Research
General concepts underlying my work:
“Only by remaking and restoring the sacred can we achieve individual and collective health, since the sacred stands at the very heart of humanity, and if it is repressed or ignored humanity must suffer.”
The sacred is a basic category of human experience and the human cannot be separated from the non human and the archetypal – human nature can only know and fulfil itself in relationship to a transcendent other.
(Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia by David J. Tacey. pp.1–4)
Acknowledging that land is sacred is a necessary cultural and spiritual shift in our thinking; our society needs to return to a balance where nature is respected and nurtured and not a resource to be exploited if we are to heal ourselves and more importantly our planet.
My work continues to explore my spiritual connection with the land and the environment as well as the sacredness of nature/land and the interconnection of all things. My research and thinking is focused on 9 interconnected areas which all contribute to an evolving philosophical outlook about connection to ‘land’ and ‘nature’.
Duality of Nature and Culture
My work explores the duality of Nature and Culture in Western society where nature is placed in the subordinate position of ‘the other’ by political, economic and religious systems of patriarchal power.
I became aware of sets of paradoxes, dualities or dichotomies that are evident in Western thought and that could be explored in my concepts about land:
- Culture/nature
- Human interaction/intrusion
- Climate change/balance
- Life/death
- Growth/decay
- Masculine/feminine
- Science/religion
- Reason/intuition
- Permanence/impermanence
- Linear time/cyclic time
- Universal/particular
- Denotative/connotative
- Realistic/symbolic
- Presence/absence
- Macrocosm/microcosm
- Order/chaos
Landscape as cultural rather than natural.
Schama, S. (1995). Landscape and Memory Great Britain: Harper Collins.
“For although we are accustomed to separate nature and human perception into two realms, they are, in fact, indivisible. Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. … Even the landscapes that we suppose to be most free of our culture may turn out, on closer inspection, to be its product.” (Schama. 1995 pp6–9)
The above quotation is an important premise or starting point for my work which acknowledges that images of land are cultural constructs rather than ‘natural’ images drawn from the environment and therefore express or represent the ideologies of the time in that they are produced.
In the tradition of landscape painting, images of landscape are intended as or may appear as neutral and objective descriptions of place. There is a subtle relationship between the view and the viewer. But how we view the landscape and our depictions or descriptions of it are governed by cultural constructs – landscape painting then becomes a mirror not of nature but of ourselves and our ideologies.
These ideologies include our concepts of time and space and these concepts are both physical as well as psychological.
Time and Space
I am interested in the concepts of time (time’s arrow, time’s cycle) and space and perceptions/representations of these through differing cultural and personal experiences.
Grishin, S. (1998). John Wolseley, LAND MARKS. North Ryde, Sydney: Craftsman House.
Harvey, D. (1990). The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
Hughes, R. (1991) (updated & enlarged edition) The Shock of the New London: Thames & Hudson
Russell, B. (1991). A History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Time and Space in the Postmodern Condition.
- “Space and time are basic categories of human experience.” (Harvey. 1990. p.201)
- Frederik Jameson attributes the Postmodern shift to a crisis in our experience of space and time. (Harvey. 1990. p.201)
- “Beneath the veneer of common–sense and seemingly ‘natural ideas’ about space and time, there lie hidden terrains of ambiguity, contradiction and struggle.” (Harvey. 1990. p.205)
- Sense of compression of our spatial and temporal worlds – globalisation – shrinking of the world – compression of time and space.
- ‘Hyperpsace’ – seeing the world/landscape through the screen – the simulacrum – landscape painting as a substitute of nature.
Perspective – the rational ordering of time and space.
Ideas of near and far, distance, perspective and space are inextricably interwoven within the tradition of landscape painting both past and present.
The tradition of landscape painting assumes the existence of some pre–existing spatial order – it compartmentalises our experience of seeing and experiencing the landscape.
Landscape painting can also be seen as the spatialisation of time where properties are abstracted from the flux of experience and fixed in a spatial form which is rationally ordered. “Any system of representation, in fact, is a spatialisation of sorts which automatically freezes the flow of experience and in doing so distorts what it strives to represent.” (Harvey. 1990. pp.205–206)
Grishin discusses the invention of perspective by Filippo Brunelleschi in the C15th as “a method through which it was possible to create an effective illusion of depth in painting. It can also be viewed as part of a lengthy process which sought to create a visual substitute for nature.” (1998. p.9)
Thus perspective was the invention of a mathematically based system of single point linear perspective which set down “properly and rationally the reductions and enlargements of near and distant objects as perceived by the eye of man”. (Grishin. 1998. P.9)
This notion of perception is not objective but culturally encoded and defines human relationships with the land and environment. Grishin states that “while perspective may be viewed as a handy tool to create the illusion of three–dimensional space on a two dimensional surface, symbolically, it can also be taken to signify, within the broader context of art history, the total subjugation of nature to a scientific rule. Nature, now culturally encoded, could be viewed from a safe and controllable distance, as if through a window.” (1998. p.9)
Perspective became part of a lengthy process where artists sought to create a convincing visual substitute for nature and the natural world was seen as raw material to be absorbed into the fabric of painting and drawing. Details were taken from nature and improved upon and rearranged so as to appear more natural than nature, an “ideal version of reality”. (Grishin. 1998. P.9)
“Together with this rationalised understanding of space, there was a rationalised understanding of time, and, in Renaissance painting, there was the illusion of a complete unity of time and space. Divorced from the earlier Medieval attempts to juxtapose symbols drawn from the natural world and the idea of a continuous, cyclic narrative, this geometrically devised construction created a totally artificial space in which one could locate oneself within a seemingly logical and tangible sequence of time.” (Grishin. 1998. p.9)
The conventions of perspective “presuppose a certain way of seeing things” (Hughes.1991. p.16) and, as an abstract code reflect the cultural attitude of humans to their relationship with the environment. It presents a separation from the environment or landscape where seeing is separated from tangible experience and emotional involvement.
