Art is the Technology of Love

Creativity is the highest human Reality. Why do we settle for definitions, mandates, and formulas?

“We are not intended to understand Life. Life makes us what we are, but Life belongs to God. If I can understand a thing and can define it, I am its master. I cannot understand or define Life; I cannot understand or define God; consequently I am a master of neither. Logic and reason are always on the hunt for definition, and anything that cannot be defined is apt to be defied. Rationalism usually defies God and defies life; it will not have anything that cannot be defined on a rational basis, forgetting that the things that make up elemental human life cannot be defined.”— Oswald Chambers, The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers, p. 56

“Art helps us join, NOT understand or define, life. Art is never mastered. It would be more accurate to say that ART masters and envelops US! Art and creativity, and the highest form of creativity called Love, is only agreed to, opened to, and received from a mysterious source far larger than our imagination. Therefore art, the messenger of spirit, transforms and lifts us beyond our limited mindsets and grounded earthiness to the very vaults of heaven.”— Zeus Yiamouyiannis

Why do we capitulate to rationalism, ego, and intellect, when art, heart, and spirit want us to soar?

As a former institutional educator of the mind, now a spiritual educator of the heart, I was always struck by the emphasis placed on “mastery” of “standards”. Whose standards? And what is this mastery composed of? Well… it turns out that “state standards” or “academic standards” belong to neither the state nor the academy. They are enforcement mechanisms to ensure a complete educational focus on TECHNICAL proficiency that serves the profit margins and production goals of those profiting from industry as well as those alleged elites claiming to “lead society”. But what is all this scheming for? What is life itself for if not the creative breath and skill that would both sustain and serve spirit on the individual and communal level.

Today, in pseudo-civilized society, what gets canceled and defunded? Isn’t it always the visual, performing, and physical arts who are the first to be marginalized— painting, drawing, theater, music, and physical education— the very things that give substance, movement, and joy to human life? What are emphasized? STEM— Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Why would the mechanical and cold be given extreme precedence over the expressive and warm? I think we all know the answer to that if our child heart still beats. Certain mentalities attempt to rule or master the world, and are willing to sacrifice the spirit, art, and love to a necrophilic god of artificiality, certainty, and vanity, an illusory “mastery as power OVER” quite at odds with the nature of Life itself, which concerns itself only with “power THROUGH and WITH.”

So why do we agree?

If we don’t agree, why aren’t we rebelling?

What is to stop us from simply refusing this rigged, depressing game where the constant control, by the few, of every human creative yen and unpredictable move, of the many, becomes the goal? Frankly, there is nothing stopping us, except us. I just borrowed a guitar, and am going to learn to play as an adult. I grew tired of the politics on YouTube, and I started watching music videos. I have left Christian churches both conservative and liberal, because they were too wrapped up in committees, leadership squabbles, formulaic services, and sermons, as non-“comforting” as they were uninspiring. All of it seems to be a conspiracy to enforce smaller human expectations over the larger, uncontrollable, artistic aspects of human life.

We are told we are unregenerate sinners, depraved, and in need of absolution. We are not told that we are beloved children of God, formed of the same Holy Spirit that resides in us today and always. We are not told we are made of and formed in the image of a resplendent Love, needing only elevation, opportunity, community, and conscious development of our deeper gifts and higher selves.

Art is this bridge to the higher and the crux of rebellion against the powers and principalities that might negate life, love, and light (to say nothing nothing of laughter and joy). Deeper life’s consistent practice comes as a prayer, reminding us always that the best parts of ourselves come not in acquiring material or being rewarded for our obedience to the world, but by becoming PERMEABLE to the energizing spirit, and CREATING from an inspiration that we can never claim to own nor master.

We have been created as infinite wealth by the love which created us. We do not have to acquire wealth. We are wealth. Why not GIVE and LOVE back in the form of creating from the love we were created from? Why not create educational systems CENTERED upon art, relationship, sacred honoring of Mother Nature, and Father Universe, contribution, development of each and every person’s divine genius. Why not liberate ourselves from habits and institutions that seek to suppress and channel the creative instinct into neurotic forms of consumerism, as those fostered by the trite and superficial fashion industry.

What might you do today to create in love as you were created in love?

I usually get caught up in my spiritual subjects, and write perhaps too much. The richness and importance of this topic, bids me to be brief. But I leave you with a question and a prayer. What might you do to rebel against the dehumanizing, mechanical forces seeking to displace the spirit in your life? What might you do to create some form of expression and art in your life today? How might you join with the spontaneity and energy of children to rediscover and recover your own child, creative heart from domestication and domination?

Please share in the comments, and let me know any insights that come up for you as your meditate on these questions and the insanity of a world trying to “save” the human race by killing its spirit! Let us, instead, love the enemy and “save” the human spirit by UNLEASHING love in a tidal wave of artistic creativity and rebellion.

All blessings, Zeus