There is evidence to believe that, for many thousands of years, Man perceived the universe as a living organism in which all aspects of nature, himself included, were interrelated. This vision of life, which was the foundation of what was later to be known as Hermeticism, was to prevail right up to the 18th century. But, at the advent of rationalism, it was cast aside as an archaic notion unworthy of consideration. This regrettable change in mentality was to encourage the fragmentation of knowledge into isolated specializations, extolling analysis over synthesis; further dissociating Man from nature and provoking the divorce between the sciences and the arts.
It was, however, in the latter that Hermetic thought was to survive - in literature, music, architecture and, of course, in painting where Hermetic principles prevailed through the knowledge of harmonic proportion and in the guise of aesthetics: interrelationship being the ruling principle behind harmonious composition.
In Hermetic thought every act has its consequences. This is commonly known as the Butterfly Effect and it pertains as much to the composition of a work of art as it does to the world of physics. The Butterfly Effect * applies when a mark, however small, is added to the surface of a painting under construction. By complying with the rules of harmonic proportion it sets in motion a potential chain of actions in the development of the oeuvre. It is a question of balance - the inter-relationship between itself and all that surrounds it: the tiniest of alterations demanding a complete re-appreciation of the pictorial structure. It can be compared to the tightrope walker who, with every step, must reposition his centre of gravity to accommodate the innumerable variables engendered by his change of circumstances.
Art, of course, is no longer confined to the traditional disciplines of the past. Today it has invested the many domains proposed by recent technologies, fervently exploring novel grounds, inebriated by its newfound liberty. It is important, however, that the artists who follow these paths, in their eagerness to celebrate the new, do not cut themselves off from the reciprocality of their surroundings. Unfortunately many of them, through perhaps their fascination for the art market, are progressively alienating themselves from the interconnectedness of hermetic thought in favour of an ego-orientated intellectual materialism.
As a custodian of the Hermetic principals the artist is bound by compliance to aesthetic values. Acquitting himself of this obligation in the name of freedom, as an act of emancipation towards unrestricted creation, is an illusion. Art has nothing to do with intellectual prowess or even originality, it has to do with the experience of 'being' that can not be dissociated from the substance of nature itself.
(It is curious to note that, whilst a number of artists appear to be deserting their role as guardians of the hermetic tradition, many scientists, particularly those involved in nuclear physics or those researching hypnotism and depth psychology, after two hundred years of arid rationalism, are painfully finding their way back to the Hermetic principles).
*The Butterfly Effect maintains that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings create tiny changes in the atmosphere which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena and ultimately causing a tornado.
