
Michelangelo
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That evening, as I repeated my experiments on Fuchs' altarpiece, I experienced another breakthrough. The following notes are taken from my Entheogen Journal:
Today, another revelation.
At first, I marvelled at certain colour combinations. Why, I wondered, are there blue shadows in the Christ (particularly in the lower limbs)?
As I concentrated on that blue, I recognized it as the exact same blue which I had seen once - with eyes closed - under the effects of peyote. Spontaneously, a song from an all-night peyote ceremony rose up in my memory (a 'peyote song' - which I'd totally forgotten until that moment):
Pey-o-té... Mesca-li-tó...
Following a strange impulse, I placed one hand over my eye...
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VISIONARY REVUE
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Only then did I see it. I saw the relationship between colour, harmony and light. I saw how the blue in the lower limbs related to the yellows and greens around it. These colours fused into a halo of light that extended as far as the blue and green in the cherub behind. This was not colour, or even colour harmony - it was light.
Only in a Visionary state do these colours vibrate, combine and unite into a perfectly luminous halo.
The whole work was glowing. Due to the music, the colours were shimmering. Their vibrations were extraordinarily intense, even blinding. I didn’t see separate colours, but harmonized ones blending into the singular light at their source.
Is it possible that, in the future, this way of 'seeing colour' will be learned? Will we become accustomed to it, so that it becomes evident to everyone? Even I found the saturated colours of the Feuerfuchs paintings to be too 'garrish' at first. Now I understand, see, and accept them. I see through them.
Seeing perspective in painting was not immediately obvious to everyone, but eventually learned, understood and accepted by all. The same is true with impressionist colours. Will everyone eventually learn to see and accept 'Visionary Impressionism' (which places vibrating colours on top of one another, instead of beside them)?
With one eye only, I had found a new way of seeing colour. Although two eyes are usually needed to create the illusion of depth - now, the colours were creating a new kind of space, with extraordinary transparency and depth. With one eye, I was gazing into the light's infinite depths, where colour manifest its deepness by degrees.
‘Colour is space’ as Fuchs said. But now I realized how much 'colour is depth'. (I also thought to myself - how difficult it is to see what Fuchs said. He taught me so many things which, initially, I couldn't understand. Only now, years later, have I seen and understood. Or have I, like Judas, misunderstood the master's teachings..?)
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Gazing into the painting, I could see this colour-space as both two-dimensional and three-dimensional. In two dimensions, it was not the shapes or silhouettes, but the colours which measured space ( - the symmetrical bands of light). The flat space of the painting was created by colour alone.
And yet, just as the shape of Christ's face had |
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been distorted so its lines reached out to an invisible but perfect sphere, so did lines of yellow, green and blue in the lower limbs now reach out to an otherwise invisible halo of light.
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FALL 2007
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The moment this effect was achieved, I plunged into the colours' third dimension. Through ‘visionary seeing’ (one hand still over my eye), the figure of Christ emerged into the foreground while the glowing angel receded into the background. The greens and blues of the halo acquired new depth. Meanwhile, the bands of purple and yellow in the background fused into a bright white light of infinite depth.
This ‘foreground / background’ dimension was created, not by any kind of perspective, but through the interactions of colour. I was seeing a new spacial dimension created by colour.
Yes, 'colour is space' and 'colour is depth'. But I could also say 'colour is light'. Every artist knows that light divides into a spectrum of colours. But do they know how to recompose those spectrum colours to re-create 'the light'? Especially a light which, otherwise unseen, suddenly shimmers with such transparency and depth?
I saw the yellows ‘advance’ into the foreground while the greens and blues ‘receded’ into the background. ‘Warm colours advance, cool colours recede’ as every artist knows. But how is this effect achieved for the Visionary artist?
I remembered how, most of the time when I laid down an imprimatura (a background colour glaze) on one of Fuchs' paintings, he told me to use lime green. For most of the subsequent glazes, he told me to lay down pink.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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In his large grisaille called Job and the Judgement of Paris (which can be seen in the Fuchs-Wagner Villa in Vienna), two colours are gently glazed over the greys: pink and lime green.
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JOB AND THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS (Detail)
Ernst Fuchs
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Meanwhile, in his large Paradiso painting, I noticed that the transparent beams of light emerging from behind the tree had only two colours... pink and lime green!
When I asked him about this, he said: "Yes, the Paradiso painting demonstrates my theory of colour and light."
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PARADISO (Detail)
Ernst Fuchs
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Staring at the Transfiguration altarpiece, I could see how, in fact, lime green was common to all the cold colours (something which I only saw under entheogens). Meanwhile, pink was common to all the warm colours (again, I only saw this pink due to the entheogens).
