Artwork and Artists and Therapeutic Instances

I’m considering of the funeral of my oldest brother Tom going down as we speak within the land of the aurora and nice lights, Iceland, the place he and his artist spouse Anna, who’s from Iceland, retired and have been dwelling for 9 years.

Yesterday our household mailing listing of about 24 individuals acquired a phenomenal reward from one in every of my brother Nat’s step-children, Charlene Kaye, who’s a singer and track author and film producer.  She tells the story behind it right here. 

Howdy beloved Fox clan,

I hope everyone seems to be holding up all proper and caring for themselves. I needed to share a track I wrote about Nat (and unintentionally, about Tom!) I’m a musician and I’ve all the time understood the world on this means. It’s music that has accompanied each milestone in my life and has gotten me by way of my hardest occasions. This loss isn’t any totally different.

In Nat’s remaining months, Mother, Liann and I might go sing to him, and it was the one factor that lit him up and related us to one another with out the need of verbal speech. 

In a earlier electronic mail, I had written how after I was 15, my first guitar broke on a flight to summer season camp (as a result of I had forgotten to detune the strings, the neck snapped! I’ve by no means made the identical mistake) and I used to be devastated. Nat wrote to me and stated, “Don’t fear concerning the guitar, Lene. We’ll purchase you a brand new one. You possibly can flip it right into a psychedelic artwork piece. Cling it up on the wall. Search for the silver lining. Smile and faux you’re completely satisfied, and shortly you’ll be.” I liked his unfaltering positivity – it’s one of many qualities I miss about him most.

Within the lyrics of the track, this imagery got here to me of an aurora within the sky, as if Nat has joined the cosmos within the type of these psychedelic colours. Solely till after it was written did I notice that the aurora, or the northern lights, is what Iceland is so famed for. So after we lookup on the sky and see the celebs and colours – I wish to assume it’s Nat, Tom and everybody else we love who has handed on, shining down on us collectively and dancing in gentle.

One factor I like about sharing this story with DM readers is {that a} dying in a household impacts all of us and a number of generations.  It’s a blessing to listen to knowledge from the youthful generations and expertise how intergenerational knowledge thrives in households amidst no matter variations additionally happen there.  My sister, in flight to Iceland for the funeral, very a lot skilled the storied aurora above Iceland.

Thank God for artists!

As Otto Rank reminds us, in the end solely the unio mystica heals our deepest wounds and the “mystical union” occurs “in love and artwork.”

See Matthew Fox, Creativity: The place the Divine and the Human Meet.

And Fox, “Otto Rank on the Creative Journey as a Non secular Journey, the Non secular Journey as an Creative Journey,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and On a regular basis Life, pp. 199-214.

And Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life.

Banner Picture: Bands of the aurora borealis open a celestial portal. Photographed in Iceland by v2osk; on Unsplash

Queries for Contemplation

How has artwork in no matter expression helped to heal you at occasions of loss and grief in your life? 

Really helpful Studying

Creativity: The place the Divine and Human Meet

As a result of creativity is the important thing to each our genius and wonder as a species but additionally to our capability for evil, we have to train creativity and to show methods of steering this God-like energy in instructions that promote love of life (biophilia) and never love of dying (necrophilia). Pushing effectively past the bounds of typical Christian doctrine, Fox’s give attention to creativity makes an attempt nothing lower than to form a brand new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow.  Numerous numbers will probably be completely satisfied to observe his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, writer, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Residing in Sin

In one in every of his foundational works, Fox engages with a few of historical past’s biggest mystics, philosophers, and prophets in profound and hard-hitting essays on such diversified subjects as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, religious feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Artwork and Spirituality, Artwork as Meditation, Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism and extra.

Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out an entire new course for Christianity—a course that’s in reality very historical and really grounded in Jewish considering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed means.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human group a radical remedy for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these might have originated.” –Thomas Berry, writer, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the wrestle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that features our “Sure” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that fight life (prophecy). How can we outline grownup prayer? And the way—if in any respect—do prayer and mysticism relate to the wrestle for social and ecological justice? One in all Matthew Fox’s earliest books, initially printed beneath the title On Turning into a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Fashion, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of methods to pray. Referred to as a “basic” when it first appeared, it lays out the distinction between the creation spirituality custom and the autumn/redemption custom that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A sensible and theoretical ebook, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of many best books I’ve learn on modern spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer