beauty
Embracing Art As A Spiritual Resource
Art, in its many forms, continues to be a wonderful source of inspiration for my personal and spiritual growth journey. Art has the power to evoke emotion and connect us to feelings and something beyond the immediate boundaries of our lives.
Whether it is a source of divine inspiration or an expression of spiritual wisdom, art has the potential to infuse our lives with beauty and eternal wisdom. Art is a profound spiritual resource.
The deep connection between Renaissance art and spirituality has not only shaped my own artistic and spiritual journey, but has resonated deeply with countless others throughout history.
The Renaissance, which spanned the 14th through the 17th centuries, was a time marked by a thirst for knowledge and exploration. Artists, scholars, and scientists sought to understand and communicate the mysteries of the world and our place in it. As a result, art emerged as a powerful vehicle for expressing and exploring spiritual themes.
Renaissance artists, often working under the patronage of religious institutions, were masters and storytellers of symbolism. Their works, rich with hidden meanings, served as visual representations of faith and devotion. Their artistic masterpieces, including paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, became integral to devotional practices during this period.
The Simple Secret To True Happiness
It is easy to become too focused on the pursuit of happiness, to the detriment of true happiness. For many years, I was constantly setting goals for my ‘future happiness,’ only to eventually realize that I had been missing out on the joy available in the present moment.
I am certainly not alone in this, as I find many of my friends and clients tend to postpone joy and contentment, believing that they will finally be happy once they have achieved milestones, or acquired certain possessions.
Meanwhile, the key to living one’s best life is to fully embrace the present moment. This does not mean that we should stop dreaming of a better future or no longer pursue important personal goals. However, our future hopes and ambitions should not cause us to put our life on hold, nor prevent us from being fully immersed in the now.
If you are also someone with such an intense future-focus, I encourage you to begin living more in the present. You will soon discover a more fulfilling and joyful way of life.
Future-Focused Thinking
The first step is to let go of future-focused thinking. Many of us tend to constantly think about the future, worrying about what lies ahead or longing for future achievements. This mindset deprives us of the beauty and opportunities that exist in the present.
True Spirituality Is About Everyday Existence
It is often assumed that to lead a truly spiritually aware life we must increasingly distance ourselves from the material world and be more fully immersed in the spiritual world. We must reduce our involvement with all things physical, and instead focus exclusively on the non-physical or metaphysical.
This is, however, not what being truly ‘spiritual’ is about. True spirituality is in fact quite the opposite. It is about living this physical life to the fullest. It is about being present in every moment and living with joy, appreciation, and gratitude.
Spiritual living is about honoring and expressing the love, grace and compassion of God, Source, Spirit, the Divine in our everyday existence. It is about relishing in the divine beauty and abundance of creation, and embracing the unconditional love and light of divinity in our lives every day.
As spiritual beings in physical form we do need material things in order survive in this physical reality, and ensure a more fluid, comfortable existence. And while we are busy focusing our time and energy on acquiring those material things that we need, it does not mean we are no longer being spiritual, or not being ‘spiritual enough.’
For instance, most of us need to work to earn a living, to put food on the table and a roof over our head. Going to work every day and being of service is just as much a spiritual act as spending time in transcendental meditation, for example, or participating in a prayer circle.
The Spiritual Practice Of Flower Power
Every now and again, I purchase a bouquet of flowers as a gift to myself. Placing a vase of flowers on your home altar or sacred space adds nature-inspired ambiance, brightness, and sensuality to one’s spiritual self-care.
I also love to diffuse the essential oils of flowers, especially when I meditate, but they don’t have the tangibility and energetic beauty of a stunning array of fresh blooms. Analogous to eating whole food versus taking a supplement, fresh flowers represent the wholeness, divine design, and awe-inspiring beauty of Gaia, Mother Nature, our Earth Mother, the Divine Feminine.
Unadulterated, the ‘flower power’ of a beautiful bouquet commands marvelous healing energies, blesses the giver, and inspires bountiful gratitude in the recipient.
The most powerful spiritual practice involving flowers is to plant your own flower garden with perennial varieties, such as tulips, black-eyed susans, and chrysanthemums. With careful planning around the seasonal calendar one can also have different species in bloom at different times throughout the entire year.