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FALL 2007
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Is that it? Pink is what makes colours warm and, in the hidden spacial dimension, makes them advance. (That is why Fuchs glazed with pink repeatedly). The green, meanwhile, is what makes the colours cool and makes them recede (hence, the lime green imprimatura).
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In a state of awe and wonder, I turned my gaze to the coloured 'flames' at the top of the altarpiece. My hair stood on end and I began to fear for my sanity.
At first, I noticed a crown of light created by colour alone. This crown had volume, like curved glass surfaces transpierced by shimmering hues of light. It was like a frozen fire cradled in a crystalline chalice.
Then I noticed the Hebrew script, which shimmered like flaming tongues of transparent light. Deciphering these in ascending order, I gradually made out the letters: YOD - HEI - WAW - SHIN - HEI. Readings of the Kabbala flashed through my memory. This was the mysterious tetragrammaton: YOD - HEI - WAW - HEI, the unpronounceable name of the Lord - YHWH...
But what was the SHIN doing in the middle? Then I remembered the Aramaic name for Jesus: YOD - HEI - SHIN - WAW - HEI, forming the word YESHU'A. Fuchs had inserted the SHIN in the middle of YHWH to spell out the saviour's hidden name: YESHU'A.
But, for some inexplicable reason, he'd placed the SHIN (when reading in ascending order) between the WAW and the last HEI, making Ye-u-sh-a, rather than Ye-sh-u-a. And what was the meaning of the fluid quadrangular shape behind the SHIN?
As I continued to gaze at the crystalline chalice with its flaming scroll of Hebrew letters, the blues and violets - those incredible 'peyote blues' - transformed into a single eye. I found myself gazing into the eye of God.
God is light. And Christ is the manifestation of the divine light - made flesh.
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In ecstasy I marvelled at the various ways in which 'the Light' had manifest itself: the saviour's flesh glistening with all the colours surrounding it, the polished smooth surfaces of the cherub on the left, the translucent gems 'glowing from within' in the cherub on the right - all of these reflecting, in their own unique manner, God’s infinite light. |
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VISIONARY REVUE
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As my gaze rose once more to 'the source of the light' at the top of the altarpiece - something utterly unexpected occured. Was I hallucinating? Was this real? Or had I lost all touch with reality?
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That glorious display of colour suddenly appeared to me as so many degrees of grey. All hues had disappeared. I saw nothing but shades of grey - each shade a perfect translation of the hue's different degree of light and darkness. It was a mind-bending mystery.
Even now, as I write this, I cannot explain this new phenomenon. Why had all the coulours been drained of their hue, leaving nothing but greys? Was this a new way of seeing?
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ENTERING THROUGH THE IMAGE
WITHOUT ENTHEOGENS
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Paris, Sept. 8, 2004 - On Friday of this week, I began contemplating The Transfiguration of the Resurrected without the aid of any entheogen. I contemplated it in the manner I’ve learned through hashish, as documented above.
At first, I consciously made an effort to expand the focus of my vision. After a few minutes, I could expand the circle of my focus outward to objects further and further on the periphery of my vision. The colours began shining with an intensity far beyond ‘normal sight’.
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FALL 2007
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At times, I had to hold myself tightly, because it was the emotion inside of me that was creating these effects. From within, I could feel surges of elation, of marvel, of wonder - and each of these caused the painting to become real, to be absolutely present.
I was also aware how much my mental state was not far from madness. Because my usual hold on reality had altered to the point that the objects in the painting were absolutely real. There was no painting; no frame. Tat tvam asi - you are it and it is you...
The explosion of feelings within me was animating the image, giving it life, existence - reality. All the life flowing through my veins had brought the image to life. Yet, the moment those feelings subsided, the reality also diminished.
Still, through this strange meditation, I was expanding my consciousness into mental states which, until then, I had experienced only under entheogens.
I realized that it is possible to achieve 'Visionary ways of seeing' sheerly by the way we look at a painting. I was able to concentrate on an image to the point that it became ‘a doorway to transcendence’.
The keys to that other world, which I had left for myself, were still in the painting and could be used once more to open its door. Like the handle of the bookshop that came off in my hands - I still possessed the hidden knowledge, the handle, and could enter through the locked door at any time.
The painting's hidden dimensions have more to do with its hieratic qualities - the iconography, sacred mirror, centeredness, symmetry and visionary colours.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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MADNESS, DREAMS AND VISIONS
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Returning home from le Voltigeur, I passed le Sqaure Trusseau. Children were playing in its park, laughing, crying, singing... And yet, I can never pass this place without a dizzying sense of horror.
