The Artist as Healer of the World

Paul Levy

I have written previously about the importance of the archetypal figure of the “wounded healer”
(see "The Wounded Healer," and "Breaking Spells We Cast on Ourselves,”), a figure who
alchemically transforms the energies of her wound into fuel for the fire of realization. Wounded
healers access their gifts when they realize that their wound is itself the source of divine creativity,
as well as the portal through which the highest, most individualized form of this creativity can
manifest. In this article I want to explore another, related archetype, that of the artist. Both artist and
healer are able express the deeper archetypal energies operating in their individual psyches, and,
thereby, to be both in-formed and transformed by them, ultimately transforming the the collective
unconscious of humanity at large.
In alignment with a mythic identity as would-be hero or heroine, the artist (arche)typically has to
wrestle with inner "demons," or internalized, personalized reflections of the very same "demons"
that are being played out collectively on the world stage. Like all of us, the artist suffers from the
spirit of the age. Having permeable boundaries and being by nature highly empathic, sensitive and
intuitive, artists are able to introject into themselves and creatively "out-picture," or express what is
happening both within themselves and the world in which they live. The artist's inner process, like
that of all of us, is a manifestation of the field around them, in which they are inseparably contained
and of which they are an expression.
The "daemonic" is an archetypal, transpersonal energy, greater than the merely personal, which
nonlocally pervades the entire field and can literally take us over, compelling us to unconsciously
act it out so as to give shape and form to itself; it is a reflection of the part of ourselves that is split-
off from itself—which is to say separated from our unity with all things. This dissociated part of
ourselves develops a seemingly independent life and will of its own, appearing as an alien "other,"
not under the control of the ego. In coming to terms with the daemonic within himself, the artist is
able to translate these energies into something useful, both for himself and the world around him.
Encoded in the daemonic is everything we need for our self-realization, as if the daemonic is a
compensation of the deeper unified and unifying field, offering us exactly what is required for us to
wake up.
Anything we are not in conscious relationship with "possesses" us from behind, affecting us beneath
our conscious awareness. If we don't consciously relate with these split-off parts of ourselves, they
constellate negatively and become "demonic," in that they manifest, whether it be inwardly or
outwardly, in a destructive manner. If in our avoidance of consciously relating with these energies
we allow ourselves to become unconsciously possessed by them, we become their unwitting
minion, their agent of incarnation into our three-dimensional world, creating destruction in life,
whether individually, in our personal lives, or collectively, on the world stage. The artist, on the
other hand, by creatively expressing and thereby liberating her experience, is able to extract from
the daemonic a blessing which imbues her work with a corresponding numinous power, one which
in-fluences (and "in-flows" into) others.
The "daemonic," like any archetypal energy, has both a positive or negative potentiality.
Etymologically speaking, the word "daemon" is related to our inner voice and guiding spirit, an
"entity" called by various names: genius, jinn (or genie), and guardian angel. Speaking of this
animated and animating being, Jung said, "This living spirit is eternally renewed and pursues its
goal in manifold and inconceivable ways throughout the history of mankind. Measured against it,
the names and forms which men have given it mean very little; they are only the changing leaves
and blossoms on the stem of the eternal tree." The daemonic energy that is in-forming events in our
world is an archetypal recurrence of an atemporal, eternal pattern which has been irrupting into our
