Welcome to Orpheus Lives!
“for truly we live in what we imagine” – Rilke
This is where you’ll find my writing on art, religion, and the things that draw them together. I want to explore the idea great artists throughout history are essentially religious figures, and religious figures artists. I believe, as William Blake did, in the “divine arts of the imagination”: that imagination is indistinguishable from God, and that the practice or experience of art brings us closer to the transcendent.
It is perhaps true of every time that imagination has been threatened, whether by the banality of received opinion or religious dogma – but perhaps no more so than in ours when culture has been usurped by celebrity, when the concept of beauty has fallen under suspicion, and when artificial intelligence promises to manufacture a song or novel at the click of a button – bereft of the love, dedication and sacrifice that is essential to creating art. In such circumstances, it is easy to give up hope.
But it isn’t my intention to dwell on the negatives here nor to write a manifesto – only to carve out a little corner of the internet where I will dig deeper into my strange obsessions. If that sounds of interest, please do subscribe.
Why Orpheus?
The Greek hero Orpheus connects the interests I will explore. He was the first poet, the greatest ever musician, and a prophet who founded the Greek mystery religions. His descent into hell to rescue his wife Eurydice symbolises the artistic journey into the unconscious to rescue truth and beauty from oblivion. Early Christians, for this reason, believed he prefigured Christ. Torn apart by the maenads – the ecstatic worshippers of Dionysus – he was also the first musician to be destroyed by fame and, as such, the first to achieve artistic immortality. An ever-present inspiration to so many artists, he is the embodiment of the indestructible creative spirit.
