Mysticism in the Theater

What's Needed Right Now

Tom Block

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Année: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000543780
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Media & Performing Arts
• Sous-sujet: Theatre History & Criticism

Mysticism in the Theater introduces theater makers to the power and possibility of using historical mystical ideas to influence all aspects of a production. Historical mysticism represents ideas developed by recognized spiritual thinkers in all religions and time periods: individuals who stilled their ego, and perceived the unity of all, hidden within the apparent multiplicity of existence.

This unique manner of spiritual inlay allows theatrical presentations to find the height of artistic expression: art at the intersection of our historical moment and the eternal. This study introduces theater makers to the history of mystical inspiration within performance work and develops strategies for inserting mystical ideas into their productions. The book ties this model into theatre's history, as mystical ideas and quotes have been inserted into productions from Greek theatre through Shakespeare and into the present day.

This book explores how teachings and ideas of specific historical mystical thinkers might influence all aspects of contemporary theatrical productions including writing, directing, acting, stagecraft/set design, lighting design, costume design, sound design, and choreography.

1MysticismThe human religion

DOI: 10.4324/9781003187271-2

The search for a restorative theater begins and ends in the spirit. Not with any single religious path, mind you, but with the human religion: mysticism. The beating heart lying at the center of all transcendent paths.

For whatever reasons, members of our species peer into the world and see division between objects, people, and religions. This perception creates tribal strife, religious tensions, social hierarchies, political parties, immoral patriotism, economic divisions, and war.

This perception of separation represents the ultimate human challenge.

Mysticism offers an antidote to this dynamic. Mysticism soothes, heals, and points toward the harmony lying latent and too-often unremarked beneath the apparent multiplicity in the world. Mysticism unearths the interconnection between all people, as well as fundamental affinity of the individual with the universal energy.

Applied mysticism—the application of spiritually healing ideals to social and political interactions—moves people away from disunity, tribal silos, and sometimes deadly strife, toward a healthier, unified, and more supportive human community.

Theater offers a vital and time-honored manner of suffusing mystical ideals into the general society: time-honored because theater began at the intersection of mysticism, creativity, and society. By reinserting mystical energy into theater, we offer a manner of return to the earliest mystico-theatrical impulse, as well as a novel (in recent memory) way toward a healthier society.

This book explores exactly how to do this: first, by understanding mysticism and theatrical history, and then by exploring how theater makers might insert restorative ideas into their production and aid in leading humanity toward social and spiritual renewal.

A wry certainty

You should know that these philosophers whose wisdom you so much extol have their heads where we place our feet.

(Isaac of Acre, d. 1330 in Perry, 1971, p. 734)

Our contemporary worldview emerges from the illusion that we might rationally comprehend the predicament of being human. Beginning with Enlightenment thinking (18th century), which proposed that science held answers to all of life’s questions—from personal psychology to the distant origins and purpose of the universe—humans turned their backs on the mystery at the heart of being, replacing it with a wry certainty. The Industrial Revolution, 100 years later, brought further faith in human ingenuity, allowing us to believe in the ability to master our surroundings through the force of our intellect.

An arrogant confidence emerged, positing that things unseen do not exist.

But this belief in our capacity to “get to the bottom of things,” or control them for our narrow benefit, has not borne out. Every time a gate of understanding swings open—from atoms to sub-atomic particles to quarks, for instance—a new question emerges. And each time we think a new industrial palliative responds to our most pressing need, it simply creates a host of new, unforeseen, and oftentimes more dire problems. The 1950s faith in oil and chemicals, for example, led to Superfund sites, global warming, more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic detritus in our oceans, and a Western population riddled with cancer, dementia, and a growing collection of auto-immune diseases.

This apocryphal tale captures our actual psychic plight with more certainty than all scientific comprehension and industrial progress combined:

A Western traveler encountering an Eastern philosopher asked him to describe the nature of the world: ‘It is a great ball resting on the flat back of the world turtle,’ responded the philosopher.

‘Ah yes, but what does the world turtle stand on?’ responded the searcher.

‘On the back of a still larger turtle.’

‘Yes, but what does that stand on?’

‘A very perceptive question. But it’s no use, mister; it’s turtles all the way down.’

(Sagan, 1986, p. 343)

No matter how many theories or how small the particles unmasked or how much computational power we create in the largest mainframe computer, we can never move beyond the ultimate question: what is at the bottom of it all? And every time we solve one problem, more crop up in its wake. Beyond every door of explanation lies another question mark. Solve that deeper problem, and another question mark pops up. It is eternal, because the conclusive question—why?—cannot be answered from within this realm.

The mystics—those who have turned every question over and over again and always come up with the same answer: the question mark at the heart of being—have a response to the final query. A story told about the Hasidic master, Rabbi Barukh of Mezbizh (d. 1811), expressed this conundrum and its answer.