world since the beginning of human history.
Jung pointed out, too, that, "the tragedy is that the daemon of the inner voice is at once our greatest
danger and an indispensable help. It is tragic, but logical, for it is the nature of things to be so."
Paradoxically, encoded in the daemonic is "our greatest danger" as well as "an indispensable help,"
as the daemonic, being a non-dual power, contains both of these opposites inseparably conjoined.
Alchemists express this same idea: their "God" is Hermes-Mercury, who symbolizes the highest
divinity as well as the deepest evil combined in one being. This hybrid figure represents the idea
that opposites are ultimately not opposed to each other, but rather are intimately and inseparably co-
related. The opposites always appear together, conditioning each other, turning into each other, so as
to ultimately appear indistinguishable.
Bringing the opposites together is to access and activate symbolic awareness. When we recognize
the inseparability and interpenetration of all things, we recognize that our universe is a living oracle,
a continually unfolding revelation that, like a dream, speaks to us symbolically. Tapping into this
awareness, we can't help but to naturally express our experience symbolically, as we ourselves have
become a living, embodied symbol of our realization. Being able to "symbolize" our experience to
ourselves—and by extension the outside world—we ourselves step into the role of the creative
artist.
The inner voice of the daemon makes itself known to us, which is to say that a living, creative spirit,
with both destructive and constructive potentiality, reveals itself to us. This spirit will continue to
manifest "demonically" and destructively, however, as long as we lack the courage to engage with it
—but the inner voice of the daemon can become our ally if we become aware of what it triggers in
ourselves. If we do not become "touched" by the daemon, to quote Jung, "no regeneration or
healing can take place...if by self-assertion the ego can save itself from being completely
swallowed, then it can assimilate the voice [of the daemon], and we realize that the evil was, after
all, only a semblance of evil, but in reality a bringer of healing and illumination. In fact, the inner
voice is a 'Lucifer' in the strictest and most unequivocal sense of the word." Lucifer, the morning
star, is the "bringer of the light." If we have a strongly enough developed sense of self, we are able
to objectify and enter into conscious relationship with the daemon, thereby saving ourselves from
being swallowed and possessed by it. Paradoxically, relating to our daemon as a separate,
autonomous "other"—an actual living being—is the very way we integrate the daemon into
ourselves. We are then able to metabolize and assimilate the daemon so as to receive its blessing in
support of our spiritual unfoldment. When consciously embraced and acknowledged, our daemon
introduces us to our calling and helps us find our true vocation; hidden in the daemonic is our
creative genius. This is why Jung said, "the daemonic is the not yet realized creative."
The word diabolical, etymologically speaking, means that which separates and divides. The
antonym and antidote to the diabolic is the symbolic, or that which brings together and unites. As
the artist wrestles with his "demons," he is able to "symbolize" his experience in the form of
creative art. Symbols bring together conflicting energies to create something new: a symbol
partakes of both sides of the conflict at the same time that it transcends and reconciles the
underlying polarity. Symbols, which are the language of dreams, are a revelation of the deeper
unified and unifying field, simultaneously reflecting and effecting an expansion of consciousness.
In wrestling with her demons, an artist is like a sorcerer and magician in that she is able to channel,
transmute and express these "demons" in a form which takes away their spell-binding power, while
at the same time helps to dis-spell the collective enchantment which pervades the entire field of
consciousness.