It was only some time later that I learned how an asylum for abandoned children once stood on this spot: l'Hospice des Enfants Trouvés. Here, in the same place where children now played, hundreds of lost souls once cried in abandonment.
I passed a group of clochards who pressed me for a cigarette and a few coins. One in particular pursued me: "Allez monsieur, un petit piece..." He was blind in one eye. I shuddered, shook my head and turned away.
Back in my studio, I was assailed by memories and dreams. I went searching through my Dreambooks until, finally, I found it - the first time I'd ever dreamt of Fuchs.
It was sixteen years ago, in 1990, when I spent a year in Vienna studying at die Akademie der bildende Künste. Though Fuchs never taught there, I'd seen his work for the first time in the Academy library. And, though I'd never met the man, he showed up in my dreams on the night of July 3rd, 1990.
Reading it now made me gasp for breath. I wrote:
I was going to approach Fuchs at the Academy with the intention of working as his assistant. But, as I approached, I learned that he was in jeoprody by an overzealous admirer who wanted to kill him.
I then assumed the role of Fuchs' protector, trying to keep an eye out for the lunatic, who would probably stalk the artist as he approached the Academy.
I made a quick tour of the Academy (which had the architectural appearance of a department store in Eastern Europe during the Communist period). There, I met two students, a young man and woman, who I asked to help me.
At that moment, Fuchs entered the Academy and I caught sight of the lunatic. He was heading for him, looking like a man possessed by demons.
I seized the madman and threw him down to the ground. With the aid of the other two students, I managed to subdue him. But, the maniac kept on writhing beneath me, trying to free himself.
The other two students got up to assure Fuchs that everything was fine - leaving me alone to struggle with this lunatic.
Every time he made a move to free his hand, I pressed my knee that much harder into his chest so he couldn't breathe. But, he kept on struggling and I became more and more frustrated in trying to subdue him.
Then, he managed to free a hand and - most disgustingly - started digging his thumb into my anus. I retaliated by digging my thumb into his eye. This, it turned out, was a 'dead eye', covered over with a white film, like a cataract. He persisted in his probings and I, filled with loathing and disgust, dug my thumb deeper into his eye.
In a state of panic, I woke up in my room on Hermanngrasse, frantically flailing my arms in the darkness.
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FALL 2007
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LE SQUARE TROUSSEAU
PARIS
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Interpreting the dream the morning after, I wrote: "The lunatic is that part of myself which I cannot accept - totally unrestrained by reason."
As I walked around the studio (my cat staring at me curiously), some of my most uncomfortable memories of Fuchs resurfaced.
One evening after dinner we'd argued over money, since I wanted to be paid more for the long hours of work. He responded with a whole series of criticisms - voicing many of the things he'd repressed until then. Looking up, grasping for words, he said, "I don't feel comfortable painting beside you because... you're too slow and methodical whereas me... I'm a madman!"
In the ensuing silence, he regretted what he'd said and consoled me with the words, "You know I like your work. But we're different, you and I. Sometimes I really wonder where you'll go as a painter..."
Those words - though touching - cut me deeply. They struck me to the core of my being. He'd put his finger on 'the difference between us'.
After that, our relationship altered. Previously, we'd spend many pleasureable hours discussing in German and in English our myriad common interests: Gnosticism, Blake, Michelangelo, Moreau, Parmenides...
Now, after dinner, he'd engage in interminable monologues - complex theological sermons - all delivered 'stream of consciousness' in the barely comprehensible Wienerisch dialect of Vienna. They went on for hours, continually digressing into nonsense though occasionally 'connecting up' in a most bizarre way.
It was, for me, an extremely uncomfortable experience. The whole time he'd stare at me with that glance - that indecipherable glance which, only now, have I begun to understand.
Beyond all the nonsense and gibberish, beyond the Wienerisch theology - he was saying to me - wordlessly - "Do you get it? Do you understand? You must let go of reason. You must become a madman!"
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VISIONARY REVUE
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BREAKING THE BOUNDARIES
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I began this evening's experiment with grave reservations.
My present state of mind is unstable at best. As the experiment progressed and the effects deepened, I struggled to hold on to reason, memory, identity - even sanity. That, in a sense, was the hardest part. I didn’t want to let go of reason, nor of my relationship to my wife, my cat, my studio - to the whole experience of life which we share here together.
I feared losing touch with the reality around me.
At first, nothing at all happened. So I told myself - stop looking at the painting. See the image. Look beyond the painting to the archetype.
To accomplish this, I even shut my eyes for a few minutes, trying to see the arrangement of images in my mind’s eye. In fact, I had to center myself in the Sacred first - without seeing. And, having done that, when I opened my eyes, the Sacred manifest itself to me. I was baptized and immersed in its bath of watery light. This happened for a few moments (of timeless duration).
