"Eight Keys to Survival Kit" by Solvita Krese and Inga Lāce
Translated by Laine Kristberga
Last Christmas we1 got a mandala colouring book as a present from a well-known PR specialist and yoga teacher. During our first office meeting of the new year, we started colouring it—not without a little bit of ironic laughter. However, now, when the present year has rolled on for more than a half year, part of the mandalas have been coloured. Paging through the colouring book, it is not difficult to recall the countless meetings and the prevailing mood in each—the imprint of the collective emotions—and to anticipate the balancing effect of this activity in helping to maintain harmonious co-working conditions among colleagues.
Never before had I paid any attention to those shelves in the bookstores, where, as it turns out, one can find numerous colouring books for adults. What is it that encourages adults to sharpen their pencils with such enthusiasm and return to the pastime activity so beloved in their childhoods? Is it the therapeutic effect, soothing to the mind, and the state of consciousness resembling meditation? Similarly to other “symptoms”, the fact that colouring books for adults are best-selling books indicates a wave of the “new spirituality” that has flooded the world, often washing away any remains of rational and critical thinking.
We can look at history as a linear and cyclic process of development along which our vertical and personal dimension of time moves, encompassing a variety of “here and now” aspects, which encourage us to look for sanctuary in the meditations of Zen Buddhism and Tantra, the teachings of the Sufis, the rituals of shamans and the consultations of gestalt therapy. Similar vibrations can be spotted both in the early 20th century and in the 1960s, when many artists and representatives of the culture circle turned to Eastern theories and other quests of spirituality. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, mysterious and hermetic texts were popularised in countless more or less closed groups of society, whose authors were such educated people as Helena Roerich, Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, Annie Besant and others.
The Red Book by the outstanding psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung is also very mysterious. It is a work written in a calligraphic handwriting over the duration of 16 years, inspired by creatures met over sessions of active imagination. Jung started every morning by drawing a mandala in his notebook, which, to his mind, justified his inner state of consciousness at the time: “My mandalas were cryptograms [..], in which I saw the self—that is, my whole being—actively at work....”2 Similarly to Jung, many other authors of mystical texts (such as Aleister Crowley and Rudolf Steiner) expressed themselves in the visualisation of images and also inspired their contemporaries with their ideas. For example, the theory of thought-forms and visualisations by Annie Besant served as an impulse for the theoretical ideas and visual images of Wassily Kandinsky in developing abstract art as an ideal form for the portrayal of universal emotions and ideas of himself and the humankind.
The work by Marcos Lutyens, too, in the framework of this festival is created as an enigmatic message inspired by an image that has been captured on the surface of a glazed tile stove at C. C. von Stritzky’s villa. The artist works as a medium who, with the help of hypnosis, takes spectators to the chambers of their subconsciousness and asks them to communicate with the spirit world from Stritzky’s villa. Reinis Virtmanis, for his part, takes us on a tour along the paths taken by the mysterious mystic Jēkabs Zimmels Ziemelis, referring to both medieval Christian mystics and Eastern spiritual practices and mysterious knowledge.
The pioneer of abstract art Hilma af Klint mostly created her works using information obtained in occult sessions and following the lead of the divine hand, as well as getting inspiration from the ideas of theosophy. However, one of the biggest surprises for the world of contemporary art is the oeuvre of Emma Kunz. In the early 20th century she lived in a small village in Switzerland and regarded herself a researcher, healed people and carried out a variety of surprising experiments by polarising plants, clouds and other natural phenomena. On grids of squared paper she created drawings with the help of a pendulum, encompassing a coded system of signs about the “master rules governing the world”. After a drawing session similar to trance, Kunz interpreted her works in a detailed manner, even finding indications of political collisions of the time. Similarly to Klint, she got carried away with botany and claimed that it is important not to lose the connection with nature in the development of humankind. Although her works were made as the messages of a medium, they possess a mathematical accuracy and the neatness of geometric forms.
