The Conference of the Birds
and
Their Flight To Union
Part V of the Pandemic-inspired photography projects : A Prayer for the November 2020 Elections.
Click once-twice on each image to enlarge and view in a dark viewing space
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
Wallace Stevens
Introduction
Bird imagery has been a constant presence in my creative process over the past fifty-plus years. I have often thought of these wonder-filled winged beings as living symbols for the Human Soul, the Angelic Spirit, beings which are not only visual embodiments of Grace--the Creative Power of the Universe--but also Messengers that facilitate communications between we humans and the Divine through many means including their Celestial Music which can open one's heart and affect deep levels of interior psycho-spiritual transformation. In this project I have collected together thirty of my favorite "bird photographs" selected from many of the photography projects I've published on my blog--projects which range throughout the various periods of my picture-making career. I have not included dates and project titles under the images because, it seems to me, what is most relevant are the secret messages and divine blessings each image contains and radiates through their pictorial form, their sacred subject matter, and the grace of my creative process.
It is not by chance that this project, Conference of the Birds, has been published on November 2, the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election Day. I am offering this project--its photographs and its story of the Birds--as a Prayer:
. . . to protect and strengthen all those who have already, and will be voting, in difficult and perhaps threatening situations throughout the country from militant Trump supporters and exposure to the Coronavirus while standing in long lines.
. . . for an outcome to the Elections that will be in alignment with God's Will; a Prayer, in other words, for whatever is best for the needs of everyone involved.
. . . for our democracy--that it may be able to soon regain some degree of equanimity, heart and soul.
. . . for an honest, true presidential leadership, one which will help guide us to achieve a successful approach to dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic, and Health Care, Education, Food, Shelter, Sustainable Work for all in need.
. . . for the immigrant children and their parents who were separated from each other by the current presidency.
. . . for our Planet, and its need for human, loving support, so that it can regain a renewed, healthy, sustainable ecosystem--an ecosystem which human behaviors have disrupted.
(Note: I have written about Visual Images As A Form of Prayer in a section that follows the presentation of the thirty photographs)
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This project has been inspired by the Persian poet, Farid al-Din Attar (1145-1220 CE), and his epic poem, Mantiq al-tayr ("The Conference of the Birds). The poem, which consists of 4,458 verses (!) describes how the birds of the world came together to discuss with each other their need of a True leader. In the course of their dialogues with each other a leader emerges, a Hoopoe bird, who was able to convince the birds--with his Sufi teachings and parables--to embark upon a spiritual pilgrimage that becomes for each bird their "Flight to Union." May the story of the birds, which I will briefly outline below, and the photographs in this project open our hearts so that we can awaken to the Truth, the Divine inner wisdom and strength that already exits within each and every one of us.
#14 "The Bird of Paradise Rising" (Click on the image)
How the Idea for this Project Emerged
It occurred to me as I was preparing my last project for publication, A Walk In Twilight Garden, that once again a "bird image" had spontaneously emerged within my creative process. The symmetrical image above (#14 in this project), entitled "The Bird of Paradise Rising" was another inspiration for this project. The image helped me become aware that many of my most recent projects have included bird imagery--the most obvious example being Seeing the Blackbird, which is a visual response to Wallace Stevens' great poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."
As I was contemplating this, the thought occurred to me that it might be interesting--one day--to create a project that collected together a selection of bird photographs from projects created throughout my career.
(This, by the way, was not a new idea; I have created similar kinds of "collections" projects based on subject matter and conceptual themes. See my Welcome Page for a full listing of hyperlinked "Collections" projects on themes such as Water, Snow, Stones, Things, Portraits, Landscapes, Still Lifes, Music, Death, Sacred Art and more.)
The idea of a "bird" project then started to haunt me. I began searching through my projects for bird images I might potentially want to include in a "collections" project. In the process of looking for bird images I came across one of my very first symmetrical bird photographs (see below, image #24) that I had published in my 2011-13 project Celestial Gardens.
(Note: Celestial Gardens is chapter II of "An Imaginary Book" a large multi-chaptered project which was the very first of my Sacred Art Photography Projects. The collection of sacred art projects has grown quite large over the past ten years, and continues to expand in number to this day. Indeed, I will be adding this "bird" project to my collection of Sacred Art Photography Projects.)
#24 "The Flight of Birds to Union" (Click on the image)
This image, #24, entitled "The Flight of Birds to Union," included in the Celestial Gardens project, was accompanied by a text excerpt from a essay by the great Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr entitled "The Flight of Birds to Union: Meditations upon Attar's Mantiq al-tayr (The Conference of the Birds).
The two photographs (images #14 and #24) have in common the idea of the Paradisal (Celestial) Gardens. Traditional Islamic Gardens are considered Sacred spaces, for their designs are based on over 100 references in the Holy Qur'an. (See my Celestial Gardens project for more details.) When Gloria and I took a trip to Turkey in 2011 I became fascinated by the Islamic Gardens we encountered and their mandala-like visual designs. When we got back from our trip and I began reading about Islamic Sacred Art and the Paradisal Gardens I felt compelled to make my very first symmetrical photographs based on the four-fold garden design principles of Islamic gardens. The symmetrical photographs then became part of the inspiration that led me to the creation of a large multi-chaptered project, "An Imaginary Book."