The painting came alive but - just as quickly - it became a painting again: flat, lifeless, artificially rendered.
This happened a number of times, slowly gnawing at my sanity.
So, I began to articulate certain phrases to myself, actually saying them aloud. The most important one was ‘see/know.’ Or ‘seeing is knowing and knowing is seeing.’ I had to unify, both what I saw and what I knew, when gazing at the painting.
The altarpiece transformed, and began to shine like a glorious epiphany. Most of the time, indeed, my whole life long, I'd forgotten this hidden knowledge. But now, I was experiencing it absolutely. I am a particle of divine light... of divine unity.
The painting had become a window or doorway to another world. A Sacred Doorway. I saw it, and I knew it...
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FALL 2007
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But, rather than entering through that doorway, I wanted to bring the painting - the doorway - into this world. I wanted to feel myself in the room, standing before the painting, while its doorway remained open to the Sacred.
I failed utterly. Instead, the theophany before me became more real than me, more present than I myself, now standing before it and staring at it continuously. And, for some perverse reason, I could not break my gaze.
I, the viewer, had been reduced to a state of near-nothingness. I was losing myself in the painting.
With my heart beating wildly in my chest, I felt that loss acutely. The more real it became, the less real I did. I was losing my awareness of who I was, with whom I was living, my reason, my sanity. I had crossed the Doorway's threshold, and become entirely subsumed in the Sacred. My particle of divine light had now merged with the whole; my spark of consciousness had extinguished itself in the all-consuming fire.
To resolve this situation, I tried even harder to bring the painting and its doorway back into this reality. I spoke aloud, saying I would grant total reality to all that lies within this picture's frame. Everything within it would be as real as the objects next to it, near my easel and in the room. I struggled to bring, at least, a part of the theophany on the painting's other side into this reality - into my studio, my world, and the life I had created here.
Then it happened. My vision expanded to a stunning whole. My focus enlarged to encompass the painting and my studio. Even my cat, who came to my feet at this point, rubbing himself against my leg - even he I could see, though my gaze was still fixed on one point in the painting. I was in the painting, and the painting was in the room.
I started smiling like a holy fool. Reason and madness had fused in some higher, unspeakable reality or state of mind.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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AT THE EDGE OF VISION
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Returning home earlier in the week, I crossed the courtyard of our building. It was late, and a gentle rain was falling. As I approached the stairs, suddenly I sensed someone to my left. The closer I moved toward the stairwell, the closer he moved toward me. But every time I turned my head, I couldn't see him - he remained just beyond the edge of my sight.
Standing still for several minutes, I determined that there was no one there.
But, as I mounted the stairs, I could suddenly see him quite clearly. It was the one-eyed derelict... He was lying on his side, under the stairs, in an unconscious stupor.
I mounted the steps two at a time, disturbed by the sound of the footsteps echoing behind me. It was only when I'd safely locked the door to my studio that I realized I was mistaken. I had to be...
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FALL 2007
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I did not see the derelict at the foot of the stairs but - impossibly - under the stairs... When I saw him I was looking right through the stairs. In my disturbed state of mind, I hadn't noticed that the wooden steps had somehow become transparent.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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SEEING UNITY
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For days I haven't moved from my studio. I'm too afraid to go out the door, for fear of what might happen to me.
What if I meet the derelict? I am him and he is me. With one blind eye, we stare at each other - seeing and not seeing.
My nights have been restless and sleepless; disjointed dreams alternate between states of ecstasy and insanity.
Against my own better judgment, I've been availing myself to all stimulants and stupifiants - indulging in Absinthe, smoking one cigarette after another - drunk at midday, drugged by evening.
But it's happening - the dissociation of my own personality, dissolved in the vas hermeticum of a silly painted picture. The experiment is working: I'm coming apart. Reason is burnt away in the acid bath of madness. I can only hope the parts will be recomposed into some better, unforeseen whole.
This evening I had the frightening realization that: all the experiments I’ve accomplished over the past few years are based on a fundamental premise which, itself, has remained hidden all this time. That premise is ‘unity’.
Yet, how can I begin to explain that experience to someone who hasn't, himself, experienced it directly? It is a mystical state transcending our usual way of 'knowing'. It is a sudden remembering of what, otherwise, we're constantly forgetting. It is a seeing of what remains unseen.
If one has experienced and known unity, even ‘seen’ it, then Unity becomes the absolute through which everything else must be measured. It is the Being which grants us our existence; it is the Sacred self-knowing through which we know and are known. As we gaze into the sacred mirror, we recognize ourselves as divine the moment the Divine recognizes us.
