Spiritual thinkers in the arts....
A spiritual view of stillness
A Conversation with
Muriel Lebrun Marceau
Muriel Lebrun
Marceau's early years as an
actress involved her in the theater. Later in her life while watching a
performance by Marcel Marceau, the famous French mime, she became aware of an
element that she feels can lift theater from the entertaining to the
inspirational. She discussed this in the following interview, conducted by
Journal staff member Eva-Maria Hogrefe.
Eva-Maria Hogrefe: Would you say that the reason spiritual qualities
uplift human consciousness is that they speak of God?
Muriel Lebrun Marceau: Yes. The expression of such qualities enriches one with
fresh inspiration and stills the distracting commotion of human fears. For me
the stillness sometimes conveyed in art is almost a prelude to prayer.
Eva-Maria: Do you mean that such stillness can express a kind of
willingness to listen to God and His ideas?
Muriel: Yes. When I pray I often think of the words from the
Bible in Psalms "Be still, and know that I am God."1
Eva-Maria: What are the qualities in the art of mime that you find
so inspiring?
Muriel: Seeing Marcel's performance on stage for the first time,
I thought it was the most beautiful experience I had ever known in the theater.
I was touched by every movement and facial expression—the beauty, the harmony,
the total lack of clutter in each gesture, but at the same time everything
being conveyed that was meant to be conveyed, without a word spoken.
Eva-Maria: What do you think helps give the art of Marcel's mime
the element of spirituality?
Muriel: I think an important part of it is innocence. Jesus told
his followers that one has to become humble, like a little child. Marcel
expresses those childlike qualities. He also has such incredible control over
his body
Eva-Maria: That hints at the prayer-like stillness you mentioned
before. It's not just being quiet. An absence of noise is no assurance of
spiritual stillness. Silence can hide all kinds of self-imposed limitations
—loneliness, boredom, frustration …. Spiritual stillness is filled with purity
and peace—with love that expresses divine Love. That stillness makes the
activity of the Christ in consciousness so very apparent.
Muriel: Yes. I think a good mime rests in that stillness. That
may be why Marcel never seemed to doubt his talent, this gift from God.
Eva-Maria: Did Marcel ever explain to you what he was trying to
convey?
Muriel: Well, like Pagliacci the clown, Marcel is trying to show
the pretenses that people sometimes hide behind when they see themselves as
vulnerable—attempting to deceive themselves and others.
Eva-Maria: But, interestingly enough, he portrays deception as an
imposition on himself and his neighbor, a mask that can be removed. As
something we do not have to hold on to.
Muriel: Pulling off the mask is like letting go of the old and
putting on the new—a death and a birth. It reminds me of what Mary Baker Eddy
writes in Science and Health:
"Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and 'all things
are become new.'"2 I think a
successful mime has to be spiritually-minded and honest within himself in order
to uplift an audience through the stillness of mime.
Eva-Maria: Could we summarize what we've discussed by saying that a
love for spiritual values is not a hindrance but a help to artistic endeavors
and the way we each perceive art?
Muriel: How can it be anything but a help. For me spiritual
values have enlarged my perception and appreciation of art. And stillness, I
feel, is an essential ingredient in all areas of art. Dancers, for example,
dance in silence to music. For me, inspired silence is an expression of Soul,
God.
I think Christian Science
has taught me how to quiet my thought and while watching mime, listening to
music, watching dance, or looking at a painting, to feel and experience the
deepest kind of love —the universal love of God. This has enlarged my
understanding of every form of art that I'm witness to. Things that I would
never have seen are now, through spiritual discernment, accessible to me.
enjoy with me my love not only of listening to nature, and all the expressions of Love's beauty all around us, but also my joy in recording glimpses of it with my camera
For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this
problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, kept
aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not
selfish nor depressing.
Mary
Baker Eddy
from Science and Health 109
"Thou
shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus
xx. 3.)
The First Commandment is my favorite text.
--MBE
Blessed, Thine
Delighted,
Father-Mother, because
I
am gratefully pondering good today,
Considering
how You, dear source above,
Enrich
me, that I may
Know
my being deep in Your love.
Revealed
as the image of Truth divine,
I
behold through healing staff and rod
That
I am blessed, blessed,
Blessed,
Thine.
Eva-Maria Hogrefe
Lonely silence,
a single cicada's cry
sinking into stone
--Basho
Over the moon
Turning head—
A skylark
--Vincent Hogrefe (2000)
And I have
declared unto them thy name,
and will declare it;
that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me
may be in them, and I [the Christ] in them.
–The Bible, John 17--
The fragrance always remains
in the hand that gives the rose.
--Heda Bejar
From Peacemaking: Day by Day
The day that makes you happy makes you
wise
a miniature painting by Eva-Maria
Listening! When out-doors or indoors listening to the songs
of birds, to the wind, the rushing-sound of trees, and ocean waves, and yes to
the pulse of the city, listening to the voices near and far, to music, to
different sounding languages (I live in a multi-language city) listening to
those who are needy, listening to the heart expressed in words, listening to a
friend, listening to love, listening in silence, I have learned so much from
listening, and it gives me joy, especially when listening to the still small
voice within!
Eva-Maria
O let us talk of quiet that we know,
that we can know,
the deep and lovely
quiet of
a strong heart at peace!
--D.H. Lawrence
--D.H. Lawrence
Peace and Love with YOU!
Warmly,
Eva-Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment