Customer Reviews

Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alex Grey is quite probably the greatest artist alive today.

With that said, back to the book at hand. Sacred Mirrors is probably the book most people who want to get an idea of Grey's art should buy first. I find it slightly more accessible than Transfigurations, and it does not demand any knowledge of Grey's previous work. For those unfamiliar with his work, he paints almost all of the systems of the body in a transparent fashion, layered on top of each other. In his paintings you will see bones, nerves, blood vessels, chakras, and auras all at once. It can be overwhelming, but careful study of the paintings can make you see ordinary processes like kissing in a whole new way. And if you keep looking deeply at his paintings, things will keep revealing themselves. He also paints deities, from Avalokiteshvara to Jesus, with loving detail. This is definitely a great coffee-table book (and so much more!) for anyone interested in how transcendental theories of energy would manifest themselves visually. Grey's book also makes delightful entertainment for any kind of trip. Overall a sound buy for almost anyone who gets that feeling, sometimes, that there may be things going on in our physical reality that we just can't percieve. Grey can see them, and he has shared them with us.

If you never read one word of this book the images alone are so rich, and tell thier own story. As you leaf through the book page by page an understanding of who we were and who we will become emerges giving hope to the viewer that he is more than he thought. I feel this work came from a higher place. As a Nurse, I know this artist is exact when drawing the body, and as a spiritual person, I feel he is exact in depicting the spirit. This is a great reference for people doing 'Reiki" or "Healing Touch" because you shows you in images, what your feeling in your work. I highly recommend this to anyone in the healing arts. (I hope Amazon.com will print some pictures here for the public) thanks :-)

I'll be the first to admit I had never heard of Alex Grey before. However, I am a fan of the music group Tool. The artwork on their new CD was done by Alex Grey. I never paid this much mind until I was in a book store a couple weeks ago and passed right by "Sacred Mirrors". I stopped, turned around, snatched it up and ran to the counter. Upon further reading I must say it is phenomenal..

The essays presented talk about Alex and his work. They provide an indepth look at his philosophies on transcendence. While enjoyable to read the real reason to buy the book is the art. I have never seen anything quite like Grey's work. It is bold and bright. His use of colors and their correspondence in the human body are simply amazing.

This book is definitely recommended for anyone who wants to view the human body; our physical, mental, and most importantly, our spiritual side, in a whole new light.

"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it."
Ernest Holmes

There seems to be a couple schools of thought; one is that this body is simply a mound of flesh. It may or may not have a soul or a spirit. It is mechanical, it is predictable, it is prone to all kinds of disease and suffering and its eventual downfall is always death and the other is that this body is an extension of the Spirit. That we are not a body with a spirit as much as we are Spirit with a body; that every cell, every atom, every strand of our being is being made and remade in the Image and Likeness of Light; that the whole universe is pouring into us and through us in each and every moment, that life is eternal. After we lay down one body, we quickly receive another and another and another....

I tend to believe the latter.

I got into metaphysics/philosophy/spirituality whatever you want to call it quite young...my early 20s. I had what many called a "mental breakdown" it was, in fact, a Spiritual breakthrough. It was like all of the sudden I realized that my identity...the identity that I knew as "John" was completely made up and I was the one that made it up consequently I had made everything up!

How completely liberating!
How completely terrifying!

But after I was released from the hospital, I knew in the depths of my soul that I could not return to the world as the same person, because I wasn't the same person. I was resurrected, I was re-born and not in a Benny Hinn/Jimmy Swaggart kind of way. I had truly been baptized with the Holy Spirit...the Whole of Spirit...the Celestial Fire that is within every thing and every one just as every thing and every one is within it. It's just that most of us, if not all of us, fall prey to appearances. In other words, we get used to things. We start seeing the world as flat even though intellectually we may know it's round, emotionally we feel as though there is a hole in our soul and we are suffocating from the world....

Before we go any further with this review...STOP...and simply breathe slowly in.....and breathe slowly out....just breathe in White Light let it cleanse your mind, your spirit, your body...and breathe it all out...breathe in...and out...just try to regain ground, try to get centered, try to open yourself to Life...to Light...to Love...

This is what Alex Grey did in his paintings. He did something with his art that I had only read about in metaphysical books. It's easy to write about metaphysical experiences; it is easy to say that the body is an extension of the Great Creative Power that permeates the universe; it is easy to write that we are not the body but the soul...but how do you envision this...how do you picture this in your mind? How do you allow this information to gain entrace to your heart, your emotional nature? Well, Alex Gray has done this in this incredible book, The Sacred Mirrors.

