The Numinous Veil

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It is at a sacred veil that – in the ninth year of the new millennium – my artistic and personal research RiVelAzione (2000–2008) arrives; through it, while not disowning previous experiences and symbolic attributions of the Veil, I transcend them all for a renewed and more productive interpretation.

The Numinous Veil takes on a special, constructive value: it heralds renewal. When we feel strongly all the annoyance and absurdity of a deafening, delirious worldly clamour, it can isolate us from our surroundings and allow us to find ourselves again.

Traditionally a white cloth is laid over the bowl of bread dough to help it rise: in the same way, the Numinous Veil strengthens everything it is placed upon and, in the case of humans, brings about extraordinary fermentations of psyche and soul.

Under the protection of this beneficial veil we can reflect undisturbed, de-structure the old energy and laboriously weave new, restored energy; and at the end of such a process it will be easier to reclaim an original life, conceived and made by ourselves, in place of a worn-out, mystified, induced one.

The extraordinary thing is that this veil is invisible: we wear it when we want, whenever we feel the need or the pleasure, and it is up to us whether or not to communicate our particular state to the outside. Through this precious Veil a fresh creative wave will sweep over us, translating into special intuitions, serenity, renewed inspiration, courageous and unstereotyped ideas and actions.

Such a leavening veil is in itself an initiation, and implies withdrawing from the world, moving away from it, to return to it with clearer sight and greater completeness: some call it wisdom, and it represents the attainment of a higher level in the evolution of consciousness, which may also involve solitude – a sumptuous, fertile solitude, however, with which we nourish our new life; a fruitful solitude, far from any sadness or marginalisation.

All this has one indispensable condition: so that it does not conform to old patterns – and so become ambiguous, disharmonious, tragic or unproductive – it must be freely chosen, deeply conscious and active; imposed by no one, not even by ourselves, by our less evolved ideas, by the more fragile, masochistic parts of us, those willing to be manipulated.

On these premises, the veiled state becomes a privileged place, a mystical signal, sublime yet deeply human, because it does not force us to abandon the world, but to look at it from the right distance, allowing us to draw a new vision from it and to explore all our potential, so as to act on reality with intelligence, shrewdness and compassion.