Did you know acting has links throughout history and across the globe to spirituality? In fact, I think there’s reason to believe that acting is the most spiritual art of all. But what does that have to do with us? What relevance does this have to the modern day actor? How do these concepts apply to our own work.

I believe that we can learn from the spiritual art around the world in order to find more meaning, depth and truth in our work. Whether you’re spiritual or not, the practices explored through this lens may be the missing puzzle piece that the contemporary artform is missing.

Why Acting Is A Spiritual Art

Nowadays, we often think of acting the same way we feel about most things – practical, considered, and cerebral. However, it has far much more to do with instinct and the subconscious than we might think.

Throughout the history of humankind, theatre has been approached as a spiritual art. From connecting to energies outside of ourselves to allowing spirits into our bodies, there have been a number of ways various cultures have explained what happens when we perform onstage.

Bella Merlin, in her book “Acting: The Basics“, describes acting as magic. Everyone who has been fully caught up in a character or a scene knows that this is what it feels like. Something seemingly unexplainable happens in which you are not yourself at all anymore but entirely someone else. Of course, many cultures attempted to explain this through way of spirituality.

Whether you are a spiritual/religious person or not, it can be worth analysing the history of creative spirituality. Even if you do not believe that spirits really came through and took possession of people’s bodies, it can be worth considering why so many cultures across the globe explained the art of performance this way. Perhaps, if we are not vessels for sentient beings, we are vessels for ideas, stories, and collective identities to have their say.

Creative Spirituality and Noh Theatre

Noh Theatre is one of the most often thought-of theatrical traditions that is linked to spirituality. This is a form of masked theatre from Japan that was initially formed as a spiritual practice. As such, it is often performed in shrines and temples to this day.

Noh Theatre is a spiritual art in many ways. The first and most obvious is the use of the masks. These masks are considered to contain the actual spirits of the characters they depict. This means they are handled with great care, especially as the wearer puts it on. The performer is then considered to be a vessel for the character’s essence.

There are also a number of spiritual rituals that take place for a Noh theatre performance. Before any performance, a purification ritual is performed for the space. Flowers are also offered to the stage as a gift of gratitude to the spirits of nature the performers intend to connect with.

The Spiritual Performance of Noh

The performances themselves run rich with spirituality. Many stories are based on classical myths and legends, using clear archetypes and familiar tropes to connect with audiences. The performances use specific, stylised movements throughout. These are symbolic of certain emotions and moods, and are thought to make it easier for the character’s essence to be embodied.

Chanting is often used as part of Noh Theatre. Chanting is a common theme throughout many cultures, religions and spiritualities in order to induce a trance state and connect to a higher plane of existence.

Noh performer’s training even reflects spiritual custom. Actors move through various levels or degrees as their career progresses. Each different level is associated with a different type of character, as well as a different level of spiritual prowess. The performers skill, spiritual receptivity and the characters they play are all tied together.

As you can see, Noh uses many spiritual practices, such as rituals, offerings, and cleansing, being a vessel for spirits through masks, archetypes, stylised movements, sacred spaces, and more. These are elements that are associated with both spirituality and theatre throughout the globe.

The Spiritual Art of Awen

While Noh is the name of a spiritual form of theatre, Awen is actually the name for the creative spirit itself. It’s roots lie in ancient Celtic and druid spirituality.

Awen is the Brythonic name for “Inspiration.” Awen is, in Welsh tradition, the inspiration for the poets and bards. It is considered to be an actual spirit or energy. It is connected to the idea of flow and the pure essence of creativity and life.

While Awen was known to visit people in a flash of inspiration, the Druids believed that we could also open ourselves up to Awen and invite it in. This could involve chanting, prayer, or meditation, or it could simply be as simple as allowing yourself to be open to Awen. Mentally extend an invitation to it and then get out of its way.

The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids describes this as simply “leaning forward, lifting the latch, and opening the window to Awen.”

Once you have done this, Awen should flow through you – not through your brain but through your entire body. It may flow into your head from the sky above or from the Earth below into your feet. You will then be able to embody the spirit of Awen.

Awen And Truth

Interestingly, Awen is also linked to the idea of truth and the spirit of truthfulness. This suggests that when Awen flows through you, you are a vessel for both creativity and truth. Truth is a concept that is mentioned all the time in acting. Working with Awen suggests the ability to make art that expresses something truthful about yourself, the human condition, and the society you’re reflecting.

Awen can apply to any creative pursuit or art – including acting. It links to many concepts we’ve touched on before including embodying spirit, chanting and ritual to create spiritual art.

Check out the story of Cerridwen – a sorceress from Welsh myth. It is said that she brewed Awen in her Cauldron of Inspiration and gave it to her son, Talieson, who then became a great bard, poet, and seer.