It is that Unity in us which makes us unique - when we know and see ourselves as a particle of its oneness. All my thoughts, all my experiences, even my identity - all of these are 'held together' and granted unity - through this divine Oneness. That is why I can say 'I' without falling apart, without my life disintegrating into a fragmented collection of disconnected memories and experiences.
That is why I can turn my eyes anywhere and 'see perspective'. It is not my eyes that hold the lines of perspective together, or fix them onto a single point - it is the particle of unity in me. It is not my eyes that focus - it is the Onefold who gazes clearly through my opened eyes.
And so, all the different ‘ways of seeing’ which I've described here are founded, ultimately, on experiencing unity. They are different ways of seeing unity.
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FALL 2007
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The clearest example, perhaps, is perspective: that the elements of the painting can be arranged so that I see its depth. In Western art, this ‘one-point perspective’ (the convex mirror) was developed as a method for seeing unity.
Unity underlies all the different ‘ways of seeing’, including colour harmony, chiarascuro, stylistic line, textures etc. That which brings colours together and makes them harmonious is unity. Underlying the dark and light extremes of chiarascuro is unity. The stylistic lines of a face are made beautiful because they reach out and resonate with a unified, perfect circle or square. Jewels, glass, water, gems - all these glorious textures would not shine, shimmer or glow were it not for the one divine Light.*
That which makes us see sacred art, and experience it as such, is the Sacred in us.
And yet, most of the time we do not see this. I cannot sustain the experience, or remember it. I fall back into everyday sight. I fall, like the Fall of Man, into ignorance, blindness and unknowing...
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*AUTHOR'S NOTE: for the continuation of this train of thought - see the latter part of Myrette on 'Seeing Unity'.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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BREAKING THE GAZE FROM THE PAINTING
AND TRANSFERRING IT ONTO THE WORLD
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As I focussed on the painting this evening, my vision immediately expanded to encompass the whole. Everything was alive, present and real.
Everywhere I looked, I saw it - the divine Oneness which underlies the painting's harmony and beauty. They are so many examples of the painting's 'hidden signs'.
Thoughts from yesterday returned to me, and I asked myself: what do I see in this painting now, which I didn't see in the weeks and years before?
As I looked at the main figure, I thought ‘I am a particle of divine unity that came into this world and will leave it once more - to return to that original state of unity.’ Through Adam, I have fallen into blindness and unknowing; through Christ, I will rise again in knowledge, and behold the Sacred face to face.
In a moment that I can only describe as an epiphany, I entered through the image. But now I would put greater emphasis on the adjoining phrase: to the One. 'I entered through the image - to the One'. Everything I've written so far contains only the first four words, the first few steps - 'to enter through the image'. The crowning experience is ‘to the One’.
I am aware how pointless it is to describe such an experience. Still, I should at least try to record these things, to remind myself in the future.
But realize that, at a certain point, I'd already sacrificed all attempts to hold onto and remember the steps leading me to this experience. For, remembering or ‘holding on’ meant bringing my rational conceptions of linear time with me - into eternity. To be in the Onefold is to let go of reason, personality, ego and desire. I had renounced my life in all its forms. Such memories were actually holding me back.
Christ's sacrifice, his death and resurrection, his transfiguration - all of these took on new, unexpected meanings. I had sacrificed myself, died and reborn, and now I was transfigured. Christ is the image of man made divine - and I had entered through - his image...
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FALL 2007
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By now, the painting before my eyes had taken on truly extraordinary properties. It shone with the light of another world, a higher world. It was Holiness incarnate.
Seeing this, I suddenly remembered my dream of the Vision Tree. It had taught me to view a work of art as the Philosopher’s Stone. And this work, it was now clear to me, was the Philosopher’s Stone - it had utterly transformed me and my way of seeing. Gazing into this altapiece as into the vas hermeticum, I had not only beheld the elusive lapis, but altered my very mind and soul...
A voice uprose from within: “The stone is to be found everywhere, even among the lowest of objects.”
Those words sent my thoughts in a totally different direction. I realized that, up until this point in my life, I’d learned to ‘see unity’ by meditating on a work of art. But I hadn’t learned to ‘see unity’ in the world around me.
The next step was to break my gaze away from the painting and still ‘see unity’ in the world. See harmony, beauty, perfection...
As an artist, that was my task - to see unity in the world, and then transfer that way of seeing into painting.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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I therefore broke my gaze from the painting. Immediately, I felt terribly disoriented. Space and time, in all their various shapes and measures, were suddenly hammered together into a perilously improvised continuum. My sense of identity tried to orient itself in this fractured, fleeting world, but failed. My ego fragmented and dissolved. I (or 'not-I') tumbled into a senseless world where all objects had been robbed of meaning and signifigance. The world became an empty grey expanse.