Nasr's essay The Flight of Birds to Union is about, ultimately, the Oneness of Being, or the Unity of Being, a theme that had become familiar to me through my practice of Siddha Yoga Meditation. When I recently reread Nasr's essay, his words lit a creative fire within me when I recognized the direct relationship between Attar's story of the birds--their election of a leader and a pilgrimage that would take them on a challenging spiritual adventure--and all the challenges associated with the forthcoming November 2020 Elections.
About Attar's Epic Poem
Mantiq al-tayr, which has been translated into English in several ways (The Language of the Birds, The Stations of the Birds, The Conference of the Birds) is considered by Nasr and many other Islamic scholars to be one of the greatest Masterpieces of Sufi literature. Nasar begins his essay about Attar's twelfth century epic poem--about a gathering of birds who, like any other great nation, longed for a True leader, or Sovereign--like this:
All those who are not completely at home in this world of fleeting shadows and who yearn for their origin in the paradisal abode belong to the family of birds, for their soul possesses wings no matter how inexperienced they might be in actually flying towards the space of Divine Presence. . . . [Attar's Mantiq al-tayr] is an ode composed for this family of beings with wings, this family which in the human species corresponds to the seekers among whom many are called but few are chosen. Seyuyed Houssein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality, "The Flight of Birds To Union"
The birds--whose wings "symbolize [writes Nasr] directly the archetypal reality of flight, and of ascension in opposition to all the debasing and downgrading forces of this world"--share with each other their fears, their complaints and their deep yearning for a sense of peace in their lives. As questions arise in their conversation . . . a Hoopoe bird emerges with revelatory Sufic teachings and parables that invoke in the hearts of many of the birds in attendance a desire to make a pilgrimage to the mythic Mount Qaf where they might be able to find the great being, the Simurgh, who could be their King and give them a special kind of transcendent knowledge that would make their lives happier and more contented. And . . . perhaps, for those who have the True longing and who pursue the search for the Simurgh with unbridled self-effort and inner courage . . . perhaps those birds could themselves achieve Union with the Simurgh and live eternally with their King in Paradisal, their True Origin.
The Hoopoe bird explains that the pilgrimage would require traversing seven very difficult, challenging valleys that lead to the peak of Mount Qaf where the hidden celestial Monarch was thought to reside. The seven valleys, or spiritual stations are: 1) Love, 2) Gnosis, 3) Contentment, 4) Unity, 5) Wonder, 6) Poverty, and 7) Annihilation.
After hearing about the seven valleys, many of the birds became frightened and began expressing their lack of confidence in themselves; others revealed their excessive pride, or their false humility; then others expressed their personal failings, etc. The Hoopoe bird offered each bird a spiritual rebuttal that inspired many of the birds with the desire and inner strength to make the journey to find the Simurgh. Nasr writes in his essay:
These stages of the path are also the valleys and dales of the cosmos interiorized within the soul of the initiate. Finally, the birds reach the abode of the Simurgh and after an initiatic transformation behold Her Presence as the mirror in which each bird sees it-Self, for the thirty birds (si murge in Persian) see the Simurgh [God] at once utterly other than themselves and none other than the Self of their selves. Seyuyed Houssein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality, "The Flight of Birds To Union"
Mirrors & Reflections & Symmetrical Photographs
I find the above reference to the "mirror" fascinating in relation to my symmetrical photographs which are images constructed in such a way that one "straight" photographic image, reproduced four times, are then conjoined to each other and reflected in each other above and below, and left and right. In the four-fold mirroring of the one originating "source" image the four become merged into One, and in their union are transformed into a completely different visual reality--essentially a "round" symmetrical image which symbolizes the Oneness of Being, the union of corresponding opposites (above and below, left and right), which symbolizes the merging or re-union of the individual soul with the Universal Soul, the divine Self.
As I was contemplating how the story of the birds was mirroring the process we as a nation would be going through in the November 2020 Elections, and the longing most of us are feeling for a True leader--someone who could free us from the Republican's corrupted extremism that was essentially poisoning and destroying our democracy and our planet--I came upon this next passage from Nasr's essay. They are the words of Attar speaking about his epic poem:
These lofty words are an antidote
for anyone sickened by
extremism's poison.
The birds in Attar's poem are like so many of us in this country who want to live in a Nation which strives for and celebrates the dignity and equality of all its people, people who want to work together toward a better, more fair way of life, in an environment that is healthy for the people and healthy for the planet.
