This article, written by Matt Witt, aims to provide some insight into the aims of the Artistic Meditation Retreat, an annual event that brings together artists from all over the world for two weeks of meditation and art creation.
Our desire for art is a product of a human’s habitual desire to discover new perspectives, to better understand ourselves, to explore and to heal. So, at the feet of the artist lies the responsibility, through art, to offer opportunities for discovery and healing.
Whether artists are aware of it or not, they are doctors, or Shaman as a more appropriate term; the humans on this Earth more adept at seeing through layers, creating magic and placing insights in the light for others to benefit. If we can offer creative people the best opportunity to awaken and heal themselves, then we send a brigade of conscious healers into the world to lay their creative power upon their nearest and dearest, absorbing slowly and warmly into the collective whole.
One of the problems society faces is that art has been infected by money, wherever finance exists, exists also a mutation of the creative drive. It’s like trying to cure illness with illness, leading to further sickness for artist and art seeking human alike. There is a constant requirement to accumulate wealth, which makes staying true to yourself and retaining your artistic integrity, while also having meaningful and valuable connections with people, a very difficult task.
The monster does not support the little guy, it is a long hard slog to the “top” and most don’t make it, whatever “making it” means these days; it’s a concept of the old paradigm that has completely skewed the purpose of art. As a priority, we should reassess the value placed on achievement within forums of the past, namely economic, educational and popular culture; mutated aspects of human creation that are far from the pure creative intention of the universe. The Artistic Meditation Retreat allows humans the time and space to reassess why and what they create, to mobilise and reach their full potential as creators and healers, away from these negative influences.
This is an Art Bypass! The Artistic Meditation Retreat aims to reorganise the creative flow of the artist, and realign the purpose of art, embarking upon a positive foundation for a future where we have the freedom to express our true nature with the purpose of healing rather than attaining wealth or fame. We are placing the heart back in the centre by bringing grassroots artists into a nurturing environment, providing the tools for them to live healthier, happier lives, making artists more effective in their roles as healers and spiritual catalysts.
With this as our rousing call, we aim to provide the means for a new colony of artists to venture out into the world, a colony that is not confined or enclosed by the restraints of the old paradigm, geographical, monetary, political. This is a colony that is free flowing and free moving, one that soaks into, gathers around, and slowly starts to churn the artistic and collective human stagnation into motion; subverting the stale lump of old cheese that we are told is art.
Our efforts are just one contributing factor to the slowly emerging colossus of positive creative energy that is accumulating during this time. We are contributing to a stirring of the energetic currents below the surface of the collective human psyche, creating ripples of immeasurable duration that will gather and accumulate well into the future with no pushing, forcing or fighting whatsoever, our role is simply to initiate with pure intention.
It’s a slow, peaceful, organic, unpressured, metamorphosis. Just like our meditation practice, it is unforced, and just like the bamboo it takes time to set its roots before it can reach for dizzying heights.
To find out more about the Artistic Meditation Retreat please contact Matt & Jo: artisticretreat@peacerevolution.net