Ennobling Architecture

Looking at “Architectural Digest”, I see some great homes & interiors that a modern Louis the IV might envy. I ask myself how many people actually “deserve” to live in such works of art? By this I mean that one can have the experience of seeing such a magnificent man-made environment and assuming that whoever lives there must be equally fascinating and magnificent, only to discover that once again a mediocrity has enough money to pay for something ostentatious in the hopes that it might “ennoble” him, and cement his stature. Such is the democracy of money, which makes no distinction between individuals (and it is the individual his or herself who must distinguish their money)

The talent for making money, which distinguishes the one who has it from those who merely inherit it, or gain it by fraud and theft, nevertheless does not always translate itself into an over-all fascinating, creative, and noble character. Often it is the result of an ingrained habit of industriousness, a narrowness of focus and even myopia, and a good sense of timing (or just luck in it – the gambler’s instinct!)

It is good for the human soul to be inspired by inventive and ennobling environments. Yet a man cannot be ennobled or rendered into “greatness” by his home and his possessions. It is he himself who must ennoble them by the greatness he possesses and cultivates within his own soul. The method of molding one’s interior state from an exterior form can work its magic best only if the exterior design already contains the objectified, manifest spirit of an interior realm that reaches for a vision by which to transform itself. In other words, the objective, material universe must be endowed with, and charged by, the designs of one’s own spirit before it can exercise a reinforcing influence upon it.

-Werbinox