The Spiritual Art of African Traditional Performance

While previous examples we have looked at have considered spirituality to be a part of theatre, it is more the case in African Tradition that theatre is a part of spirituality.

While many parts of Africa did not consider calling on spirits or gods in order to tell their stories, they did consider performance and theatre to be an important part of spirituality. Performances, dances, and theatre would take place during many important spiritual rites, including funerals, coronations, weddings, and harvests.

It is less spiritual art, but art in spirituality.

Of course, speeches and singing take place during these rites in many cultures. However, fully embodied performance or theatre is a big part of African traditional customs.

One of the most famous elements of African spirituality is that of the mask. Here, there is a similar concept to Noh theatre in that masks are thought to contain the spirits of the beings they represent, which then allow the wearer to embody them.

However, where Noh masks represent the characters from the story, African masks are made to represent many kinds of beings. This includes human archetypes, nature spirits, animals, and ancestors or spirits of the dead.

African Masks and Their Links To Spirit

The masks are made specifically to represent the attributes of the being they are representing. Human masks will have different designs to represent different attributes – such as a wide forehead to represent intelligence. Masks for nature spirits can be entirely abstract or geometric, to represent the spirits having no physical form. Animal maks may represent the traits of that specific animal. Sometimes, masks are made to represent multiple different animal and human traits combined.

When worn, the wearer is said to become a medium for the spirit of the person, animal, or ancestor. The spirit is then able to move and speak through them. This may be particularly powerful at ceremonies such as weddings or funerals.

As you can see, there are a lot of concepts here that link to both Noh and Awen, and concepts that continue to turn up throughout theatre as a spiritual artform. These include masks, embodying spirit, archetypes, ceremony, ritual, and connection to nature.

Carl Jung, Archetypes And The Collective Unconcious

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst working in the early 20th century. His work attempted to find balance between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as balancing science and religion. While his work is not directly linked to theatre, many of his ideas are linked to the theatrical forms we’ve explored so far.

One of Jung’s most famous concepts is that of Jungian archetypes. Jung thought that there are essentially a number of roles that people can fulfill and archetypes that people fall into. Whilst this does not encapsulate the entirety of who they are as a person, he believed that there are certain ideas that are universal throughout humankind and these ideas reveal themselves through people as archetypes.

These archetypes are now often used in literature, theatre-making, and character creation and are often considered the basis of all storytelling. They include archetypes such as the Outlaw, the Lover, the Hero, and the Jester. These are often used within the arts because they are thought to connect to ideas, issues, and personality types that are truthful and universal for all societies and time periods.

Jung And The Collective Unconcious

Alongside his ideas about archetypes, Jung also developed ideas about the collective unconscious. He had the idea that there was the conscious – the things we are aware of, the subconscious – the things we personally are not aware of, and the collective unconscious – the ideas we all share but are not aware of. His reasoning for this was that the same ideas, concepts, and themes turn up in myths and stories in various cultures and time periods, all of their own accord. The way he explained this was that there are ideas that are intrinsic to all humanity, no matter what.

His ideas on the collective unconscious were particularly important to his ideas about spiritual art. He described the artist as a “collective person” who allowed art to create itself through them as they act as a vehicle for speaking the unconscious truth of mankind. Sound familiar?

Once again, we have a number of ideas that have turned up across the examples we’ve looked at before. It seems Jung was right – the same ideas really do pop up everywhere. Here we have the ideas of archetypes and symbols, embodying artistic spirit, and being a vessel for truth.

Creative Spirituality and Stanslavski

Now this looks a bit more familiar, doesn’t it? Stanislavski is seen as the Godfather of Acting – essentially, all of modern acting theory has roots in Stanislavski’s ideas, observations, and practices. However, even he knew the importance of spirituality in acting and seeing acting as a spiritual art – although you might now know it. There is, in fact, a reason why spirituality is left out of modern theatrical practice, even though it has been a part of it for so long.

Stanislavski brought the concept of “psychophysical” acting to the masses. This concept was that the psychological aspects of acting and physical aspects of acting should be in sync. They should be one and the same, and they should inform each other in a constant state of flow. The ideas should flow into physical expression, which should inform the ideas, which should flow into physical expression, and so on. Ideally, they should become so in sync that they seem to happen simultaneously and flow together.

Stanislavski and Yoga

How does this link to spirituality? Well, yoga was originally a big part of Stanislavski’s system and ideas about acting. Yoga has the exact same ideas about the mind and the body flowing as one. It considers using meditative movement and the breath to achieve this.

So, why is yoga not mentioned in any of Stanislavski’s writings? It was, originally! The Soviet regime in charge of Russia, where Stanislavski lived, at the time had very strict ideas about ideology, religion, and spirituality. They forced Stanislavski to remove these ideas about spiritual art from his writing and teachings in order for him to continue working. So, these ideas were suppressed until later on, after he was dead.