Artist as Oracle

Art-making is a process in which the artist is continually articulating and refining an ever-evolving
form of symbolic language. In being a conduit for the formation of a new language, the artist is
participating in the creation of language itself. How language gets created invariably leads us right
back to the psyche, which is simultaneously the subject and the object of the new language. The
psyche is both source and recipient of the creatively emerging form of language, just as in a dream
the psyche might produce a written text for another part of itself to read. In its crafting of a new
symbolic language, the psyche is literally building a bridge in order to communicate telepathically
with itself. The shaping and re-shaping of ever-new forms of expression is the psyche's continually
evolving way of knowing itself and deepening its—and our—realization.
As the newly created language clothes and animates itself in its novel forms, it is as if the "Word"
becomes flesh. Interestingly, we make a word by "spell"-ing it. Discovering novel iterations of
language is itself a "spell-casting" activity, in that it serves to dis-spell the veil of illusion which
seemingly obstructs us from our own experience. In unveiling novel forms of language, the artist
conjures up a more coherent state of consciousness within himself as a result of his creative act.
Because we are all connected, the artist’s state of integration gets registered instantly in the
collective unconscious of each one of us, where it impacts the entire field.
The very act of verbally or nonverbally language-ing our experience, of giving creative shape and
form to what is happening both inside and outside of us, is itself the process through which we, as
artists, deepen our realization of what we are trying to express. The fact this realization deepens
through the act of expressing it is the litmus test which certifies our act of creation to be worthy of
the name "art." In creating a new form of communication, the work of art is both an expression of a
more expanded consciousness, as well as its initiator—which is to say that the act of artistic
creation is simultaneously a means to an end and the end itself, both journey and goal.
To quote Jung, an artist is "a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life of mankind." The
archetypal figure of the artist is a deeper role that each of us is being asked by the universe to
consciously incarnate in our personal lives as a way of being of service to both ourselves and the
world around us. When I use the term "artist," I am not using it in a traditional, limited way,
meaning someone who paints or draws or sculpts; this is too circumscribed and “flat-land” a
conception of what an artist is. When I use the term "artist" I mean that we are all creative, multi-
dimensional visionary artists (and dreamers) whose canvas is life itself.
As more of us wake up to our true nature as creative beings, we can connect with each other and co-
operatively create what I call an "Art-Happening Called Global Awakening" (please see the last
chapter in my book, 'The Madness of George W. Bush.' ) In this work of collaborative, visionary,
living art, we can put our lucid awareness together and "conspire to co-inspire" to wake ourselves
up and activate our collective genius so as to dream a more grace-filled universe into
materialization. This is nothing less than an exponential quantum leap in human consciousness. We
are being invited by the universe to actively participate in our own evolution.
Jung had great insight into the primary role that the human psyche plays in the creative process (or
lack thereof) of humankind, both in individuals and collectively as a species. As he reminds us, "the
human psyche is the womb of all the arts." He recognized the significance of the creative artist as an
archetypal figure existing within the collective unconscious of humanity. Being an archetypal
figure, the artist is a role that exists outside of time while simultaneously continuing to re-present
itself in infinitely creative guises in, through, and over time. New ideas, Jung says, are actually
timeless: "They arise from that realm of creative psychic life out of which the ephemeral mind of
the single human being grows like a plant that blossoms, bears fruit and seed, and then withers and
dies." Human beings are the conduits through which the timeless creative process becomes
actualized in linear time. The inner, archetypal figure of the artist is the vehicle for the continual
unfoldment of our psychological and spiritual self-realization. The creative spirit realizes itself
through us, just as we realize ourselves through it.

Jung said, "The unborn work in the psyche of the artist is a force of nature...We would do well,
therefore, to think of the creative process as a living thing implanted in the human psyche." This
"living thing implanted in the human psyche" is a creative and creating spirit, an inspiring wind that
blows where it wills. Speaking of this living spirit, Jung commented that, "it freely chooses the men
[and women] who proclaim it and in whom it lives." This is to say that the creative spirit is
autonomous and not under the ego's control. To quote Jung, this spirit is like "a hush that follows
the storm, a reconciling light in the darkness of man's mind, secretly bringing order into the chaos
of his soul." The creative spirit is a holy and whole-making spirit, a living spiritual being that
animates, and potentially, depending upon how we relate to it, either destroys or heals us. Speaking
of this same sacred spirit, Christ said in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, "If you bring forth what is
within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what
you do not bring forth will destroy you."
A living oracle, the figure of the artist is a mouthpiece for the time in which she lives. Like a
psychic scribe, she is able to express and explicate the emerging zeitgeist, the implicit spirit of the
age, while giving shape to the deeper, archetypal, time-less, and unconscious process which in-
forms all ages.
The artist allows himself to get "dreamed up" by the field to become the "medium" through which
the spirit of the age moves and inspires him to creatively express itself. Speaking about this process,
Jung said, "At such moments we are no longer individuals, but the race; the voice of all mankind
resounds in us." The artist is an open, receptive instrument through which a living creative spirit
reveals itself. In this process, the artist becomes an ongoing revelation to himself, while at the same
time his art is a revelation of the creative spirit to the world.