Slowly, feelings of ecstasy and joy returned to me, orienting myself anew. Like a long-lost memory, my self re-emerged, buttressed by unity. I was centered in oneness and centered in the world. The focus and meeting-point of this sacred experience was no longer the painting, but myself. I could feel it, and see it. The world around me had transformed: it was re-configured according to 'the One' in me.
For several minutes, I 'stood at rest', breathing deeply, my feet pressed to the floor with perfect balance. I was in the world and the world was a sacred place: joyful, restful, and absolutely safe. I could feel the divine presence within me and around me.
...But, unaccountable fears slowly crept up on me. Earlier, I'd feared this state because I could easily have been judged insane, based on actions unaccountable and otherwise incomprehensible to others?
What actions? If I were to walk out the door, I would walk around in a state of ecstasy and wonder, but pay very little attention to all the potential dangers - busy intersections, traffic lights, Parisian drivers... Feeling 'eternal', I'd lost all fear of death. I was a particle of the divine - perfect, eternal - so I needn't fear death. I could surrender myself willingly to any danger.
My fears intensified. If I were to walk out the door, wouldn’t my present state of mind radically alter my comportment to other people?
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FALL 2007
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I saw myself embracing strangers, greeting the one-eyed derelict, showering him with infinite kindness and compassion.
Once more, a voice uprose from within - but this time I recognized it as the voice of Fuchs. "Your task is to see unity, not act upon it. You are an artist, that is your gift. There are others who have been chosen to ‘act in the world,’ showing kindness and compassion, with no fear of death. Your duty is to show the saviour - to depict him, to ‘see unity’ and render it in images."
My fears subsided - now that my highest task had become clear to me.
Curiously, I became aware that moment how Fuchs, during the year I’d spent with him, had taught me all the lessons which a master had to teach his apprentice. But, I just hadn’t noticed or recognized them at the time. They were all there, a thousand insignificant glances, phrases and moments, just waiting to be re-experienced and recognized - when seen from this new perspective, this eternal ‘immersion into oneness’.
With my highest task now clear before me, I began walking around the room - saying to myself: ‘see unity’. My gaze fell upon an empty bottle on the table. I began ‘meditating’ on that bottle.
After staring at it for a few minutes, the state of ‘immersion into oneness’ returned to me. At that moment, my perception of the room altered entirely, and I experienced space with greater depth and precision.
In the same way that I could see three dimensions in the flat 2D picture plane of a painting, now I was seeing an added dimension to our three-dimensional reality. Everything had acquired new depth. Time had also acquired a new measure: I was, simultaneously, in eternity and in linear time. From the stilled tranquility of timelessness, I had willfully plunged into time's linear flow...
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VISIONARY REVUE
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Another lesson from Fuchs returned to my memory. I remembered asking him, when he was painting “Do you always see the image three-dimensionally when you paint?” He replied, “Yes, it usually takes a few minutes, but then it comes naturally.”
The lesson was this: I would not ‘see unity’ immediately, but ‘after a few minutes’ of looking at things, of accustoming myself to this new way of seeing the world.
I broke my gaze from the bottle on the table. My 'heightened state of awareness’ disappeared, and I saw the room once more in its usual dimensions.
Then I walked around the studio. The centre of the world, I remembered, is anywhere. It is here, in myself, though I've forgotten it. I said aloud: ‘see unity’. After a couple of minutes, I experienced myself once more as the unified centre of space and time. I saw the world’s unity from that perspective. I saw the world (if I can say this) with 'the divine eye'. The effect was not immediate, but rose upon me slowly.
Part of me found it almost impossible, indeed - insane - to be seeing and experiencing the world in this way.
I then decided that, given my temperment, I obviously needed some kind of object or support for my visions. As an artist, that would be my work of art. I therefore turned to a large drawing of mine called Vishnu-Christ Avatar, and stared at it for several minutes.
Then, as the state slowly returned to me, I began working on the drawing, rendering the hands and improving the figure's symmetry. It all came back to me: seeing unity in the relationship of the parts to the whole, in the outlines, volume, hidden squares and circles. At times, I had the feeling I was drawing a 'perfect' hand
That evening, I had no problem standing in front of the drawing for hours, playfully rendering...
My alchemical experiment had come to an end. I had voluntarily turned my gaze away from Fuchs' altarpiece. Henceforth, I would achieve this visionary state through my own drawing and painting...