(Note: there are many scientifically based documentary films that have been coming out recently that are visually beautiful and optimistic about the ability of humans to work together with nature to affect a major change in the health of the environment, an environment that has been degraded by human [and political-corporate] disregard. I highly recommend The Age of Nature on PBS; David Attenborough : A Life On Our Planet-Ruin and Regrowth on Netflix; Kiss the Ground on Netflix; My Octopus Teacher, on Netflix)
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The stories which Attar gives us in his poem are, according to Islamic scholars, allegorical parables that embody the entire history of Traditional Sufi teachings. There is much we do not know for certain about Attar's spiritual learning. However we do know that his poem The Conference of the Birds is considered--by those qualified to judge--one of the greatest spiritual teachings of Sufism. Indeed, the well known 13th century Sufi poet, Rumi praised Attar as the greatest of poets and claimed him as his own inspired Master of poetry. Sholeh Wolf, a contemporary Iranian-American poet and writer, who published (in 2017) her own contemporary translation of The Conference of the Birds--which I like very much--writes in her Introduction that Rumi believed (or knew) that Attar had been taught in dreams rather than by a physical Sufi sheikh. This is entirely possible, for Rumi himself had experienced "silent conversations" with his teacher, Shams of Tabrizi while Shams was alive and after Shams had mysteriously disappeared.
(In my experience "silent conversations" exists between photographs when they carefully selected and sequenced within a project context. I will write more about this following the presentation of the photographs.)
Thirty Birds : Thirty Photographs
Of the more than one hundred thousand birds who joined the pilgrimage to Mount Qaf, with the Hoopoe bird as their guide, only thirty birds survived the tests encountered in the seven valleys. The thirty photographs in this project are a visual homage to those birds who persisted, endured, and succeeded in raising themselves out of their earthly bondage to become united with the Simurgh, and in that state of Oneness of Being recognized "in the reflection of their countenance" that they were, and always had been, the Simurgh, the divine Self.
Once again, the theme of "mirror" and "reflection" enters into our understanding of Attar's poem, for the word Simurgh has a double meaning: it means God, or Divine Presence; and when the word is hyphenated (Si-murgh) it means the number 30. Nasr writes about this in his essay:
At that moment, in the reflection of their countenance, the Si-murgh (thirty birds) saw the face of the eternal Simurgh [God] . . . . That Simurgh was veritably these Si-murge. Then amazement struck them into a daze. They saw themselves Si-murgh in all; and Simurgh was in all Si-murgh. When they turned their eyes to the Simurgh, it was veritably that Simurgh which was there in that place. When they looked at themselves, here too it was Si-murgh. And when they looked both ways at once, Simurgh and Si-murgh were one and the same Simurgh. There was Simurgh twice, and yet there was only one . . .
As they understood nothing whatever of their state, they [the 30 birds] questioned the Simurgh, without using language. They implored it to unveil the great Mystery, to solve the riddle of this reality-of-the-us and this reality-of-the-thou. Without the aid of language too, this answer came from Her Majesty: 'My sunlike Majesty is a Mirror. He who comes to see himself in that mirror: body and soul, soul and body, he sees himself entirely in it.' Seyuyed Houssein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality, "The Flight of Birds To Union"
Nasr concludes his essay with an excerpt from Attar's poem that speaks of the final, seventh valley or "station" of the pilgrimage: annihilation, the dissolution of the ego--the small self, the individual soul--and the merging with the Simurgh, the Universal Soul, the Supreme Self. It is this merging with God, this Oneness of Being, that is the goal of the Sufi Path. Attar writes in his poem Mantiq al-tayr:
To be consumed by the light of the presence of the Simurgh is to realize that,
I know not whether I am thee or thou art I;
I have disappeared in Thee and duality hath perished. (trans. used by Nasar in his essay)
The Symbolic Photograph : Image of Unitary Reality
My symmetrical images are, for me, powerful symbols which literally give visual form to the concept of the Oneness of Being. But, it should also be stated that "straight" photographs can function, equally well, as a True, living symbols, for it is grace that transforms any image into a living symbol. In photography this spiritual transformation often occurs when an image of outer world appearances conjoins with its corresponding inner world counterpart. (To learn more about symbols and symbolic photographs click on the hyperlinked words.)
Please click on the images
Please Note: As you scroll down through the sequence of thirty photographs below I encourage you to click on each of the images. Clicking once on an image will change the blog's viewing mode: from seeing the image against a white background, to seeing the image against a darkened background. This alternate, darker viewing mode will provide you with a much sharper and more luminous image with a superior rendering of tone separation and subtlety of color. ~ Clicking a second time on the image will provide you with an enlarged view of the photograph, allowing you to look more closely at selected, more detailed parts of the image.
