My photo of the forest.

How can I help connect myself and people with the earth and our energetic selves?

In my project I want to explore ways of connecting myself and others with the earth around, while exploring and connecting with our inner nature. I think humanity would benefit from re-connecting with the earth, and I think the first step is to re-connect with ourselves and learn how to explore our own energetic pathways. We are a piece of the earth and one with the earth, so we can understand everything about earth by re-discovering ourselves.  The challenge for me was creating something material and physical, as most energetic practices are non material in essence. As I progressed and peeled away at my ideas, I found that what I am making is a shrine. A shrine creates a space to bring our attention to, and holds the energy of any intention we project. It can be used for any purpose, and my purpose is to create a meditation space where I can practice that is growing some plants that I can tend and nurture, as I nurture my own body and mind.

All over the world people create shrines, and in many places the objects in shrines are the most valued and respected. I want to move the vital objects in shrines away from material, and back to earth. For my shrine, I wanted to create a whole little ecosystem of plants, earth and water to be my points of value, while the case will be material. Here are a few glimpses into shrines from around the world.

Here is a christian shrine taken in Mexico.

Tham Phra Nang, Fertility Cave, Krabi, Thailand

Hindi Sufi Shrine, India

Steve Jobs Tears and tributes around the world as Apples legions of fans mark the death of Steve Jobs

Image I captured in Thailand of the famous White Temple, Thailand

Image I captured in a mini temple in Laos.

After exploring shrines around the world, I decided to explore in the woods and take photos of plants I may want to add to my shrine. These are some photos I took and developed myself.

Pinecone

moss

While frolicking in the woods taking photos, I decided to call my mom and ask her for photo taking advice. She used to work as a professional photographer and film developer. She suggested treating each photo as a gem, and instead of taking photo after photo quickly, take time and care for each photo and kind of pretend to be using film. She explained that when you paint or draw, you start with a blank canvas and create from there. When you take photos, you start with a full canvas, and are creating by extracting. While talking to her I found a spot where it looked like someone had created a little shrine awhile ago, and not to far away from the shrine I found some burned our candles. I decided to re-make this little shrine and take some photos of it.

Here is the shrine how I found it.

Here is the shrine when I added some leaves, pine cones, and my amethyst.

For the shell of my shrine, I will 3d print myself seated in meditation posture, and in the lap of the figure the plants will be growing. Instead of my head, I will place the head of the Buddha, but have his head 2 faced, looking forward and back. Here is the Buddha I extracted from thingiverse, and also the 2 headed Buddha that I will glue together.

3d print of Buddha head

The image focus of the project helped me visualize and make my idea more concrete. It also helped me gain experience in photographing, light room and digitally developing photos. I feel more connected to my project, as we discover and explore different pathways to experiencing our projects.

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