The EDGE: Journal
of Consciousness Evolution May 2002
ALEX GREY Interview by Tim Miejen
Tim: To what degree do you think visionary
art plays a role in our soul's evolution?
Alex: Well, Visionary art sure
has played a vital role in my own "soul's journey" and I would say it's been important for
many artists and viewers throughout history. Visionary art is one of the primary ways that human contact
with higher subtle dimensions gets translated into our communally
shared physical dimension. When
the subtle dimensions are translated by skillful and mystically inspired
artists, visionary art can provide an open portal for glimpsing one's
own spiritual potential. Think
of a brilliantly glowing resurrected Christ or a many-armed Buddha
or a fiery angel. A work of visionary art can shock
a person out of their normal thinking patterns, and help them to
see the world in new way, help them to transfigure their perception
of reality. Obviously, it's only one of many potential catalysts
to healing and transformation, but I think it can be a significant
one.
Tim: Do you see a growing trend
in art toward visionary art?
Alex: Well, short answer would
be "yes." A long answer would point to how consciousness
evolution is mirrored by cultural evolution. The
more people having "visionary experiences" the more imagery
in art will reflect it. The
leading edge of consciousness is expressing itself through various
creative, sensitive people and teachers and a lot of young people
who have become serious meditators or psychonauts. I'm in my late 40's and many in my generation had the
blinders of the material world fall from their eyes briefly during
psychedelic or meditative experiences that allowed perception of
the visionary world. In prior centuries it was the rare mystics like
Hildegard of Bingen, St. Teresa, Jacob Boehme or William Blake who
tapped into the imaginal realms while they were still awake. Now
millions of people have visited these worlds. Freudian
and Jungian analysis has also taken a deep, long look at dreams and
unconscious drives and has contributed to general cultural awareness
of the important influence and vastness of the psyche. The early alchemical engravers, and later the Symbolists
and Surrealists, the Fantastic Realists and Psychedelic artists have
all been mapping these realms of the unconscious and superconscious. Every generation since the '60's has
soaked up the entheogenic sacrament that has allowed them a glimpse
into these visionary realms confirming the infinite inner dimensions. Now we have computer animation and web-based
interactive media which are very visionary technologies, allowing
for greater modeling of these marvelous imaginal worlds. It will always be a great artistic challenge to discover and
effectively transmit the iconography of the entheogenically inspired
visionary state.
Tim: In the book "Transfigurations" you
support the finding of an appropriate context
for the legal use of entheogens in the new millennium. Why?
Alex: Because I think that entheogens
can play a role in the transformation of individuals by giving them
their first taste of the infinite. For
most people who take entheogens in a sacramental and contemplative
manner, the experience has the qualities of bliss, awe, terror and
deep meaning. I'm not
saying that across the board everyone that trips has a religious
experience, that's obviously not true. But,
during an Ecstasy, or LSD, or mushroom experience many people feel
unbounded compassion for others and themselves. During
a trip the typical boundaries of our identity dissolve and you're
able to experience your unity with all dimensions of reality simultaneously. It can be overwhelming, but it
can also be a guidepost and affirmation of the soul's mission in
life. A good trip can help us see and feel
how perfect, beautiful and precious the world is, despite news reports
to the contrary we get from CNN. Anything
that can help people to see that, is of greatest value because, Lord
knows, we need individuals who become committed and responsible to
healing themselves, their families, their communities and the planet.
That kind of "inner soldier" who is committed to peaceful
co-existence, respect and reverence for life is just what I think
our civilization needs. That's why I will always support legalization of the entheogens,
which are without a doubt, the most important and the most grossly
misunderstood medicines on earth.
Tim: Do you have a sense of how
they can become better understood by the mass population?
Alex: I think it will happen gradually
over many generations. Many
of the parents of the current teen generation have had experiences
smoking pot or doing some kind of substance, some entheogen perhaps,
and they may not be quite as shocked if their kids become involved. These parents may still be seriously
concerned for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, they've heard of it
and it won't be a complete and total shock. Our culture has at least
heard of it. There's a lot of information out there. By the way,
IÕm not advocating that young people should try this stuff, they
should wait till their ego gels before attempting to transcend it. People
can start reading and find out the diversity of opinions about entheogens. The laws will change when enough people
understand the benefits of the medicine and demand change. Supporting medical marijuana referendums
is one step forward. Voting
for candidates who arenÕt afraid of the issue would be another step.
Joining and supporting organizations like NORML and MAPS and subscribing
to the Journal of Cognitive Liberties are another positive step. The proper spiritual and ceremonial context
for these sacraments already exists and is creatively evolving. Legalization
has already happened in Brazil and Holland and other parts of Europe
as governments understand that people deserve cognitive liberty and
church groups deserve to practice their religion without interference
by governments seizing their sacraments and disturbing their ceremonies.