Thirty Bird Photographs
~ Messengers of Grace ~
#1 Waving Goodbye to the Departing Bird
#2 Visual Poem : Falling Man; A Circle of Flying Birds, and a Suspended Ladder in a Starry Sky (click on this image to see the stars)
#3 Black and White Flying Bird
#4 Two birds : One Soaring, One about to Land (click on the image)
#5 Shadow of a Blackbird Whistling
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
Wallace Stevens
#6 A Woman Listening To the Birds
#7 A dust impression of a soaring bird on our picture window
#8 Blue bird hanging from a floor lamp with reflections of two lampshades in the picture-window
#9 Bird hanging from a floor lamp with orange light and shadow on the woods beyond the window frame
#10 Black Bird on an orange Lamp -- Halloween decorations in a Mt. Hope Cemetery office
#11 Bird soaring toward the light taped to the interior surface of a storefront window (click on the image)
#12 Bird ascending into the night sky with glowing lamp reflected in the picture window
The river is moving.
The Blackbird must be flying
Wallace Stevens
#13 The Bird, The Angle of Tears . . . the Rain of Grace . . . (Symmetrical Photograph) ~ click on the image
#14 "The Bird of Paradise Rising" (Symmetrical Photograph) (click on the image)
#15 Fire Bird Rising Above the Sun (click on the image)
#16 Conference of the Birds (click twice on this image)
#17 Tree Angel, or Mythic Tree Bird (Symmetrical Photograph)
#18 Conference of the Birds : Their Flight To Union (Symmetrical Photograph)
#19 Blue Snow Bird - or Angel (Symmetrical Photograph)
#20 Inversed Snow Bird - or Angle (Symmetrical Photograph)
#21 Angel-Bird of Broad Brook Falls (Symmetrical Photograph) (click on the image)
#22 Imaginal Nocturnal Bird
#23 The Burning Bush Bird (Symmetrical Photograph)
#24 The Flight of Birds to Union (Symmetrical Photograph)
#25 Flying Bird - Angel Of the Leaves (Symmetrical Photograph)
#26 The Conference of Birds Between Two Abodes (Symmetrical Photograph0
#27 A City of Souls (Symmetrical Photograph)
(to see the project click here)
#28 The Bird-Angel Face of Light (Symmetrical Photograph)
#29 Fire Bird - Angel of Fire (Symmetrical Photograph)
#30 Flight of the Blue Bird Rising
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Commentary
Click on this image to enlarge it and see it in a dark viewing space
My wife Gloria and I live on the edge of a beautiful meadow, with two ponds, and a tapering woods just beyond. We are always looking out over our back yard and the meadow from the picture window in our living room, and the back deck of our house, to enjoy the play of changing light and color of the seasons, and the play of the deer and fox and other animals visiting the space. However, by far our favorite and ever present visitors are the birds. We have set up three bird feeders in our backyard: one is under the crab apple tree; another is hanging on a stand placed on the border line where our back yard meets the meadow; and the third is hanging off a railing on our back deck. The birds fly back and forth between the feeders in busy successions! It is a delight to watch them perform their gymnastic-like movements which occur with so much natural beauty, grace and enthusiasm.
From time to time, however, we will hear the dreaded sound of a "thud" and our hearts will sink, for we know the sound of a bird smashing into our picture window, or the sliding glass door that leads from our dining area to the back deck. We look to see if the bird has been hurt, or, in some rare cases killed by the impact.
The photograph above is a dust impression left by the feathered body of a bird in flight. It is an image, in stunning detail, of the moment when the bird made impact with the outer surface of the picture window. The image provides evidence of an accident that is at once startling for its mystery and beauty, and tragic in its implications. It is an image that holds, perfectly still, the transitory moment between free flight and possible death.
At certain times of the day, when the birds fly at just the perfect angle toward our picture window (or toward the sliding door on our deck) the reflections of light and meadow and woods must be impossible for them to recognize. As they fly into the illusion of an inviting light-filled space, and then the birds hit the glass . . . if their impact occurs at a fortuitous enough angle, they simply bounce off the glass and fly on. If they hit the glass too directly head-on, they can be knocked unconscious for a while. We have seen birds lying on the ground below the window, or on the deck floor next to our sliding glass door, and sometimes they have been knocked unconscious for a while, but then the awaken. After a few minutes of recovering from their disorientation, they take flight again, supported by our relieved expressions of joy, encouragement and gratitude. But of course, sometimes a few birds will die from the impact.
From time to time, however, we will hear the dreaded sound of a "thud" and our hearts will sink, for we know the sound of a bird smashing into our picture window, or the sliding glass door that leads from our dining area to the back deck. We look to see if the bird has been hurt, or, in some rare cases killed by the impact.
The photograph above is a dust impression left by the feathered body of a bird in flight. It is an image, in stunning detail, of the moment when the bird made impact with the outer surface of the picture window. The image provides evidence of an accident that is at once startling for its mystery and beauty, and tragic in its implications. It is an image that holds, perfectly still, the transitory moment between free flight and possible death.
At certain times of the day, when the birds fly at just the perfect angle toward our picture window (or toward the sliding door on our deck) the reflections of light and meadow and woods must be impossible for them to recognize. As they fly into the illusion of an inviting light-filled space, and then the birds hit the glass . . . if their impact occurs at a fortuitous enough angle, they simply bounce off the glass and fly on. If they hit the glass too directly head-on, they can be knocked unconscious for a while. We have seen birds lying on the ground below the window, or on the deck floor next to our sliding glass door, and sometimes they have been knocked unconscious for a while, but then the awaken. After a few minutes of recovering from their disorientation, they take flight again, supported by our relieved expressions of joy, encouragement and gratitude. But of course, sometimes a few birds will die from the impact.
