The Art Gallery of NSW opened an exhibition last weekend called The Greats, Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland.
Along with the Gallery's wider collection, Rembrandt, Monet, Constable, Gainsborough, and my personal favourites Botticelli, Leighton, and Gauguin, it offered a marvellous afternoon of enjoyment, interpretation, and meaning, accompanying each of the pieces in the quietude of appreciation.
Art speaks in many languages. Languages of perception, symbolism, connection, and experiences.
And art touches each person individually in their reaction, and interpretation, at a particular moment. And that connection can change, depending on experiences, thoughts and emotions.
Each art piece is a life of detail and perspective in it's own emergence, totality and story.
Just like you and me. Each an art piece of evolving meaning.
And there are many, many layers of meaning.
Just like for you and me.
One of the stunning pieces in the collection is Botticelli's The Virgin adoring the sleeping Christ child.
My experience of it was holistic, and influenced by my training in psychotherapy, spirituality, and art as symbolism in context of the whole piece. To me it reflected motherhood, peace and abundance. In contrast, the narrator on the audio focussed on the Christ child, a more detailed element of the piece, and an impending death theme. Forming a completely different art of meaning. Likewise our interpretations on the position in which the Christ child was sleeping was of a different perspective.
The art of meaning can be affected by many influences, and preferences in the context of time, detail, knowledge, history, memory, contemporary reality, and mastery.
Observing an art piece is like observing life at a point in time. It offers a snapshot. And a meaning as you relate to it.
And art, like life, reveals an evolving mystery. Of detail, and larger landscape, as it touches and inspires you personally, in heart, mind, and body.
Opening the heart, mind, and body into an expanding sensory can connect you to a side of yourself that forms a part of that mystery as it is unfolding.
That is why many wisdom traditions incorporate art and symbolism so frequently. To provide connection to a deeper landscape, an inner-knowing, access to universal archetypes, identity and mastery.
Observing the detail as well as the landscape, can connect you to parts of yourself that have been latent, and can offer rich and vibrant connection. Revealing attitudes, beliefs, inspirations and meanings peculiar to your reality.
And knowing when to look at the wider landscape of your life, and when to dive more deeply into the detail of your behaviours and identity, can also be a progressively important artistic process in your life.
Understanding your changing dynamic unfolding as a wider mystery, can be both fascinating, and enlightening, as a way of acknowledging you and your life as a masterpiece.
And building a sense of self appreciation, robustness and belonging to a process that is both a part of you, and a mystery bigger than you is the wonder of creation. And an area always available for review.
Enjoy the art of meaning that is you. And the masterpiece of greatness that it brings into your world view.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Saturday, 17 October 2015
At the still centre...
Last week I had an opportunity to see a performance by the Sufi Chamber Orchestra and Whirling Dervishes in Sydney. It was a mesmerising experience. And one that touched me greatly, flooding back to me my love of Rumi.
And I have been re-immersing myself in his poetry.
A silent space touched again by it completely.
Rumi, a great guide to spiritual growth, addressed humanity as a whole.
His poetry is recited extensively across many traditions around the globe. Focussing on the intensity and extensivity of Love, in, and through, the human being.
The event focussed on the mystical and musical SEMA ceremony of the whirling dervishes, declared by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
And how beautiful to have experienced it, live, locally. It was all encompassing. And moving. In the witnessing, of honouring a beautiful ritual ceremony.
At the still centre of the turning world.
The ritual is a physical way to reach a higher degree of spirituality. The whirling representing the way electrons and planets spin. And the dervish journeys to the truth, and advances there. Revolving around the heart, embracing all humankind, all creation, with affection, and love.
At the still centre of the turning world.
Finding that still centre is an important process. Developing a ritual to connect to the inner space creates an ability to cut through to the heart of things.
Consider it.
Creating space, stillness, at the centre, of your turning world. White space that cuts through the busyness. Meditative practice, rituals, restfulness. And creative immersive elements.
Giving your heartmindbody permission to reach a soulful truth. Listening, in the pinpointing presence. And acquiring that sweet centred essence of knowledge necessary for you in your revolving and evolving world.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
And I have been re-immersing myself in his poetry.
A silent space touched again by it completely.
Rumi, a great guide to spiritual growth, addressed humanity as a whole.
His poetry is recited extensively across many traditions around the globe. Focussing on the intensity and extensivity of Love, in, and through, the human being.
The event focussed on the mystical and musical SEMA ceremony of the whirling dervishes, declared by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
And how beautiful to have experienced it, live, locally. It was all encompassing. And moving. In the witnessing, of honouring a beautiful ritual ceremony.
At the still centre of the turning world.
The ritual is a physical way to reach a higher degree of spirituality. The whirling representing the way electrons and planets spin. And the dervish journeys to the truth, and advances there. Revolving around the heart, embracing all humankind, all creation, with affection, and love.
At the still centre of the turning world.
Finding that still centre is an important process. Developing a ritual to connect to the inner space creates an ability to cut through to the heart of things.
Consider it.
Creating space, stillness, at the centre, of your turning world. White space that cuts through the busyness. Meditative practice, rituals, restfulness. And creative immersive elements.