These "Glimpses Into Higher Thought" are breathtaking...if you merely see them as paintings, they will be just that...I prefer to refer to them as oil based glimpses of a Higher Realm. They are still in the world of form so we cannot consider them Absolute Truth because Absolute Truth cannot be dipicted or written about or talked about, but they can and they often do, point to a Higher, a Deeper Level of Awareness.

If I'm teaching a class based on Spirituality or Metaphysics, or if I have a client that is kind of resistant to the idea that we are primarily the spirit, that this corruptible body is simply a vehicle that our soul uses during our visit to a time/space bound world, I casually yet very enthusiatically show them this book and sometimes they even gasp.

This book is raw. It doesn't hold anything back. It is truly a metaphysical classic. It is the Sutras, the Holy Scripture, The Divine Word all in one. I wish that Alex Gray would come out with a line of prints that one could matte and frame because I would surely love a few of them hanging up in the room where I meditate and hold client sessions.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Let of of your small "s" identity and merge with your True Self Reality...your Godself, your Light, your Holy Spirit and breathe it all in...and breathe it all out...

Peace and Blessings, everyone.

Not only is his representation of all the "bodies" immanent in the human being superb , but his telling of the story, in a series of pictures, of the individual's vision quest and subsequent return to society to share betrays his own apparent intimate knowledge of the visionary experience. Of course I could also merely say that this is trippy stuff. Indeed.

Although I have had this book for many years, I still pick it up in wonder and awe. As a teacher of anatomy and a lover of beauty I would recommend this book to anyone. If I could say one thing to Mr. Grey, it would be "thank you".

This book is a masterpiece. The artist, Alex Grey, has created visions of mystical spiritual beauty-- visions captured and inscribed on the pages of this book.

I don't know of any artist whose work is more frequently included in slides shows and books about mind body healing, consciousness and spirituality.

Just this week, Newsweek did a cover story on neurotheology-- the study of the neurology of spiritual experiences, and two of Alex Grey's works of art were prominently featured in the magazine.

Grey paints with the detail and precision of a medical illustrator-- but one on mescaline. The images are both beautiful and shimmering with energies-- the kind of energies which connect human souls and spirits together, which connect the whole universe together.

I met Alex Grey while attending the Omega Arts week. He was teaching a course on visionary art-- expressing the sacred visually. It is to his credit that he is a popular teacher of this unique approach-- expressing the visionary and spiritual through art. It's amazing to see the great work he inspires in his students too.

Once you see this book, you'll probably need to buy more copies-- as gifts. But first, start off by buying one for yourself as a real treat.

There are several sequences of art in here. Plans are under way for the primary sequence's original works to be assembled into a kind of "temple" or special building which will house them. Grey has designed the whole building. You can learn more about it under the web site which is spelled out by his name then dot com.

I have owned this book since it was first published, and it is now worn & tattered from countless hours of study and viewing. It is a work of incredible insight, spiritual power and beauty. I have purchased several copies for close friends. My dream fantasy would be to own an Alex Grey painting. Buy the Book if you don't have it!

This is the most amazing art book. In the central part of the book, Alex Grey presents the human being layer by layer. Starting with the skeleton, he adds the nervous & circulatory systems, the viscera, the musculature, and finally the skin. Materialist would stop there. But Alex Grey has the eyes of a mystic, and continues to depict the etheric & energetic components of humanity, right up to the Void of pure consciousness. He also includes deities from east & west, showing that they too "mirror" what we are in our depths. Many of the later frames are suitable as objects of meditation. The most talented energy-healer I know seems to know everything about people just by looking at them, and she says what she sees is what Alex Grey paints. This book contains art that can put a person in touch with her deepest and noblest possibilities. This book is nothing less than a gift to the human race!

Very simply put, this artist Sees. This book should be a standard text in the education system. So much of our health problems, mental and physical, stem from lack of awareness of our body, mind and "spirit" (soul, energy, Tao, etc... whatever pointless name you want to give the Nameless It). Grey's images can aid in undertanding the complexity and perfection of the Human System. If you are on the multi-faceted journey of self-realization, that of knowing who you are, who we all are, look at this book. It WILL move you, no matter where you may be.