We have placed cut-out shapes of stars and bird forms on our windows in an attempt to warn and protect the birds to some extent. Those forms have also become subject matter for several pictures I have made and published in this and other blog projects.
I have to say, it is difficult for me to look at the photograph above, though, when I truly give myself to the image I can experience its wonder, its magical living presence of archetypal soaring flight. I sometimes imagine that the photograph celebrates the "Flight of Birds to Union," Nasr's title from his essay about the "Conference of the Birds." The bird's missing head could signify that it had accomplished its pilgrimage through the seven valleys, that it succeeded in annihilating its ego, the individual soul, and merged with the Simurgh, the Universal Soul.
I like to imagine that the birds who have died flying into the reflections on our panes of glass have ascended to the Celestial Paradisal Gardens where time is eternal and thus their flight is never subjected to transitory moments of obstruction. In the Celestial Paradisal Gardens the flight of the birds must surely be limitless, luminous, pervaded by grace, protected, and guided by Divine presence.
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The Bird, The Angle of Tears . . . the Rain of Grace . . . (Symmetrical Photograph)
Visual Images as a form of Prayer
In my Introduction to this project I wrote that I was offering each of its thirty grace-filled bird images, and the project as a whole, as a Prayer. I went on to explain that grace was flowing into the images and the project via my Creative Process, the sacred nature of my subject matter; and the photograph's pictorial form--a secret language by which the Divine transports messages to its viewers. However I now want to add another means by which grace manifests through the images and that is through the silent conversation, the intimate dialogue that is ongoing and always changing in the spaces between the images.
In my Introduction to this project I wrote that I was offering each of its thirty grace-filled bird images, and the project as a whole, as a Prayer. I went on to explain that grace was flowing into the images and the project via my Creative Process, the sacred nature of my subject matter; and the photograph's pictorial form--a secret language by which the Divine transports messages to its viewers. However I now want to add another means by which grace manifests through the images and that is through the silent conversation, the intimate dialogue that is ongoing and always changing in the spaces between the images.
Just as each bird in Attar's poem confides with all the others their many and varied concerns and ideas, and then some have an even more intimate dialogue with the Hoopoe bird, in the deepest recesses of their opened hearts, there is a similar kind of communication that occurs between the images as they are sequenced in within the vertical flow of the blog format. I These visual, silent, dialogues, these conversations without words, occurs in the Imaginal space of the heart of the viewer . . . that interior world where physical and spiritual realms merge and transform each other, that interior world in which grace manifests as Creative Prayer--a concept to be explored further, below.
The grace that pervades each photograph, and the grace which is manifested in the space between each of the images--in the thought-free, language-free space where the silent "conversations" between the images is ongoing and always changing--is fully accessible to the contemplator of the photographs, one who actively, Imaginatively participates in the dialogues between the photographs. The grace that pervades the images and their silent dialogues radiates inside the heart of the contemplator who is seeing the images with the Eye of the Heart, and hearing the visual conversations with the Ear of the Heart.
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Two of the most important books I read at that time was Nasr's Islamic Art and Spirituality and Henry Corbin's Alone with the Alone : Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi. (Tom Cheetham's series of books about Corbin and his ideas were also an important resource for me.) Corbin's challenging but incredibly fascinating book is divided into two large parts: I am most interested here in part two: Creative Imagination and Creative Prayer.
I have provided below some quotations from Corbin's writings on Creative Prayer which I hope will explain to some extent why I consider this project a Prayer and why I have offered it to our entire Nation on the eve of the 2020 Elections in the heat and social unrest of the escalating Coronavirus Pandemic, the increasingly devastating dangers of Climate Change, and the threats of a corrupted president towards citizens of the democracy that he is trying to destroy.
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Corbin writes in his Prologue to "Creative Imagination and Creative Prayer":
What is the meaning of man's creative need? These objects [all works of arts] have their places in the outside world, but their genesis and meaning flow primarily from the inner world where they were conceived; it is this world alone, or rather the creation of this inner world, that can share in the dimension of man's creative activity and thus throw some light on the meaning of his creativity and on the creative organ that is the Imagination.
On both sides [of esoterism, in both Islam and Christianity] we encounter the idea that the Godhead possesses the power of Imagination, and that by imagining the universe God created it; that He drew this universe from within Himself, from the eternal virtualities and potencies of His own being; that there exists between the universe of pure spirit and the sensible world an intermediate world [the "Imaginal World"] . . . the world of "supersensory sensibility" . . . "the world in which spirits are materialized and bodies are spiritualized."