Cultivating a thriving garden of flowers is a magnificent form of energy work. It attracts and manifests emotional healing, abundance, and the fulfillment of wishes, especially in aspects of romance, marriage, fertility, and parenthood. By lovingly nurturing and caring for the delicate beauty of living flowers, we invite much love, beauty and abundance into our lives.
The Psychic Power Of Crystals
I’ve been surrounded by crystals, both in my personal healing and psychic work, since I can remember. I wouldn’t call myself an expert on the subject, but I do know that these beautiful stones are aesthetically pleasing, and powerful to have around.
Many crystals have been given to me as gifts, and it’s as if the giver always knows exactly what I need in terms of what the gemstones or crystals can help me with.
When choosing crystals and stones for psychic work or energy healing, I simply allow them to ‘speak’ to me. The vibration of the ideal ones for every purpose always resonates with me. I simply allow them to ‘speak’ to me, trusting that their vibrations will call me. The actual color of the crystal or stone can have quite a profound effect on the mind. For example, medical patients are known to respond to the color blue, when it is used decoratively in a recuperative environment, and criminals are known to be calmer in a cell painted in very pale pink.
I also own a small collection of crystal balls, and it’s as if an image materializes in my mind when gazing into my crystal ball, as opposed to what I see in the actual crystal itself. You might say it is a third eye opener!
I surround myself with amethyst for the calm it brings, rose quartz to bring in loving energy, pyrite for psychic protection and various quartz crystals to assist me energetically, and just because I find them beautiful to behold.
My bone-throwing divination kit consists of a large collection of stones, each representing a token or a symbol. Each stone has its own story and can represent a significant meaning, person, animal or place to me.
The Deeper Meaning Of Color Stereotypes
Have you ever heard the expression someone “talks a blue streak?” It refers to a person who talks rapidly and non-stop. But why use the adjective blue? I suspect it may originate from the metaphysical tradition of the color blue being associated with speaking one’s truth (throat chakra) and creative expression. People who gravitate towards this color are often creatives or performers, such as designers, fine artists, singers, dancers, and so on.
Communicating succinctly is the most powerful way we can make a connection with others beyond our subliminal energy connections with everyone around us. An over-abundance of words, however, translates into a lack of trust on the speaker’s part that she is not accepted by others, be it family members, coworkers, friends, or stranger she encounters along her life path. Speaking clearly and concisely is an art.
The color red also holds a fascination for me, as I perceive it to be a color that is so amazingly misunderstood. Red is generally interpreted as the color of anger, such as “I was so mad, I was seeing red.” Red is also used to denote danger in road signs and red cars are said to be associated with speed and aggressive driving.
But the color red also has many positive symbolic meanings in different cultures, including about passion, excitement, love, vigor, health, life and even spiritual zeal.
Another brilliant color that is often misrepresented is black. Once again, it is generally seen as a color related to depression, sadness, gloom, negativity and evil. In my view black stands out as a harmonious hue. If we see it in a positive light, black can be considered as a sharply defined, elegant color. It is symbolic of power, mystery, and sophistication. No one can deny the glamour of showing up to a dinner party in a smart little black dress or a tailored black tuxedo.
How To See Your Own Subtle Energy
Subtle energy is the intangible basis of all things. It is the same energy that martial arts masters refer to as chi, which is responsible for ‘impossible’ feats like breaking through bricks with bare hands, or athletes jumping and twisting in the air in ways that seem to defy gravity.
It is all a result of this invisible energy that we all have access to. When we become aware of this energy, we become more aware of the true metaphysical powers that reside in each of us.
Consider plants. They are a complete energy system. Think of what they need to flourish: soil, nutrients, water, and sunlight. You then realize they are a complete ecosystem. One organism. And, the health of the parts affects the health of the whole. This is also true with humans and animals and earth itself.
By learning how to harness and control this energy we become more in tune with nature and our intuition becomes sharper and more clear. Then we can empower and heal ourselves, as well as others. The possibilities are endless.
How can we more fully tap into this energy? We must begin by learning to see it with our own eyes. A simple way to perceive the material expression of this energy is increased awareness of beauty. People, animals, plants and ecosystems that have a high level of that energy appear particularly beautiful. Another practical technique that is very easy to do and it doesn’t take years of study and meditation to master involves your own energy field or aura.