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FALL 2007
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VISHNU-CHRIST AVATAR
(A Work in Progress)
L. Caruana
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VISIONARY REVUE
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VISIONARY DIALOGUE
VS RECOGNITION
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As an artist, I am only doing what artists have done for millennia - trying to help us concentrate our vision and see the Sacred. I’m using painting as a means to unite us with the Divine - by momentarily seeing unity. Seeing and painting have become, for me, a spiritual discipline. Through my written works, I'm trying to show others the way I've taken.
Think of Dali and his ‘paranoia-critical method’, or of Fuchs and his theory of 'the hidden prime of styles'. My efforts are quite the same. I'm trying to demonstrate a method for 'entering through the image' and 'seeing unity'. A Mirror Delirious elucidates the former, Myrette the latter.
The experience of 'unity' is fundamental to this method; it underlies this new way of seeing ( - or is it a way of seeing that is actually quite ancient, but has otherwise been forgotten? Has it simply remained unseen all this time?) The history of art, I believe, could be systematically re-interpreted through the experience of ‘seeing unity’ (See Myrette.)
And yet, I must admit to myself here that entheogens play an undeniable role in all of this - at least for me. At least, so far...
The act of painting is like a visionary dialogue with all the artists that have preceeded us. True recognition lies in the eyes of all those painters who have passed before (and who will eventually appear afterwards - sustaining the Visionary Lineage). Meanwhile, recognition lies in the small circle of like-minded individuals who share that visionary kinship...
In truth, most people simply do not see Visionary works of art. They see the surface of the painting; they see the flaws; they glance at the image for a few seconds, and then move on.
But if a work really touches somone, and momentarily 'opens his eye to a new way of seeing', then we could say that, in truth, the work of art had touched the ‘hidden unity’, the core of ‘common humanity’ slumbering in each person - to the point that one day it may awaken thousands...
Michelangelo, Blake, Moreau, Dali - like all great artists in history, they have mastered a number of 'ways of seeing' through paint. These are ever and always present in the painting, but hidden to the everyday glance. The Visionary artist seeks them out, and recognized them as 'the hidden signs of the hieratic style'.
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FALL 2007
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VISHNU-CHRIST AVATAR (Detail)
(A Work in Progress)
L. Caruana
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Although they are invisible to the untrained eye, it is precisely these unseen elements that touch the common core of every viewer. Unbeknownst to himself, knowing neither the why nor wherefore, the viewer suddenly recognizes beauty, harmony, unity...
With the passage of time, hundreds upon thousands of 'viewers' are touched by these works, and so they are elevated to the status of masterpieces.
In this regard, it is also important for Visionary art to become a saleable commodity. It is ‘a new way of seeing’. And many globalized corporations are investing lots of money to have you ‘look’ at their product so you’ll consume it. Through their control of the media, they are turning our glances back towards the earth, towards materialism and consumption.
Visionary art is offering an alternative way of seeing. It wants to turn the viewer away from the material world of television and advertising, so he will see a higher world. But, he must be willing to do this. He must be willing to ‘consume’ Visionary art the same way that he consumes television. He must be willing to invest his time, money and interest.
Visionary art that we see on the net is free, but it must still compete with television. It must attract ‘seers’, who will transfer their gaze (filled with needs, wants and desires) onto the visionary image - only to have their appetites transfigured into higher aspirations.
If the artist succeeds in awakening the viewer's divine eye, then the Sacred will appear once more in a work of art. Painting will regain its eternal role - to elevate us in spirit.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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MY LAST DREAM OF ERNST FUCHS
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Paris, Dream of the night of Sept. 21, 2004 - The telephone rings. My wife picks it up and recognizes the voice. With a smile, knowing I’ll be surprised, she hands me the receiver.
On the other end of the line is Ernst Fuchs. He is in a most unusual humour - happy to speak with me, but also considerate and serious (in fact, almost the opposite of how he was with me most of the time...).
I join in his unusual humour, and we banter a little bit. But, there’s also something caught in my throat, making it difficult for me to speak.
He then says to me, quite seriously, that he knows there’s a question which has been bothering me for some time: ‘how does one become a recognized artist?’
There is a pause and he says, quite seriously, "Well the answer is..." Again, there’s a pause, and I know that this is an important moment.
“The answer is,” he says “- not to ask the question!”
He then begins laughing again, and I start laughing too. On the one hand, I don’t understand his answer at all, but I do indeed find it funny - funny that there is no answer.
And so we laugh together. But, because there’s something caught in my throat, my laugh is rather harsh and painful.
