“Whenever I experience something beautiful, I am with soul. That moment of inward breath, that pause and awareness of how beautiful this is, is a prayer of appreciation, a moment of gratitude in which I behold beauty and am one with it.”
Part One: Soul-Centred Creativity + Living
Villa Britannia Belgium, Christian Krohg, 1885.
Have you ever been blissfully captivated by a beautiful painting or sublime music when suddenly a lump catches in your throat and your eyes brim with tears?
Or, walking in the warm summer twilight, you pause in wonder at a giant harvest moon ascending the darkening sky.
These experiences are soul-infused moments that evoke wonder and enchantment and offer moments of stillness and consolation.
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We all experience ‘soul moments’ in life - when we see a magnificent sunrise, hear the call of the loon, see the wrinkles in our mother’s hands, or smell the sweetness of a baby. During these moments, our body, as well as our brain, resonate as we experience the glory of being a human being.”
Soul is ancient and universal.
Wait For More, Michiel Schrijver, b.1957.
Every civilisation, grand or small, has imagined and created soul-centred symbols, myths, metaphors, rituals and cultural artefacts that bring depth and meaning to daily life.
And though soul in our hyper-technological media-saturated age may seem old-fashioned and passe (we are too sophisticated and distracted to consider the gifts of soul), the wonder is that soul always has and always will flow through us and the world - whether we notice it or not.
So ponder this: how might our lives and the world be enriched if we returned to a soul-centred way of living and creating?
“Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street...Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.”
Summer Doorway with African Lillies, Phyllis Dodd, 1948.
Whenever an object, music, architecture, artwork, or food is said to have soul, we immediately know what that means - something authentic, mysterious, and beautiful that touches the deepest part of ourselves.
That soulful encounter may evoke an experience of expansiveness, enchantment, connection, or contemplation - we are moved, nourished and deeply satisfied.
Whatever soul moments might be, they are undoubtedly varied and frequently moving and meaningful.
“Creativity is the firing of my soul. ”
Soul-Centred Creativity
That ancient life-enriching source, soul-centred creativity, has little prestige or interest in our fast-paced sound-bite culture.
The Diver, Paestum, Italy, 470 BCE.
We have lost sight of what the ancients knew - that soul-centred creativity generates lasting myths, metaphors, and artefacts that cultivate a sense of the sacred, provide glimpses of the divine and bring lasting beauty, enchantment, depth, and meaning to daily life.
For example, “The Diver” tomb fresco from the ancient city of Paestum in southern Italy is a soul-centred image from antiquity that continues to captivate and enchant audiences in the 21st century.
“We have a sound-bite culture and so we have sound-bite art. You look at it, you get it - it’s as immediate and as superficial as that. ”
Self-Portrait, Ellen Thesleff, 1894-1895.
Unlike fast-food arts and media, which are quickly consumed and soon forgotten, soul-centred creations gift a meaningful experience that continues to resonate and satisfy.
We develop a nourishing, lasting relationship with a consoling piece of music, a soothing poem, a beautiful painting, or an enchanting landscape.
“The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not through argument but through feeling, and then to close the gap between you and everything that is not you, and in this way pass from feeling to meaning.”
The art critic Robert Hughes wisely urges creators to avoid the lure of shallow, sensational, sound-bite arts and mass media.
The Approaching Thunderstorm, Franz Sedlacek, 1936.
Hughes encourages creators to make art “that doesn't get its message across in ten seconds” and doesn't “force meanings on their audience,” where “meaning emerges, adds up, unfolds...takes one through the process of discovering meaning.”
In short, Hughes encourages a return to a slow, soul-centred creativity that generates works with depth that resonate with meaning across time.
The Call to Soul-Centred Creativity
The Country Conversation, Clovis-Francois Auguste, 1884.
From deep antiquity to now, soul-centred creators have toiled at their craft to reveal and share the many moods and faces of soul - the playful, enchanting, beautiful, gothic, romantic, melancholy, mythic, mysterious, and so much more.
Yet today, some are bashful and reticent about answering the call to soul-centred creativity.
Please take courage and remember this: when we accept the call to soul-centred creativity, we choose to live soul-centred, and we join an ancient lineage of artisans from stone masons, woodworkers, weavers, dancers, poets, painters, potters and musicians who have enriched the world with their soul-centred creations.
“Art is a bridge between the visible and invisible worlds. ”
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Kay Nielsen, 1922.
Soul-centred creativity is an ancient poetic participation in visible and invisible worlds.
And our soul-centred creations are portals to wonder and delight, reverie and reflection, depth and mystery, and offer glimpses of the sacred and divine.
Indeed, the abundance that flows forth from soul-centred creativity is astonishing.
