gullindagan

Thank you for continuing to post, this was another thoughtful piece. I would like to point out that both definitions you quoted are somewhat self-referential: neither "cause pleasure to perceive" and "please the aesthetic senses" would mean much to an alien with zero concept of beauty. I suppose that "cause pleasure to perceive" might start giving some insight, if you know what pleasure is, but the reason I point this out is that I think beauty might be much more fundamental to our experience of Being than most of us realize. The fact that we have a similar reaction to a striking human, a vivid sunset, or a perfectly not-perfect sculpted teacup suggests that there is more going on here than simply "what physical features mark a person as a good potential mate".

I think you're on to something that magic starts to give an explanation and application of the insight that beauty is deep and primary - perhaps beauty is often (always?) a marker of something important going on in the subtler levels of Being.