Creation is an act of the divine imaginative power: this divine creative imagination is essentially a theophanic Imagination. . . . Man's Active Imagination is merely an organ of the absolute theophanic Imagination. Prayer is a theophany par excellence; as such it is "creative"; but the God to whom it is addressed because it "creates" Him is precisely the God who reveals Himself to Prayer in this Creation, and this Creation, at this moment, is one among the theophanies whose real Subject is the Godhead revealing Himself to Himself.
The organ of this theophanic Imagination in man is the heart and the creativity of the heart.
What is the meaning of man's creative need? These objects [all works of arts] have their places in the outside world, but their genesis and meaning flow primarily from the inner world where they were conceived; it is this world alone, or rather the creation of this inner world, that can share in the dimension of man's creative activity and thus throw some light on the meaning of his creativity and on the creative organ that is the Imagination.
On both sides [of esoterism, in both Islam and Christianity] we encounter the idea that the Godhead possesses the power of Imagination, and that by imagining the universe God created it; that He drew this universe from within Himself, from the eternal virtualities and potencies of His own being; that there exists between the universe of pure spirit and the sensible world an intermediate world [the "Imaginal World"] . . . the world of "supersensory sensibility" . . . "the world in which spirits are materialized and bodies are spiritualized."
Creation is an act of the divine imaginative power: this divine creative imagination is essentially a theophanic Imagination. . . . Man's Active Imagination is merely an organ of the absolute theophanic Imagination. Prayer is a theophany par excellence; as such it is "creative"; but the God to whom it is addressed because it "creates" Him is precisely the God who reveals Himself to Prayer in this Creation, and this Creation, at this moment, is one among the theophanies whose real Subject is the Godhead revealing Himself to Himself.
The organ of this theophanic Imagination in man is the heart and the creativity of the heart.
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Corbin then writes in Chapter V, entitled "Man's Prayer and God's Prayer":
Ibn 'Arabi [the twelfth century Sufi mystic from whom Corbin is drawing ideas regarding "Creative Imagination"] states: "If [God] has given us life and existence by His being, I also give Him life by knowing Him in my heart."
This idea of a sharing of roles in the manifestation of being, in the eternal theophany, is fundamental to Ibn 'Arabi's notion of prayer . . . The notion of sharing presupposes a dialogue between two beings . . . the truth is, rather, that the unity of being conditions the dialogical situation.
Prayer is not a request for something: it is the expression of a mode of being, a means of existing and of causing to exist, that is, a means of causing the God who reveals Himself to appear . . . It is precisely because [God] is a creation of the imagination that we pray to Him, and that He exists. Prayer is the highest form, the supreme act of the Creative Imagination. . . and through it the "Form of God" becomes visible to the heart, to the Active Imagination which projects before it, in its Qibla [the Heart], the image, whose receptacle is the worshiper's being in the measure of its capacity.
Prayer is a "creator" of vision . . . because . . . it is simultaneously Prayer of God and Prayer of man. . . . that is to say [Prayer] is . . . an "intimate dialogue" . . .
[God] is manifested in a form which corresponds to that being's capacity. It is in this sense that the Lord and His faithful acknowledge one another . . .
To return to His Lord is for the faithful "to return to his Paradise," that is, to return to his Self, to the divine Name, to yourself as you are known by your Lord. Or yet again: "I am known only by you, just as you exist only by me . . ."
Prayer . . . must be looked upon as creative; it is the conjunction of the Worshiper and the Worshiped, the Lover and the Beloved, a conjunction which is an exchange of divine Names.
The Divine Being needs His faithful in order to manifest Himself; reciprocally, the faithful needs the Divine Being in order to be invested with existence. . . . Prayer implies its fulfillment since it is nothing other than the desire expressed by the Godhead still hidden in the solitude of His unknownness: "I was a Hidden Treasure, I yearned to be known. That is why I created creatures, in order to be known in them." (Note: this last quotation is a well know hadith, or traditional saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad)
Prayer is a recurrence of creative Creation. . . . The Prayer of God is His aspiration to manifest Himself, to see Himself in a mirror, but in a mirror which itself sees Him (namely, the faithful whose Lord He is, whom He invests in one of another of His Names.)
"Let the faithful represent Him by his Active Imagination, face to face in his Qibla, [his Heart] in the course of his intimate dialogue."
Prayer . . . must be looked upon as creative; it is the conjunction of the Worshiper and the Worshiped, the Lover and the Beloved, a conjunction which is an exchange of divine Names.
The Divine Being needs His faithful in order to manifest Himself; reciprocally, the faithful needs the Divine Being in order to be invested with existence. . . . Prayer implies its fulfillment since it is nothing other than the desire expressed by the Godhead still hidden in the solitude of His unknownness: "I was a Hidden Treasure, I yearned to be known. That is why I created creatures, in order to be known in them." (Note: this last quotation is a well know hadith, or traditional saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad)
Prayer is a recurrence of creative Creation. . . . The Prayer of God is His aspiration to manifest Himself, to see Himself in a mirror, but in a mirror which itself sees Him (namely, the faithful whose Lord He is, whom He invests in one of another of His Names.)
