Category Archives: Inspiration

Altar/Meditation Space

Since spirituality seems to be an ever increasing presence in my life, I think its about time to get an altar/meditation space. My current desktop altar isn’t cutting it. I need a space in my room that is *specifically* for meditations. I’ve been thinking about cleaning out one corner of my room that faces west. Now the religion I have only really known to use an altar is the Wiccan/Pagan religion and they align their altars to North. But my desktop and computer area is already facing north and there is no way am I going to move my desk around. My desk came with a miniature extension table to store a printer. Since I’m home from school, I’m gonna have to clean that off since its’ storing craft supplies right now and move my printer to it. Once I clean that area out I think I will have enough space for a small meditation altar.

HOWEVER, this space is facing West. So I’ve been doing research about the significance of having an altar face West and apparently there’s some significance from the eastern traditions which is perfect.

 

In the Buddhist tradition,

B. The Location of a Buddhist Altar

It is ideal to set up a Buddhist altar in a dedicated room. If the building is of two or more stories, it is proper to set it up on the top floor. If there is no dedicated room available, a quiet place or a room which can be closed up for quiet meditation at the regular practice time should be selected.

The orientation of a Buddhist altar depends on the main Buddha worshipped. If the practitioner majors in the Pureland school, the main Holiness should be Amitabha Buddha And hence the altar

should be oriented toward the East. In case of the Healing Buddha who eliminates misfortunes and prolongs lives, it should be orientated toward the West. (All notes below are added into the English translation by Dr. Lin. Note 1: Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland is in the West, hence the altar ideally is to be set up such that when we face Him, we are facing the West. A similar remark applies to the case of the Healing Buddha whose Pureland is in the East.) If the wall available is not of the ideal orientation, it is also fine to ignore this point. It is proper to select a wall with sufficient illumination so that it is easier for the practitioner to concentrate on gazing at the holy images .

The north doesn’t feel right to me. I just don’t seem to have any spiritual connection to the North, however, only during rituals and meditations do I face the North… I really do feel a strong pull towards to the to set up this altar.

The early Christians also faced West,

Worshippers in the courtyard could witness the sacrifices offered in front of the holy of holies, and knew that therein God dwelt behind a series of curtains, through which only the high priest could pass.  Priests and people faced west toward the Presence of God, the Shekinah.  With the entrance in the east, sunlight was admitted in the morning, while the structure provided a modicum of shade over the courtyard in the hot afternoon.

Most spiritualists say you should put a place that is easiest for you. Just orientate the ritual/circle to north when you are actually doing one. For some reason I seem to have a strong elemental connection to water (the element of the west) right now. Dunno why.

Upon doing more research however I found this pagan thread in a forum where someone asked the question, The Altar-is it ok to have it facing the west? 

One reply really resonated with me,

Your altar should face the direction that is taught in your tradition. Usually this would be the North or the East. The West is the direction of endings, imagination, the subconscious, and dreams; I don’t know of any tradition which uses it on a regular basis.

Of course!! Subconscious, dreams, imagination, all things related to the third eye! No wonder I feel a strong connection there. But I *DO* like what other traditions say about the Presence of God being in the West. Also I get a lot of sunlight this time of year and to have it shine down on my altar would be cool. So I think that’s settled, I will put near that wall when I’ve saved enough monies for the table I’m thinking about buying.

Potions and Meals in a Jar

You never know when inspiration may hit. It could be at the dentist (like Yaron Schoen) or simply taking a break from life and playing video games on your ipod. A friend of mine earlier this week asked for ideas on how to make all their weekly meals in one day. I then referred to them to the meals in a jar concept. I had been inspired by the allure of potions for awhile now and I kept wondering how to incorporate this allure into my design work. While playing “pocket potions” on my ipod it hit me! Cooking has often been associated with the concept of “Alchemy” (taking one thing and transmuting it into another thing). I thought about how potions are kept in bottles and meals are now kept in jars/bottles, why not combine the two! SO that’s what I came up with, meals-in-a-jar/bottle with the aesthetic appeal to a potion bottle. So now off to think of a name, and logo.