The works of several authors mentioned above can be classified as samples of sacred geometry that within the framework of esoteric tradition convey the world’s structure with non-verbal means of expression and juxtapose the sacred world against the chaos of prime matter. Many well-known natural phenomena, too, are created following “common principles” that determine the set-up and form of these structures. They can be noticed in the patterns of leaves, snowflakes, beach sand or the human body, which proportionally corresponds to both the pentagram and the golden ratio.
In her work The Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky defines geometry as “the fifth key in the series of the Seven Keys to the Universal esoteric language and symbology”.3 The key here can be interpreted as a path that is individual for all of us. Seven paths lead to one goal, which we all reach from a different direction, but the door cannot be opened if you have not used at least one of the seven keys.
The artist Zanis Waldheims (1909–1993), who is not so well known in Latvia and who lived most of his life in Canada, found geometric abstraction in a rather different way, if compared to the artists mentioned above. He studied philosophy, psychology and physics and was interested in cosmology. Waldheims sought answers in relation to the interconnection of things as well as the interaction between the human mind and behaviour. He also tried to understand the possibility of absolute harmony. As a continuation of his theoretical studies, Waldheims made complex geometric drawings that served as maps and systems of signs, as a result acquiring a symbolical meaning. The constructions of the exact mind were accompanied by intuitive use of colours, but two dimensional drawings were turned into spatial objects. It is surprising that, irrespective of the dissimilar experiences and diverse means, there are countless similarities that can be found in the works of Waldheims and Kunz. The abstract symbols become a universal language that resonates in the consciousness of humankind, providing the pattern of the world’s fabric.
On most occasions, such spiritual and practical sidesteps, which lead away from the rational Western approach in the perception of the world, are connected with the idea of the East, beginning with spirituality and ending with medicine and methods of healing such as acupuncture. An important discovery, which 2500 years ago allowed Chinese specialists to establish the practice of acupuncture, was related to finding special points in the human body through which it was possible to impact chi,5 or the energy of life. Many of the points were found accidentally when touching certain areas in patients’ bodies and trying to understand the cause of their pain;5 however, nowadays acupuncture, or needling therapy, entails more than 1000 various points, which, under the impact of needles, can lead to the improvement of health.
In addition to the use of medical plants, massage and other therapies, acupuncture is part of the centuries-old practices nowadays defined as Eastern or Chinese medicine. The first news about this method reached Europe via the writings of Dutch travellers in the 16th century, yet nowadays it is possible to study the practices of acupuncture all over the world. Acupuncture in Latvia emerged in the 1960s, during the period of the Soviet Union. The official name of this method was reflexotherapy, and it was considered as something similar to biomechanics, where, on the one hand, biology or medicine are at work, but on the other hand, new technologies are put in use, thus it was not considered ideologically harmful to the Soviet nomenclature.6 Unlike Western medicine, which treats illnesses, Eastern medicine focuses on the human being, helping to regain the balance of body and mind and looking at the human being as one whole, therefore it is also called holistic medicine.
Next to its scientifically proven medical efficiency, the popularity of acupuncture in the West could also be viewed from the perspective of the visual culture recognising its aesthetics and performative features. Namely, acupuncture can bring a touch of exotic Asia to one’s everyday life, approving the lasting presence of Orientalism in the West. Both the procedure and the meeting with an acupuncture specialist, as well as the room where the therapy takes place, contain elements that, along with the patient’s curiosity and excitement, ensure if not any additional effectiveness to the procedure, then at least further popularity for sure.7
In the framework of the Survival Kit 8 festival, acupuncture is used both as a direct reference, as, for instance, in the work of Lea Porsager, and as a metaphor, which indicates the points of interaction and collisions between Eastern and Western medicine, as well as the perception of the world and models of thought in general, as, for example, in the installation by Atis Jākobsons. The state of reflection, which is so often quoted as Eastern, has been combined with activism by the artist Marte Johnslien, providing the possible departure point of art creation and social engagement through the painting method applied by the Buddhist monk Chôgyam Trungpa, which starts from a state of absolute peacefulness and non-aggressiveness. Treating the world as a body in which chi energy flows without interruption, at times causing congestion and at times flowing at a great speed, it becomes clear that Western medicine and antibiotics only give rise to new side effects and do not help to sort out the congestion in the flow.
