Spiritualism in America
While visiting family in the Midwest, I came across this excellent exhibit on Spiritualism in American Art called Supernatural at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. The exhibit was filled with 19th century Symbolist painters as well as mediums who believe they were in direct communication with dead poets and artists, as well as contemporary artists who have incorporated a feeling of the unseen into their work. This might be unrealized thoughts, emotions or “personal haunting.”
“Forgetting is a form of denial, even unconsciously, and it only delays our reckoning…. Remembering is to confront ghosts, to ask what they want, to make amends, and learn to live with them.” (Caption from the exhibit)
Growing out of the bloodbath of the American Civil War, Spiritualism was a non-denominational belief system where in the soul transfers to another spiritual realm upon the death of the body. There is no death, and that family members could directly interact with the spirit world was a source of comfort to those who lost their loved ones in the war.
In my youth, I believed that there is a world beyond what we see, but with age, I have let the more rational side disregard these spiritual notions. I don’t believe in a spiritual realm, but I don’t not believe either. To my mind, spirituality is a lovely metaphoric poetry.
