SPIRITUAL SPACES
SPIRITUAL SPACES
SPIRITUAL SPACES GWENIVER EXTON
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.” Joseph Campbell
‘Spiritual Spaces’ documents the specific environments that the featured individuals feel connection to another place outside the known parameters of the human condition. Whether this their home, studio or within the natural landscape ‘spiritual spaces’ explores the visual notion of this other worldliness that some choose to identify in. One of the main themes that has resonated with me through talking with each of my subjects is that ultimately their spiritual beliefs cannot fit into a box, nor be restricted by specific dogma. Each individual has a different path, taking the elements that they connect with creating their own way. Connection to the earth and the landscape forms a major part of many of their beliefs - this appreciation of nature going beyond a human plain towards the spiritual. Perhaps this is something we all have, consciously or not? With many of the individuals feeling at home by the sea, walking through a woodland or right at the top of a mountain. It is this feeling of being consumed and an identification with their surroundings that resonates overwhelmingly with each individual. By photographing my subjects in their specific environments and pairing them with landscapes I am conveying how (unlike organised religion) all of these places and spaces can be seen as spiritual or sacred.
I always felt that I was part of something vast, magical and divine rather than just a body with a brain. As far back as I can remember I was aware of energy and the way energy moved, penetrated all living things and how everything was connected like a giant web. Basically I was always aware of Universal life force or Divine consciousness. We all come from one source energy. There is no separation between humans, animals. There are elementals, other forms of spirit and energy that live alongside us but vibrate at different frequencies so to be invisible to us. Angie, Sound Therapist
I have always had a vocation for wanting to help others, and I was also intensely interested in different belief systems because I was feeling there must be more to life than just what I had experienced so far. If you find the belief that you’re happy with, that’s the path you follow. And it feels like coming home basically, and things start to slot into place. So I learnt about things like folk magic, and helping people, and particularly when you look at the history of cunning folk and village Wise Women, they were there for their communities. Cassandra, Wise Woman
Following a magical path, is going out in nature and spending time connecting to the elements of nature, sitting with the sea, you know making fire, connecting with fire, connecting with those primal energies, connecting with the spirits of the land and the sea and the sky. I’m inspired by some magical writings, and some magical bits of wisdom from people. I’m inspired, but in the end, I just think it’s about you and nature. And I think everybody is magical, and there shouldn’t be a hierarchy and a degree of elitism about it. Michelle, Wicce
Well I suppose really, I have to understand what the word spirituality meant, because it can mean so many different things to so many people, can’t it? But I just like the idea that we’re all on the same planet, living. You’ve only got to look at my books, which I collect, and they’re about different peoples and different subjects, but collectively they’re all about people and animals and the living together of it all really. I think I’m connected to it all, earth wind and fire, the sea, walks, just living – being. Baz, Sculptor
I work Shamanically. Traditionally the Shaman is part of the tribe, who has special powers that come to them. It was often they were on the outside of the tribe because they were slightly different. There was a whole load of training that came to them from sprit, and from other people who were in the same position. It sort of concerns me that nowadays people go and do a weekend course, and call themselves a Shaman. It’s such a privilege to work in this way, and I feel like I’m just Lu, who works Shamanically. Lu, Artist
I’ve always been interested in religion, other religions, and that connects with my interest in history and ancient history because you can’t really have one without the other. So as a teenager it was something that I always wanted to study, I’ve always been interested in trying different, or looking at different ways of practicing belief. Pam Folklorist
I have desire for a spiritual angle in my life, or to live life in a spiritual way, I have looked at other religions but I suppose the thing that none of them offer is something that is more rooted in the land. My creative life, so my work, is almost like my sort of worship I suppose, I take that spirituality from nature and sort of change it into something solid, and the actual process of doing it is like a meditation. Tamsin, Artist
I basically guide by source, whether it’s through dreams or visions or from journeys, or just my intuition. That’s the core of anything that I do and everything that I am, it’s inner connection. I’m basically a soul living in a body. Having a human experience. I’m here to have an outer experience, but without that inner, you’re not living, you’re just existing. Laura, High Priestess
Creativity is at the core, it has always been a vital, massive part of my life. Right from when I was a kid, all I wanted to be was an artist. And then the other things have come along the way. But I think that’s the core of it, because when you’re creative you feel like you’re in touch with the spirit other worlds, that’s how I see it, and feel it. You’re open to the universe, in which ever way it will move through you. Jackie, Witch
I think there’s spirit within all things, within the trees and the land. I think everything deserves respect. So my artwork is my expression of my spirituality, and my connection. Because to me, Earth is the cathedral isn’t it? We don’t need a closed off space, it’s cutting off from it. But what I wanted to do was create icons of stuff that was meaningful to me. So that’s not Jesus or the angels, that is animals and the landscape, and those are my sacred things. Hannah, Artist & Jewellery Maker
I would say I like to have one foot in this world and one in the other, always. That keeps the balance, the everyday and ordinary stuff being just as important as the other worldly connection and work. My outlook is always whatever you experience it doesn’t last, so enjoy every moment when it’s great and know that when it’s difficult it won’t be too long before the tables turn for the better. I don’t stick to any particular belief system except to find one’s highest truth, and live by that. Sarah, Hypnotherapist