Hello, my name is Alex Grey, a mystic visionary artist and co-founder of
Chapel of Sacred Mirrors CoSM with my wife artist Allison Grey. This video, made in collaboration
with After Skool, explores the relationship between art, consciousness and the cosmos. Enjoy.
Cosmic creativity is the evolving, unfolding,
intelligent energy manifesting and flowing through all beings and forms. God is the creative force,
the divine artist, and the universe is the masterwork of creation.
Creative people feel in touch with this force. It moves us and moves through us.
13.7 billion years ago, God said "let there be light". And although we imagine the Big Bang
to be a bright explosion, there was only plasma gas filled with subatomic matter
and anti-matter colliding and expanding for 300,000 years before the protons and electrons
bonded into hydrogen and light first appeared. The universe continued, expanding rapidly,
stretching the wavelength of this first light into what's known as the cosmic background radiation.
Over billions of years, atoms, stars, supernovas, planets, complex molecules, cells and creatures
evolved, each phase a strikingly original development. Far from random selection,
a divine order and intelligence and artistry appeared at the very foundation of existence.
Thank you, great spirit for the creative process at work in cosmic,
biological and consciousness evolution. Creativity is another name for evolution,
evolution and creativity are spirit in action, in our hands. Fundamental to existence,
creativity is Spirit's voice, the Universe, the one song, occurring in all phenomena.
Every new moment offers the possibility to transcend the last. Our Divine Core
carries the same potential for creation that existed before the beginning of the universe.
The force that birthed the cosmos lives as the creative urge in our souls.
God created a cosmos, and in so doing, evolved beings capable of conscious relationship
with their creator. Whenever we're expressing ourselves, the creative force of the universe
that evolved our hands and animates them with life is working through us.
We either consciously or unconsciously work with this creative power. Over a century ago.,
philosopher R.M. Buck suggested that the experience of cosmic consciousness is occurring
with greater frequency as humanity evolves and with noticeably expanded reports in modern times.
Here is a quote from his own experience of cosmic consciousness:
"All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame colored cloud.
I knew that the fire was within myself.
Directly afterward, there came upon me a sense of exaltation of immense joyousness accompanied
or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe.
I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary,
a living presence. I became conscious in myself, of eternal life. I saw that everyone is immortal,
that the cosmic order is such that all things work together for the good of each and all, and that
the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love and that
happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain.”
As Buck recounts, the mystical, visionary experience reveals a primal unity with the
source of creation. Everything and everyone is an expression of the cosmic creative force.
The deeper that we tap into our yearning for innovative expression
free from the limitations, the clearer a channel we become for manifestation.
Making art aligns us with the cosmic creative force. Art that is made with the intention to
benefit others can be a spiritual practice. CoSM is an art church, we think of art as our
religion. All religions have sacred arts from scriptures, hymns and icons to architecture and
dance. Studying the cross-cultural history of art gives us a connection with and a context for all
sacred paths, each an expression of the one spirit of love that is eternally creating the cosmos.
Metaphorically, we're all artists of our lives. Consciousness and self-knowledge is our primary
medium, authoring the narrative in our head and painting our picture of reality, our world view.
We are sacred mirrors of the cosmic creative force.
The creator is the source and unlimited fountain, the spirit living within you.
All of our creations made with love align us with God, the visionary artist
expands their awareness to connect with the cosmic creative force and regards their craft
as a sacred path. Contact with divine reality is the source of visionary art,
a materialized theophany, an outer world artifact of an inner world revelation.
The artist works with a celestial hierarchy of spiritual forces.
In our scientific era, it may sound unhinged to suggest that there are spiritual messengers who
whisper to our souls. But Socrates, the venerable philosopher of Greece, spoke
of a wise inner voice which counseled him and which he called a divine something.
In ancient Rome, this concept emerged as the understanding that each person has a genius or
an invisible angel accompanying them. Christian Mystics adopted this idea, and according to
Thomas Aquinas, on the road of life, humanity is threatened by many dangers, both from within and
without, and therefore, as guardians are appointed for those who have to pass by an unsafe road,
so an angel is assigned to each person as long as they are a wayfarer.
By means of an angel, God is said to introduce images and suggestions,
leading a person to do what is right. The creation of art is a dance with angels, as the inner guide
invites us to make better whatever we are making. Art depends on and comes to stand for
the visionary imagination. Our transcendental creative source.
Among the earliest mystic visionary artists known by name was the German Abbot Hildegard of Bingen,
who described her revelations in the book Skivias. Enveloped in a fiery inner light,
she received iconic images and heard instructions to speak and write,
not according to human speech or human inventiveness, but to the extent that you can see
and hear the things that are in the heavens above in the marvelousness of God.
Michelangelo's remarkable drawing The Dream shows a nude youth being roused by an angels
trumpet blast into his third eye. A number of vignettes surround the main figure a loving
embrace, the exchange of money, a fight and various emotional masks of life. Yet the youth is
focused on the angel and leans protectively around a sphere, a neo platonic symbol of the soul.
Saint Augustine declared, Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye
of the heart whereby God may be seen. This defines the job of the visionary artist.
Saint Augustine noted that the eye of our hearts may not be well and we need
to restore it to health so that we can see God. This means the condition of our hearts,
our inability to feel compassion for ourselves and others, and our inability to express love
blinds us to the presence of God. The moment we're grateful for the gifts that have been given us,
like our life or the Planet Earth or our friends, each new day becomes a blessed opportunity.
Restore to health the eye of the heart by imagining what you are grateful for.
Hallelujah. Thank you, God. Eternal gratitude to the spirit alive in each of us, flowing through
all dimensions, manifesting our cosmic creativity. Holy one, restore to health the eye of my heart
so that I may see the divine. When my mystic eye is open, recharge me with your higher love
and reveal how I may be of service. Amen. In the healed heart center,
a vision Crystal abides. Inside the vision crystal, all is one timeless awareness.
The Seer peers through every point of view with the fractal eyes of the divine. The artist asks,
how will I ever share such a sight? The medium is a spiritual tool
delivered by a higher hand. Gifted with the medium, the artist expresses their message.
The Vision Crystal is a symbol of the divine imagination,
a multifaceted angel, infinitely seeing and infinitely being.
When we open the eye of our heart, the self becomes holy lens, and the world a holy place.
May we all be creative and celebrate the spirit of love. The rebirth of light. This solstice season.
Thank you After Skool for adding your brilliant drawings to this talk I gave during
cosmos december full moon broadcast located in the hudson valley of new york. CoSM’s mission
is to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to uplift the
global community to learn more about myself, Allison, CoSM and the visionary art movement.
You can explore the link in the description to this video. Thanks for watching.