Introduction
The art of personal writ is a creative phenomenon of the person that has only revealed itself to me relatively recently. I do not have a full comprehension of its nature, so in part I hope that the reader will apprehend the concept with a sufficient “ah-ha.” I will do my best to piece together the idea through my observations and examples, but you will know it when you see it, or rather when you read it.
This art must be clever, witty, full of l’esprit. It is an art of the person upon first glance. On first impression, personal writ is a creative act for the aesthetical, signatory, and purposeful ends of life. It is writ in that its medium is written with brevity or based upon pithily written script. It is personal in that it typically concerns the person, the mind, the soul, ideas, and creations by human hands. Dialectic is the highest form of education and distinctly human, but it has as its worthy heirs its subsequent modes: reading and writing. Speaking, reading, and writing are the fundamental functions of the civil social order, for civilization lives by their presence. So, in a way, writ is in person and person is in writ.
Examples
Personal writ as an art is some human creation that transforms little bits of writing into something for the purposes of beauty, signification, and human purpose in life. In this light, there are many species commonly known to us. Among these are, but not limited to, signatures, titles, monograms, acronyms, portmanteaus, mottos, and the naming of property. Personal writ is admittedly quite similar to conventional visual arts as they are both creative and personal. Fundamentally, script derives from pictures upon cave walls.
I expect that the reader has already recalled some of their own personal writ, but if not, there are plenty of well-known examples to take inspiration from. One may look to Rome and Christianity for eternal archetypes of personal writ and never run out of examples. Rome would adorn her magnificent buildings with written Latin spanning their facades. “SPQR” (Senatus Populusque Romanus) is a defining written symbol of Rome, even when it was no longer a republic. The many titles of Octavian gave us the titles of Caesar, Emperor, Prince, Pontifex Maximus, etc. Titles, acronyms, and mottos are certainly abundant. Can you see beauty, personality, and order in these examples?
The greatest examples of personal writ, perhaps, come from Christianity. Upon the cross was both a cruel joke made by the Romans and truth of the gospel, a title of Jesus Christ: INRI (IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM), Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews. There exists a multitude of Christograms which include Constantine’s Chi-Rho, IHS, ICXC, etc. There is also the iconic St. Benedict Medal which features an ornate organization of the first letter of each word in St. Benedict’s exorcism prayer. All these forms of personal writ surely can be called aesthetical. They all signify Christ or lead a person to Him. Within the text arranged is the Christian moral.
As it was said shortly before, personal writ seems to serve the ends of aesthetics, signification, and human purpose, but that preliminary view of it does not fully capture what it is. Personal writ is a concise collection of script which is infused with creative beauty, personhood, and the moral imagination.
Creative Beauty
One can see both the creative and the artful in personal writ; the same can be said for person and writ as well. I say artful and not beautiful because I am quite content to equate the two. Writing itself is a sort of artifact of people in that it is both ars and factum, something both beautiful and a thing made. Truly, the creative faculty and the urge to express beauty is in the person. Likewise, writ is a product of creativity, possesses beauty within its letters, and reflects beauty in whatever it describes. Personal writ must have creative beauty lest it be merely the writing of a person (not supposing this is the end of the world though).
Personhood
Beauty is one of the three transcendentals that only God, His angels, and men can understand. Likewise, creation is the business of God, His angels, and men, not beasts. Personal writ is a human mark of identity, hence why signatures, titles, monograms, and naming of property seem to be the most natural forms of it. In this type of signification, the author is unveiled in the text as if the reader is a guest invited into a home. Yes, the facade and portal are beautiful to any stranger passing by, but it is when he becomes a guest upon first beauty’s welcome, that the greatest beauty and knowledge of the home is revealed. The same must be true then of the person, veiled by the mark of his personal writ.
Beauty is certainly in this creative art, but one must wonder if we are experiencing, at least partially, the beauty of the person it signifies. What sort of divine beauty awaits then if we say yes to that initial grace and accept the invitation into God’s regal home?
Without digressing any further, it is clear that the creative beauty of personal writ reveals it to be also a substantial mark and signification of the person, more than previously suspected. Because it is a form of writing, the one who created it holds authorship of it. If one is both the author and made in the Image of God, then this authorship must come from God’s authority.
Moral Imagination
God’s authority establishes order in creation and it is not for no reason. There is a moral thread in it for He created with purpose and said what was made is good. That includes persons. Thus, we are bound by a moral law and must have what Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk called the moral imagination.
According to Kirk, the moral imagination is the “power of ethical perception which strides beyond the barriers of private experience and momentary events ‘especially,’ as the dictionary has it, ‘the higher form of this power exercised in poetry and art.’” Thus, one ought to avoid subjugating their art to the lowly or diabolical. If one cannot infuse the good in his or her personal writ, then certain particular goods are acceptable objects of reflection. Personal writ can directly express the good by glorifying God or proclaiming truths held, for these are moral perceptions. Expressing one’s own personal identity, creating for the sake of aesthetics only, or signifying one’s studies or hobbies are not necessarily moral perceptions but certainly contain goodness within them.
Be it personal writ that is directly moral or contains goodness, it can very well inspire the creator or the onlooker to the virtuous life. In this way, it is intertwined with the moral imagination then. If personal writ is the badge of the person, then the moral imagination highlights the sheen of that badge.
A Personal Example
I myself have crafted several pieces of personal writ, but I will leave the reader with one. It is an anagram of my name, Felix Cooper Adamo. It reads “Fear ‘o’ Ciel, Doom & Pax.” It takes from various languages, but it means “Man of Heaven, Judgement & Peace.” Fear is Gaelic for man, Ciel is French for Heaven, Doom is Middle English for Judgement, and Pax is Latin for Peace.
In this personal writ that I have created, I find beauty to look upon, to read, and to say. I know it to be signatory of my person for it veils my name with its letters stitched together by a new thread. The moral imagination persists in it for its themes speak directly of moral categories. Prima facie, the phrase is properly macabre with utterances of fear and doom, yet full of grace in its proclamation of peace and heaven. In this anagram of my name, I have found it sufficient in beauty, signification, and moral content.
Conclusion
The art of personal writ is the creation of concise collections of script infused with creative beauty, personhood, and the moral imagination. We intuitively know this art through writ like signatures, mottos, monograms, titles, and the naming of property. Personal writ holds its worth in its aesthetical, signatory, and moral characteristics. It is a very human art for it draws us into a higher place, succeeding the rational faculty of speech and expressing supernatural truths through a matured mode of reason, writing. I encourage the reader to create their own personal writ. This art is like creating one’s own legend, but it is not a prideful myth. By Providence, fate now baptized, we have been touched by heavenly hands, waving us into the saga of Christ. Even if it is a single word, we must say something in the story of the Word of God.
Personhood is this mystical mask that all wear upon their being, beyond our whatness, for it says who each of us is instead. Personal writ is our inscription upon this mask, inviting others and ourselves to dive deeper into the mysteries in every single one of us.