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* * *
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Where do I go from here? I join the Visionary Lineage. They have been there always, at all times, in all cultures. Not only the great names, like Bosch, Grünewald or Blake. They have been there, anonymously, sculpting every detail in a Hindu temple, in the textiles of tribal peoples, in the guilds of the Gothic cathedrals. They are the eternal guild, the secret sharers, the solitary wanderers. They are all around you and you are with them.
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*
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FALL 2007
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EPILOGUE
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| As I conclude this article, Martina Hoffman has sent me the following description of the Entheon village for the Burning Man festival of 2006: |
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Our Vision
Written by Matt
Friday, 12 May 2006
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ENTHEON, meaning a place to discover the spirit within, will be the name of the Burning Man village in 2006, that includes MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) and CoSM (Chapel of Sacred Mirrors). The mission of Entheon is to demonstrate a future in which psychedelic experiences, emergent from the underground, are a welcomed and integrated part of society, and where art, spirituality and creativity is central to that vision.
Entheon will be a grounded gathering place offering an intellectual, therapeutic, artistic and creative cornucopia of interactive opportunities.
MAPS will make available information acknowledging and addressing legitimate and irrational fears concerning psychedelic experiences, and report on the groundbreaking state-of-the art scientific research into the benefits of these potentially transformative passages.
CoSM will offer inspirational visionary art, ceremonies and creative programs for Burners. The village of Entheon will merge science and healing, art and spirituality in a site for celebration.
MAPS will assist Rangers, the originators of Sanctuary, by staffing it with psychedelic therapists and volunteer trainees to transform the pain of a Burner's difficult psychedelic experience into a learning opportunity. Twenty-four hours a day, MAPS representatives, mental health professionals and trainees, will serve those in psychedelic emergencies. Sanctuary will remain in a central location near Ranger headquarters, outside of camp ENTHEON.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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ENTHEON VILLAGE
BURNING MAN 2006
Entrance Design: Alex Grey
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The CoSM dome, with it's laser-eyed, multi-headed apex will offer orientation on the playa. The Chapel will serve as a contemplative space for safe and positive journeying, an art workshop space for "Drawing the Subtle Body" and other creative sessions led by Alex and Allyson Grey and other artists. The Chapel will also be the perfect wedding sanctuary and ultimate chill space with ambient music.
Seen from the playa, Entheon Village will invite Burners to an open plaza in front of a large video projection screen and stage. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors will be a large dome with a twisted spire and sculpted cupola featuring a four faced head with laser eyes.
CoSM will be situated on the playa itself, across the esplanade from the MAPS dome and will include life-sized replicas of the Sacred Mirrors in their sculpted frames as well as other paintings by Alex Grey. Domes will also be provided for the visionary art of Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, Dean Chamberlain and Cary Thompson's Dimethyl Temple.
The open plaza in front of the MAPS dome will offer opportunities for conversation, dance, music and celebration. Crowning the MAPS dome will be with an e-wire sculpture of a man on a bicycle to commemorate the famous ride of Albert Hofmann, discoverer of LSD and synthesizer of psilocybin, who turned 100 on January 11, 2006!
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FALL 2007
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ENTHEON VILLAGE
BURNING MAN 2006
View of interior, with images by Alex Grey
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The MAPS dome will feature psychedelic elders (the Grofs, the Shulgins…) scientists, researchers and explorers to educate Burners in a wide-ranging lecture series that will alternate with sessions of holotropic breathwork, a non-drug method of inducing altered states in a therapeutic context. The physical space of Entheon will be designed by a close-knit Chicago crew of social activists, and built by the psychedelic community.
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VISIONARY REVUE
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L. CARUANA
In his studio
Paris Bastille
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FALL 2007
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Laurence Caruana was born 1962 in Toronto Canada, of Maltese descent. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Philosophy, and then studied painting at die Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. In the year 2000 he apprenticed directly under Ernst Fuchs, working as his assistant in his studios in Monaco and Castillon.
The artist has made his home variously in Toronto, Malta, Vienna, Munich, Monaco and Paris. During his wanderings he has actively recorded his dreams and expanded their imagery through mythology. His paintings are inspired by memories and dreams, experiments with entheogens, and the interplay of different cultural symbols and styles.
His interest in sacred art and iconography has led to extensive travels, studying the spiritual traditions of Gothic and Renaissance Christianity (Western Europe), Byzantine Christianity (Eastern Europe), ancient Egypt (Egypt), Hinduism (India), Buddhism (Nepal, Tibet), Maya and Aztec culture (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras).
After meeting his French fiançée in Munich, L. Caruana settled in Paris. From his studio in the Bastille quarter, he continues painting while lecturing on Visionary art and editing The Visionary Revue: the On-line Journal of Visionary Art. He has also authored several books:
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