Vision

 

 

You wish to see; Listen.

Hearing is a step toward Vision.

--Saint Bernard of Clairvaux 1090-1153

 

 

Jung, in writing about artistic creation, revealed that there are two types, the psychological (which deals with experiences of the foreground of life) and the visionary, which is a primordial experience: 

"It is a primordial experience which surpasses man's understanding...  The very enormity of the experience gives it is value and its shattering impact.  Sublime, pregnant with meaning, yet chilling in the blood with its strangeness, it arises from timeless depths. ..."

He says that the psychological mode of artistic creation never rends "the curtain that veils the cosmos."  He says that it doesn't "exceed the bounds of our human capacities..."

But visionary artistic creation rends "from top to bottom the curtain upon which is painted the picture of an ordered world."  This kind of creation allows a "glimpse into the unfathomable abyss of the unborn and of things yet to be...."

Visionary works, according to Jung, include Shepherd of Hermas, the writings of Dante, Faust, Wagner's Ring, Tristan, Parsifal, and William Blake's paintings and poetry. 

As a writer, I'm looking forward to moving, or rather, hoping to move, into this visionary act of creation.

Quote from Jung, "Psychology and Literature," The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature.

Painting:  "When the Morning Stars Sang Together" by William Blake