"Let the faithful represent Him by his Active Imagination, face to face in his Qibla, [his Heart] in the course of his intimate dialogue."
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Regarding Active Imagination and the Intermediate World
Since Active Imagination is such an important part of Corbin's and Ibn 'Arab's definition of Prayer I want to add a few quotes to help define the concept. They come from Alone with the Alone:
[In the world of archetype-Images] the Intermediate [Imaginal] world is accessible only to the Active Imagination, which is at the same time the founder of its own universe and the transmuter of sensory data into symbols. By this very transmutation a resurrection of material bodies into subtle or spiritual bodies takes place.
The organ of sight is the Active Imagination, which alone enters into the Intermediate realm, and makes the invisible within the visible visible to itself.
(To see additional quotes on this subject, and others, by Corbin and Tom Cheetham, an author who has written several books on Corbin, click here.)
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#6 A Woman Listening To the Birds
In my Introduction to this project, I also wrote this about birds: "I have often thought of these wonder-filled winged beings as living symbols for the Human Soul, the Angelic Spirit, beings which are not only visual embodiments of Grace--the Creative Power of the Universe--but also Messengers that facilitate communications between humans and the Divine though many means including their Celestial Music which can open our hearts and affect deep levels of interior psycho-spiritual transformation." I'd like to elaborate, now, on the idea of birds as "messengers" of Divine meaning (meaning beyond saying with words) because the same understanding can be applied to photographs that function for contemplator as True, living symbols.
In Attar's epic poem, the Hoopoe bird, through his continuous Sufic teachings, awakened a deep longing and the inner courage in many of the birds who had attended the world Conference. Over one hundred thousand birds decided to embark upon the pilgrimage the Hoopoe bird had encouraged them to make. The birds then to a vote to decide who among them should lead them on the pilgrimage to find the Simurgh, the Supreme Teacher hidden on one of the peaks of Mount Qaf.
Of course, the Hoopoe bird was the chosen one.
The Traditional Sufi Teachings--like most other spiritual traditions--states that God pervades everything in the created universe; that every thing, every person, every event and every spoken word, etc. is a form of God, and thus carries a Divine message which is pervaded with Truth, the truth of grace for those who have the the capacity to perceive the mystery that belies the surface appearances of the created world. The words and messages offered by the Great Beings, those who live in the constant, conscious awareness of their Union with God, reflect this Truth, the wisdom of their direct, silent dialogue with God.
In 1987 my wife Gloria and I met such a great being: Gurumayi Chidvilasanda--a Mediation Master and the living head of the Siddha Yoga Lineage. Gloria and I have been practicing Siddha Yoga Meditation with Gurumayi for the past 33 years. Each year she gives a New Years Day Message talk that establishes the theme upon which we and the entire Global Sangam (Siddha Yoga Community) will contemplate throughout the year. In 1997 her talk was entitled: Wake Up To Your Inner Courage and Become Steeped in Divine Contentment.
I will conclude this part of the project with an excerpt of her grace-filled words from her 1997 talk. Gurumayi said:
The messages of great beings are timeless. Their messages are inspired by the infinite light of the Truth, the supreme Reality, and therefore they always hold something new for you . . . However messages don't come only from the great beings. A message that calls out to a willing heart can appear anywhere. For example, you can hear a message even during the simple conversations and occurrences of daily life. No matter how casual the words may seem, they can still hold a message of Truth, of absolute wisdom. Such a message removes the thick veil from any situation. If you are stuck, a message is a priceless gift that can turn you around.
In every moment, you can find a great message. A playful dog you meet might convey a message of joy and fearlessness that allows you to solve a very difficult problem you are facing. A weed growing beside a footpath can hold a message. The deep sorrow in the heart of a friend also holds a message for you. There may be a pebble in your shoe that is annoying you, yet its presence might hold a message that wakes you up to your inner courage. The sight of moonlight streaming through a window may hold a message that reminds you of the infinite splendor of God. Everyone has access to this place of blessings; you just have to turn to it and listen. Listen to the messages that life provides. Gurumayi's talk Wake Up To Your Inner Courage and Become Steeped in Divine Contentment is included in the SYDA Foundation publication: Sadhana of the Heart.
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Epilogue
~ A Benediction ~
As the people of the United States of America are entering the November 3, 2020 Presidential Elections, more than One Hundred million votes have already been cast via Early and Mail-In (absentee) voting. Of course we are uncertain about what the next few days will bring. Trump has made multiple public complaints regarding the integrity of the election process; he has called militant groups to support him; he has hinted that he may be unwilling to leave the Whitehouse if he losses the election, etc. . . . There is a cloud of fear and uncertainty that lingers over our severely broken, divided, angry Nation.
I have taken refuge from the craziness of the past few months by focusing my attention on my creative process, the making of photography projects; and I have concentrated my focus on the practices of Siddha Yoga Meditation. From a political perspective, the past year 2020 has been particularly difficult because of the Pandemic and our National Government's handling of the situation, the increased natural disasters attributable to Climate Change, and Trump's increasingly irrational and aggressive behaviors.
