Humanitats

ARSGRAVIS: Website devoted to the study of the confluence between art and symbols of different cultures and historical ages, using as a point of departure the dialogue between physical experience and intellectual and spiritual knowledge. That is to say: a search for the spiritual in art.

An essay of the Alchemy in the Renaissance, from Paracelso, when it was the area of knowledge and spiritual development which had to conform the interior and secret nucleus of the Christian tradition, as well as the necessary impulse for a reform of the religious thought. But with the Rationalism imposed in Europe at the end of the 17th century, this science or art it was included in what nowadays is known as Esoterism, and was considered to be something completely foreign to the religion. Nevertheless, behind the apparent madness of the former alchemists, it hides an education that deserves to be taken in account by philosophers and historians of the religions and arts. Alchemy postulates clarify records and manners of the human being that have remained forgotten or disguised in disciplines foreign to the life of the spirit. With this oblivion, the most intimate symbolic universe of the Western thought, expressed basically by means of images, has been isolated.

Dans la biographie de Louis Cattiaux rédigée par Bernard Dorival à l'occasion de la première exposition complète de son œuvre en 1963, nous relevons une date qui a retenu toute notre attention : « 1936. Une période de recherche s'ouvre pour lui : aux préoccupations techniques se joint une orientation vers l'Alchimie et la Quête de l'Absolu qui renouvelle ses sujets

Condensé de la présentation que Raimon Arola a rédigée dans Croire l’incroyable ou L’Ancien et le Nouveau dans l’histoire des religions. Cet article rappelle les circonstances dans lesquelles Louis Cattiaux proposa à ses frères humains un héritage spirituel revivifié que quelques rares amis ont bien voulu accueillir et perpétuer.

The surge, at the beginning of the XX century, of new spiritual theories such as Theosophy, Anthroposophy, etc., originated an artistic search narrowly tied to spirituality.  Art took on a relevant role, beyond the esthetic, as a refuge in the spiritual search. The paradigm of this movements was the work of Wassily Kandinsky Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912), based on the theories of Theosophy...

The Kabbalah relates to an exegetical Jewish system, but it extends to something much more universal and that concerns the essential nucleus of all traditions. The word kabbalah comes from the intensive form of the verb kibbel which means to receive; it has the same meaning as the word “tradition”, from the Latin tradere, to transmit from hand to hand.

The ancient wise men hid their mysteries under the figures of some imaginary beings that strongly impacted the popular cultures of different civilizations. On one side, the angels or celestial beings, close to the original creation and that represented the "volatile" part of the alchemical Great Work. At the other extreme, the monsters or grotesquely formed beings which even attached to the earth, but they possess in their interior the same light the angels do, and in the alchemical language they would represent the "fixed" part

Any approach to Juan Eduardo Cirlot's works produces strangeness because, of which work are we talking about?, the poet?, the critic?, the musician?, the symbolist?... All of his work, or none. Cirlot's work was “his living in art” rather than “ his living for art”, because on the second one what it is important is the work, while on the first one what it is important is the art itself (which gives us an idea of a substantial change in relation to the proposals of the romanticism). That is how he turned his life into a symbolic act of which art (arts) is a tool. His poems, reflections, outlines, travels, collections, readings, etc. , were images of a symbol, the symbol of the quest-encounter-centre.

Any approach to Juan Eduardo Cirlot's works produces strangeness because, of which work are we talking about?, the poet?, the critic?, the musician?, the symbolist?... All of his work, or none. Cirlot's work was “his living in art” rather than “ his living for art”, because on the second one what it is important is the work, while on the first one what it is important is the art itself (which gives us an idea of a substantial change in relation to the proposals of the romanticism). That is how he turned his life into a symbolic act of which art (arts) is a tool. His poems, reflections, outlines, travels, collections, readings, etc. , were images of a symbol, the symbol of the quest-encounter-centre.

Les rituels initiatiques sont des symboles qui rappellent les particularités du Grand Oeuvre. Parmi les nombreux symboles qui se répètent dans toutes les filiations traditionnelles, il est important de remarquer la représentation rituelle d'une mort qui convertit le candidat en néophyte. C'est la mort initiatique qui nous enseigne que l'homme cesse d'appartenir à un monde pour naître à un autre. Ce symbole vise le sauvetage complet de l'être humain, c'est-à-dire la régénération de son esprit et de son corps qui naissent par « la volonté des cieux » à partir de l'initiation. Pour chercher le sens profond de ce symbole, nous n'avons pas d'autre moyen que d'aller voir les commentaires brefs et discrets que nous ont laissés les sages qui ont connu réellement la régénération.

Today, the illuminations of the beatus, along with the murals depicting the Maiestas Domini, are considered to be true works of art, despite the fact that they were not originally conceived of as such; indeed, their purpose was to 'illuminate' the revealed Word.

On the mountain tops the earth is refined and is joined with heaven, it’s also where heaven condenses and tokes form. For this reason, in all traditions, mountains have symbolized the place of encounter of man with God. Nevertheless, this sacred encounter can’t be generated on any mountain, rather only on a magical mountain, a secret place which only men who have been initiated into the mysteries may approach.

"This space is devoted to the work of Louis Cattiaux (Valenciennes, 1904 - Paris, 1953), painter, poet, and hermetic philosopher. Contemporary with the French Vanguards in the convulsive years of the first half of 20th century, he attained to create a personal style in which is evident a visionary substrate underlying. Cattiaux, like all authentic artists, succeeds in crossing the realm of darkness and the unconscious, where most are stranded, in order to reach the place of the invisible and to show an interior heaven illuminated by some stars such as have never been heard to speak, they who only dispose of their exterior senses.

But Louis Cattiaux is not only interesting because of his painting, rather also, and above all, for his links with the Hermetic tradition, because at his artistic practice united a strong orientation towards Alchemy and the search for the Absolute. This search flowed into an encounter: The Message Rediscovered, a work composed of more than six thousand sentences or aphorisms that are much more than a study of the Hermetic tradition. Cattiaux himself wrote that "It is not enough to study, we must also understand what we study, and what good is understanding, if we do not experience in ourselves the truth of God." (18, 40)"

Two drawings or Josefa Tolrà analyzed and interpreted by Raimon Arola. Tolrà was artist who drew her visions as an expression of her spiritual research. Her mediumnic capacity allowed her to find forms and symbols from the most ancestral creative inspiration.

Interestingly, the theoretical impulse that has led to the revival of the Christian alchemy in the traditional spirituality stems from other traditions, particularly from Iranian Shi’ism. Since the first researches on mystical texts by Louis Massignon and later on by Henry Corbin which were a result ofvthe encounter between ancient Zoroastrian culture and expansive Islam, we have been able to understand that Islamic alchemy could be considered a bridge between the ancient Greco-Roman world and medieval Europe. Furthermore, Corbin has succesfully managed to reveal the spiritual and traditional contents inherent to alchemy.

Book’s chapter: “Barcelona Gothic. It's symbolism”
During the 14th and 15th centuries, Barcelona enjoyed a privileged position in the Mediterranean and was a hotbed of creativity which has been reflected in architecture, sculpture and paintings of an unmistakable Gothic style. This shows through in this new book thanks to the original points of view of its authors Raimon Arola and Victoria Cirlot, and the photographer Pere Vivas.