So perhaps we have been a little rash in discarding a life-enriching source as universal and ancient as soul-centred creativity.
McVey’s Barn, Andrew Weyth, 1948.
“There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which without art, we can’t receive. ”
Part Two: Soul-Centred Creativity + Living
Soul + Spirit
The Happy Donor, Renee Magritte, 1966.
Patrick Harpur, author of A Complete Guide to the Soul and The Secret Tradition of the Soul, notes that soul and spirit “are not terms which can be precisely defined because they are not substances nor concepts, but symbols.”
For the archetypal psychologist and authorJames Hillman, soul and spirit have different qualities: “Soul goes down and deep, connecting us into the world out there and our endless inner world,” and into mystery, shadow, ambiguity, and potentialities.
Meanwhile, spirit moves upward, seeking purity, clarity, oneness, and transcending the everyday embodied world.
In comparison, soul prefers slowly meandering along a country lane or side street in deep reflection and contemplation.
Reflection, Odilon Redon, 1900-1905.
Soul delights in the rich details of history and creative traditions, sources that inspire and revitalise soul-centred creativity.
Soul favours multiples, myth, metaphor and mystery, while spirit seeks the one, the singular and ultimate form.
Soul and spirit are different ways of perceiving, relating and experiencing the world.
“It is a mistake to suppose that all things require to be proved, for proof is an activity of thought, and thought does not constitute the whole of consciousness.”
The Nature of Soul
Exploration of the Springs of Orinoco, Remedios Varo, 1959.
Some demand proof that soul is “real” - that it be pinned down and measured like a physical entity.
Some assert that a table, a sunset, and kittens are “real”, but intangible soul is a simple-minded illusion.
Yet, we forget that non-physical things, like a dream, a flash of insight and an image in the mind, touch and influence us as much as anything in the physical world, like a mosquito bite or tickling.
“Our rational consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it...there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. ”
Images, moods, myths, and metaphors constantly flow from our mysterious unconscious depths.
And, soul-centred images, moods, myths, and metaphors touch and nourish us in numerous ways - wonder-tears, joy, enchantment, consolation, and contemplation.
Skating Owls, Adriaen van de Venne, 1660.
Soul-centred creativity can imagine a world where two owls skate on a frozen river.
Now, two owls ice skating is an amusing and unlikely event. Yet, the notion evokes delight and shows soul in a playful mood.
Descent from the Cross, detail, Rogier van der Weyden, 1435.
And soul-centred creativity also generates profound images of grief and sorrow that offer consolation and solace to the brokenhearted.
Soul is made “real” through soul-centred creations that touch us in different yet meaningful ways, from playful images of owls ice skating to beautiful tears of sorrow.
“I imagine the soul as a deep underground pool. Everyday it floats up desires, and ideas, and daydreams that offer new possibilities”
Woman, Gustave Klimt, 1917.
Let's journey a little deeper into the nature of soul with four notable explorers of soul: James Hillman, Iain McGilchrist, Patrick Harpur, and Thomas Moore.
James Hillman
Archetypal psychologist James Hillman provides a thoughtful reflection on the nature of soul.
“By soul I mean, first of all, a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things rather than the thing itself.
By soul I mean the imaginative possibility in our natures, the experiencing through reflective speculation, dream, image, and fantasy - that mode which recognises all realities as primarily symbolic or metaphorical.
That unknown component which makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences.”
Minoan Fresco, Knossos Palace, 3000 to 1100 BCE.
Soul according to Hillman is a worldview which opens us to potentially meaningful life experiences - the numinous, sacred, beautiful, enchanting, mysterious, sublime, or transcendent.
And he speaks of soul being “the imaginative possibility in our natures” - the fathomless wellspring of soul-centred creativity that has enriched the world in multiple endless ways from the depths of time to now.
Iain McGilchrist
Windemere, Edward Burra, 1973.
Like Hillman, neuroscience researcher, philosopher, and author Iain McGilchrist views soul as a worldview and a dynamic “living process”.
McGilchrist considers soul a type of consciousness that attunes us to a sense of the sacred and the divine and the possibility of experiencing life-enriching moments of beauty and enchantment.
“Soul is not a thing, it is a disposition, a manner, an attitude, a way of being and a living process.
Soul, that part of us that intuits the divine, is in touch with unconscious knowledge and wisdom.”
Two Men Contemplating the Moon, Casper David Friedrich, 1825–30.
The disposition McGilchrist encourages is attentive, open, receptive and relational - we linger and savour a landscape, an artwork, or a piece of music and have a life-enriching, meaningful experience.
And when we live with a disposition of soul consciousness, we open a space for the sacred, the numinous and the divine to come forth.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Kay Nielsen, 1922.
Patrick Harpur
The author Patrick Harpur believes that humans are but one manifestation of “the collective world soul.”