The Universe as a Whole System

When our universe is viewed as a whole system composed of multiple dimensions, fractally and
"holarchically" (i.e., a hierarchy of holons; a "holon" is both a part of a greater whole and a whole
system in and of itself) nested within each other, when something is out of balance in the system, on
any level, the greater underlying field self-regulates so as to compensate the one-sidedness in the
system. This innate self-balancing mechanism is similar to how dreams are both an expression of
and a compensation for our unconsciousness. When seen as a family system, all the seemingly
separate parts and members of the whole, unified and unifying system are recognizable as
interconnected and holographic reflections of each other.
When there is an unconscious imbalance or disturbance in the field, a co-responding and reflexive
compensatory process becomes activated in the underlying unifying field, resulting in an archetypal,
healing figure incarnating in human form—whether we call this figure artist, shaman, healer, seer,
or poet. The intuitive human beings who become channels for this process are sensitive to the
underlying unified field in a way that helps the field to unify.
The inspiration that comes through the artist is like a healing enzyme, a time-release multivitamin,
which the underlying unified field organically secretes when needed. Jung says, "An epoch is like
an individual; it has its own limitations of conscious outlook, and therefore requires a compensatory
adjustment. This is effected by the collective unconscious when a poet or seer lends expression to
the unspoken desire of his times and shows the way, by word or deed, to its fulfillment."
Following her inner calling, the creative artist's unique vision "en-livens" her, which can make it
hard for her to survive the suffocating, deadening constraints of conventional, mainstream society.
To quote Jung, "Here the artist's relative lack of adaptation turns out to his advantage; it enables him
to follow his own yearnings far from the beaten path, and to discover what it is that would meet the
unconscious needs of his age. Thus, just as the one-sidedness of the individual's conscious attitude
is corrected by reactions from the unconscious, so art represents a process of self-regulation in the
life of nations and epochs."
The figure of the artist is "not free," however, in the sense that he is subordinate to and in the
service of his impulse to create. A genuine artist has the utmost loyalty to the inner voice, which is a
real, full-time vocation, not unlike a religious calling. The artist's path is truly spiritual; they have
offered their life in service to something beyond and greater than themselves. The artist has an
"inner necessity" to create new forms that express what he is experiencing.
Just like a child in a family is a natural-born shaman and intuitively "picks-up" and unwittingly
embodies the unresolved energies in the family system by unconsciously acting them out, we, as
"members" of the greater human family, are all potential shamans, healers and artists, as we are
conduits for internalizing, metabolizing, and channeling the deeper unconscious shadow that is in
the collective family system of our species. Jung points out that the daemon, in the form of our
inner voice "makes us conscious of the evil from which the whole community is suffering, whether
it be the nation or the whole human race. But it presents this evil in an individual form, so that one
might at first suppose it to be only an individual characteristic." It is very seductive to personalize,
and pathologize, our inner experiences, believing they are just our own problems, without realizing
that we might be unwittingly being dreamed up by the underlying field to pick-up, like a would-be
shaman, the split-off, unconscious energies that are playing out all around us.
As the artist expands his consciousness through the act of artistic creation, he effects a subtle but
very real change at the level of the unconscious itself. This effect potentially has far-reaching
consequences, extending throughout space as well as in, over and outside of time, as this change in
the collective unconscious impacts the entire all-pervading field of non-dual consciousness.
Deepening inner realization through creative acts, the artist is tapping into the source matrix, the
zero point energy field, out of which events, both personal and universal, emerge. In finding new
forms of expression, the artist sheds the light of consciousness of the underlying unifying field on
itself, thereby "lighting up" their very being and the world around them.
A deep inner necessity inspires the artist to look for novel ways of expressing experience. If an artist
stops metabolizing and giving shape and form to what is being touched inside of himself, he runs
the risk of becoming neurotic, and getting overwhelmed by the unconsciousness that surrounds him.
When "called" by the spirit, it is important for the would-be shaman/healer/artist to assent and say
"yes" to being called, in which case he is supported by the very powers that sponsored his calling in
the first place.

