72 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
and the bodily response of the senses in engaging the anima mundi , the
world soul or the world ensouled: “Sensing the world and imagining
the world are not divided in the aesthetic response of the heart... ”
(1992, p.107). The imagining heart enables us to experience depth,
beauty, love and soul in ways that go beyond words.
According to Hillman, images are an interpenetration of our
individual consciousness with the consciousness of the world.
Aesthetic responding to the world involves responding to the sounds
and smells, the shapes and gestures, and the languages of all of the
things of the world. For Hillman, living what he calls an aesthetic
life, living with a vital aesthetic sensibility, is particularly important in
this time. Through aesthetic sensibility the soul experiences intimacy
with the world and understands the world as more than objects
to satisfy our consumer appetites or simply categories of scientific
classifications. He says that, without awareness of beauty and without
imagination, the soul shrivels. The primary aesthetic response of
breathing in, taking in and taking to heart is our aesthetic response
to the world.Aesthetic responsibility
Closely related to concepts of beauty, aesthetics and aesthetic response
is the expressive arts concept of aesthetic responsibility. The ability to
respond to the world is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be a
human being (Knill et al. 2004). Thus it is our aesthetic responsibility,
an ethical call, to respond to what is beautiful and to care for the
beauty of life. Our calling to create is our response to our sensory and
imaginative experience of the world. Danish artist Majken Jacoby
(1999) says that beauty binds us to the world. Giving form to our
experience of the world is an act of care for the life we are given. The
urge to create, to feel our belonging in the world is innate.