One of the festival’s venues this year will be the Pauls Stradins Museum for History of Medicine, where co-existing and potential points of interaction among a variety of medical models are revealed on several floors, eventually leading visitors to the section of ethnomedicine and Eastern medicine, including acupuncture, and moving on to the space medicine of the Soviet era and the latest modern technologies. At the same time, the museum’s exposition becomes both part of the festival and a contradictious framework for certain works and events by the artists. A session of individual therapy in the museum will be led by the artists and curators Valentina Desideri, Géraldine Longueville and Myriam Lefkowitz, mixing traditional practices, for example, tarot cards, with such self-developed and tested ideas as political therapy and walks with closed eyes. The artist Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson will also include references to medical procedures in his work, merging them with hip hop and elements of vocal exercises.
When analysing the etymology of the term melancholy, what first comes to mind are the temperament types used already in the times of Ancient Greece, including the melancholic type. But nowadays it becomes apparent that melancholy acts both as an ordinary synonym for sadness and as a medical term that defines one of the manifestations of depression. For the artist Artūrs Virtmanis, it is a significant map of the modern-day individual’s state of the soul, which, similarly to a ship lost at sea, can be rescued only by a miracle. Whilst the artist Kate Krolle together with the writer Agnese Krivade try to understand the causes of loneliness, the artists Kaspars Groševs, Vivienne Griffin and Cian McConn try to treat sadness with mantras and dances of words over and over again.
Furthermore, Floris Schönfeld, whose work will be exhibited at the Pauls Stradins Museum for History of Medicine, refers to numerous communes that in the 20th century have tried to find connection with nature in manifold ways, starting with the interest groups focused on active recreation and ending with hippies and pseudoscientific expeditions aimed at listening to plants in the 1960s and 1970s. Listening to nature could be regarded as a stark esoteric phenomenon if, however, plant sensitivity and potential conversations hadn’t become part of the scientific research field both using the latest technologies and trying to free oneself from the anthropocentric position, including the understanding of language and communication. Plant-thinking as an alternative model of thought has entered philosophy, and one of its researchers—the philosopher Michael Marder—explains it as referable to both the potential thinking processes of plants and our thinking about plants, as well as how it would be possible to think through/along with plants. Marder describes plant-thinking as rhizomatic and notes that, on the basis of a variety and several positions at the same time, it is possible to act more meaningfully in the complicated present when opposing a single truth, which is increasingly becoming a norm in the context of national states, political crises, attitudes towards migration and other ambiguous issues.8
One can only imagine that the hallucinogen features of some plants could be the imprint of their thinking, which, for example, affects the state of mind after drinking the ayahuasca plant mixture in the Amazonian jungle. To the accompaniment of a shaman’s drums, one experiences a trance-like trip, irrespective of whether it is meant to be a purification ritual, a spiritual journey, a meeting with the world of spirits, a rebirth or enlightenment. It seems very appropriate that the Romanian researcher and writer Mircea Eliade has defined shamanism as an “archaic technique of ecstasy”.9 Shamanistic rituals are also present in the works of the artist Miķelis Fišers, in which he tries to warn about the conspiracy plans of the parallel world and reptilian humanoids and attest to “the presence of higher consciousness in every emanation of reality”. The sculptures made by the Icelandic artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir also resemble mysterious objects of ritual or voodoo dolls. The forms made of clay are accompanied by a dried leg of a hen as well as amulets and runic characters.
I assume that many people became interested in shamanism through the works of Carlos Castaneda, who offered an insight into the Yaqui way of knowledge, the soul trips of Mescalito and Don Juan’s teachings, which state that “a man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect and with absolute assurance”.10 Since ancient times and in various cultural spaces, shamans have worked as mediators between the world of spirits and humans, as guides of souls and as healers, but, according to the demands of modern-day society, a visit to a shaman is included in alternative tourist routes and the mysterious rituals are turned into theatrical mass performances.
