The Truth that Sets You Free is Not Information
The ancient meaning of Aletheia, the Kardia, and why real Art begins in the heart
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The Truth that Sets You Free is Not Information
by Clint Watson, FASO Founder
He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. —John 3:19
As a creative, when you uncover Truth, you will connect with the light of virtue—the creative energy of God. And your deeds; your works; your artworks; will be manifested into physical creations infused with this universal creativity. As the epigraph verse says, they will be “made manifest” and “wrought in God.”
So, if we follow wonder when we feel it, we thus allow enthusiasm—the filling up with God—to enrich our soul again.
This takes courage.
The word courage derives from the French word for heart: cour. To find one’s cour-age is to be heart-led. To enter into courage is to enter your “heart-led age.” This courageous opening up allows the light, the life, the logos—into our heart. To fully understand this, we need to first understand more deeply what the word heart truly implies.
The central claim of The Sovereign Artist is that Art is a true spiritual path to liberation. And the true path that all mystery traditions have discovered always requires an opening of the heart. Not the physical heart, the spiritual heart — the Kardia.
In ancient Greek (especially in the New Testament), the Kardia refers to far more than the physical organ. It refers to the inner center of an integrated person: the True Self; the seat of Divine Desire; the source of will; the place of perception; the conscience. The Kardia refers to the source where the aletheia—the unveiling—occurs.
The aletheia, a word that literally means “unveiling” is famously used in the following verse:
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. —John 8:32
The word truth in that verse is, in the Greek, aletheia. A better translation might say, “The unveiling will set you free.”
This Truth is not information. The Truth that sets you free—the aletheia—is the unveiling of knowing. Knowing is gnosis. And gnosis arises from a direct, mystical experience of The Mystery.
Gnosis is not intellectual information. The verse does not say that you will read the truth. It does not say you will be told the truth. It says you will know the truth. It says that it is the unveiling of knowing that sets you free. This knowing isn’t something you can receive in language. It is bigger than that. It is a deeper truth that lies beyond language. Language can merely point the way. This beyond-language-knowing is the same word—gnosis—that Christ used in another verse when he said to His disciples, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.”
This type of knowing is felt more like inner music than words. When listening to a symphony, you simply know whether something sounds harmonious (good) or discordant (bad). You don’t have to read music to know, you just know. Similarly, when deep truth is unveiled, you “hear” it, and it is harmonious. In the light of this knowing, false things start to “sound” discordant.
Of course, one could argue that this is yet another scriptural interpretation to add to the endless arguments. Except…except…I knew this Truth long before I connected it with this scripture; long before I even cared about any scripture. And, it’s not just me. When I talk to others who have experienced the unveiling...they too know. There is a whole history of people who know.
I can’t, of course, prove that I know; for I can only share with others by utilizing language…and, again, the Truth is beyond language. But those who know can usually tell who else has experienced the Aletheia.
This knowledge isn’t special. We all have the gnosis. We all know. Deep down, you already know. You may just need to remember; to “lift the veil.”—the Aletheia.
Sometimes, as we approach the Aletheia, we experience fear, especially if it contradicts our existing beliefs. This is why accessing this knowing requires courage.
And it is this courageous unveiling that happens in The Kardia—the heart.
The Kardia, as we said, is the seat of the True Self that perceives the divine order; that perceives The Mystery. The artist whose inner life, in the heart, is genuinely aligned with The Mystery unveils a specific intuitive knowing that the person creating based on mere intellectual information does not (yet) see. Fortunately, the creative act itself, when approached in the right way, facilitates the unveiling of the Aletheia, and the opening of the Kardia.
Thus, those who unveil this Truth in the Kardia will find the cour-age—courage—to follow the divine call of wonder and will enter a heart-led age. And in that heart-led age they will find that new pathways quickly open to them. That is why we are enjoined to seek first the Kingdom; for once we do, once we begin to walk our true path, then the Kingdom unveils opportunities, and our works—our artworks—begin to be “made manifest” because they are now “wrought in God.”
As you start to walk, the way appears
—Rumi
PS - This piece is new material that I’m adding to my forthcoming book, The Sovereign Artist. If that is of interest to you, please click here to join the waitlist.
