Alex Grey’s Mystical Vision of Death
“Dying” Photo Credit: alexgrey.com
Alex Grey is widely recognized as one of the foremost artists working in spiritual and esoteric themes. The driving force behind his work is beyond aesthetic; in his own words, “[he tries] to find the core truths in all the different wisdom traditions and bring them into a contemporary sacred art. There can be a higher possibility that art can reach for.” Each of his works is infused with this sense of larger reality, deep connectivity and higher existence.
“There can be a higher possibility that art can reach for.”
Among his work is the Sacred Mirror series, life-sized paintings created with the intention to “take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind and spirit.” The physicality in each piece is vivid (skeletal, nervous, cardiovascular, muscular and other systems are accurately depicted in great detail), but he also portrays the spiritual and psychic energy systems, along with the universal mind lattice and recognized spiritual figures. The Sacred Mirror series is currently on display in Grey’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a space dedicated to building “an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire and evolve the creative spirit.”
Alex Grey Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyshawley/2205990344/
Later, Grey applied this style to his Progress of the Soul collection, which includes various paintings of rites-of-passage in human life, such as birth, nursing, prayer, kissing and dying. In “Dying,” we see a nebulous form escaping through the crown of the head, drifting up and out the physical body towards a higher light; it is perhaps indicative of the concept that the body is simply a vessel that carries — temporarily — our true, lasting selves. The entire scene is surrounded by wide-open eyes, which Grey has described as symbolic of heightened or expanded awareness. Through “Dying,” Alex Grey gives us the sense that death is merely another step in the soul’s development, a transition that propels us forward on our evolutionary paths.
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