A symbol of our closeness with the gods.
Even bears have been known to recognize beauty, often gazing into expansive, beautiful landscapes. This quality about bears might even make one think that bears are ensouled (or ensouled to a higher capacity than non-beauty-recognizing animals).
If capacity to recognize beauty symbolizes the depth of one’s soul, then the aspiration towards beauty is the desire for closeness with what we perceive to be divine.
The beautiful, the divine. They become one in the same.
God is with you in the ugliest of moments, but God is often not recognized until the beautiful moments. The sunshine peeking through the curtains, the laughs with friends, the birds chirping. Even those dark, ugly moments can be beautiful in their own right by simply recognizing the divine presence beneath all of it.
These moments being defined as beautiful, these things that make life worth living being “beautiful”. The people we love being “beautiful”. People being attracted towards beautiful people. It’s all a dance. The human, seeking to commune with God once more.
This obviously does not imbue the beautiful person themselves with divine qualities, but their beauty grants their vessel divinity in the eyes of others, even if not reflected in the contents of one’s soul.
Everybody aspires towards divinity.
Men pack themselves in gyms to be like Ares and Achilles. Women buy skincare products and wear makeup to look like Aphrodite. Hercules is always depicted with a strong body, worth aspiring towards.
Jesus is always depicted, and described, as a beautiful man. When the viral “this is what Jesus really looked like” image caused controversy, it was precisely because it made Jesus no longer beautiful… a blasphemous idea in the eyes of millions. To imply that Jesus was not beautiful almost implies he was not divine.
When somebody says they are an atheist, to a subconscious degree that will make you think that they are incapable of recognizing beauty… that they do not see the beauty in life. Even that they are drawn towards the ugly or disorderly (what is the big bang if not ultimate disorder)
When people find themselves in the orbit of beautiful people, beautiful places, beautiful things, there is often an accompanying emptiness, a dissatisfaction, like there is something more yet to be had, even if such a thing does not exist.
This is because as much as they try to imitate God and as much as they try to make their surroundings look like heaven, they feel as though they’ve not yet communed with God, not yet united as one.
In Tibetan Buddhism, this is an illusion.
You are one with the divine, the beauty you seek is already within, but hey, there’s nothing wrong with wanting your vessel to match.
-Demetrio