However, there is another layer to the importance of yoga in Stanislavski’s work. In the modern day, the western world often sees yoga as a simple form of exercise. It is a way to stretch, get strong, and learn to do a headstand. At best, it is a way to connect with the breath, meditate and find a sense of calm. However, it’s roots go much deeper than that.

The Truth of Yoga and Spirituality

Yoga’s roots lie in ancient India as a spiritual practice. It did have the intention of stilling the mind, but it was also seen as an important way of raising consciousness and connecting with divine figures, spirits, and Gods. This practice was deeply important to the people’s spirituality. It was considered that if you could unite the mind and the body, your mind could become still and focused in order to connect with a higher plane of thinking.

It is unfortunate that only the ideas of stilling the mind and uniting the mind and body have survived in Stanislavski’s works. Whilst these ideas along are extremely important to acting, the yoga that Stanislavski would have discovered would have been its authentic and spiritual form. This was the pre-1960s, pre-counter-culture revolution, and pre-appropriation of the yogic art.

The yoga that Stanislavski would have discovered was yoga which was a method of connecting to divine spirits and a higher level of consciousness. This, of course, was the element of his work that the Soviet Union would have wanted to suppress. Unity of mind and body through movement and breath? No problem! Ideas about spirituality and connecting to a higher consciousness? No way.

It would have been interesting to have seen Stansislavki given the ability to properly explore and communicate these ideas regarding acting as a spiritual art. Perhaps it would have entirely changed the way modern actors approach their craft. What we can say for certain is that the Godfather of Modern Acting also knew just how important the physical embodiment of spirituality was to the actor.

But I’m Not Spiritual or Religious! How Does This Apply To Me?

All this being possessed by spirits and ceremony and ritual sound a bit out there? That’s totally fair. This way of thinking about things isn’t for everyone. Either way, I think that this applies to every person who wants to be an actor.

Let’s frame things a little differently, shall we?

There are certain experiences, techniques, feelings, and ideas that have popped up throughout time in cultures around the globe, completely independent of each other. These have been explained in various ways in various cultures, in ways that make sense to them. However, the basic ideas are the same.

To me, if the same idea pops up over and over again, there is likely some truth to it. In this instance, it likely relates to something intrinsic to the human conditions, whether that’s something spiritual or psychological.

These ideas include the likes of physical embodiment (whether that be an idea, an archetype, a person, or a spirit), ritual, and ideas that are based on truth. The methods of connection to these things may be different, such as mask work, purification rituals, or yoga, but the destination is the same.

Of course, these destinations are all somewhat incorporated into acting work already. We work on physicality through Laban or Lecoq . Often, we have pre-show rituals or warm-ups. We do character research and try to achieve true feelings onstage.

A Different Way Of Thinking

Many of these are approached very practically. But what if, through either the use of our imagination or connecting to our spirituality, we were able to expand upon these techniques in order to enter a creative flow state and enter a higher level of consciousness? What if, through these practices, we were able to connect to a truth that is bigger than ourselves?

Again, perhaps it does not really matter if we attribute this to a spiritual force or simply accept that this is something that our brains have the ability to do. Perhaps the why is not important. It is simply asking ourselves how we can get there.

How You Can Apply Creative Spirituality To Your Own Work

By observing the approaches that have been universal to spirituality and performance across the globe, we can begin to create a framework in order to apply this to our own work. Why not consider adding some of these ideas to your acting practice:

Ritual

Many of us already have rituals when it comes to performance. They may be pre-show rituals or rehearsal warm-ups. Rituals are important because they signify to our brains that we are going from one state of being to another. This may be a different activity, mindset, or experience. However, they are a very powerful way of getting our minds to engage in what we’re entering into.

Why not create a little symbolic ritual before each time you rehearse or perform? There are so many different things you could do here. You could journal, pray, meditate, and say affirmations such as “I am open to creative ideas” or “I am open to the creative spirit.” You could shake off the day, practice a little interpretive dance, do yoga,

Why not consider some of the other rituals that are used in other work. You could do a purification ritual of yourself or your space. This can be as simple as washing yourself in water or visualising yourself bathed in white light. You could bless the space with sound such as ringing a bell or singing.

You could also have a ritual at the end of your practice by thanking the space, shaking off the character, journalling or purifying yourself and the space again.

Your ritual can be as long or as short as you like. However, it can be extremely useful to have a sequence of activities you have that you do every time you perform and are the exact same every time you do them. This simply signifies to your brain what you’re now transitioning into, and helps you remain fully committed to treating your practice with the highest respect possible.

Offering

This is another great way to invite inspiration into your work. If you are religious or spiritual, you could leave an offering to your God or to the universe. If not, you could make this a symbolic gesture. You could leave a symbolic offering to a relative or ancestor that always inspired you, your favourite actor, your biggest creative inspiration, a person you want to channel in your role, or even the person you’re playing if you happen to be playing a real person.