Harpur agrees with Hillman that a fundamental quality of soul is imagination and that soul turns events into meaningful experiences.
“The first attribute of soul is as a symbol of depth and authenticity. It stirs in us a sense that there is more to the world than meets the eye.
The chief faculty of the soul is imagination not reason. We cultivate soul by seeking depth, interiority, and connectedness.
Soul is what turns ordinary events into experiences; what imparts to the passing moment depth, connection, and resonance.”
Alice in Wonderland, John Tenniel, 1865.
Harpur reminds us that a seemingly ordinary event can be an encounter with soul if we slow down, connect, and savour the beauty, stillness, or wonder of a blazing sunset, the scent of jasmine on the breeze, or organ music in a cathedral.
These soul-infused moments bring depth and meaning to daily life.
Thomas Moore
Psychotherapist and author Thomas Moore, like McGilchrist, makes the distinction that we have a soul consciousness and an ego consciousness.
Soul consciousness is a part of our unconscious - that vast, mysterious reservoir of elemental moods, images and energies outside our awareness that influence us daily.
Our ego consciousness is part of our conscious awareness that helps us plan and navigate our daily life.
“The soul is not the ego. It is the infinite depths of a person.
Soul is the mystery we glimpse when we look deeply into ourselves, and is part of a larger soul, the soul of the world.
Soul thrives only when life is taken in a long, slow process of digestion and absorption.”
Flautist Dancing Among the Birds, Tarquinia Tomb, 5th century BCE.
Moore believes the arts practised at home nourish soul “because they foster contemplation and demand a degree of artfulness, such as arranging flowers, cooking, and making repairs.”
Moore encourages living a “soul-based life” and regularly allowing “something else other than the usual self to be in charge.”
As the wise ancients knew, when we spend time with nature and the arts, savouring beauty, daydreaming and in contemplation, we enter the life-enriching realm of soul consciousness from which so many good things flow forth.
“Creativity involves the depth of a mind, and many, many depths of unconsciousness.
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Orpheus, detail, Gustave Moreau, 1865.
So what is the nature of soul according to Hillman, McGilchrist, Harpur and Moore?
Soul is not a tangible thing fixed in time, place, or a specific location.
Soul is a consciousness, a disposition, a world-view, a living process.
Ego consciousness and soul consciousness are different ways of seeing and being in the world.
Imagination, image, myth, and metaphor are the natural language of soul.
Savoured soul moments become meaningful experiences.
Soul consciousness opens a space for the sacred and the divine to come forth.
Beauty and enchantment nourish soul, and are manifestations of soul.
We are all part of the world-soul - in relationship with all the things of the cosmos.
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.”
Cultivating Soul-Centred Creativity + Living
Helga Painting Daffodils, Michael Ancher, 1896.
As children, we naturally have an abundance of wonder and a sense of the sacred and the divine.
We’re open and curious and dwell mainly in a consciousness we might call soul consciousness.
One of our greatest treasures is our soul consciousness, a source of aesthetic appreciation, wonder, and reverence for the sacred, the beautiful, and the enchanting.
Walking a soul-centred path on any ordinary day means allowing our soul consciousness to come forth - we notice and savour moments of beauty, enchantment, wonder, and sensory delight.
Tree Behind a Wall, Leon Spilliaert, 1936.
These brief pauses and savoured moments in our daily routine sprinkle our lives with depth and richness, nourish and kindle our imagination and spark creativity.
And, our soul-centred creations touch and nourish our audience, awakening and revitalising their soul consciousness.
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The artist enriches the soul of humanity. The artist delights people with a thousand different shades of feeling.”
Conclusion
Shadows, Charles Courtney Curran, 1887.
As we go about our day, we often seek a particular mood of music, poetry, painting, or landscape.
We’re searching for what we lack - playfulness, wonder, beauty, stillness, or maybe consolation for sorrow, grief, boredom, or lostness.
We’re seeking a soul-infused encounter - a nourishing experience with depth and meaning, which fast-food sound-bite arts and media won't satisfy.
Our task as soul-centred creators is to make enduring soulful creations that continue to nourish and deeply satisfy.
Mount Fuji and Shojin Lake, Tsuchiya Koitsu, 1870-1949.
So whether our soul-centred creations are for art galleries, local markets or our homes, they matter, for they enrich the creator, the audience and the world in so many meaningful ways.
So, let’s join together and enrich the world with our soul-centred creativity and living.
“The more we imbue the world with imagination, the more the world is ensouled - and the more soul it returns to us, singing with meaning.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this introduction to Soul-Centred Creativity + Living.
Future Art + Soul posts will explore soul through the arts and history - sparks of inspiration for soul-centred creativity and living.
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