Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00330)

> Keith wrote:
>
> Standing in the light is a cleaning experience indeed!  By the way
> have you seen the flaming Hebrew letters of I AM THAT I AM or the Yod He Vau
> He.  The artistic manipulations of letters is all that is allowed in much of
> Jewish and Moslem art (no graven images you know).

Yeah, as a matter of fact I have. I really love all of the abstract
calligraphic and ornamental work that came from that one simple
restriction. Thoa got me a few wonderful books on sacred calligraphy. As
a designer, I really go for that stuff! I'll never look at writing, text
or the alphabet in the same way again. Talk about meditations on "The
Word!"

The Sufi's, in particular, have an amazing mathamatical and geometric
system worked out that serves as the key to both encoding and decoding
the esoteric meaning found embedded in the elaborate ornamental
decorations of Islam.

After studying this and other similar traditions, I have to laugh when I
hear art critics put down or undervalue artwork on the basis of its
being "purely decorative."

> Logos are a form of meditation.  Bringing down the divine into the material.
> I am looking at MSN for Microsoft Network.  It pulses, revolves,
> scintilates.

They can be. I'd question the conscious level of where a lot of them are
coming from, though.
Try this experiment: Think of the word "Design" as a combination of the
words "Deity" and "Signature" or "Signet." Then, get yourself into the
highest state of awareness that you can and try to make a logo from
there that expresses that. Hang it on the wall and live with it for a
while. Give it your attention. Watch what happens.

> The ego has an important function of DISCRIMINATION. HPB in THE VOICE OF
> THE SILENCE and others have said without the ego we would be innudated in
> the sewer of the lower astral or Klippoth, the husks of materiality.
>
> The same ego can be a tool.  It is a two edged sword in every sense of the
> words.

I completely agree. The ego/Ego (Manas) and it's development through the
course of evolution in the human kingdom is divinely sanctioned, a very
important "part of the plan" for an evolving Monad and supposed to
happen. It is not an evil mistake as some would have you believe. If you
cooperate with evolution at all, you need to accept it as
(conventionally) natural.

Mark
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WITHOUT WALLS: An Internet Art Space
http://www.withoutwalls.com
E-mail: mark@withoutwalls.com