Paul Joseph Rovelli

Maturation is the work I take on to heal myself. As with most, it's mechanism is activated by the onset of struggle amongst conflicting psychic energies in the emotional fabric of my heart, mind and body. And there are cycles that I have come to discover by remembering the events of my life over and over the passage of time.

Psychology has done reasonably well in explaining to me in various ways, the structure of these energies and the laws governing their interaction. Wilhelm Reich has struck the most profound cords in me through his perspective leading to the development of his theoretical model of the bio-physio-psyche. And his extension of this vast complex to the hypothesized orgone energy of the sun with its rays showering the earth provides a pragmatic way to connect my psychology with my spirituality. These are an interdiscipline for me and not two seperate masks I wear in life.

In concordance with my inner cycles as I've touched on them above, nature of course, also has its cycles -- that is, the nature of the exterior world; for my inner world is also a natural world or 'of nature'. When I look at this outside world, I see the benefits of the solar life generated to the point of harshness by mid-summer and then withdrawn just as severely by the mid-point of winter as the ebb and flow of an ocean tide. And with each seasonal rotation, a new year of experiences in my life to add depth to this insight. I have found a certain constancy in this subtle rhythm that constantly astounds.

And of course, these cycles have their corresponding affect on the innermost nature as the innermost has its affect on that which is without me; a mutual conditioning of inner and outer environments. It's energy flows through as and we can be so unconscious of it's affects and how potent we are in affecting it. There's a rhythm that we can learn to become more and more sensitized to, to the point that it can be weilded with great advantage personally, and inter-personally.

This is a constant in my studies and the beginning of my work. Fundamentally, this is a process that I must master before I can engage in the greater and more profound tasks that constitute the Great Work. And I believe this is so for all of us. Awareness of the fluid, cosmic machination of orbital bodies in the macrocosm breeds a corresponding awakening to the dynamic components of the internal, microcosmic, intra-mutual contest of the various psychic daemons that play themselves on the fields of our imagination. From this, true self-perception is generated.

For the artist, the creative process is itself subject to these cosmic laws which govern the psyche. There is a process of taking in which I think is mistakenly viewed as the infamous creative-block. This intervals with the productive period with its rewarding yield of songs and poems, paintings, sculpture, dance and ritual. This helical dynamic, when acquiesced to, can prevent all the unnecessary suffering of prolonged blocks that are the necessary result of attempts to fight the ebb and flow of this process. With the duration of the fight comes the loss of energy that maintains such an orbital equilibrium.

There is another facet to this creative energy and the psychic struggle which prompts it. In my view, the immature artist uses a selected art-form (or various formats) to work out this psychic struggle that I have called maturation. When these energies are finally aligned to a mature state of equilibrium, the productive phase is ended and the passive phase again referred to as creative-block is enjoined. This can be viewed as an intense experience followed by a lull. Of course, if the aspirant to the Great Work levels off to a pinnacle of maturation that won't be surpassed in this life, then I believe the artistic career is finished.

The adolescent struggle that is revealed in rock and roll music is an excellent example of the intensity of this experience. And what is so intriguing, is the burn-out sufferred by so many of these 'artists' once they resolve this conflict. It is at this point that they fail to produce quality work and the product that they churn out in their later careers leaves one longing for the life that belonged to their early work.

In contrast to this, some artists discover a greater struggle in the collective psyche of their generation or of the human community across generational and cultural boundaries. Here they reveal their emergence into a collective consciousness with the macrocosmic world that continues the maturation process. This is an initiation of great potency that can be claimed for an entire pantheon of great artists through the various epochs of human history.

This meta-consciousness is the achievement of the mature artist; the works of whose later career proves even more compelling and dynamic than the earlier private struggle. The profundity of the experience and the energy needed to maintain it is larger than the individual and proves a mastery over the esoteric sources that provide the energy. Also the dynamic of passive and productive periods is dramatically ennervated and can overwhelm the psyche if the individual is without the bio-physical and psychic strength to contain it and channel it with skill.

So is art an healing discipline? In the case of the immature artist who works out the neurosis that I delineated with the use of the adolescent model, it is without a doubt, a most potent tool. But should the artist/aspirant haphazardly lock onto the larger energies of the collective psyche without the preparation that is provided in some of the western mystery schools for example, a danger emerges that can be thoroughly destructive.

I really feel that this is what has taken the life of some rock and roll artists such as Jim Morrison and that particularly nasty suicide that has made so much press recently. I believe that even Beethoven sufferred with his deafness for similar reasons and there are so many other examples that could be mentioned. And I wonder how different things could have been if all these tragic heroes had the advantage of the disciplines of Yoga and High Ceremonial Magick.

These disciplines serve as a bridge leading from the immature to the mature aesthetic response. And they strengthen the individual from the harm that 'art-therapy' may truly inflict on the psyche. One can't live in a house whose walls are susceptible to collapse from the force of gravity. One needs a home that can withstand the pressure and whose very functional strength is energized by that pressure.