A Free Man
It has been a week since we last spoke, and the quiver is full of stuff that needs to be said.
I left you last week with a discussion about Theurgy. The process that for ages has been the creative edge propelling humanity to heights in literature, music, and painting. We can also look at how culture has its constraints on literature and the arts. And again, the reading of late has continued to reinforce this "truth."
"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." ― Oscar Wilde
I spent time with The Grand Inquisitor this week. Yes, it will make your head swim, but the author intends it. Have you read it? Fascinating work. Said to be a literary masterpiece! I don't know anyone who has read it except one guy, a good friend. We have read it together and mulled over it for a while.
I am connecting something that Julia Cameron talks about with the poetic work of the Spanish priest grilling Christ in the literature. They are speaking of the same thing: freedom or slavery, our choice. The Grand Inquisitor and Julia Cameron in The Artist Way takes a lot of time discussing the elements in our life that hinder our creativity. Nicholas Berdyaev writes volumes about what creativity is and isn't. And in Dostoevsky's writing, he goes straight to the core of the problem.
The subjective inspiration that went into this is as follows. Creativity is hindered by many things, education, family issues, emotional issues, toxic relationships, unresolved stuff in our lives, anger, and health. Or one could say the stuff that makes us what we are. And it also is said that creativity is subjective freedom, personalities that are free to do, to live. Objectivity gets in the way; the rational mind gets in the way. The paradigms we live under are getting in the way. The culture we live in gets in the way. I would consider the current western culture a creativity killer. And much brighter persons have been speaking of this for many years. It's the culture, stupid! (it sounds like a political slogan from several elections back.) It's about the culture we live in that wasn't created by us but for us. So here we go, the western culture of our day is entangling us in a slavery mentality, attacking the subjective mind and imposing a meme to live by that has nothing to do with creativity.
The Grand Inquisitor speaks about the condition of man; he states that humanity doesn't do well with freedom. We currently speak of liberty in America these days. But we gladly give our freedom away for happiness and tranquility. The Grand Inquisitor strived to deprive people of liberty in the name of happiness. Or otherwise, we gladly give up our freedom for slavery to what gives us tranquility and happiness! That's the verdict. That was the verdict the Grand Inquisitor slapped on Christ. He gave us a choice and should have given us freedom. Humanity is too weak to go it alone. We need to be told what to do and how to do it. Look around you. We are listening for the next meme to be announced, and we will follow it blindly! We have for centuries. Go ahead; I have been arguing with myself for years and you as well. But, the greatest minds humanity has ever known have been trying to tell us something for a long time now. And the culture we live under has been manipulating us as enslaved people.
There is so much you have not been told and need to know to move on with your life. And we want to be creative and do good work. I genuinely desire to find my voice while I have time. The Grand Inquisitor knew that "if he were to let Christ go free, he might undermine the Church's work to lift the burden of free will from humanity." Christ values freedom more than happiness. And freedom is difficult for humanity; it's confusing. Freedom is what the true creative artist of our day operate. The individual prefers slavery, whereas the personality, the free man, lives in freedom.
The lie enslaves humanity; the real burden is to be free to live and create and to love and know joy, not happiness. That is my journey! To be a free man, a creative personality. We'll talk more about personality next time.