I must also be feeling better, or at least relaxing better. I haven’t had an idea this “big” since I graduated from college. I’ve just been feeling so rotten lately I guess my mental state was too foggy to relax enough to get ideas flowing.

first potion bottle from TheStrokeofMidnight via etsy

 

 

 

 

Working with life-form archetypes

Did not write this copied from a PDF

On June 15th 1989 the Swiss company “CIBA-GEIGY” (Basel) got an European patent (No.0351357): without genetic modifications, just with electrostatic fields they can create fossil forms of fish, fern, mushroom …today nobody remembers these experiments anymore…

BACKWARDS IN EVOLUTION:
Heinz Schürch, who watched over the experiments until 1992, shows us some pictures with strange looking plant archetypes of wheat and corn.

The wheat doesn’t grow high, it crawls on the ground, just the tip of the culms (where the spikes are) grows =20cm high.

The corn looks more like the modern corn we know today although it’s much smaller and it has not only two big but up to eight little corncobs growing out of the stem.

The amazing thing is: these archetypes were grown out of grains of the modern plants.

It’s no alchemy or gene technology, it’s just experimenting with plants and electrostatic fields (stress fields, no electric current).

Electric current, would produce a direct biochemical alteration, an electrostatic field does not.

Test arrangement:

Aluminum Plate

Wheat or corn For three days

Aluminum Plate

direct current between the two of them

After three days the grains grow in a pot or a greenhouse like every other plant.

These three days at the beginning of the germination process are enough to set the archetypes.

Electrostatic fields are regulative fields. Nature comes out of chaos; it needs regulative structures to manifest something. This is the idea behind it; a certain electrostatic field brings a certain structure into nature, that’s what we know out of the experiments. But we do not know of any legalities so far. We cannot tell how strong a field it needs (electric field strength) to go back to a certain time in evolution. We don’t even know how it really works. Our theory is, that the plants in the field get information, which makes them go back to the archetypes i.e. the wheat remembers it once was a grass. (In Peru you still can find this type of wheat). “The “new-old” wheat contains new” etc.

This type of wheat could be used in regions where there is a short spring and summer (the modern wheat couldn’t grow there at all): you wouldn’t need to use pesticides or herbicides.

The pest cycle is the same as the one of the modern wheat life.

They would not yet be developed when the “new-old “ wheat is already harvested after 4 to 8 weeks.

The germination rate of the grains is much higher as well.
The “new-old” species could be used to grow plants, which are healthier and more resistant to pests (cross with modern plants).

FERNS:

Heinz Schürch shows us a bowl with something green in it. A look under the microscope reveals “seedlings” of a fern-archetype. They have grown much longer under an electrostatic field than the wheat or the corn. They stayed in the field for approximately one month: the bowl has been kept closed for three years.

These “seedlings” (protallium) are important for the reproduction of ferns. Today there is only one “seedling” per fern-leaf, which becomes pubescent. The other ones are falling to the ground and die. The “seedlings” of this “ur-fern” behave different. They are all connected through a grid-type network. That’s the reason that there is more then one “seedling” which is able to become pubescent. Still we don’t know exactly how this network works. A close look with the microscope shows us this amazing network. The connections between the single “seedlings are always the shortest possible way. It almost looks like somebody created it with the intention to save material. The tubes between the heart-shaped plants are ultra-thin, very straight and are shining, silvery.

There is no information about these tubes in any scientific literature. We assume they are used to transmit information between these plants. But we don’t have a clue what kind of information this could be. More secrets are to be found in the growing process of the fern itself. The “seeding” of a common worm fern grew into another type of fern after being in the electrostatic field. Instead of pinnate leafs it had rounded ones (like tongues). Since these leafs are known from fossils, the new-old fern was named “Ur-fern” (ancient fern). The spores of the ancient fern were examined and they didn’t show any similarities with “modern” ferns. Scientists still didn’t believe in the possibility of altering plants by use of an electrostatic field.

In the following years the ancient fern grew different leafs every year, it nearly looked like, the fern remembered that it was created out of a worm fern. It seemed that the fern was going through the whole process of evolution in his growing process. We examined all it’s new spores, they were all the same. But out of them grew different kinds of ferns. There were: worm ferns, beach fern, some south African leather ferns, …The ancient fern seemed to be able to develop every kind of fern. The biggest surprise awaited us, when we came to analyze the chromosomes. The worm fern had 36, another one had 41. In all of scientific literature we never heard of anything like this. Another amazing, new, not- fern-like thing was, that every evening the fern would emit scents.

