Transcendence through Art

Every once in a while I am completely overwhelmed by art, so much that I become totally immersed in the experience, a sort-of momentary contact with the divine. If organized religion could offer the same experience, I'd be in church every Sunday. For example, in the world of painting, this happened to me once in college while visiting the Richard Meier addition to the Des Moines Art Center, staring at Francis Bacon's painting, Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X. In the world of architecture, I have felt eternity under the ethereal vaults of Reims Cathedral. And again, this transcendence happened to me merely by chance this morning, as I was listening to "classic rock" tagged music on last.fm, and the David Bowie song, Quicksand, from his 1971 album, Hunky Dory, played. I had heard the song before, but there must have been something just right, as this time I didn't just hear it, I really listened. The lyrics were what amazed me, so here they are:

Quicksand
by David Bowie


I'm closer to the Golden Dawn

Immersed in Crowley's uniform

Of imagery

I'm living in a silent film

Portraying

Himmler's sacred realm

Of dream reality

I'm frightened by the total goal

Drawing to the ragged hole

And I ain't got the power anymore

No I ain't got the power anymore



I'm the twisted name

on Garbo's eyes

Living proof of

Churchill's lies

I'm destiny

I'm torn between the light and dark

Where others see their targets

Divine symmetry

Should I kiss the viper's fang

Or herald loud

the death of Man

I'm sinking in the quicksand

of my thought

And I ain't got the power anymore



[CHORUS]

Don't believe in yourself

Don't deceive with belief

Knowledge comes

with death's release



I'm not a prophet

or a stone age man

Just a mortal

with the potential of a superman

I'm living on

I'm tethered to the logic

of Homo Sapien

Can't take my eyes

from the great salvation

Of bullshit faith

If I don't explain what you ought to know

You can tell me all about it

On, the next Bardo

I'm sinking in the quicksand

of my thought

And I ain't got the power anymore


[CHORUS]