The following is the extended version of a caption I posted on Instagram today. There is a character limit on that platform and I had to omit some of the original text. Find it in totality below:
“Good taste” emerges from the two foundational qualities of discernment and aesthetic judgment. These qualities simultaneously sharpen the eye and refine the spirit. Through them, beauty becomes something we can learn to recognize rather than something we merely prefer and call “personal preference.” To gain aesthetic intelligence, we study both symmetry and anomaly in order to achieve a sense of context. Knowledge of symmetry allows one to recognize when something is out of alignment. Knowledge of anomaly helps one identify exactly what is out of place. Symmetry is a matter of mathematical proportion and is the physical representation of universal truth. For this reason, symmetry creates objective beauty. Humanity introduces deviation. Emotion introduces asymmetry. Evolution introduces variation. If we want to understand symmetry as Divine truth, we look to the Renaissance Masters and classical architecture. If we seek emotion, imagination or subjectivity, we look to modern art. This is why, on page 91 of my poetry book Slow Motion, I wrote, “Don’t look at modern art.” It was a playful exaggeration expressing this idea. I have shared this poem here:
Don’t glorify the future
Don’t look at modern art
The techniques of the masters, learn them by heart
Renaissance works still stand when pulled apart
Use the past for a proper frame of reference
Not these confounding scribbles on a digital canvas
Only a return to the truth can save us
Goddess, save the art world
God, save us from the screen
-art save the artist from the modernity scheme
In ancient times, symmetrical art and architecture were understood as a form of medicine. To gaze upon perfected form was considered therapeutic, a way of restoring inner harmony through outer harmony. Today, we readily accept that sound can heal—hymns, chants, certain frequencies, binaural tones—yet we have largely forgotten the healing power of symmetry itself. We recognize vibrational medicine in music but overlook the mathematics of beauty as a parallel form of spiritual alignment.
This is distinctly different from what many describe as “healing” through splattering paint or releasing emotion onto a canvas. Such methods are practices of emotional transmutation, valid in their own category, but unrelated to what I am referring to. What I am pointing to is the quiet, corrective effect of merely beholding art or architecture that carries divine proportion. Modern art, with its emphasis on emotion, spontaneity, and imprecision, serves a different function entirely.
⚖️ The first step in cultivating good taste is to immerse the mind in symmetrical perfection. Discernment then develops as an internal system of metrics, created through observation and reflection. This internal vetting naturally shapes our aesthetic judgment. It becomes a silent instrument of measure. Once this instrument awakens, we begin to recognize mathematical cohesion immediately, and a taste for this recognition emerges. What reflects proportion reflects truth, and those who are aligned with this truth instinctively resonate with it. This is why the word “integrity” refers both to structural soundness and to alignment with truth. And why the word “sound” itself is used to describe a “state of being in good condition, the quality of being based on valid reason or good judgment” and also “vibrations that travel through the air and can be heard once they reach the ear.”
Integrity, proportion, and beauty mirror a metaphysical pattern, the Platonic Form of order that underlies both art and existence. This connection alludes to the mysteries of fraternal societies that symbolically use the jargon of masonry to guide spiritual initiates. 🛠️
“Pattern” is the directive masculine principle, and matter itself is the receptive feminine principle. To quote Goethe, who said, “Architecture is frozen music,” vibration becomes form when pattern impresses itself upon matter, translating harmony into geometric structure. The masculine embodies, enacts, and impresses the pattern. The feminine is the substance upon which the pattern is received and revealed. The word “pattern” is etymologically rooted in “pater,” or father/patron/protector, while “matter” is rooted in “mater,” or mother/material/matrix. The word “matrix” literally translating to “womb” or “breeding female.” The interaction of pattern and matter reflects the sacred act of creation. To develop good taste is to consciously participate in this mystery, to train the senses toward the architecture of the Divine.
[…] Notice the repeated use of the word “pattern.” I discussed the etymology of this word further in another post: 🍦here. […]