Pathways: Between The Earth and The Sky is a creative response to the exhibition “Between The Earth and The Sky” exhibited at the Salford University Gallery. It explores a spiritual aspect of this topic, travelling to the unseen worlds accessed through nature’s liminal spaces.
Pathways: Between The Earth and The Sky
Throughout time and the world, the concept of travelling to the spiritual realms has crossed the boundaries of culture and faith. From the Abrahamic Heavens to the Sumerian Irkalla, and the Irish Tír na nÓg; these spiritual realms exist above, below, and parallel to us.
In myths and legends accessing the realms beyond our own has often been a case of finding the doors and pathways hidden within the landscape. Trees, mountains, caves, and pools are all examples of such liminal spaces where one may travel beyond the mundane. And bones, staves, and feathers, examples of aidful keys or ‘tools’.
It is not only in stories that the travelling between realms has taken place. In both old and new spiritual traditions, practitioners have engaged in meditation and rituals to make their own journeys. Known in popular western culture as the ‘Shamanic Journey’, the core act is practiced by many peoples across the globe, including the Seiðrkona of old Nordic religions and practitioners of the modern Neo-shamanic movement.
Inspired by such reflective and enlightening journeys, I have traversed my local landscape of forests and hills, looking for these hidden portals. My expedition resulted in this compositional piece, “Pathways: Between The Earth and The Sky”. It is my hope that it will inspire you to take your own steps past the mundane, on your own grand adventure to discover marvels and truths both within and without.