Giving your heartmindbody permission to reach a soulful truth. Listening, in the pinpointing presence. And acquiring that sweet centred essence of knowledge necessary for you in your revolving and evolving world.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
Saturday, 10 October 2015
From Little Things...
A former client recently dropped a book in to me. A book that she had completed earlier that week. She wanted me to share in her reverie, of what was increasingly making sense to her new state of being, and her continued development.
It's a book by James Wallman, called Stuffocation, Living More With Less. It fundamentally focusses on the process of decluttering.
And, for me, it called to mind that place of constant stuffocation, of accumulating, and of excessive busyness, that is diminishing to humanness. And clearing it. For uplifting.
Many of you may be more regularly in that place of creating, or re-creating, in a dynamic of change that is accelerating. Working out how to live valuably daily while staying focussed on where you're heading, what you're needing and wanting, and how you're continually creating a new reality.
And it may be tempting to accelerate and maintain a process of moving more rapidly, competitively, aggressively, anxiously on all cylinders, constantly.
To rush.
To push.
Before the river is ready.
Suffocating, and Stuffocating, the necessary process of it falling into place more swimmingly, peacefully.
Slowing down, a little more patiently, for the current to run through, and with you, more easily, for your part in the play unfolding, helps you achieve it more consistently.
Allowing the ducks line up, so that the process falls into place increasingly effortlessly.
Letting go of what's not important, patiently, and creating space for opportunity as it comes knocking.
Just as any organisation goes through life cycles, so do people, in lifespan development, and energetic attunement.
And where you are on your lifespan, and what you are experiencing, can be complimenting or contradicting your fulfilment and well-being, and the well-being of those around you.
A delicate balance of decluttering internally, and externally, regularly, assists you to recalibrate your emotional and cognitive experiences, so you can let go to the bigger process, more gracefully.
Spending time validly identifying and clarifying attitudes, beliefs, patterns, behaviours, things, systems, that are inhibiting your ideal next stage of happiness development, is of benefit. Reviewing. Attuning. And then, detaching.
A well executed internal restructure, can be a brilliant circuit breaker, to avoid being too exhausted to glide easily into your next stage of development.
Let go, and breathe, regularly. Float above your experiences to look at the bigger picture of your life, scope the map out, the values and vision you wish to create, and mindfully and heartfully, act, right timingly, with the changes you will accommodate.
Have a good look at where things are at, and declutter progressively. Ongoing little steps, every few months, taking a stocktake, makes a big difference. It is a great way to stay ready for the next opening, so you are better able to accommodate and embrace opportunities co-operatively as they present in a changing dynamic.
Make way for the good and great you wish to cultivate. Because From Little Things, as Paul Kelly so adeptly sings, Big Things Grow.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
It's a book by James Wallman, called Stuffocation, Living More With Less. It fundamentally focusses on the process of decluttering.
And, for me, it called to mind that place of constant stuffocation, of accumulating, and of excessive busyness, that is diminishing to humanness. And clearing it. For uplifting.
Many of you may be more regularly in that place of creating, or re-creating, in a dynamic of change that is accelerating. Working out how to live valuably daily while staying focussed on where you're heading, what you're needing and wanting, and how you're continually creating a new reality.
And it may be tempting to accelerate and maintain a process of moving more rapidly, competitively, aggressively, anxiously on all cylinders, constantly.
To rush.
To push.
Before the river is ready.
Suffocating, and Stuffocating, the necessary process of it falling into place more swimmingly, peacefully.
Slowing down, a little more patiently, for the current to run through, and with you, more easily, for your part in the play unfolding, helps you achieve it more consistently.
Allowing the ducks line up, so that the process falls into place increasingly effortlessly.
Letting go of what's not important, patiently, and creating space for opportunity as it comes knocking.
Just as any organisation goes through life cycles, so do people, in lifespan development, and energetic attunement.
And where you are on your lifespan, and what you are experiencing, can be complimenting or contradicting your fulfilment and well-being, and the well-being of those around you.
A delicate balance of decluttering internally, and externally, regularly, assists you to recalibrate your emotional and cognitive experiences, so you can let go to the bigger process, more gracefully.
Spending time validly identifying and clarifying attitudes, beliefs, patterns, behaviours, things, systems, that are inhibiting your ideal next stage of happiness development, is of benefit. Reviewing. Attuning. And then, detaching.
A well executed internal restructure, can be a brilliant circuit breaker, to avoid being too exhausted to glide easily into your next stage of development.
Let go, and breathe, regularly. Float above your experiences to look at the bigger picture of your life, scope the map out, the values and vision you wish to create, and mindfully and heartfully, act, right timingly, with the changes you will accommodate.
Have a good look at where things are at, and declutter progressively. Ongoing little steps, every few months, taking a stocktake, makes a big difference. It is a great way to stay ready for the next opening, so you are better able to accommodate and embrace opportunities co-operatively as they present in a changing dynamic.
Make way for the good and great you wish to cultivate. Because From Little Things, as Paul Kelly so adeptly sings, Big Things Grow.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
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