This can be anything. You can light a candle, burn incense, write a letter, do a drawing, offer them flowers or even their favourite food! Anything that helps you feel connected to this person is a great idea.

You can make this part of your ritual too. Feel free to invite this person’s energy into the space. You can also thank them at the end of the show or rehearsal.

Remember that the performance itself can also be considered an offering!

Prayer, meditation and visualisation

Mental connection to a higher power can be a really important part of this work, whether that’s to God, the universe, a spirit, the collective unconscious, or simply a higher and more focused level of consciousness in yourself.

A great way to achieve this is to say a prayer. You can pray to God, to the universe, or even just to the concept of creativity. You can meditate and settle your mind so it is easier for it to be open to higher ideas.

If none of these feel right for you, you can sit for a while and think about what creativity means for you and how you want to connect with those big ideas that you want to express in your work. You can also repeat affirmations to yourself, such as “I am open to creativity” or “I trust in my ability to express important ideas to the audience.” Why not write a little affirmation statement to yourself – a paragraph or so reaffirming faith in yourself and your work.

You can also visualise opening yourself up to creativity – such as opening the window to Awen. You can visualise creative energy running through your entire body, pouring into the top of your head, or growing up from the ground and flowing through your feet. Feel it’s energy enter you and open yourself up to it.

Archetypes

A very simple way to connect yourself to this work is through archetypes. These are used throughout various types of mask work, as well as showing up in broader creative theory.

Do some research on archetypes. Think about which ones you connect to. Think about which archetypes your character connects to.

As you do this, try to think about them beyond 2D character types. Think of these as representations of elements of the human condition and states that are universal to the human race.

You can then begin to think about the kind of people you are representing, why they are presenting as this archetype and how you can do their story justice. Think about which big, universal ideas those archetypes connect to and how you can express them through this archetype.

And remember, you will always have people who fit into this archetype sitting in the audience. It is them and their stories you are representing. Allow yourself to connect to the heart and truth of the archetype so that you are able to do them justice.

Physical Embodiment

The single thing that runs through every tradition we looked at on this list is physical embodiment. It’s inviting spirits into your body, acting as a medium for people and spirits, or using a psychophysical practice to achieve flow between the body and mind and connect to a higher consciousness.

Think about ways you can approach this. Perhaps you want to engage in yoga as part of your ritual in order to achieve that inner and outer flow state.

Perhaps you want to symbolically invite the spirit of the character, or the idea and archetype you want to express into your body. Allow yourself to offer your body and voice in order for them to express what they need to. If you do this, it can be a great idea to thank them at the end of the work and find some sort of ritual to let them go at the end. Purification rituals can be great for this.

You could try Chekhov’s exercise in which he instructed actors to sculpt their character out of thin air in front of them. Actors would physically sculpt the character in front of them as if out of clay. They would include as many details as possible. Then, when finished, they would step into the character they formed in front of them and imaginatively wear the character as though in a second skin. You can then imaginatively step away from the character at the end of the work.

Respect For The Work

Finally, one of the most important lessons to take away from all this is to have respect for the work. Theatre and performance are seen throughout the world as holy. It is considered as important, sacred, and often treated with the utmost respect.

By treating your work in the same way, you are showing respect for your job, the story, and its importance. You will always turn up and do your best, most creative work because you are treating it as truly important and worthy of respect.

So, keep your script clean, tidy, and in a nice folder! Dress in rehearsal clothes that symbolise a level of respect for the work. Treat your costume with respect and honour every time you put it on and take it off – this is the visual representation of your character! Make sure the space you work in is productive to creativity. Do not allow interruptions.

If you treat your work as a sacred practice, that is what it will become.

Concluding Acting As A Spiritual Art

Well, we’ve covered quite a lot, haven’t we? From Noh Theatre to Awen, to African Traditional Performance, to Jungian Psychology and Stanislavski, we have discovered that acting and creativity have had links to spirituality from ancient times all the way through to today, in every single part of the world. Acting is considered, the world over, to be a spiritual art.

Despite the element of performance having been suppressed and ignored, perhaps by reconnecting with it, we can connect with our craft in more inspired and connected ways.

The ways you can include spirituality in your performance include:

• Ritual
• Prayer
• Meditation
• Offerings
• Visualisation
• Archetypes
• Physical embodiment
• Respect for the work

Why not have a go at creating your own creative ritual for rehearsals and performances and approaching acting as a spiritual art? Try it out for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. You never know – the results may uncover something surprising!

If you want to learn more about rituals for performance, check out my post on why you need a good warm-up and how it can get you into the creative flow state.

Thank you so much for reading, and place feel free to email me with any questions!