This is in the face of stiff opposition led by the United States. The US has wanted every government in
the world to have uniformly strict drug laws that prevent the use
and abuse of non-corporate drugs. But how the entheogens came into
that mix is a strange and sad tale. People
will eventually begin to realize that there are churches using these
sacraments and that the congregants have actual mystical experiences,
as opposed to just sitting through church services. People
on LSD or ayahuasca can have a direct, face-to-face encounter with
their own spiritually meaningful archetypes. Many native people in the Peyote Church of America and
the Santo Daime ayahuasca Church, have overcome alcohol abuse and
addiction to dangerous substances like cocaine and speed in the context
of their church services. Our
government happens to subsidize and support some of the most dangerous
and addictive drugs: tobacco and alcohol. I found it amusing that
TIME magazineÕs scare article on Ecstasy hauls out statistics like "three
people died on Ecstasy last yearÓ and they don't talk about the thousands
who died or were maimed and crippled due to use of alcohol and how
many other innocent people they kill on the highways and all the
rest.
Tim People who abuse alcohol are dying a slow death.
Alex: Sometimes. But, look at this:
a person could actually die by poisoning themselves if they drank
alcohol all day. Whereas, if you smoked marijuana cigarettes all
day, you would likely get a cough.
Tim: You would likely fall asleep.
Alex: Precisely. So we can talk
about the relative dangers of one drug versus another, but that says
volumes to me.
Tim: In the book "Transfigurations" it's
stated that since you completed "Sacred Mirrors" your
work has increasingly focused on the evolution of the human soul. Can you
describe that evolution? Where you see that it's going?
Alex: Well, it's funny, this whole
idea of an evolving human soul. On the one hand, there
is movement in our lives, we are getting older and hopefully wiser,
but what most of the mystical teachings tell us about enlightenment
is that it is the discovery of something that has always been so. We realize our unchanging true nature which has never been
absent, it's just been covered by layers of ignorance and unconsciousness,
like clouds covering the sun. Enlightenment is not so much a hard
won achievement, much less a ÒcreationÓ but instead is deep relaxation
and recovery of our natural condition. You come to see the evolution
of the soul, the soulÕs journey, as a realization of what has always
been there in the first place.
Perhaps we feel a quickening
these days because of the vulnerability and the mortality that people
understand to be part of life. Here
in New York we experienced it last fall, 9/11, where we saw two of
our magnificent buildings crumble and take with them thousands of
lives. It affected everyone in New York and I think it affected everyone
in the nation, with repercussions throughout the world. So, I would
hope that instead of disintegrating and regressing into only fear
based and aggressive responses, that we would also see our fears
and our concerns as opportunities to turn toward God and to find
our faith and celebrate the love and the time that we have here with
each other. Finding
creative ways to resolve our conflicts is lifeÕs challenge. So, the
journey of the soul is a vast, interconnected web, a meshwork of
beings that are all working out their individual karmas in a collective
gumbo, retaining the special flavor in each bite of life. But, the
mystery of where we're going, in terms of whether we're going to
have a planet that's worth living on after we finish abusing it,
whether we'll wake up in time and stop ruining the water, land and
skies is a big question mark. I think there's a lot riding on this
generation. Folks that
are alive today need to wake up and do what we can to stop abusing
the planet, and find ways to preserve the web of life. That's where
the soul is headed. It is time for us to become wounded healers.
The soul's journey could be likened to the shaman who journeys to
the underworld and becomes dismembered and gets in contact with all
disease and destruction, is shattered, is opened up, and sensitized
and made to see both the value to life and the way to heal through
their vulnerability and breakdown. The
shattered person can either go toward nihilism or can go toward compassion
and healing and, so that's my metaphor for the third millennial human
soul.
Tim: You sound like you're describing
your personal path through art. Is that kind of where
you were?
Alex: I guess it's kind of hard
get outside of your own frame of reference. To one degree or another
we all go through our breakdowns and we can recognize our lives as
a path to awakening or not. We
can take our breakdowns as a way to sensitize us or as an excuse
to blind and dull ourselves. Humanity has to start noticing that
we are One, we are connected with the net of beings that are the
life of this planet and before we take them all down, we ought to
see what we can do to preserve this unique and extraordinary family.
That's what I think the wounded healer would do. We're all wounded
in one way or another, the question is can we heal?
Tim: Let me ask you a question
you've been asked many times before about your symbols that are in
your artwork; for example, in the painting "Oversoul" the
use of the multiple eyes and the use of the flame around the eyes. What does that
mean to you and how does it make you feel?
Alex: Well, when I first started
seeing it in visions, I wasn't sure what it meant. But, here's my
interpretation: the eye is the lens through which we see and through
which we recognize others to be aware of us. We've all heard "the
eye is the window to the soul", so, the eye can symbolize awareness
in a deep sense. If you multiply the eye symbol then you have a symbol
of expanded or increased awareness, and, you've got a symbol of infinite awareness if you have
an infinite field of eyes. What is it that could see out of infinite eyes?? Sets your mind to thinking. The flame
is something similar to the eye.
