In my previous article on Charles Baudelaire, I mentioned an art movement that called Symbolism that he helped to create. This movement swept throughout all of Europe during the last half of the nineteenth century, with its influence primarily being felt in literature and art. Some of its more famous figures are French poet Arthur Rimbaud, French painter Gustave Moreau, and Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Following Baudelaire, many Symbolist artworks centered around religious and mystical themes, which were often mixed with images of death, drugs and sex; because of this, Symbolism was also widely known as Decadence, an epithet that some figures embraced.

A major influence on Symbolist philosophy was a man named Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish mystic from the 18th century who propounded a theory of 'correspondence'. Briefly summarized, Swedenborg believed that everything in the material world had a 'corresponding' twin in the spiritual world. By seeing the material world properly, one could then see past it into the spiritual world. Hence, the symbols that made up the backbone of Symbolism were seen not simply as literary or artistic tools, but as Swedenborgian correspondences that, used properly, could help one attain a deep, mystical understanding of the world.

This philosophy had a profound impact on Charles Baudelaire, one which he himself acknowledged through one of the poems of Les Fleurs du Mal, "Correspondence". In this work, one of his most beautiful poems, Baudelaire demonstrates how this idea could be used to inspire great art. For the following analysis, I'll be using Richard Wilbur's translation from an anthology edited by Marthiel and Jackson Mathews. In the first lines, Nature (ie, the material world) is described as "a temple" with "living colonnades" that speak "a mystic speech" which surrounds us. These "symbols" among which we "wander" are united "Into a deep and thronging unison" that bring together all sensations into a swirling continuum, representing the Oneness of all existence. This point is emphasized in the final line, where "the ecstasies of sense" are grouped right alongside "the soul's delight", bringing together even these two radical opposites into one. This also justifies Baudelaire's heavy use of 'decadent' imagery- sex and death are a part of life, and if we truly wish to understand life, then we must understand all of it. And by doing so through art, then decadence can be not only confronted at the same time as it is transformed into beauty.