Rabbi Barukh’s student inquired into the nature of God, becoming lost in an infinite regression of questions and answers. The Rabbi visited him, finding him curled into a desperate ball in the corner of the room. The Rabbi said: ‘I know what is hidden in your heart. You have passed through the fifty gates of reason. You begin with a question, and think, and think up an answer—and the first gate opens, to a new question! And again you plumb it, find the solution, fling open the second gate— and look into a new question. On and on like this, deeper and deeper, until you have forced open the 50th gate. There, you stare at a question whose answer no one has ever found. But if you dare to probe still further, you plunge into the abyss.’

‘So, I should go back all the way, to the very beginning?’ cried the disciple.

‘If you turn, you will not be going back,’ said Rabbi Barukh. ‘You will be standing beyond the last gate. You will be standing in faith.’

(Buber, 1991, p. 92)

Such represents the mystic’s response to the conundrum of life: move beyond questioning, into acceptance of the mystery.

What mysticism is not

If we have to increasingly medicate ourselves to live within our current model of society, then perhaps we should re-evaluate the model.

(McGraw, 2004, p. 163)

It often makes sense to understand something by first defining what it is not. In the spiritual search, this represents “apophatic” understanding, or knowledge of God obtained through negation. Some of the greatest thinkers followed this path, from Meister Eckhart (d. 1328; Christian mystic and heretic) to Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900; philosopher and, I propose, apophatic mystical thinker), Buddhists, Sufis (Islamic mystics, who assure that whatever you think God is, God is something else), and many others.

As language becomes degraded by political dogma, advertising, and mass culture, many misconceptions grow up around commonly used terms. We lose sight of their particularity through the fog of disinformation. George Orwell (d. 1950) noted:

Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse. [This] slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

(Orwell, 1946, online)

Ideas around mysticism fall prey to this linguistic disease. However, mysticism represents the most powerful force in human experience. Ergo, it behooves us to untangle this idea from the variety of spiritless attributions which have overgrown it in the popular mind.

Mysticism does not represent clairvoyance. It has nothing to do with ghosts. Nor does it concern itself with Ouija boards, fortune telling, thought transference, luminous energy fields, long walks next to the sea, tourist visits to ancient archeological sites, or weekend participation in indigenous sweat lodges. It doesn’t concern hypnotism, Orgone Energy, idealism, positivism, miracles, occult sciences, disembodied dreams, transcendental experiences, or psychedelic drugs (sorry!). Forget about Theosophy, Freemasonry, crystals, tarot cards, pyramids, astrology, and hermeticism. Reiki is out, as is hot yoga.

You definitely do not need to travel to find it. Jerusalem, Cuzco in Peru, or Sedona in Arizona are no more mystical than your living room.

Even worse than the linguistic word salad overtaking this ancient spiritual path, mysticism has become monetized in the Western society. It has been used to sell new personal awareness apps (Mystical Shaman Oracle: “Mystical Shaman Oracle Readings anywhere,” or the Mystical Messenger, which “will lead to chatting with hot guys!”). Mercedes-Benz went to a Zen monastery to shoot an ad for their A 45 AMG, pairing their product with five Buddhist monks practicing zazen meditation. Mysticism can also win basketball games, as Phil Jackson (b. 1945), one of the winningest coaches in that sport, was referred to as the “Zen master,” because of his integration of meditation, Buddhism, and other spiritual traditions into his coaching practice.

Mistaken ideas concerning mysticism have brought people together under the tent of a single autocratic leader (the QAnon conspiracy supporting Donald Trump has been found to have a strong spiritual component). Sometimes, it purports to offer fulfillment at a manageable cost. The Kabbalah Center (with locations in more than forty cities in 19 countries) uses the heart of Jewish mysticism to teach how astrology acts as a roadmap for life, to release negative thoughts and emotions in personal relationships, and to help you move toward prosperity and vibrant blessings of abundance and fulfillment. With a series of classes, workshops, and books (all specially priced for even the most frugal mystic), and a shopping page filled with amulets, trinkets, and Kabbalistic texts published in Aramaic (not their original language), mystical attainment can be had by simply opening the wallet.

The mysticism outlined in this book will be based in none of these spiritual facsimiles.

The ideals explored herein present timeless mystical concepts, grounded to the historically-based spiritual search, growing from the deepest insight known to humanity, shared across all time periods, geographies, and religious paths.

Mysticism and religion

Most religion seeks to maintain itself by asserting dogmas, employing social and psychological persuasion or intimidation, invoking distinctness of cultural or group identity, and, at the all-too-common worst, instigating or practicing persecution, torture, war, and murder.

(Peter Malekin in Y...

Table des matières

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Mysticism: the human religion
• 2 History of mysticism in theater
• 3 Mysticism in theater: what’s needed now
• 4 Praxis: mystical theater in action
• Index