Many ferns are dying out these days. That makes the ciba-Geigy-experiments extra valuable. For example in Germany there are more than 12% endangered fern-species. Ferns are extremely sensitive to environmental pollution. A possible explanation (the reason for that) might be, that the atmosphere of the earth used to be different back in the days when ferns ruled the world. There were more and stronger thunderstorms and the electric fields in the earth’s atmosphere changed often. It could be, that every time we use an electrostatic field with the ferns, we create a condition of a time long ago when this field did exist. But this is only a theory.

If I can change the set of chromosomes and grow ancient (long dead) plants just by using a simple electrostatic field, I have to pronounce the question whether all the information about the shape of creatures is really in the genes, the DNA, the nucleus? I think the electrostatic charging of the atmosphere is also a factor.

The memory of nature seems to go back to the very beginnings of life. BRINGING BACK THE SAURIANS?

Out of a drilling-core, which came from depths of 140m. In a 200 million year old Rhine- salt-mine, was taken a probe. Analyzing this probe under a microscope shows us bazaar crystal forms out of which grows tiny creatures. These are mushrooms, which came back into life through an electrostatic field. All experiments to bring them back without the field didn’t work out.

Heinz Schürch shows us a patent, the only announcement of the company in which they talk about the electrostatic fields.

We didn’t want to experiment with plants only but also with animals. But we got the strict instruction not to mess with the germ line of animals. That’s why we thought of taking the eggs of a rainbow trout and put them into a field for four weeks after their impregnation. After four weeks we put them into aquariums and raised them. The result are fish, which are much stronger and robust than our rainbow trout. They have more teeth and a different color. Grown males have a hook-jaw (like wild salmons). They behave wilder and more aggressive. We needed to heighten the fence around the aquarium because the fish would jump higher. They are an archetype of our trout’s, dead since 150 years (they were identified with the aid of old drawings).

The flesh of the fish is firmer and more delicate. The fish are more resistant to disease. That’s why there is no need to put antibiotics or pesticides into the water. There is a standing joke in the company about bringing back the dinosaurs.
Heinz Schürch: “It is just a joke. I wouldn’t dare do it. You can’t control a dinosaur. We would just have to use bird-eggs, for the birds are the descendants of the saurian.

But we don’t even know how these fields are working.”

Answers to this question will still have to wait, as the CIBA-GEIGY-team doesn’t exist anymore.

EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION Improved Fish-Farming

A new procedure is described, based on the short-term application of electrostatic fields, which results in useful and desirable qualities of fish.

Description:
Aquariums (insulator) with fish-eggs are put between two electrodes of a capacitor. The direct voltage can vary from 1 to a couple of 10000 volts.

Because there is no electric current, the chemical identity of the system “fish” is not altered.

The eggs stay in the field until the “little” fish start to slip. Then they are brought into bigger aquariums and raised. These fish are more vital and grow up earlier than the ones, which were not put into an electrostatic field. The most used voltage varies between 100- 10000V(most special: 300-3000V) the distance between the electrodes depends on the size of the aquarium, but preferable it should be between 1-10cm.

Visual Language

One of my long-ish term projects that I’ve been thinking about is creating a visual language that would be aesthetically pleasing as well.

Regular Languages are practical for many reasons, but wouldn’t it be nice to convey the same information in a more pleasingly manor? The language can be read by all even those who cannot read practical languages…despite having an information recall disability languages fascinate me.

It would also be good for those who are aesthetic learners, people who learn things via visual means. A linguist, Richard Brodie, developed a glyph system that took the english language and added color to it and he called it; Chromaphonoglyphics.

Even the social media icons can be seen as a type of visual language system. In esotericism there is a geometrical language given to us from the ancient Vedas called the Tattwas. Tattwa are geometric images from India. they are  symbols  that can be used in mandala.  One of the most traditional symbol sets and one considered to have innate power to effect realization is by using  Tattwa. These simple geometric symbols can be used in  meditation.

I was then thinking about how other things are conveyed in a compact manor.

