Beauty through the Eye of the Beholder
“If beauty is inherent and essential to soul, then beauty appears wherever soul appears... Beauty is an epistemological necessity; it is the way in which the gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life.”
James Hillman
Beauty is another victim of our culture. It has been shaped and formed into a narrow set of unrealistic standards that people are expected to achieve. And many people try, including yours truly, as a lot of time and money (approximately $500 billion dollars annually) are spent in pursuit of the American beauty dream.
Other people fight back against our culture’s beauty tyranny and reject anything related to beauty as it is seen to be pandering to the patriarchy.
But both extremes, either the insatiable pursuit or the complete rejection of beauty, cause us to lose the true beauty of beauty: Beauty connects us to soul. Beauty connects us to the divine.
But only when beauty is not limited to our current cultural standards. Our bodies shouldn’t have to be a certain shape or muscle structure to be considered pleasing. Our hair doesn’t need to be a certain color or style. Make-up or no make-up should be considered a choice of self-expression, not a prescription. We aren’t traitors of feminism if we choose to wear make-up for ourselves. Our lives, including our homes, our clothing, or even our careers, shouldn’t have to appear a certain way in order to be considered attractive.
Returning to beauty, and to soul, and to the gods, requires us to consciously redefine beauty for ourselves. Beauty has to not be judged through the “male gaze” or even through a “feminist gaze”, but rather through a “soul gaze.” What if we let our souls be the eyes through which we see ourselves and the world around us? Might we be a little kinder to our bodies? Our wrinkles might be seen as the worry we held for our loved ones. Perhaps we can see that our bodies are the perfect vehicle for our soul.
If we look at the world around us through a soul gaze, we might see our challenging relationships or our tough days at work in a different light. Maybe we will find some beauty in the mess and some more compassion for ourselves and others.
The soul gaze moves us from a place of immediate judgment to a place of curiosity. We go from looking at things as good or bad or pretty or ugly to asking things such as “What does my soul want me to see?” and “What does my soul want me to make of this situation?”