The Venusian & Bardic Arts
Ars longa, vita brevis. "Art is long, life is short."
The Venusian & Bardic Arts: Introduction
Book XII gathers the Venusian and Bardic culmination of the Royal Art: redeemed imagination, Beauty as ascent, song as remembrance, art as sacred participation, and myth as the living transmission of the Kingdom. The Bard offers the completed Great Work before the final Revelation in Book XIII.
How does the awakened and crowned human being transform the wisdom, beauty, and sacred inheritance of the Great Story into a living masterpiece through poetry, music, myth, art, and divine participation?
- I. The Sacred Artist — Creation, Imagination & Beauty
- Foundations of the Bardic Opus
- Imagination & Participation
- Beauty & Ascent
- The Artist's Vocation
- II. The Bardic & Venusian Mysteries — Inspiration, Song, Myth & Love
- The Muses & Inspiration
- Sacred Sound & Music
- Hymns & Sacred Song
- The Bardic Lineage — Mythic & Ancient Bards
- Poetic & Mystical Traditions
- Bards & Poets — Medieval to Modern
- Mythopoeia & Living Myth
- Fairy Tales, Parables & Narrative Motifs
- Mythic Epics & Narrative Traditions
- The Venusian Path — Love & Eros
- Sophia, the Feminine & the Sacred Marriage
- III. The Arts of the Kingdom — Word, Image & Performance
- The Bardic Craft — Poetry & Verse
- Rhetoric & Oratory
- Language
- Sacred Image, Architecture & the Royal Art Atelier
- Emblemata
- The Iconographic Reference Library — Emblems, Allegories & Artists
- Play, Dance & Sacred Performance
- The Play of Life
- The Bard's Workshop — Songbook, Hymns & Practice
- IV. The Creation & Offering of the Great Work
- The Bardic Synthesis
- The Bardic King & the Final Offering
I. The Sacred Artist — Creation, Imagination & Beauty
Foundations of the Bardic Opus
The Bard as Sub-Creator: Human Participation in Divine CreationCreation and Sub-Creation: Book I and Book XIIThe Royal Art as the rectification of authorshipImagination & Participation
Original & Final ParticipationThe Mundus ImaginalisHealing the Imagination: Poetry, Myth,….The Baptizing, Consecration & Atonement of ImaginationBeauty & Ascent
The Theology of Beauty: The Beautiful as a Revelation of the DivineBeauty & TruthThe Beauty of FormsThe Path of Beauty: Plato's Eros & the Ascent through the BeautifulPlotinus - Raising the soul to the superior worldHans Urs von Balthasar: Beauty & Theo-DramaThe Venusian ArtsThe Connoisseur, The AestheteArt as Theurgy: The Sacred Act of CreationThe Artist's Vocation
The Role of the ArtistThe PoetArt & LifeLife Lived or UnlivedMy message is my messageThe Bard as the keeper and renewer of the living memory of a civilizationII. The Bardic & Venusian Mysteries — Inspiration, Song, Myth & Love
The Muses & Inspiration
Mother of MusesThe Nine Muses: Daughters of MemoryAwen: “poetic inspiration”Sophia and the Muse: Divine Inspiration and the Birth of the Sacred SongInvocation of the MusesSacred Sound & Music
Silence: The Ground of the SongThe Music of the SpheresThe Power of SoundThe Sacred Song: Music, Poetry & the Voice of the DivineThe Temple of MusicFicino's Musical Magic & the Orphic HymnsThe Dionysian Mysteries: Ecstasy & Sacred IntoxicationHymns & Sacred Song
The Homeric HymnsThe Orphic HymnsThe Hymns of OrpheusThe Bardic Lineage — Mythic & Ancient Bards
The Bardic Lineage: From Orpheus and Homer to Blake, Tolkien & DylanThe Sacred Lineage of BardsAncient MythmakersApolloOrpheus: The Mythic BardHomer: The Blind SingerHesiodVirgil & The AeneidOvid’s MetamorphosesTaliesinVäinämöinenPoetic & Mystical Traditions
The TroubadoursThe Poet-MysticsThe Sufi Mystic PoetsRomanticism & The Romantic MovementBards & Poets — Medieval to Modern
Dante AlighieriWilliam ShakespeareJohn Milton & Paradise LostWilliam BlakeJohann Wolfgang von GoetheSamuel Taylor ColeridgeJohn KeatsThe Last BardJ.R.R. TolkienT.S. ElliotBob DylanMalcolm GuitePoets to ComeMythopoeia & Living Myth
Mythopoeia: Creation of the Song & StoryThe Mythic ArtsThe Mythic ImaginationCreating a Living MythMythopoeia: Myth-Making A Meta-MythosFairy Tales, Parables & Narrative Motifs
The Fairy Tale as Initiatory NarrativeParables & StoriesEuropean Fairy Tales & the Brothers GrimmHans Christian AndersonSnow WhiteRobin HoodThe Grateful DeadMythic Epics & Narrative Traditions
Great Mythic Epics WorldwideVedic Epics: Mahabharata & RamayanaOne Thousand and One NightsThe MabinogionThe NibelungenliedSong of RolandDon QuixoteModern MythsThe Venusian Path — Love & Eros
LoveThe Forms of LoveThe Path of LoveLife is RelationshipCourtly LoveCourtly Love & the Longing of the SoulTurn Armor into AmorThe Ars Amatoria: The Art of LoveSophia, the Feminine & the Sacred Marriage
Feminine PowerNatureEcho & NarcissusMercury & MinervaAmor & PsycheThe Sacred Marriage: Sol & Luna, Mars & VenusIII. The Arts of the Kingdom — Word, Image & Performance
The Bardic Craft — Poetry & Verse
The Bardic ArtsPoetry as “Making”Poetic Meter & VerseHow to Be a PoetRhetoric & Oratory
Art & RhetoricSeven Oratory QualitiesThe Twelve Ladies of RhetoricLanguage
Cockney Rhyming SlangSacred Image, Architecture & the Royal Art Atelier
Sacred Architecture & the Geometry of BeautyIconographyHeraldryThe Coat of ArmsRoyal Art: ImageryThe Royal Color SchemeTypographyEmblemata
Liber Emblematum Artis RegiaeEmblemata: Renaissance EmblemsThe Heroic Devices of Claude ParadinGeorge Wither: A collection of emblemes, ancient and moderneThe Iconographic Reference Library — Emblems, Allegories & Artists
A working list of Iconographic Themes & AllegoriesNine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three GracesPhysiognomyHomo bulla: “man is a bubble”Four Allegories: Perseverance, Falsehood, Fortune, & PrudenceThe Combat of Love and ChastityThe Triumph of LoveJanusThe Alchemical GardenRembrandtPlay, Dance & Sacred Performance
The Art of Living: Life as Poetry, Play & Sacred PerformancePerformance ArtThe Mystery Plays of Medieval EuropeSacred Dance: Ritual Movement and Sufi TurningThe Play of Life
The Play of LifeThe Play, Game, Dance, The Play - Living Art & Poetry, MasteryThe Eternal ChildPanThe Bard's Workshop — Songbook, Hymns & Practice
The Songbook — Canticles of the Crown