RESURRECTION

Matias Grunewald’s “Resurrection of Christ”

from the Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar, France

I actually travelled to Colmar, France, in 1989, to see this wonderful painting done by Grunewald. It is a rare painting from the Renaissance because most of the church patriarchy supported the “suffering of Christ” as the main iconography to be depicted in the art and in the philosophy put out to the people.  The complete work, of which this is just one panel, is called the Isenheim Altarpiece. Probably one reason the church accepted this highly JOYOUS and celebratory depiction of the Resurrection was that the other panels depict the crucifixion in such gory detail that they were adequately satisfied that the “truth” was being told….you have to “suffer to be holy”…. and don’t you forget it.

Nevertheless, the audacity of Grunewald to paint the Resurrection is unsurpassed, and this is the only painting I know from that period of art which depicts it so well. It was a pivotal pilgrimage for me to go see it in Colmar. My “art life” was not the same afterwards….becasue I realized before I was “stuck in the crucifixion”….thinking that suffering was a “nobler” subject than Joy. After that trip I realized that JOY is the ultimate expression of ART…and that GOD and HOLINESS and JOY are synonymous. This was confirmed later when I read in A Course in Miracles, “God’s will for me is perfect happiness.” ART’s greatest function is to uplift people into the miraculous, into the JOYOUS, into the vivacious vortex of the DIVINE! And this painting does just that.

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ALTARS IN YOUR HOME

AN ALTAR is a vortex of spiritual ENERGY

It is beneficial to have a Place for the Sacred to rest and reconnoitre in your space, in your house, in your life. ALTARS are important concentrated platforms for this to take place; they are energy vortices that  “call in” the Divine Forces to balance, guide, heal and direct your life. They are places where you can “surrender your problems”. They are places where you can lay down all your grievances and come to complete forgiveness of anyone or anything, and any situation or condition.

We have an Altar in every room of our house. Here is one with Ganesh and Hanuman, Babaji, Tara Singh, Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi and Abe Lincoln. This is a place where I cannot lie to myself. I filled this altar with men who never lied, therefore they represent TRUTH. In their PRESENCE I can cleanse myself of all my negative thoughts and come to a silence of mind and body that is respectful of the Life I have been given. ALTARS are definitely places where you can “reboot” and “delete” the things that are not working in your life. You can put yourself at the feet of TRUTH and LOVE, and ask for HELP, in ways that you can use and need the HELP. Divine Forces are ALWAYS available to anyone who has an ALTAR, and who USES IT for inner clarity.