Though I have felt the need to present this project as a Prayer, I have also come to feel the inner need to give the project a Benediction, a blessing of grace that will uplift me and I hope all who read the words to follow in this extremely stressful, dangerous time. The words I'll be quoting are from the conclusion of Gurumayi's New Year's Message talk, Wake Up To Your Inner Courage and Become Steeped in Divine Contentment:
Whenever you think you are helpless, you are denying God's grace and the Guru's blessings. The minute you turn to the source of grace, the minute you turn to the infinite light of God in your heart, you find the peace and all the protection you need.
There is a beautiful bhajan written by a lover of God, who sang about the Heart as an ocean.
It goes like this:
How Can waves of the surface affect
one who is seated in the depths?
What can outer events do
to one who is complete in himself?
How can an ordinary person understand
that the contentment resounds
with the most amazing things?
May you go to sleep at night filled with the power of courage and experience the sweet flavor divine contentment. May you wake up in the morning with courage and experience the sweet flavor of divine contentment.
May you rise to the needs of every moment with the light of courage and experience the sweet flavor of divine contentment.
May you fulfill the purpose of your birth with the illumination of courage and become steeped in divine contentment.
With great respect, with great love, with enormous love, I welcome you all with all my heart.
The entire talk by Gurumayi is included
in the SYDA Foundation publication:
Sadhana of the Heart.
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Postlude
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The Hoopoe Bird : Its Flight to Union with the Blue Moon of October 31, 2020
This project just keeps unfolding. I took the above photograph of the full moon in the early morning of November 1, 2020, just hours after the Blue Moon had made its official appearance on October 31, 2020. On the Siddha Yoga Meditation Path a full moon is very auspicious for it represents the the Light of Supreme Consciousness, the Universal Soul, the divine Self. A yogi who consciously merges with this Light of the divine Self achieves the goal of yoga. Those who achieve this Union with God and teach yoga to others is referred to as a True Guru, or sadguru.
In the month of October, 2020, there were TWO full moons. The second one is called the "Blue Moon." Swami Muktananda, the founder of the Siddha Yoga Meditation Path took Mahasamadhi (left his body) on the Full Moon night of October 2, 1982. It is traditional to honor a True Guru on both the solar and Lunar anniversary dates in the month of his or her passing. This year Gurumayi Chidvilasanda celebrated her beloved teacher's lunar Mahasamadhi date on October 31, when the moon was full for the second time in the month of October.
The "Blue" moon of October was particularly auspicious this year for those practicing Siddha Yoga Meditation because of Swami Muktananda's experiences of what he called the "Blue Pearl" which he writes about in great detail in his spiritual autobiography The Play of Consciousness. It was his experiences of God in the form of the Light of the Blue Pearl that brought Muktananda's spiritual practices to their completion. He was then commanded by his guru, Bhagavan Nityananda to set up an ashram in Ganeshpuri, India and then bring Siddha Yoga to all parts of the world. Just before Muktananda left his body he passed the shakti, the grace of the Siddha Yoga Lineage to Gurumayi. (Please see my photography project The Blue Pearl for additional information about Muktanand's experiences of the Blue Pearl.)
The synchronicity of the October 31, 2020 Blue Moon with the lunar celebration of Swami Muktananda's Mahasamadhi has brought extra-special blessings to those who practice Siddha Yoga Meditation. And I am very happy to share some of these blessing with you through the image I made of the Blue Moon on November 1, 2020.
I thought of the Hoopoe bird when I saw the bird, pasted on our picture window, soaring toward Muktananda's Full "Blue" Moon. It seemed like such an auspicious event to have seen on the eve of my publishing this project and the 2020 Presidential Elections. The Snow Crystal, aligned vertically with the bird and the moon, reminded me of two verses (113 & 114) that follow one another in the Guru Gita, the "Song of the Guru--the Song of Shiva," a 182 verse exposition explaining the mystery of the Guru:
The Guru, who is higher than the highest,
who always bestows bliss, and who is seated
in the center of the space of the heart, shinning
like a pure crystal, should be meditated upon.
Just as the image of a crystal is seen in a mirror,
so the bliss, which is consciousness, is reflected in the
Self and the realization comes: "Indeed I am That."
The photograph above, and its invocation of these two verses of the Guru Gita is indeed, for me, a blessing, an assurance that "everything is all right."
May the grace that inspired the creation of this image, this entire project, and the secret messages all the bird photographs contain . . . may they provide each and every one of us with guidance, protection and the wisdom that dwells deep in our hearts as we move together through this challenging period of our lives.
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This project was announced on my blog's
Welcome Page on November 2, 2020.
Related Project Links:
Celestial Gardens Chapter II of the project "An Imaginary Book"
Welcome Page to The Departing Landscape website-blog which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects from most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. Here you will also find my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