I somehow ran across floor medallions and thought that their style would be perfect for conveying a lot of information in a compact space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So like the center could be the main idea of the story and the surrounding elements could tell details of the story. Perhaps using philosopher, Keyserling’s logic about brain coherence might be interesting to work with.

 

 

 

Brain Coherence

So while I was researching for next project; creating 5 book covers due next wednesday. I’m doing a book cover based on Design Aesthetic Philosophy (or design philosophy, basically what I write about).  I came across a philosopher whom I haven’t heard of; Prof. Arnold Keyserling. He was all about brain coherence and the grammar of the brain. To me, Graphic Design is thinking made visual… that’s the definition I go by (while I realize GD has many definitions this is one I found that is most appropriate). I found his use of the enneagram; the nine-pointed star very interesting. 

Keyserling discovered that the structure of our brain molds our speech, and our speech in turn shapes our mind.  He found that the basic patterns of our mind and coherence are tied to language, and all are tied to the Enneagram and The Wheel.  The essential criteria of our mind can be reduced to the three space-like realms of language combined with the four time-like functions.   These are the basic components of The Wheel. (source)  

“Papier Mache” Clay

Easy Homemade clay, all you need is newspaper and wallpaper paste.

This is the easiest and cheapest recipe for paper clay.

Steps:

1. Get your newspaper
2. Soak it in water.
3. Tear it into strips. Into a bucket
4. Put more water in it so it just barely covers the paper.
5. Stir it up using a dremmel tool blender, food processor or regular blender.
6. Blend it into a pulp
7. Transfer some pulp into another bucket. Poor more water into the 1st bucket and stir more.
8. Get a cotton (or mesh) bag and put pulp in it and strain it.
9. Take strained pulp and put into the 2nd bucket.
10. Take some wallpaper paste and sprinkle it onto pulp.
11. Stomp/Kneed pulp into a clay.

This technique has been the only technique that uses very little glue.

According to www.wallpaperinstaller.com Cellulose is common binder for a substitute for natural gums and a stabilizer in emulsions as well as a thickening agent. It can be simply created using NaOH (Sodium hydroxide) which dissolves the wood or cotton with an alkali.

Cellulose
“Cellulose methyl ether, produced by treating cellulose from wood or cotton with an alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, followed by methyl chloride. The resulting product is a white granular solid, soluble in cold water but insoluble in hot water. In addition to being used as an adhesive, it is used as a thickening agent, as a substitute for natural gums, and as a stabilizer in emulsions.”
-from Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books Dictionary from the Conservation On-Line (COOL) website

“Methyl cellulose occurs as practically odorless and tasteless, white to yellowish-white granules or powder. The pH of a 1% w/v solution is in the range of 5.5 to 8.0. Its angle of repose is about 40 degrees to 50 degrees and it is hygroscopic. It swells and disperses slowly in cold water to form a clear-to-opalescent, viscous, colloidal dispersion. The viscosity is increased with increased concentrations. The viscosity decreases with increased temperatures to about 50 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius, where gel formation occurs. The thermogelation is reversible when the viscous solution reforms upon cooling.”
-from Wade A., Weller P.J. (eds) Handbook of Pharmaceutical Compounding.

In paperhanging, cellulose has the highest water content of any paste in general use (around 97%). It usually comes in a small box and is packaged as a white powder. It is mixed with cold water on the job and can be used with a variety of lightweight materials such as porous papers, grasscloth and silk. It’s adhesion is mostly of the mechanical type. It leaves very little solids behind and is not suitable for many wallcoverings which require greater amounts of initial tack and holding power.

Rug out of old t-shirts

What does it take to transform a pile of old T-shirts into spectacular works of woven art? Just a spare hula hoop or embroidery hoop and the techniques we’ll show you here. The oversize looms and easy-to-use loops of T-shirt fabric make these projects particularly appealing to beginning weavers. Learn the basic hoop weaving technique by crafting a colorful accent rug to brighten up a room. And if you want to take the weaving a little further, check out our basket and chair pad weaves

Before you begin, some terms you need to know: the warp is the material you string on the hoop, the weft is the material you weave with.
Source: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/hula-hoop-rug-995304/print/