Kejawen functions as a subtle spiritual matrix underlying Javanese artistic life, so its presence in visual art is often more symbolic than overt. In wayang kulit, narratives drawn from the Mahabharata and Ramayana are reframed through a Javanese lens that emphasizes inner refinement, destiny, and the balance of opposing forces. Figures such as Semar and the Punakawan embody divine wisdom in humble form, mirroring the Kejawen sense of the sacred permeating ordinary existence. Batik motifs like parang, kawung, and others encode ideas of cosmic order, moral virtue, protection, and harmony with the unseen, and are used in ways that follow spiritual protocol in rites of passage and royal contexts. Classical literature and visual symbolism—mountains, trees, garuda, naga, and layered cosmic diagrams—articulate a universe stratified into underworld, human realm, and upper world, expressing a continuous dialogue between the visible and invisible.

In dance and performance, Kejawen appears as both discipline and devotion, turning movement into a form of meditation. Court dances such as Bedhaya and Srimpi cultivate halus, a refinement of body and character that reflects inner stillness and spiritual control. Certain Bedhaya dances are regarded as sacred offerings to powerful spiritual entities, affirming the mystical bond between ruler, land, and unseen forces. Wayang wong and related theatrical forms extend the same cosmology into human drama, portraying the struggle between desire and higher insight, and distinguishing refined from coarse characters as a kind of spiritual psychology. The gamelan that accompanies these performances is treated as a means of tuning hearts and minds to a larger harmony, so that art becomes a vehicle for aligning with cosmic order.

Architecture and sacred space reveal Kejawen’s cosmology in stone, wood, and landscape. Royal palaces are laid out as microcosms of the universe, often aligned along a sacred axis that links mountain, palace, and sea, suggesting a carefully maintained balance between human society, nature, and the spirit world. Successive courtyards and gates mark gradations of sanctity and refinement, guiding the visitor inward both physically and spiritually. Traditional mosques with multi-tiered, tajug-like roofs echo pre-Islamic temple forms and the notion of layered heavens, while their complexes may include trees, courtyards, and other features used for rituals that honor saints, ancestors, and subtle spirits. Older Hindu-Buddhist temples and village sacred sites—springs, large trees, crossroads, and graves of revered figures—are integrated into a sacred landscape where offerings, meditation, and remembrance sustain a living relationship with ancestral and spiritual power.

Across these domains, Kejawen does not merely decorate art, dance, and architecture; it orients them. Aesthetic refinement, careful symbolism, and spatial order all serve to cultivate inner discipline and to maintain harmony between the human community and the wider cosmos. Through this synthesis, Islamic, Hindu-Buddhist, and animist strands are woven into a single cultural fabric in which every pattern, gesture, and structure can become a quiet act of remembrance of the unseen.