Temple of The Cosmos

Cosmic Fireworks!

Katharine — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:29:47 +0000

The photo below was taken by photographer Sharon Lips at a fireworks display we attended yesterday. She sent it to me today, saying that it reminded her of The Temple of the Cosmos.

Photo by Sharon Lips, 2010

Thank you, Sharon!

Tiamat ~ Our Supernova

Katharine — Sun, 23 May 2010 04:24:37 +0000

Supernovae! Second generation stars! The elements of our earth’s core, of our bones! We are recycled stardust, born of the destructive and violent / creative and novel event that made possible the formation of our sun, our solar system. The stuff which eventually made life possible, your life and mine – copper, calcium, silver, silicon, sulphur, hydrogen, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and more – was created by this enormous cosmic explosion. That’s the scientists’ version.

It is Pentecost, fire and spirit, the fiery gift of the spirit of Life. A number of years ago, I attended a science / religion conference where scientist Connie Barlow led us around a huge lawn in a spiraling dance dedicated to Tiamat, Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry’s metaphor and name for the supernova that gave birth to our solar system. (This dance at the conference is described in Barlow’s book Green Space, Green Time.) Tiamat, from Sumerian myth, was slain and dismembered by her son, creating the separation, the either/or-ness of our way of perceiving the world: heaven/earth, matter/spirit, etc. Violent and horrifying stuff. But in the hands of Swimme and Berry, Tiamat became a metaphor for a “most extravagant gesture of generosity.” Glory, power, creativity, brilliance – and destruction, loss, violence – we cannot have the first without the second in this cosmic birth-event.

In the Temple of the Cosmos, I’ve been working on my visual and fanciful interpretation of that event, though I don’t usually think of the Tiamat myth as I work. I am inspired by the simple miracle of it, the “generosity,” of the cosmic story. And as I look at my own life, I realize how often events which were destructive and resulted in loss also often came with benefits – new directions, relationship, possibilities.

Below are some of the images I’m working on for this panel of the Temple.

Detail from the Supernova panel of the Temple

A close-up from the Supernova panel of the Temple

Ceiling Images

Katharine — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:14:37 +0000

Below are images from the ceiling of the Temple:

Temple Ceiling Base Fabrics

Temple ceiling (roof) seen from the outside.

Ceiling fabric, in progress.

Ceiling Detail

Ceiling detail, galaxy

Ceiling galaxy detail at dusk. Trees are visible through the ceiling.

Temple Fabrics

Katharine — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:51:42 +0000

This blog is a work in progress, as is the Temple.

The ceiling of the Temple is finished; it is pictured above, on the header of this blog. If you look carefully, you can see trees through the ceiling.

Here are some of the fabrics I’m using to create the Temple:

Temple Fabrics. Photo by Sharon Lips.

Daddy-long-legs on Temple fabric. Photo by Sharon Lips.

Temple fabric with hand.