How Visionary Art is a Tool to change Consciousness
Having a hard time carving out a moment for daily meditation? No problem! Gazing at Visionary Art combined with sacred geometry will have a positive affect on your consciousness while orienting you with symmetry and balance. Sacred geometry is the mathematical representation of patterns that are prevalent everywhere in nature. The use of these forms in art goes back at least 4,000 years and is believed to help connect viewers with the transcendent, eternal realm of the spirit. Just by gazing at these images, even for a few minutes, you will feel a connection to the divine nature within all things.
Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences. – Alex Grey
What is Visionary Art?
Leonardo da Vinci was known to incorporate the aesthetic harmony of mathematical formulas in his art, and the tradition of painting visions may go all the way back to cave-paintings. Mystics used mandalas, Buddhist Tankas, and luscious visual compositions to deepen their own spiritual presence, raise consciousness and contemplate the eternal. Today modern Visionary Artists take this rich history and use varied techniques to illustrate exalted states which exemplify the transcendent. Sacred geometry may be overt in these paintings, but many artists prefer to have them subtly masked within the larger visual composition.
Visionary art and the artists who create it are well aware that stimulation of the visual cortex can actually alter consciousness.
Pulling on themes from intuition, dreams, and mystical states, Visionary Art has grown in popularity in recent years influencing an emerging spiritual and transformational culture. When an artist is able to connect to an innate personal vision and listen to the voices of the soul they are able to share this revelation with their audience. The art becomes a medium for a shared visionary experience between the artist and the art-lover.
Art Shapes Consciousness and Culture
Our surroundings have a profound affect on our mood. We are bombarded by art in the form of billboards, endless advertisements, and then there is a daily dose bad news every time you turn on the radio. The antidote is to surround oneself with beauty in all forms to balance the harshness that the world throws at us. This includes good food, music, nature, friends, and visual art.
One of the world’s most beautiful examples of visionary art and sacred geometry is the Temples of Humankind at Damanhur. The underground hand carved temples, in the foothills of northern Italy, are part of the eco village and spiritual community of Damanhur. The project started in 1978 and years of secret construction led to the incredible temples now available for all to enjoy. The visionary art is a fusion of ancient mysteries and the forgotten wisdom of great civilisations, with a fresh, technological vision and expression and the powerful effect of attuning human consciousness.
From honeycomb, to the scales of a fish, to the neural networks of our brains, all of life is composed of intricate patterns. The geometric patterns found in nature provide an integral window into the interconnected fabric of Creation. Sacred geometry unites science and spirituality, self and “other”, right brain (intuition) and left brain (rational thinking), inner and outer, macro and micro…
-Artist, Krystleyez
Just as someone who keeps a picture of their kids on their desk in a cubical at a boring office job to remind them why they go to work each day, I love to surround myself with Visionary Art. I use it as my screensaver on computer and iPhone, I fill my walls with it, place art stickers on my water bottle, and more. Every time I see it I am reminded to stop, breathe, and contemplate the beauty that encircling my life.
I paint mandalas and geometric patterns in my artwork to represent the underlying harmonic order of life, which I believe is consciousness. Our society is reviving our spirituality and artists are using Sacred Geometry and conscious iconography to facilitate that reconnection. On a personal level, I love working with the flower of life pattern because it’s a simple and efficient algorithm that I can create in my art studio with a compass or on a giant street art mural with a shoestring and tack. The pattern becomes a mathematic foundation for spontaneous designs to grow. It’s a pattern that is simultaneously esoteric and approachable. – Artist, Miles Toland
Beyond the surge of oxytocin that comes from gazing at something beautiful, research shows that the reasons we love art are deeply entwined in our biology/neurology. In that way our eyes, our brains are always seeking the invisible patterns that tell a story of the divine existence that we inhabit. Perhaps we are merely reflecting on the magnificence of the billions of cells that work in perfect harmony to grant us our senses, our feelings, and our life through these human-bodies?
Sacred Geometry is a visual and mathematical language that speaks to us in a non-linear and inter dimensional way. It bypasses our rational minds by harmonizing with the roots of our existence. In my work I often use organic symmetry that develops out of root patterns that can be found in sacred geometry. I find that by allowing my feeling to direct the brush I often discover later that fundamental equations were found intuitively. Thus proving that it is in us and a part of us. I feel that sacred geometry is used so prevalently in Visionary Art because it is resonating with the overall message of unity and harmony of all things, which is a common theme in Visionary Art. -Artist, Amanda Sage
If I stare intently at a mandala, after a while when I close my eyes I will see it in my third eye. The art is like a map guiding me on my own personal inner journey. Don’t judge it unless you have tried it yourself! And, well if you do sit down and attempt it then this short blog will have inspired you to meditate. We can celebrate together…
Sacred geometry exists in a hidden dimension, manifesting itself in the physical world. I try to use it in my art in a similar way, hidden from view, like a skeleton. Understanding how the geometries connect all things is what truly makes it powerfully revelatory. It is a bridge between our consciousness and the holographic continuum. On the one hand, I feel it has unfortunately become cliche, and has a cultural misunderstanding because of its ubiquity in the visionary arts. However, whatever it takes to open the door to one’s education and further study on the matter is a great.
-Artist Carey Thompson
Stimulating the Visual Cortex
While you gaze at these pieces, thousands of neurological synapses are firing. The colors, and spatial relationships conjure all sorts of memories and feelings as you allow yourself to drift in reverie. The same relaxed affect happens when you gaze at clouds and allow your imagination to see shapes and figures in them. This is not passive. It is an active practice of allowing your right-hemisphere, your non-linear brain to open up and stretch out. It is in these spaces that transcendence occurs and time becomes irrelevant.
Though Visionary Art is a great way to stimulate the visual cortex and dream, and doesn’t need to end there. Give yourself some time to stare at a leaf, a flower, a seashell to ponder the magnificent patterns of nature unfolding all around you. This connection with the unseen patterns is a way to deepen into your own soul, to feel alive with your senses. The stress will roll off of you as you learn to make time each day to be present, to notice the subtle and exquisite beauty that surrounds us at all times. Without a conscious effort, it may just continue to pass you by unnoticed…
Feature image by Android Jones
