Art and the Sacred

By Elen Hawke

I am a witch, a Gardnerian initiate first and a photographer, author and illustrator second. In other words my spirituality is the central and most important part of my life, along with my home and those I love. My artistic work is one way in which I express the creative gifts which my spiritual path yields, and this expression often finds form in illustrative portrayals of the gods of the Old Religion, and the cycle of the ritual year, the moon’s phases and the eight seasonal festivals. I draw for inspiration, also, on the soul of the land and on the sacred sites of Britain where I live.

As far back as I can remember, my personal experience of the land has been of a perception of something more than the elements recorded by the normal five senses. There is an atmosphere, an energy, call it what you will, which permeates the landscape but seems to be more concentrated at certain locations; most particularly the ancient sacred sites. The peoples who constructed these sites saw them as gateways to the “Otherworld”, deeply spiritual meeting places between themselves and their ancestors or gods. I have portrayed this sense of the Otherworld in writing, photography and illustration for many years, as well as searching for it in the work of other artists and photographers, and am filled with joy at having found a spirituality which encompasses and expresses my perceptions.But the sacred is for everybody, not just those who follow a particular “way” or religion.

Quantum physics has shown us that at sub-atomic level all is chaos and there is no apparent meaning, only randomness. Yet all around us life expresses itself through pattern and form; all growth follows similar rules. Through this ordered and sacred dance, life seeks to draw meaning out of the void, seeks to creatively express itself.We are all and always becoming, always dying and rebirthing as we explore who and what we are and can be. A flight of birds, shadows of leaves on the ceiling, the way the chimneys march in sequence across the skyline - all have coherence and context. But smoke drifts and swirls in a way which is always the same yet ever changing, reflections on water rearrange themselves endlessly to the wind’s touch, and all creatures, ourselves included, are unique even though each follows the blueprint of its species. This is mystery, but at the same time it is the essence lodged at the core of our deep selves, the part of us which has no need to seek to know.When I explore life through my artistic work, I am always looking for the meaning within the things I record. Life is so beautiful, and my own perception is that everything is connected, so that stone and star and leaf are part of the substance of our being; all is one. We are surrounded by abundance, and miracles are happening every moment, all ours for the taking, we have only to open ourselves to the experience. We walk our paths through the myths others have woven to make sense of the ineffable.I look for this glimpse of the ineffable in the work of others as well.

One example which illustrates this poignantly is a photograph by Edward Curtis. I think most of his pictures look contrived, but this particular picture has captured something special. Called The Pool, it shows an Apache warrior standing at the waters’ edge. The sense of almost-seen presence in the trees behind is, to me, palpable, as though he is surrounded by animal spirits or the personification of natural energies. I have found this same mysterious quality more recently in the digital work of Pagan artists. The digital medium appears to capture the unworldly particularly well, and this has become my own preferred avenue of artistic expression. As we move into the Aquarian Age, the new vehicles of artistic expression offer us exciting and unique ways to portray the essence of our spirituality. Art is one way to articulate the divine. Artists and writers tap into a pool of creative images which are symbolic keys to deeper wisdom, to that which cannot be conveyed in words. This is the same reservoir of creativity which we access through dreams and meditation and other forms of visualisation. In some ways it hardly seems to matter whether we commit these inspirations to canvas or paper, film or screen, indeed acting to bring ideas into concrete form can seem to tame and limit them; but the urge to craft the material from the ephemeral is strong in us all, and by giving it tangible expression we are bringing it to others, thus making a gift of our visions. To do this is to follow in the steps of peoples of long ago, the ancestors, who left us a legacy of cave art which gives us vivid though elusive hints of the divinity and magic which was woven through every aspect of their lives. Though many centuries separate our time from theirs, yet in many ways we still dance to the same music, the same wild fire in our blood. If that soul beat is muffled by the roar of modern living, then how much more precious is the artistic manifestation of our spirituality?