After another inspiring and meaningful interaction with a friend, I felt drawn to revisit this essay on the nature of Beauty by Hermetic adept Rawn Clark. It inspires me to go a different direction with my perceptions.

The deeper level of meaning in the statement, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, is revealed through consideration of Paul Case’s Trestleboard statement for #6 (Tiphareth, which means ‘Beauty’ in Hebrew): “In all things, great and small, I see the Beauty of the divine expression.”

Here, Beauty is described as a divine expression. This is the essential meaning which each thing expresses through its form (its thing-ness). When directly perceived through a form, essential meaning has the same affect upon the perceiver as does the mundane perception of Beauty. The direct perception of essential meaning touches you at every level — it uplifts your thoughts and emotions and stimulates the response of appreciation, happiness, etc. Even though it requires emotional detachment, the direct perception of essential meaning is not mere passive observation — it is an experience and you become at one with that quanta of essential meaning.

Yet it is up to the perceiver to directly perceive essential meaning and in that sense, the power to perceive the Beauty that is expressed through all things, lies “in the eye of the beholder.”

When we perceive something (and this doesn’t have to be a concrete, physical thing — it can also be an idea, an emotion, sensation, etc.) which we feel at an emotional level is Beautiful, we feel that way because the essential meaning that the form expresses, comes in a form through which we personally can more readily perceive it. The reason is because the personal filters of perception that we see things through at the mundane level, are in greater harmony with *that particular form and we can therefore harmonize with the essential meaning that form expresses. To our eyes, the form harmonizes with its essential meaning and we can therefore perceive that essential meaning more clearly. [Sorry if that's unclear -- it's hard for me to put in words at the moment.]

Ordinarily, we do not see the Beauty of the divine expression (i.e., its essential meaning) in all things, great and small. But when we do directly perceive essential meaning in all things, we discover that the forms of all things harmonize with their essential meaning. In other words, Beauty is, quite literally, all around us and all within us. All we need do is see it.

… At the mundane level, when we perceive something that we feel is Beautiful, it means that we are perceiving more of its essential meaning (its divine expression) than we would perceive in a thing we feel to be ugly. Essential meaning nourishes us (this is the Divine Water principle of All-Love) and one way in which we receive that nourishment is through mental, astral and emotional perception. In most of our perceptions, the essential meaning is minimized by our personal filters of perception, but when we perceive Beauty, we perceive a greater quantity of this nourishing essential meaning or divine expression. We are affected by this perception to a greater degree than we are by the perception of an “ugly” thing. Thus the mundane perception of Beauty is especially nourishing.

When we intentionally imbibe essential meaning from the cup of Beauty, this effect is magnified still further because it is an intentional and conscious action. We focus upon it and upon the feelings its perception generates within us and therefore extend its effect upon us and increase our nourishment. And … we can consciously inhale that Beautiful essential meaning. This is what I mean by “breathing it in”.

All perception of essential meaning nourishes us mentally, astrally and physically. Which is to say that all perception nourishes us — each use of our mental, astral and physical senses nourishes us. By ‘well nourished’, I mean that we are in harmony with life and with self. In other words, we more clearly express our own essential meaning. The question then becomes one of how well nourished are we?

If all we do is perceive unintentionally and without focus then we have an essential meaning diet equivalent to eating at McDonald’s for every meal. If we surround ourselves in Beauty and perceive it all the time then we are reasonably well nourished. If we add to that the factor of intentional and prolonged inhalation of the Beauty we perceive, then we are very well nourished indeed!

We can quantify it thus:

1. Mundane, un-intentional perception. Barely sustains body, soul and spirit.
2. Mundane, un-intentional perception of Beauty. Briefly stimulates body, soul and spirit.
3. Mundane, intentional perception of Beauty. Briefly nourishes body, soul and spirit and has a temporary harmonizing effect.
4. Intentional inhalation of Beauty. Nourishes body, soul and spirit and has a prolonged harmonizing effect.
5. Direct perception of essential meaning through external things. Deeply nourishes body, soul and spirit and briefly transforms them.
6. Direct perception of one’s own essential meaning (and that of all things, great and small). Permanently transforms body, soul and spirit.

The challenge is to take this beyond the superficial “see the beauty in everything” type of mentality that merely covers up seeming ugliness by distracting one’s focus — which is, perhaps, as far as my supposed sensitivity often goes — and instead to look deeply into the whole reality and Mystery of a thing, a person, an event, a gestalt, and perceive the harmony within it. At this stage, the intent is not even to help others, purely to nourish myself, to foster the inverse of my constant perception of dishonesty. Because, God knows, I need that nourishment so much.