"Mysterious Vengeance" of Beauty Denied

Strange it is that a person should be surprised that the celebration, the realm of his being, perhaps even the home of his soul, is devalued by his mind. As I read the opening pages of John O’Donohue’s Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, it’s as if a huge sigh envelopes me, one that echoes, “Yes,” as if in a revelation given. Perhaps that’s the “invisible embrace” affirming a truth that has been held prisoner in the subconscious by the darkness around, the one William Stafford named.

         For many years, perhaps forever, I’ve loved finding the beauties around me, often with camera in hand and frequently in lines of poets and mystics. But the tyranny of the mind has dictated that beauty deserves less than truth. Keats’ lines (“Beauty is truth, truth beauty’) while memorized long ago were subordinated to Descartes’ dictum: cogito ergo sum—As if knowing by logic trumps being by beauty.
         The equivalence of beauty with truth thus remained unproven; the value of beauty unconvincingly integrated into belief and action. Finally, perhaps more accessible now, having retired from the academy with its scientific-method mentality, my being feels vindicated in reading:

“Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.” [In Beauty, p. 4 where O’Donohue quotes Hans Urs von Balthasar from The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics: 1:Seeing the Form, Edinburgh, 1982.]

         I remember sitting with William Stafford who in his words, his actions, and his being urged us not to tolerate “many a small betrayal in the mind,” and not “to follow the wrong god home.” Know our truth and, for me at least, all this includes claiming the place of Beauty, an equal partner, alongside Truth and Goodness. 

Unveiling Secrets

  You know, of course, the way it pays to look again; especially when a point of attraction draws our focus, we may glimpse a visitation only by opening softened eyes, gently checking the periphery or the depths for “the unveiling of secrets.” 

“The Unveiling of Secrets is one of the most powerful documents in the history of mysticism. Unlike most Sufi writings, it is written in the first person, as Ruzbihan records his visionary encounters with God, the angels, the prophets, and the Sufi saints.” [translated by Carl W. Ernst, p. x; Ruzbihan Baqli, d. 1209.]

           Ernst elaborates in his introduction on the nature of the unveiling of secrets: “What is unveiled? It is the inner conscience, the secret (sirr) within the heart that is close to God” (p. xii). One such unveiling comes in the experience of Beauty. John O’Donohue’s book by that title invites us to consider:

Somewhere in every heart there is a discerning voice. This voice distrusts the status quo. It sounds out the falsity in things and encourages dissent from the images things tend to assume. It underlines the secret crevices where the surface has become strained. It advises distance and opens up a new perspective through which the concealed meaning of a situation might emerge. The inner voice makes any complicity uneasy. Its intention is to keep the heart clean and clear. This voice is an inner whisper not obvious or known to others outside. It receives little attention and is not usually highlighted among a person's qualities. Yet so much depends on that small voice. The truth of its whisper marks the line between honor and egoism, kindness and chaos. In extreme situations, which have been emptied of all shelter and tenderness, that small voice whispers from somewhere beyond and encourages the heart to hold out for dignity, respect, beauty and love. [p. 75. Thanks to the John O’Donohue page in Facebook for posting this quotation, May 25, 2018]

     Like many of the gifts from the divine, this one often seems to depend on a person showing up, perhaps having made preparation and/or purification. A garden-variety example of this came today with the photo op shown above. It appeared on a second visit to the garden. While it might be chance or pure grace, it’s also possible that the visitation, the appearance of beauty, depended on such things as: a) a practice of walking in the gardens in the early morning, b) returning to tend the garden, c) taking the camera along, just in case, and d) learning the value of looking again, including the shift to “soft eyes.”

     In our first walk-through, we noted the new blooms, mostly still shadowed due to clouds and the still-rising sun. The grace of beauty was already evident.

We also noted a few weeds that were on the verge of dropping a multitude of seeds amid the flowers. This prompted a return visit after gloving up and equipping with the sharp-shooter shovel. Also noting that the morning light had shifted, the camera came along as well. Looking for a spotlight, this image was sighted.

          While still crouched, uncomfortably, I shifted perspective to see if anything else wanted to be seen. That place of inner apprehension said “ahh” when the simple iris (shown at top), passed over earlier as not so special, was now glistening in the light and the even more commonplace maple leaves added the touch, more than a frame, to remind us of the Beauty that resides all around us, ready to light up our lives at any instant.