Art-Making Is a Sacred Act

Giving shape and form to the underlying energies which animate our species in a "container" that
can hold the experience allows for a shamanic, holy, and whole-making ritual to be made real in
time. The act of participating in the creation of art is a magical, ceremonial rite, a sacred liturgy, a
higher-dimensional form of communion, a kind of "performance art," that simultaneously
transfigures the unconscious energies in both the artist and the surrounding field. Creative
expression is the act which liberates us from the compulsion of having to unconsciously re-create
these energies (self)-destructively. Alchemically transforming these energies, an artist allows them
to reveal their holy origin. The act of art-making partakes of the nature of the divine, in that the
entire universe, which is itself a living work of continually-unfolding art, becomes infused with
endless-inspiration as we consciously realize our relationship with our ever-evolving and never-
expiring, creative spirit.
Art-making is a sacred act. Art attains its greatest numinosity and ability to affect others when the
creator of the work of art is being transformed by the act of creating. One can mimic sacred art for a
living (many people get paid for this) but this is mere forgery. There is a world of difference
between copying, imitating, and aping sacred art, and living our own creative experience. When we
live creatively, guided by our daemon, our life itself becomes a living work of art. Continually
participating in our own creative process, our unique articulation of our experience then becomes
imbued with a psycho-activating energy, which can nonlocally catalyze a process of transformation
throughout the entire universe.
We have but one word, the word "Art," to refer to a stick figure on a piece of paper as well as a
consciousness-transforming masterpiece. As we shed more light on the artistic, creative process, it
becomes important to create a new, richer language so as to differentiate between different levels of
artistic accomplishment. For example, it is one thing when a company puts on a play and the actors
that perform the various roles play them convincingly but don't really access in themselves the
deeper, living experience of transformation that the characters go through, nor understand the
deeper meaning of the drama they are enacting. Their play can still affect the audience if done well
but it is a different order of artistic creation, with a much deeper transformative impact on the
audience's spirit and psyche that occurs, when night after night the actors continually deepen their
own inner realization of what they are acting out through the ritual en-act-ment of the ceremonial
drama they are incarnating.
When the work of art is performed, as in a play or music, something "passes between" the artist and
the audience. A true collaboration, the artist and their audience enter into an intimately engaged
symbiotic relationship, connecting with each other in such a way that they both become
transformed. Feeding off of and into each other in a way that uplifts and inspires everyone, both the
artist and the audience couldn't be creating their experience without the other, as by their mutual co-
operation they create something greater than themselves. Their "art-event" deepens the artist's and
their audiences' realization of how they can engage with each other. The artist and their audience
co-operatively create a new universe in the process.
A living work of art is something which transforms and re-invents the artist in and through the very
act of creating it. This inner self-realization of the artist is both catalyzed and re-presented by the
work they have created. A living receptacle and repository of the artist's experience of
transformation, integration, and transcendence, the artist's realization is expressed in the work of art
so as to reciprocally invest and empower the work of art with the ability to transmit a similar
transformation to others. A work of art can potentially have this effect on us, to quote Jung, "...when
we let a work of art act upon us as it acted upon the artist. To grasp its meaning, we must allow it to
shape us as it shaped him." A truly empowered work of art becomes saturated with a numinous
energy, as it is a portal through which we can glimpse and have a living experience of a deeper,
more transcendental and unified world, one beyond our personal and limited ego. To quote Jung,
"The essence of a work of art" is to be found "in its rising above the personal and speaking from the
mind and heart of the artist to the mind and heart of mankind." The work of art becomes a living
testament to, encoded with, and a carrier of this experience of transformation, as if the work of art
unlocks the doorway through which this transformation becomes activated in and transferred to
others in an act of living transmission. The artist's creative endeavors are timeless "art-i-facts,"
which act like transducers of the semantic, symbolic power encoded in the human psyche.
Contagious in its effects, art can "virally" spread via the unconscious of our species in a way which
liberates and unleashes a latent, creative energy lying dormant in the unconscious of humanity. An
example is the galvanizing influence that music began having in the 1960s—socially, politically,
and on consciousness itself. The music of the 60s was both an expression of an expanded
consciousness, and the vibration which catalyzed the very expansion of consciousness of which it
was an expression.
In creatively translating what is being touched inside of herself into a communicable language, the
artist taps into forms, vibrations, and realizations that exist in the formless, atemporal realm—a
dimension existing "outside of time"—that are waiting to be discovered, formulated, and brought
forth at the right moment "in time." These liberating thought-forms spread rapidly and have such
transformative and redeeming power because they exist in latent form in the shared collective
unconscious of humanity. The liberating vision of the artist attracts us into itself so as to make itself
real in time, changing the world in the process.
Genuine art demands more than passive attention; it invites us into an intimate relationship not only
with itself, but with ourselves as well. The purpose of art is not to entertain us, medicate us, and
make us feel better, but to liberate us and reveal our intrinsic freedom. Art is a unique manifestation
of the divine in which we are invited to participate, a life-changing act in which it manifests through
us, and we and our world become transformed in the process.

Creative Commons Image: " A fairy lyre sweeps thru my universe..." by Natashalatrasha on Flickr.