With my art I'm portraying symbols of consciousness, awareness, life,
energy, and so the flame becomes the fire of life, life juice, life
energy. To have the eye linked together by an infinite grid of fire,
points to infinite consciousness and infinite life. By
contemplating the symbol, our identity is expanded beyond the boundaries
of what we normally consider to be Òus.Ó The Oversoul image uses
a human face made of a grid of fire and eyes linking together earth
and cosmos. Sometimes it's years before I understand or make up some
meaning for the images. But, I paint them because I feel there is
some meaning.
Tim: And there is meaning that
probably comes to you in the physical process of painting?
Alex: Oh, yeah. Well that's a lot
of the times when the door is unlocked to the meaning of the
work. That's one
of the great thrills in painting something. Along the way, you come to an understanding
about what it is you're doing.
Tim: Why did you use the word "transfigurations" for
this book?
Alex: Well, the most famous transfiguration
in the West was the story in the Gospels
where Christ becomes light and is so exceedingly radiant that it freaks
out a couple of disciples that were with Him. Jesus is conversing
with spectral ancestral beings and, the disciples hear the voice
of God telling how pleased he is with his son. Now this experience has been
one of the favorites of artists throughout time to portray-- the radiance
or aura that surrounds Christ at this holy moment. The transfiguration story points
to the capacity for certain moments of our lives to reveal a transparency
to the Godhead. I would
like my art to be about the possibility that each of us has to realize
our connectedness with this great Spirit, whatever you want to name
it, our inherent Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, primordial
reality, the ground of being, God. Whether
you want to go for a personal or impersonal perception of Spirit,
is up to the individual. I've
always been fond of the idea expressed in Buddhist art, that there
are certain objects that, just by seeing them, can plant a seed for
liberation in the individual. And, I thought, "Wow, what a potent
ideal; that a work of art can plant a seed in your stream of awareness
that acts as a catalyst for your own realization." That
class of objects is called "liberation through seeing." Certain
Buddha images are like that, but if it were possible I would like
to find contemporary non-traditional sacred images. Maybe it sounds
pretentious, but most spiritual paths point to the possibility that
we all can access the deep, absolute dimensions of reality. So, if
we can access a glimpse of those eternal and infinite expanses of
being and bring that into our work what a great intention to work
with, Òto plant a seed of liberationÓ for your audience by making
and displaying sacred art. That's why I want to build a chapel, and
have the Sacred Mirrors there. Art
can be a medium for people to discover universal spirit, with imagery
not isolated to one particular wisdom path, but pointing to the underlying
truth that they all transmit.
Tim: Do you have a timeframe for
this creation of a chapel?
Alex: Well, I'd like it to happen
sooner than later. WeÕd
like to break ground within the next five years. But
it comes down to that other interesting force that rocks our world,
money. We're in the
process of raising money through our non-profit organization to build
it. Estimates are approximately three million
and weÕre not close yet. Are ther any angels reading this? I urge people to check out the progress
of the project at www.sacredmirrors.org and to help us out, if you
feel moved to do so. You
can also e-mail me at info@sacredmirrors.org .
Tim: What would you call it?
Alex: The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
has been our working title for the project, the building will contain
a Chapel for that series of paintings. However, I've also been considering
a name for the overall complex called "Entheon." Pantheon
meant a place for Òall the gods.Ó "Entheon" would be a
place to discover the spirit or God within. Do
you like that name?
Tim: Yes, I do. Let me ask two
more questions: one goes back to your early work, your performance
art. Some people may not know, not having read the book, how you
came to be called Alex Grey. Were you exploring polarities and finding
a middle ground between the blacks and the whites?
Alex: Yes. My artwork had been
about conflicts and oppositions, the polarities. I had been making
paintings that were abstract, just applying one white layer by hand
and then a black layer and then a white layer and a black layer,
combining these polarities and making a grey mush. I
did things like shaving half my head for half a year. That was about
the conflicts between the rational and intuitive hemispheres of the
brain, our grey matter.
Tim: One final question: as an
explorer who maps uncharted waters through your sacred
art can you explain where you've gone up to this point and where you're headed,
or maybe you can't put it in words.
Alex: I think it's best explained
through the artwork. I try to communicate my path
through publishing the books, "Sacred Mirrors," "Mission
of Art" and "Transfigurations." Those books do give
people a pretty clear idea of where I've come from.
Where I'm going-- is
continuing to paint images of humanity in relationship with transcendent
light and manifesting the Chapel project.
To see more of this artists works and buy autographed books and posters check out his websites, www.alexgrey.com and www.sacredmirrors.org |