The Spiritual and Symbolic Arts Spirituality
Symbiotic thought
Symbiotic thought is a process at once physical and mental that allows us to integrate ourselves into the world. This connection, this sense of belonging to a whole and, even more, of interdependence, refines our perception of the place we occupy in the universe as living and thinking beings. It aims at an inner peace and, through this heightened presence, at a more fitting way of inhabiting the world and acting upon what surrounds us.
Largely neglected by humanity as our societies drifted away from nature, it can nonetheless be cultivated through simple means. These fall into two families, detailed further on: physical interactions, which re-engage the body in the world, and mental exercises, which train the mind to connect with it.
An anchoring in Sohnaris
Symbiotic thought is founded on the principles of Sohnaris. If it offers the mind so solid a support, it is because its three great traits extend naturally into a way of being: inclusivity invites us to exclude nothing and no one from the gaze we cast; balance, to perceive each thing as part of one and the same whole; imagination, to remain open to all that can be conceived. Together, they trace a benevolent attention turned toward all things.
Universal love
This is what may be called universal love: an unconditional kindness, made of positivity, acceptance and observation. Far from a contemplative passivity, it is a demanding exercise, mental as much as physical, which consists in heightening one's presence and binding oneself sincerely to those around. It is through this openness that one comes to influence the world: by transforming oneself first, and then, step by step, the quality of one's relationships.
Essential physical interactions
Symbiotic thought cannot exist without a direct involvement of the body in the world. The mind alone drifts, and the body alone merely endures: it is in their union that a truer perception of reality is born.
These practices share a break with the rhythms imposed by modern societies. They slow down, simplify, and bring us back to dynamics closer to the living. Less complex in appearance, they nonetheless carry an original depth that our ways of life tend to erase.
Walking
Walking is the most natural movement of the human being. It demands neither goal nor performance. By moving forward without constraint, the body recovers an organic rhythm, and the mind gradually aligns itself with this flow.
Used as a spiritual initiator by the druids, it is a practice of direct connection to nature: it frees the mind of accumulated tensions, dissolves parasitic thoughts, and restores a form of inner clarity. To walk is to accept not going faster than oneself, a silent attunement with the world.
Contemplation
To contemplate is to observe without seeking to alter: an exercise in relinquishing control, where attention settles without expectation. In this state, details regain their importance, and what seemed insignificant becomes charged with meaning.
Contemplation allows us to step back, to put things into perspective and to nourish creativity. It does not transform the world, but the gaze we cast upon it.
Animal contact
Animals live outside human mental constructs: their presence is direct, without detour. To come into contact with an animal is to face a fragile form of life, subject to its environment and deeply dependent on its balance.
This reminds us of the impact we have on the living, but also of our own nature. For despite the structures we have built, we remain above all animals; to forget it is to cut ourselves off from an essential part of ourselves.
Hardship
Life itself is a trial. For most living beings, to exist means to survive: each instant is a form of struggle, sometimes invisible, but constant. Human societies have gradually created extremes: some no longer struggle, while others do nothing but struggle. In both cases, an imbalance sets in.
Ease without hardship leads to stagnation; relentless struggle exhausts without transforming. It is in the alternation between tension and respite that a true progression is built: hardship unsettles certainties, and rest allows them to be reorganised. Thus evolution is born neither of pain nor of comfort, but of the passage between the two.
Mental exercises
If the body connects to the world through action, the mind connects to it through attention. Two mental exercises thus extend the physical interactions: enlightened meditation and the visualisation of primordial symbols.
Enlightened meditation
Unlike a meditation that would seek to empty the mind, enlightened meditation does not seek to flee thoughts, but to illuminate them. It is a matter of observing the flow of the mind with lucidity, of letting each thought present itself, link to the others, then dissipate, without clinging to it or rejecting it.
Little by little, the agitation settles and gives way to a broader consciousness, in which one perceives oneself as part of a whole rather than as an isolated centre. It is a meditation turned not toward absence, but toward presence and understanding.
Visualisation
The second exercise consists in giving form to thought. By mentally picturing simple figures, the mind learns to focus its attention and to connect with the world. This practice rests on a language of forms that the following pages detail: first the primordial shapes, then the symbols they compose.
The primordial shapes
The primordial symbols are made of three rounded shapes: the circular arc, the circle and the disk. These are simple geometric figures, inspired by our universe.
From atoms to stars, down to the way gravity and magnetism manifest themselves, curves are found everywhere in the universe. These shapes lie at the heart of the nine components of Sohnaris.
Circular arc
The circular arc is the primitive shape from which the circle and the disk are traced. Yet it is less an unfinished form than the very idea of beginning and of fragment.
It can be used to represent movement, momentum, speed or the horizon. Indeed, the circular arc has a particularity that the circle and the disk lack: it can be oriented in any direction.
Disk
The disk expresses closed concepts, sufficient unto themselves. It can describe plenitude, unity, entity, individuality, but can also, like the circle, contain. The universe, for instance, can be depicted as a disk: its content is implicit.
Disks are paradoxically the least present of shapes, with the exception of Sohnaris. When one is used, however, it is not rare to find three or more at once, unlike the circle.
Circle
The circle can serve to gather several shapes together, or to express self-contained concepts such as perfection, infinity or nothingness. It generally expresses the notion of a cycle, even of time. Most symbols contain at least one circle.
Paradoxically, it is optional in Sohnaris, for its idea is already implied by the support itself. The same holds for other symbols, where drawing it would be considered redundant.
The primordial symbols
Symbols confer a power of visualisation that opens the way to symbiotic thought. From a stroke of pencil or brush to circular dance movements, they can take very diverse forms, all meant to train the mind to visualise and to connect with the world.
Mental vectors
The practice of the primordial symbolic arts requires a certain spiritual strength. When a symbol is drawn, engraved or set in relief in such a way that it can be immediately recognised and interpreted by the brain, it becomes a support for visualisation. The mind then uses it as a bridge to the world: a concrete foothold for its attention.
Between abstract idea and concrete figure
Visualisation works like a language reduced to its essentials, a protean tongue that each person reinvents for themselves. A shape must immediately evoke something, a concept or an object. This is why a single subject can be represented by a multitude of symbols: their tracing remains subjective.
A few rules of creation
The arrangement of shapes obeys a few natural rules:
- Lines may touch and lie against one another, but never cross.
- It is better to limit the number of shapes; one generally strives to stay below nine.
- While respecting the first rule, one should give free rein to one's expression and not impose needless constraints.
