In the light of the spiritual philosophy of Master Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov…

‘In the future artists will not be judged on their writings, paintings or sculpture: people will want to know the people themselves so as to admire the beauty and music emanating from them and their life. Everyone will want to live a life of poetry and express music in their gestures, thoughts and feelings; everyone will want to draw the features of their own face and carve the lines and contours of their own being in God’s image.’

The Master recognised all human beings have been given the need to create, to express themselves, whether it be through the creation of a child or through artistic expression such as painting, poetry, music, song, dance or sculpture. But this inner need is not enough. In order to create something truly beautiful, capable of ennobling and uplifting others, would-be creators must first make great efforts to surpass themselves, to raise their consciousness through prayer and meditation, to visit the higher regions of the invisible world in order to receive divine inspiration from the entities there. It was this practice that gave immortal, sublime, elements to the masterpieces created by artists of the past such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Mozart.

However, many artists today seek their ‘inspiration’ from nightclubs or the lower regions of their subconscious; they are unaware they need to prepare themselves before attempting to create or that their method is in variance with the intelligence of nature. The natural process of creation is for order, beauty and perfection to emerge and develop out of chaos – a single cell divides and gradually differentiates to create a complex being and yet much contemporary art is moving in the opposite direction.

So, from the point of view of the Master and Initiatic Science, much of contemporary art with its incoherent, disjointed forms and discordant sounds has lost sight of its true role and mission:

‘The truth is that if you are an artist you must accomplish something that no one else can accomplish, something so beautiful and inspiring that it propels hearts and souls upwards on the path of perfection towards the Lord. This is how initiates understand the mission of art: to lead human beings to heaven, not to hell, discord and disorder. Whatever you see and hear influences your nervous system and when you see nothing but disorder, disorder necessarily enters you; whereas when you contemplate beauty and harmony, beauty and harmony enter you. It is a law of magic.’

Book 233 in the Izvor Collection, ‘Creation – Artistic and Spiritual’ is a collection of lectures by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov on the magical influences of beauty, harmony and light as expressed through various art forms but, above all, through beings who have created their ‘own living masterpiece’. It evokes a new golden culture of the future in which everyone will become artists in their thoughts, feelings, gestures, words and looks, learning to live every minute of the day poetically, in other words, to be vibrantly alive, warm and expressive, giving their smiles, their warmth and light to others. The lectures cover topics such as working with the imagination: how, under the effect of the will and a spiritual ideal, the imagination becomes a magic agent capable of attracting elements corresponding to our thoughts and desires and concretising them in the physical world.

‘How to listen to music’ describes how this imaginative process is helped by utilising the forces and energies contained in music – we can visualise ourselves possessing the qualities and virtues we need to develop while listening to music by the great classical composers, especially their choral works.

They also reveal the noble mission of singers in the new culture- ‘to awaken consciousnesses’ and win souls to the light; they show how singing the songs of master Peter Deunov or classical choruses can be a work of spiritualization, first on ourselves and then on others. Singing is then no longer a pleasant pastime, it becomes an important spiritual practice helping us to spiritualise sexual energies and experience harmonious, subtle exchanges with others. And through the power of sound, human beings become creators in the subtle worlds – their sounds are expressed as invisible forms and colours and these are even able to influence matter.

‘But as creators, perhaps the noblest use humans can make of their spiritual, mental and imaginative faculties is in a work of idealisation – humans must nourish sacred thoughts for one another. Thanks to these thoughts they will help their brothers and sisters to evolve and they will sanctify themselves. The master describes a future in which everyone will learn to do this creative work, to project friends, loved ones and all those they meet into the light, they will no longer be happy to diminish or slander others, on the contrary, although they will not be blind to the lower nature, they will find happiness in focusing solely on the higher, divine nature of others.

This work can be done both for others and for oneself. Many people may object that such a practice represents a flight from reality. On the contrary, ‘The only way you can know reality is if you idealise and divinise every single being, including yourself.’

So, in reality, the ultimate creation is for human beings to strengthen their will, purify their heart, enlighten their mind, expand their soul and sanctify their spirit so as to make of themselves temples of the living God; to replace all the old worn out particles of their body with the luminous, divine particles they have received through contemplation of divine beauty, especially the rays of the rising sun.

In this collection of lectures, readers have the impression they are exposed to true beauty, true poetry streaming directly from a divine source. Glimpsed through these lectures, the master himself is clearly seen to be a living work of art, one of those who;

‘set the world afire by simple fact of their presence on earth, for all the colours and forms, all the music and poetry of the world can be seen and heard through them’.