Mood and Truth: What About Them?
tenebris, et umbra mortis."
"O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."
Listen to this Antiphon by clicking the play button
I thought it is appropriate to begin explaining the thematic approach of this blog in Immaculate Mediatrix Online entitled "Mood and Truth" by reflecting on the significance of the fifth "O Antiphon" you just heard sung in the original Latin.
"O Oriens, splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justitiæ: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis."
There are at least, but not exclusively, two forces that affect individual human behavior, and when collectively taken produce a social phenomena of culture, namely MOOD AND TRUTH. The marked division between the two lies in the transitoriness of one and the permanency of the other; it lies in the arbitrary subjectivism of the former and the objectivity of the latter; it lies in the difference upon which they reside in the human psyche: mood for emotions and truth for the intellect and will.
Having this polar differences between Mood and Truth in mind, one can look back what happened in history, in culture and in society when built upon any of these forces. There are at least three representative influential figures that left their marks in contemporary "moods" of our day: Picasso for art; Sigmund Freud for psychology and Karl Marx for sociology.
1. Pablo Picasso and Cubism (1881-1973)
Picasso is known to popularize a revolutionary art called "cubism". Cubism is a 20th century movement that revolutionized the visual perspectives of art. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics.
Art is no longer a "copy" of reality as in Plato or a reality characterized by splendor and beauty in Aristotle nor a sacramental ladder to God in the Middle Ages. In cubism, the artist captures the distorted, uncertain and chaotic human existence and translate it into color and canvas creating a collage of bits and pieces something akin to multi-personality psychosis. Here is a brief video clip that will prove this point:
It is certainly interesting to study the philosophical underpinning of contemporary art especially cubism. This is what I intend to do in the future. But to return back to the main thrust of this blog, that is, on Mood and Truth, one can certainly anticipate the wonderful gift of thee faith that we all received. When all human attempt to establish one's existence on the changing mood is exhausted because they all fail, the great "O Antiphon" of the One who is from the Orient brings the splendor of eternal truth (splendor lucis aeterne- veritatis splendor). He is also simultaneously, the Sun of Justice (sol justitiæ). Truth and the good are interchangeable (verum et bonum convertuntur); the Sun that illumines is at the same time the one that justifies. He is the One who is to "come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." Here, in this great but simple Antiphon is the intrinsic connection between darkness and death, between light and life. In other words, where there is Truth, there is life for the "Dayspring" from the Orient "comes and enlightens those who sit in darkenss and the shadow of death."
I will continue in second installation on the psychological "mood" of Sigmund Freud in the future. God loves you. - fmm.
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