What are the tenets of the Church of Beauty?
-Beauty is the Poetry of human privilege, thus It becomes our responsibility.
-It is our duty to serve, defend and create Beauty
-Hating what is ugly does not create Beauty.
-Beauty is not easy. It is not simply prettiness. -It is complex and It is changed by the journey to It.
-Creation is the answer to destruction.
-Beauty desires to assert Itself.
-Beauty is a faith in expectation and a subversion of fear.
-S*x, in all of its consensual forms, is to be honored. The Erotic Force is the best correlation and conduit for Beauty.
-All of history is inadequate to utter the breadth and depth of Beauty even once.
-Without extraordinary Vulnerability, without sheer daring, there is no Beauty.
-You can gain in reason without losing the ability to be excited by Beauty.
-Beauty requires unity and harmony.
-Destruction is eternal, but Beauty is eternity Itself.
-“Always seek out Beauty, and attempt to find it in situations that cannot be mentioned in prudish circles.” – Franz von Bayros
-Always “model well” – Auguste Rodin
-Beauty is our Life, our Light and our Perfection. Do members of the Church of Beauty believe in “God”? The Church does not find that question to be necessary. We do not require a belief in a god, goddess or supreme being of any kind. Only an adherence to the charge to “serve, defend and create Beauty” as we understand It. Beauty embodies Its own divinity, no matter what “face” we need to put on It in order to process such an ineffable concept. However, as a church we do tend to draw much inspiration from ancient goddess cults, primarily the Knights and Sisters of Paphos from Athens in the 4th Century BCE – a group of artists and sacred courtesans of Aphrodite. This allows us to personify, or at least symbolize Beauty in order to help us wrap our minds around It. What is Beauty? This is a difficult thing to answer, and answering it is one reason for The Church. The true answer, in fact, lies toward the end of a journey that usually ends up changing the question. Beauty is intentional. Beauty is Pleasure. It is that Poetry that is created when elements form a whole become more than the individual intrinsic values . There is something spiritual in Its creation. And It exists on fragile planes. But It is also complex and often dark. Beauty is not exclusive to the realm of the high and sublime. In fact, it is often more robustly found in the depths of life, among the vulgarities (though It is not vulgar). It is not simple and there are no short cuts to Its creation. Beauty is not prettiness alone, but a richness that involves much more than meets the eye. Our understanding is that It is comprised of three components: invitation, permission and inspiration. When all of them work in tandem and come from a place that resonates with the Current, this is true Beauty. What is the difference between Beauty and beauty? As a church, we use the capital B for a Beauty that is intentional and created – the Poetry born of our Privilege as humans. That is not to say that beauty (with a lowercase b) is any less important. This beauty is natural and should also be admired. However, as humans, it is our responsibility to be good stewards of the Privilege afforded us in order to create Beauty with intention. The difference is this: a flower is beautiful, a flower garden is Beautiful. What are the “four pillars” of the church? Art, S*x, Science and Spirituality. We seek to understand Beauty (as well as defending, serving and creating It) in resonance with all of those categories. Is there a single text the church uses as Its inspiration? No. There are many, though we tend to place strong emphasis on the Philosophy and Practice of Cyprianism, as recorded in a book called The Seed. However, in addition, we seek understanding from hundreds of other sources that either spring from or are appropriate to ancient Paphianism and/or modern Cyprianism.
