This page shows the Expansion
of Consciousness window,
1981. Harriet Lee commissioned me to design (called "Expanding Awareness") and build
the window as a gift to the Unitarian-Universalist
Fellowship of Sonoma County (see Location
below), California, USA. It is a memorial to
Homer Lee, her husband. Both are now deceased. I
asked Jeremy
Taylor to serve as advisor for Unitarian-Universalism
and dreams. He basically agreed with my concepts.
Harriet gave me complete freedom. Her son, a building
contractor, prepared the building opening for installation.
At the final review, Harriet backed me up before
building committee members that objected to the sculpture.
After installation, the sculpture became a favorite
aspect of the window.
Here is what the window looks like and what it means.
Looking
up at the window. (Larger, 135 KB.)
Sculpture,
horizontal view
Vertical
view of sculpture.
Detail
of the sculpture
Looking straight at the window,
Expansion of Consciousness (70 KB or larger,
125 KB).
I find it hard to be objective about the Unitarian-Universalist movement. My upbringing in a Unitarian church (Minneapolis, Minnesota) is entwined with personal history. To me, Unitarianism traditionally has no creed, but has a motto, "I cannot fathom the infinite. It is enough that I love and serve humanity." (Or is it "we"?) This is a great, loving, humanistic place to start. However, some Unitarians, myself included, wonder what happened to the "Transcendentalism" of early Unitarians such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Fathoming the infinite is part of my humanity and I cannot be limited to a safe, predefined, or simply scientific finite.
I called the exterior shape of the sculpture a haptihedron or movey, when first envisioned. Later I identified it as a rhombicuboctahedron. The design also features geometric forms expressing expansion from tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, and rhombicuboctahedron to a geodesic sphere including the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. The geometrical forms express evolution of consciousness from a basic brain cell, through transformation into a synergy of five brain cells. The 3D sculpture encloses a cube containing two overlapping tetrahedrons. (See also a study for the sculpture, called a TLM or Tetrahedronal Light Muscle.) The outer shell shows the sides of the inner forms expanded and joined in the exterior. See the eight triangular sides of the tetrahedrons linked with corners to the six square sides of the cube. The inverse of this exoskeletal form is what Buckminster Fuller called the Vector Equilibrium. He saw it as a form that never exists in nature but is always part of transformations.
Two hands stand for creation, emitting dynamic energy.
The window shows four cornerstone concepts opening to a fifth, the expansion of consciousness.
The cornerstone concepts are (counterclockwise from the upper left hand):
- religious freedom,
includes comparative studies of world religions shown by symbols of Christianity, Buddhism, Goddess, Thunderbird for Native American, and so on. - tolerance,
includes social works for equality shown by interracial handshake breaking chains of bondage. - each other, and
congregation and sharing is shown by talkers, a bird, and a space person. - all is one.
unity, not trinity, is shown by a single hand with two thumbs and a single eye of awareness in its palm.
The four cornerstone concepts meet in the middle above the sculpture in red, yellow, green, and blue colors that open to purple lightning. The shafts explode into the sphere of 12 great circles. I meet this form, which I call an EIE, in all parts of my lifework. The bamboo dome designed by Buckminster Fuller is the most profoundly inclusive geometry of all. I'll keep updating this list of cross-references to EIE (structure of expanding consciousness) as web site information increases.
Location
Here is contact information for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa. (previously U U Fellowship of Sonoma County).Telephone: (707) 568-5381
Meeting Address: 547 Medocino Avenue. Santa Rosa CA 95401
Web site: http://www.uusantarosa.org
The window was originally installed at the Stoney Point Road facility. In 2003 the congregation moved to a new building in Santa Rosa. They crated and stored the window.
Printable Version
See a printable version of this page here.