Reflections on Ritual and Art

Another connection that became clearer for me than ever before as a result of my seminary classes is the connection between art and ritual.  It it apparent to me that one of the primary purposes of both ritual and art is to connect us with each other and with that which is greater than us.  The best rituals are artistic, and most art has ritualistic elements--it's no coincidence, I think, that art museums and places of worship seem very much alike.

And it's not just "pretty" art that resembles religious rites.  The challenging, startling, sometimes suffocating pieces created by artists provide a means for connecting with the shadow side of ourselves and gives us an opportunity to reflect on the cruelty of life in a seemingly indifferent universe.  Those reflections are religious almost by definition.

"A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?'" (Isaiah)

Contained in that fragment is the whole of the artistic process and the whole of religious ritual writ small.  This verse, I think expresses succinctly and beautifully the concept of the artist and the religious celebrant as co-creators with the divine.  And what's created, ultimately, is almost always a statement about transience and permanence.

For implicit in the idea of creation is idea of death as well as the idea of joining together with everything that has been and everything that shall be.

"The grief you cry out from/draws you toward union." (Rumi)

Human existence is marked by grief and joy and isolation and coming together, both in joy and in grief, circling around, and going back to where we started but maybe on a slightly higher plane than before.

I love the "COEXIST" bumper stickers that have sprung up.  But I'd like to aim for something more like "CO-CREATE."  May it be so.