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The Pleromatics Project
Afterword
COSMICA: Sistina Revisited
To walk into the Sistine chapel is to walk into a cosmos of the spirit. In a mental revisitation of Sistina, unruffled by the noise of crowds and the press of bus-tour timetables, let us walk again into that chapel and see what may be recaptured now of Michelangelo's vision. There is still argument about Michelangelo's "artistic programme," but the spirit of the cosmos can give us a message in its symbols, without regard to his historical intent.
The most advantageous entry into the chapel is from the west door, looking "east" toward the altar. Though the altar of Sistina sits at its geographic west, on this tour let me follow the traditional usage of western Christendom and refer to the altar as liturgical east. Thus the choir balcony, on the right hand as one faces the altar, is on the "south" wall. We scan the view of the whole: the vast ceiling with its creation story flanked by Prophets and Sibyls; and above the altar, its restorer's scaffolding mentally removed, the "Last Judgment".
We have plenty of time to stop and reflect. There is something wrong. The "programme" is reversed. Creation does not lead logically from the west door toward the Last Judgment over the altar; creation extends backwards, its beginning abruptly joining the "Last Judgment". Was not Michelangelo too much of a genius to have made such a mistake?
True, he complained a lot about the stresses of the work of painting the ceiling. And there was a big gap in the timing of the two projects. Michelangelo (1475-1564) was 33 years old when he started his work on the ceiling (1508-1512). He was 61 when he started on the altar wall (1536), and 66 at its unveiling (1541). Was his orientation of the creation story just an accident, or was it intended to begin at the holiest end of the church without regard for what might adorn the wall later?
Our eyes are drawn to the Christ centered above the altar. Something is wrong again. Everybody knows that there was a lot of complaint about the nudity, but contemporary critics complained of more than that. For example, after the unveiling a letter reported to a cardinal that Christ had no beard, and was too young, "and hadn't the Majesty he should have, and in general there is no shortage of carping ...."
But that is not exactly the problem I am thinking about. Christ's face is not the stern visage expected of one presiding over the casting of the damned into outer darkness. His face is serene, contemplative. His left hand is held very expressively before his chest, and the right hand raised. His gestures are more suggestive, anachronistically, of conducting a symphony than of banishing sinners.
Mary stands beside him, eyes closed as though to see spiritual light, and her wrists are crossed before her cheek as she listens soulfully, as though to hear celestial songs. Yes, Bartholomew, who holds the flayed skin with Michelangelo's own face, looks angry, as do some others nearby; but generally it is those farthest away who show the greatest despair. One in particular, gripped by devils, covers his face only partially, exposing a vacant stare through an eye frozen in awful panic. Yet others mill or fly around complacently, almost indifferently. Who can be indifferent at a Judgment? Certainly not the saved, if they love as they were taught to do.
The light gets worse as one approaches the glowing portal of hell in the lower right hand corner, and that's where we would expect to find the dead. But is the motion right? Could not the motion of the whole be around the Christ, then up toward the lunettes and ceiling, rather than downward? Jonah sprawls on the pendentive over the altar, "half-blinded by the light that the other prophets and Sibyls seem dimly to perceive." On the wall below him to the right, in the lunette between wall and ceiling, is an unidentified group flying around as if to move a Greek column. Paired with it on the left is the lunette depicting the Cross and Instruments of the Passion.
Above Jonah, whom scripture connects with Christ (Mt. 12:39-40, 16:4), creation begins in the ceiling panels. Of nine panels, six deal with creation events, three with the story of Noah. Above the door, over our heads as we entered from the west, is the Prophet Zechariah holding the Word. The side panels of the ceiling alternate Prophets and Sibyls, beginning with the Libyan Sibyl above the east-wall's Greek column and Jeremiah above its Cross. Why does Michelangelo blend God's Prophets with those wisdom symbols of ancient Greece? What has ancient wisdom to do with the Christian story?
Already the cleaning of the paintings is leading to new interpretations in the cosmos of that chapel. Dr. F. L. Meshberger, a physician, has noted that the flowing robes of God in the panel "Creation of Adam" exactly match tracings of anatomical drawings of the brain, and in remarkable detail. And look again at the figure of Adam. The painting is alive with anticipation. God has not yet touched him, but Adam's body is already vigorously alive. He gazes expectantly. Fearlessly, even lovingly, he lifts his own arm toward God's. Dr. Meshberger sees in this painting (and who cannot, now that he has seen it for us?) the endowing of Adam with intellect. We might also say it is the bringing of Adam to consciousness.
Thus is the spirit of the cosmos ever unfolding the enfolded sacred. We, as Adam endowed with mind, respond to the pull of cosmos toward unity, to fulfil the destiny of our creation. But the endowment with consciousness is twofold. It conveys the capacity and the responsibility to balance knowledge with the spiritual quest.