As opposed to shamans, witches are usually believed to have magical skills and abilities that are most frequently used to do evil. However, the etymology of the Latvian word for “witch” points to a derivation from the word redzēt (to see), relating witches to clairvoyance. Nowadays, both original meanings have merged in colloquial expressions, in which a witch mostly refers to an annoying mother-in-law or is used in women’s magazines when encouraging readers to find their (magical) skills of seduction. However, these stories lack the middle part, which can be found in the work by the artist Chiara Fumai, creating a multi-faceted historical persona—the characters of witches, revealing their feminist side, which was therefore manifested at a time when the women’s rights in the modern understanding did not exist.
Irrespective of the ideological and practical differences among various cultures, religions and medical theories, our everyday lives, perhaps, entail the greatest potential for syncretism, because they are grounded in numerous rituals and symbolic actions, which are sometimes performed deliberately and sometimes automatically, freely navigating between principles based on both Western and Eastern religions, pseudo-religious movements, self-help literature, techniques of psychology or horoscopes. While Shana Moulton intertwines eclectic everyday spirituality with elements of pop culture and psychedelics, Ieva Kraule’s performance reminds us of the well-known fortune cookies with baked-in prophecies for every day. The artist Katrīna Neiburga is interested in various methods and rituals that people use in their pursuit of happiness and harmony. At times these rituals are very naïve, at other times they form the basis of the truth-of-life map. The artist Katarzyna Przezwańska, in turn, has created a peculiar shrine in Stritzky’s villa referring to the eclectic aesthetic synthesis of home altars.
Society’s interest in non-traditional medicine and Eastern spirituality in the contemporary techno-utopian world has become especially heightened. Training in meditation is included in business school programmes and is offered as a smartphone application. Mindfulness courses—in which a technique appropriated from Buddhist teachings is taught, asking participants to focus on the present moment, on the here and now— have become a profitable business project. For example, the meditation application Headspace created for iPhone by one of the “new spirituality” experts, Andy Puddicombe, has been downloaded by three million users since its release in 2012. It is also being used by such international companies as the Virgin Atlantic airline, General Motors and others.
Furthermore, the artists Goldin+Senneby offer the tools of a magician, which can be used to practice magic in the financial markets. Revealing the manipulations of the modern-day financial world, the artists compare the business environment with the back stage of magic, where, hiding under the curtain, the shaman rituals, witchcraft, Eastern teachings and magic tricks can be put to use.
As noted by the curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev: “Seen from the perspective of today’s ecological disasters, political crises, and general global disorientation of a networked world based on paranoiac control and exhibitionary narcissistic disorders via the Internet, these so-called rational endeavours of ‘progress’ in modernity appear much less logical than they once did. And modernity itself seems much less factual and rational that it purported to be, and much more permeated byspiritualisms and forms of magical thinking, of ‘factiche’ more than facts, and much less integrated than the world views of their occult opposites, the Madame Blavatsky or Rudolf Steiner of their times.”11 On the other hand, the alternative model of the esoteric communes, too, hides threats that can be manifested as extremism or totalitarianism depending on the aims and ideological setup of the leaders and followers of the movement.
Thus, a serious, non-scientific interest in esotericism or magic in the environment, where critical thinking prevails, is regarded as a very poor feature, although the development of various non-traditional religious and philosophical ideas and movements has been a very crucial part of Western society and history. The esoteric communes of the early 20th century had the potential to draw attention to such binary oppositions as nature and culture, standing up for holistic thinking, liberalised sexuality and other progressive principles. Besides, you don’t have to be very sharp-sighted to notice similar historical setups that in various times give rise to investigative quests beyond the boundaries of the rational world, especially in times that entail rapid changes, misgivings and depression, when it is very obvious that there is something wrong with the world.
1 The team at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.
2 Jung C. G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections – Vintage Books, 1989 – p. 239.
3 Blavatsky H. The Secret Doctrine vol. II – Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993 – p. 471.
4 Chinese medicine is based on the studies of qi (chi), or the so-called energy of life – the flow, rhythms, cycles, changes, movement and balance of life are studied.
5 Mole P. Acupuncture for Body, Mind and Spirit – Oxford: How To Books Ltd, 2007 – pp. 16–17.
6 Akupunktūra – gara un miesas līdzsvara atjaunotāja – NRA – available at: http://nra.