Messages 2003
The Relationship between the Artistic and the Spiritual.
January 10th, 2003
Santa Cruz, California
Received by F.A.B.
I am here, Beethoven.
I come this evening to convey a message to you regarding the relationship between the artistic and the spiritual. We see how you have hungered for clarity on this subject, even as you have grown in understanding.
Well, to begin with, you acknowledge that the artistic gift comes from God. As such, it has its own laws and rules, according to the gift that is bestowed. One of these laws is that the personality of the artist is in harmony with the gift, that is, the gift expresses itself through how the artistic personality manifests.
Another law, which you acknowledge, is that of free will, that is, the artist is at total liberty to choose how he or she will manifest the desires to express.
Of course, these laws are obvious. But in the case of an exceptional work of art, that is, one that is universally acknowledged to be great, there are other laws working. The law of universality says that each succeeding generation will find meaning in the work, and will see it in a slightly different way. This, too, is obvious.
Here in the spirit world, we don’t have the passage of time, or different generations. We simply have the spirit artist and his/her work. Now, in the advanced spheres, EVERY work of art is great, because the soul development of the spirit artist precludes failure or second-class art. So therefore, for example, we have our equivalents of the Mona Lisa (that is, artistic icons) without the time-generation factor. That is, we have our great art without the change that comes, in the mortal life, with the passage of time.
I elucidated some self-evident laws to explain that the relationship between the spiritual and the artistic is subtle as well as obvious. The work of art which, in the mortal life, survives the test of time, has its equivalent here in the spirit world. As advanced spirits grow in Divine Love, they naturally leave behind certain perceptions and grow into greater perceptions. And so, a work of art, for example, produced by a fifth-spherian, obviously won’t have the same appeal for a seventh-spherian. As with everything else, the soul development determines the insight to be found in the work, even as its artistic validity remains the same.
It is hard to discuss this subject in mortal words even though I have an advanced understanding of the subject, and this is because artistic production in the higher soul spheres, operates in a different way than in the mortal life. For example, as you know, we create things with our thoughts, which are just as real as a painting or a sculpture in the mortal life.
I will conclude here. This message is prefatory to other messages which will go into more detail about this important subject. It was felt that this message may serve as an introduction to the subject.
You are wondering why I was chosen to discuss this subject. Well, we are all capable of this, but my gift lends itself more easily to interfacing the mortal-spirit divide.
Have a wonderful evening.
Love, Beethoven