"Towards an Archetypal Anatomy of the Soul." Helmut Zimmerman, 1960.
In Cosmic art by Raymond F. Piper and Lila K.
Piper (Hawthorn Books)
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Inspired by the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies |
Commentaries
on
Soul Self Portraits
Editor's Comments by Henry Reed
There is a special connection between imagination and soul. According to Edgar Cayce, for example, the conscious mind of the soul is the same as what we would call the sub-conscious mind. That would include the imagination and dreams. To operate from a soul level, as it were, we should use our imagination. Recently, some Jungian psychologists have called attention to the ancient Persian idea that the imagination is the way the soul perceives. That is, when we use our imagination to understand something, when we are in touch with what they call the "imaginal" realm, then we are interacting with the world from the soul's point of view. Asking for people to use their imagination to allow soul to perceive itself, therefore, might be considered an authentic task.
What is the "spiritual imagination?" We think of people such as Swedenborg, whose clairvoyant states of reverie opened up to this scientist many visions of what exists in other "realms." William Blake was someone whose artistic talent allowed him to convey to us visually what his imagination perceived about spiritual realities.
I owe Ingo Swann a debt for reinforcing the idea that to develop our intuition, we need to make drawings or diagrams of our understanding of things. In this case we are applying that idea to the understanding of spiritual realities... that is, realities that are not evident to the senses, but which are nevertheless real (that is, making a real difference in our lives as we live them) to our inner sense of things.
I would highly recommend the book Cosmic art by Raymond F. Piper and Lila K. Piper (Hawthorn Books). It contains many images produced by artists to convey their spiritual intuitions. Here is are a couple of quotation from the book
"Art is one of the most profound means at man's disposal for comprehending reality." Charles Biederman
"I believe that most painters today are not leaving reality but are going deeper into it. They are concerned with the form of things beyond the visual, the meaning behind the facts." Margo Hoff
"Only by intuition can the artist attain the energy of creation and the light of cosmic presence. Intuition is the creative grace or gift of psychic or immediate knowledge that arises in human consciousness and is transformed in vision and the power of images. It is important, therefore, for the artist to know how to listen to his inner voice and to develop a highly sensitive and spiritual intuition, lest demonic and aberrated forces sneak into his creations. The artists humanizes that which is divine and consequently makes divine that which is human." Serge Ponomarew
We would welcome other comments upon spiritual intuition. Should you wish to ask your soul to reveal itself for self-portraiture, we would welcome your soul drawing.
To make comments on soul self portraits, send email to comm-souldraw@intuitive-connections.net
You may also use snail mail to send in your soul self-portrait for publication to
Henry Reed, 3777 Fox Creek Road, Mouth of Wilson, VA 24363
Here are two soul drawings that have come in:
Ed Tuttle
We can recognize the mandala form in this one.
Revelle Hamilton
Note how the single soul source (a mandalic sun) energizes the person, with hints of connections with others.
Be sure to see the second installment of our soul self-portrait project