"art cannot be separated from religion. Art is sacred. Not only can the gods be represented, but art is how they can be represented, and insofar as men perpetually assure them of re-presentation, they have a full status of existence."(page 93)

Because, as it says in the Book of the Dead, "That which is remembered, Lives", and art helps us to REMEMBER. Aletheia! Sacred, indeed! For me, I often find my artistic goals and initiatory goals merging. Benoist goes on to say:

"All European spirituality is based on representation as mediation between the visible and the invisible, on representation by means of depicted figures and signs exchanged against a meaning intimately tied to the real, the very guarantee of this incessant and mutual conversation of the sign and meaning."(page 93)

'Conversation of the sign and meaning', I hope that's what I've got going on in my art.

Anyway, this "mediation" is what I'm aiming for!

(Benoist is speaking of 'European' spirituality to distinguish it from the monotheistic forms. He is not speaking of the Egyptian religious/magical viewpoint, yet I think what he says applies here. For in all the hieroglyphs and in the exact depictions of the Gods, they are doing this 'mediation'. To the ancient Egyptian who understood the conversation, these images would speak directly to their spiritual understanding.)

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