Beauty is, in the aesthetic realm, the equivalent of goodness and truth in the moral realm. And it is the equivalent of love in the relationship realm. All of these point to virtue, a divine power, which manifests in infinite ways.
Deep in our souls, we long for beauty, we long for love, and we long for truth. These things represent spiritual power, and we grow our souls by receiving them. These things we long for, collectively are virtue. Think of virtue not as something you do though the force of your will, but as something you receive by listening to the call of your true self and, through the courage of faith, following that call. And if you follow the call, becoming a virtuoso, ultimately you may transmit the power of virtue to others.
Virtù, the Italian word for virtue, means "power." Virtue attracts real spiritual wealth and power. Virtue is life force; vitality; spiritual power; true life. Virtue bestows the kind of life Christ spoke of when he said, “I came so that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” Virtue heals.
A single touch from the ultimate virtuoso contained enough virtue to heal:
“The whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.” – Luke 6:19, KJV
The KJV wisely, and poetically, translated the greek word for power (dunamis) as virtue because virtue represents, not worldly “power,” but divine power – soul power.
The virtuoso then, is someone who has merged fully into his True Self and mastered, at least in some part of his life, the miraculous power of virtue. The virtuoso has turned joyfully toward the divine call of his true name and has embraced it.
“A saint is a person who has lived their own life, not someone else’s or a projection of what others think a life should be.” – Thomas Merton
Interestingly, Merton’s definition of a saint echoes my thoughts about the purpose of being an artist.
“The purpose of being an artist is to discover who you truly are, and to be completely authentic to that truth.” – Clintavo [source]
The true saint, and the true virtuoso are cut from the same cloth. The saint masters the ultimate art: the art of life itself.
The virtuoso is the person who has mastered the work that God placed him upon earth to do.
The virtuoso does not suppress the Elysian call of the soul, but instead, has proven his faith through his works. He has developed his divine talents to their maximum ability such that they become infused with the power of God to minister to souls.
The virtuoso has developed the ability to transmit the power of virtue to those who are “touched” by his works. The virtuoso heals.
Beauty will save the world – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky’s famous quote might make more sense to the modern mind if we paraphrase it as follows:
Virtue will save the world.
We long for virtue because it is living water for our soul. It is the true power and fulfillment of what we seek. It is the ambrosia provided to us by God.
God is found in all the things we soulfully long for; the things that uplift us in some mysterious way. And these things, despite being necessary food for our soul, are the things that we can't quite fully define. God is found in beauty, love, truth and goodness, but we can argue for eons about the specific definitions of those particular words because God is undefinable, infinite.
The ego opposes what the soul longs for. But the works of the virtuoso create wonder. And wonder inflicts a divine wound upon the hearts of those who have turned away from the call. Wonder is a wounding sword of compassion that reminds those trapped in darkness by their egos to come home to the light of their true self.
This is the power of the virtuoso and, as an artist, as one who has already responded, at least partially, to the call from the Mystery; as one who has already started to walk the path of Mastery; as one who peddles beauty and truth, you are already drinking some of this virtuous ambrosia.
As you develop your Art, through mastery, and deepen your connection to your true self within, you will find the power, through beauty, through virtue, to save the world. Use it wisely.
Beauty, virtue, will indeed save the world, when we, collectively, finally turn fully toward it.
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Referenced Posts
The Courage to Find Your Self
“Even though I am not a Christian, it was promising and assuring to follow ourselves without caring for others judgey eyes. It felt relieving to hear the words of God and have faith in God. I read this finally after postponing it for 3 days. And I have given up mostly on being smth I am not. I have realised I should be what I wish to be rather than what world forces me to be. Your post helped me to make my ideology more stronger.” — Tina Puna
The Mystery
“This is an exceptionally good essay about the eternal reality underlying this vale of tears. Well done, young man!” — William Schneider
The Call of Wonder
Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened
The Church of Art
“Clint, Thank you for your life saving post. I read every word. I hope that it reaches as many people as possible. I will read it again and again.” — Marleen Hoffman
Soul Power
“So beautiful Clint, and so necessary. Thank you for putting words to both the subtle ache and the moments of fulfillment, ‘Soul Power’ is a gift” — Kristin Posehn
No AI Zone: Everything written in this post (and all my posts) is written 100% by me, Clint “Clintavo” Watson, a flesh and blood human seeking to grow my soul and come home my truest self; for that is the essence of creativity. I do not use AI to assist me with writing — that would deny me the very growth of my world through writing that I seek.
I only rarely use AI images with my (non-AI) writing. On the rare occasions I do use an AI image (usually fiction), I also feature at least one artwork by a human artist with image credits and links to their work or, if I can’t find a suitable image, I donate a free month of website service to one of our artist customers at my SaaS company, FASO Artist Websites.
Poetic expression, spiritual ideas, and musings upon beauty, truth and goodness should be free to spread far and wide. Hence, I have not paywalled the work on Reflections of the Sovereign Artist. However, if you’re able to become a paid subscriber, I’d be eternally grateful. It would help, encourage and enable me to continue exploring these topics and allow me to keep it accessible for a world that is in desperate need of beauty, truth, goodness and love. — Creatively, Clintavo.
