"Only Beauty Can Save the World"
A discussion on the ideas of James Hillman and the impact of artist as prospective “savior”.
I think the human being is on the planet in order to appreciate it, that's all. You don't have to do anything with it, you have to appreciate it, and what you do with it should add to its beauty."
- James Hillman, 2006
James Hillman (b. 1926 – d. 2011) was a pioneering psychologist whose imaginative psychology has entered cultural history, affecting lives and minds in a wide range of fields. He is considered the originator of Archetypal Psychology. He studied with Carl Jung and held the first directorship at the C. G. Jung Institute until 1969. Throughout his writings, Hillman criticized the literal, materialistic, and reductive perspectives that often dominate the psychological and cultural arenas. He is recognized as one of the most important radical critics and innovators of contemporary culture. (James Hillman Symposium)
James Hillman proposes that discovering beauty makes you fall in love with the world and when you fall in love with the world you want to take care of it, not destroy it. But today, there is a rage to do, to expand, to possess. Is this our idea of living well? If so, what has suffered because of it?
We have become anesthetized by distraction. “We numb our senses from morning to night. We are anesthetized. Our senses are shut down; so no one sees the beauty.” (Hillman, Tree Media interview; see below)
The result is a loss of beauty and appreciation, Hillman states. We are left with the feeling that something is missing. All the things do not actually make us happy. If they did, we wouldn’t always want more: more power, more stuff, more followers, more exhibitions, more sales, more and more and more.
Hillman proposes, there’s not happiness without the sense of being in love with life.
“We become permanently needy because we don’t know what we have lost. We have lost the beauty of the world and we make up for it in the attempt to possess the world.” (Hillman)
Have we forgotten to find beauty or even what beauty is?
And what is the consequence of this?
More pointedly, have we lost our notion of beauty because we are so disconnected from nature? We see nature as something to control rather than seeing it as something we are.
“We can’t be separate from nature. This is a thinking disorder. We are nature.” (Hillman)
Hillman asks, ‘What does it do for you to think you are separate from nature? It breeds superiority and the thought that we can control it.’ Separating from nature turns the land into a wasteland of our egoic productivity.
Have we been misled to believe that it is productivity, not nature itself, that makes us happy?
If productivity leads to achievement and achievement leads to satisfaction, then why do we constantly need more?
What if discovering our true oneness with nature is the happiness we have been looking for?
How many people actually know where their food comes from? The first time I grew a potato, it was a revelation and I felt silly for not knowing the process before. From one tiny quadrant of a potato, several pounds of new potatoes were produced with ease and little intervention from me. I understood then that nature IS abundance. It is never in lack.
Lack is a commodified entity that furthers the disconnect from nature and who we truly are while perpetuating the continued striving for something we have been told that we must possess.
When we are connected to nature and understand the we are nature, we live in the abundance of nature.
Being nature itself, we naturally find the beauty in the world. Then, we want to contribute to the betterment of this world. Not for economical benefit or to master a social (power) structure. Instead, it is our understanding of what we truly are - nature itself - that imbues beauty and the love of life.
It begs the question, do we have it all wrong?
What is the role of the artist in this?
Artists are predisposed to nurturing their true desires, despite the turmoil of society circling them. They understand more than most what it means to ignore the practical and turn towards their true nature as a creator. Therefore, artists are the perfect agents to bring us back to nature, connecting us to beauty and a love of our world.
I assert that the artists’ role is to connect us to the feeling of beauty, not necessarily create beautiful things.
For beauty means many things to different people.
I am not talking about aesthetic beauty as this is dependent on a person’s specific point of view. Rather a beauty that reignites the senses and invigorates the soul, creating purposeful interactions away from consumerist thinking.
What is the real motivation of the artist? Is it to be popular, trending, or be accepted by a certain group of people? Or is it to ignite something so deep that words can’t define it?
As artists, we have to really look at our motivations. This is not an analytical quest. Simply ask the question: are you, the artist, satisfied? Your immediate, visceral response will tell you everything you need to know.
The artist who is willing to dig deep and question has the potential to create from this place of query. And the result can serve as an opening for others.
“Hillman proposes his “acorn theory,” a soul- and destiny-centered philosophy that basically holds that we are each given, or molded around, a primary image or blueprint, and that it is the task of the life to realize its imperatives.” “Even before there are life stories,” writes Hillman, “lives display themselves as images.” And: “Unpacking the image takes a lifetime. It may be perceived all at once, but understood only slowly.” The oak, in other words, inheres in the acorn.
- “From Little Acorns… The Soul’s Code”, by Sven Birkerts; Los Angeles Times, 1996.
Is there a seed within each of us that has the potential for the greatest cause of expansion, tapping into the true nature of all and realizing true beauty? While many do not agree with Hillman’s Acorn Theory, I believe it has some legs.
I only have to look at my own garden to understand the true nature of things. There is potential in every seed. Planted in a nurturing environment, it thrives and gives life force. But when planted in a corrupted ‘soil’, it flounders and dies. What is the soil you find yourself in?
Not convinced the we are nature?
Hillman asks, “What is real is the actual dependence of human life on air, water, light, food, and animals.” We simply don’t exist without them.
When we understand our true nature IS nature itself, our perception changes. All the things are seen for what they really are: distraction from the self.
Schools and social structures of all kinds are, predictably, anathema. The soul finds what it needs elsewhere, as it always has; achievers become themselves in spite of institutions, not because of them. Inspired mentoring is what really matters, the fostering presence of some other person--not necessarily a parent--who senses the potential and helps to tend it.
- from The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling; James Hillman
Could it be that the artist serves as this fostering presence through their artwork?
I believe this is so. Art can make you see the artist within yourself. It can tap into that feeling that you are here to create something that adds to the beauty and nature of our world while we are part of it.
“Waking up to the insanity of the way we have structured ourselves rather than doing something to make a change in the mind.” (Hillman)
Artists and the work they create can be the bridge to a world wide restructuring.
Maybe you feel this is already happening. But is it cloaked within an ulterior motive; one that perhaps takes us away from true nature?
“What would make you not want to destroy something; it would start with your appreciation of its beauty. If we start with the world as something beautiful, you will fall in love with it and want to keep it around. Once we reawaken our aesthetic sense, and are not anesthetized by all the distractions we would be able to see and appreciate all the beauty in the world. Our job on the earth is to fall in love with it and you only fall in love with it if your aesthetically alive to it.” (Hillman)
I am left asking, what is it to really be alive? Are the distractions creating anxiety or a feeling of aliveness? Are you still willing to compromise your ability to know aliveness? Is following someone else’s order of things allowing for a connection to your true nature whatever you define that as?
Where do you stand?