There has been a recent tendency in some circles to see thinking as the enemy, the source both of the ("masculine") scientific revolution, and the paternalistic orientation of theology, both of which are seen to oppose and suppress the more feminine qualities of spirituality and feeling. That is a significant problem for modern psychology. The long-wounded feminine aspect of psyche must be healed, but without sacrificing the thinking function. We must remember that this panel is of Adham, the whole and undivided human before the differentiation into ish and isha, male and female. Adham's body in this panel is male, obviously enough, but the face conveys a very gentle and feminine spiritual quality. There is no threat in this interpretation to wholeness of mind and spirit, but rather its affirmation, for both men and women.
Mankind has a purpose and it is a purpose of the species as a whole. It is the human goal and destiny to learn both spiritually and cognitively. It is to learn to love both learning and the source of knowledge. But if that is to be realized, we must respond collectively, many individuals together, to the program of the cosmos. Enlightened spirit must reach its critical mass. We must think together, and spiritually link together, in an affirmation of knowledge and learning. Thought is essential to the creative process. It is the essence of the nuocontinuum.
The realizing of the program of the cosmos requires many individuals to embark upon their own quest. From the perspective of the nuocontinuum, the "Second Coming" of Christ occurs in the collective consciousness, and it is already in progress. However, this generalization of awareness must be accomplished through the individualization of awareness.
Even though the speculations about cosmic spiritual evolution cannot be proved, I can affirm personally that it holds for the personal cosmos. This study may, and must, be read in terms of personal quest for progress toward that individuation which we all can hope for in global society as well.
But the need for collective work cannot be denied. We need to link together, across a wide spectrum of knowledge and spiritual traditions in ways which conventional religious organizations have not often recognized or encouraged. Ewert Cousins (who is general editor of the multivolume World Spirituality series) has written of the value of "passing over" into the spiritual experience of others, so that one may bring back insights which enlarge our understanding of our own traditions.
That is only one of the special pastoral challenges brought on by the new knowledge. How can today's churches respond? Are there not ways to express our unity without wasting effort on trying to create still more organizational hierarchies? Somehow we must find spiritual ways to acknowledge the link of all prayer/meditation on the globe, and the oneness of all pray-ers, in all communities, monastic and otherwise, in all traditions. Jung has written that prayer "reinforces the potential of the unconscious, thus accounting for the sometimes unexpected effects of prayer."
Perhaps it would help to offer C O S M I C A groups for study and fellowship, in which people of many spiritual traditions could come together Co-Operatively Seeking Meaning In the Cosmic All. They could explore the common ground of physics and psyche, and journey together toward wholeness of spirit. COSMICA could be centered, contemplative, inclusive, expressive, explorative, creative ...
Hmm ... Like Michelangelo? Do you suppose that he could be the patron saint of COSMICA?
I wonder if we could rent Sistina for a day? We could gather there for quiet meditation on the Mystery of that place.
Less introverted people might prefer something livelier, but this would be, for me, the ideal way to worship in Sistina. I would lie there on my prayer rug and look up at Adham reaching out toward God. I would look again at the Christ above the altar, and at the swirling motion around him. I would contemplate Michelangelo upon his scaffolding, and smile at the idea that he had gotten creation backwards. I would marvel at the Mystery of truth as the integral of All. And maybe, just maybe, I would recite a poem to thank him --
Once again you lie upon Sistina's frameto clean away the grime of candle-years
which clouds the cosmic vision. Unveil anew the view of God who beckons us as Adham to reach, to touch divine and cosmic mind. As you toil there, shoulders aching where muscles once worked wings brush too, away the film of torpid sleep which clings to every eye that we might see with thee that figures circling 'round the Christ are not a view of final point in time but cosmos every moment organizing 'round its Word made flesh bright flesh naked writhing, seeking Meaning in the all. Seeking to embrace Truth-Beauty-Goodness Trinity from Whom creation daily springs. Earthly oils cannot be mixed so bright to show the brilliance of thy vision. Oh Michael, my heart and shoulders ache with thine to reach out, grasp, forever hold the Beautyof it all.
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Notes: Sistina Revisited
Description of the Sistine Chapel -- See Pietrangeli et al. (below) and R. Coughlan et al. The World of Michelangelo 1475-1564. New York: Time-Life Books, 1966.
"and hadn't the Majesty he should have" -- C. Pietrangeli et al. The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History and the Restoration. New York: Harmony Books, 1986. p 190.
"half-blinded by the light" -- Pietrangeli, op. cit. p 97, caption.
flowing robes of God -- F. L. Meshberger. An Interpretation of Michelangelo's `Creation of Adam' Based on Neuroanatomy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1990 (Oct 10); 264:1837-1841.
"passing over" -- Ewert H. Cousins. Christ of the 21st Century. Rockport MA: Element, 1992.
"prayer reinforces the potential" -- Jung, op. cit. PJ 633n, CW 11:740n.
"Once again you lie upon Sistina's frame" -- MOD-AD. The poem commemorates the feast day of St. Michael and All Angels.
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