It [perspective] is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one–eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees. It makes a god of the spectator, who becomes the person on whom the whole world converges, the Unmoved Onlooker. Perspective gathers the visual facts and stabilises them; it makes of them a unified field. The eye is clearly distinct from that field, as the brain is separate from the world it contemplates. Despite its apparent precision, perspective is a generalisation about experience. (Hughes. 1991. p.17)
The tradition of landscape painting is also infused with the polarities of the universal and the particular, the eternal or timeless and the transitory, chance or design. This search for something permanent “is one of the deepest instincts leading men to philosophy” (Russell. P.63)
The landscape belongs to the world of time and perpetual flux; day and night, changing seasons and changing weather. As artists throughout history have sought to capture these elements of the landscape their main concern was find something permanent beneath the strata of changing phenomena, to strive for the sense of eternity in the midst of flux.
“Symbolic orderings of space and time provide a framework for experience through which we learn who or what we are in society.” (Harvey. 1990, p. 214)
“The conquest and control of space, … first requires that it be conceived of as something usable, malleable, and therefore capable of domination through human action. Perspectivism and mathematical mapping did this by conceiving of space as abstract, homogenous, and universal in its qualities, a framework of thought and action which was stable and knowable.” (Harvey. 1990. p. 254)
The homogenisation of space poses serious difficulties for the conception of place. (Harvey. 1990. p. 257)
Macro micro space
My work departs from the landscape tradition in that it does not focus on a singular ‘view’ and the restricted ordering of space. It challenges the traditional concept of seeing and the experience of seeing to include intuition, emotion, identity and a search for meaning. The view shifts from macro to micro to encompass a multitude of views and experiences. The micro is metaphor for the global, what happens to a small fragment reflects what is happening on a huge scale. The single frame becomes a multitude of frames, doorways and layers where denotative and connotative meanings collide.
My work shifts from the single view that denotes the masculine control, colonisation and dominance over the land towards a feminist perspective of participation, interaction and collaboration. It shifts from the material to the spiritual from the profane to the sacred.
Our survival on this planet no longer depends on technology, it is the misuse of technology which threatens an ecological disaster. The need to survive and save the planet means the need to change our ideology and this will alter our aesthetics – away from the ‘view’ to a more global perspective and towards a new mythology. We need to think of the earth not only as a material resource but a source and find a new mythology and ideology to enable our survival. The purpose of the work is to reawaken, reaffirm and reinforce the notion of the feminine principle in our connection with the environment.
Space – layering
My work aims to represent a personal narrative about the land, identity and spirituality. The multiplicity and hybrid nature of the images, the layering of forms, borders and arches, fragment and dissolve the possibility of one view and one narrative. These images and surfaces act as signifiers to a chain of meanings which can be read on different levels; the simplest and most obvious is the decorative and the artificial which belongs to the realm of culture and the profane.
The space in the work is also disconnected to ‘the view’ or any notion of perspective as it is an overlay and interplay of layers. The focus shifts within the work where the scale of the images shift from the macro to the micro, from the particular to the universal, from the natural to the cultural, from illusion to abstraction, from realism to stylisation, from denotative to symbolic. Small areas or fragments allude to a larger environment within the restriction or constraint of mathematically and culturally induced edges.
Place/ Space/ Fragments: memory and experience, growth, decay, the elements
The notion of ‘space and place’ is particularly explored where the land is not only observed but experienced through emotion and intuition. I wish to represent the essence of the place, its form, structure and surface appearance. I do not represent a traditional ‘view’ of the land but aspects of the rhythms, energy and movements in the environment. The details explore the microcosm, fractal patterns, textures, colours and shapes, especially the local characteristics of specific places. The order and form in nature and the creative force pervading all nature is a particular interest to me and a focus to the work. The idea of the interconnectedness of all life on earth, and the universe is my philosophical basis.
The Feminine principal
Feminine space in art – collaboration, participation and community rather than individualism and domination.
Gablik, S. (1993). The Re–enchantment of Art. New York: Thames & Hudson
Gablik’s work on culture/nature, domination/participation, masculine/feminine presents the idea that we need a shift in thinking to heal our “toxic culture” and protect our environment. She believes that the thought patterns in our society have set us on a course of biospheric destruction. Gablic believes that there is a new paradigm emerging based on the notion of participation rather than domination in which art will begin to redefine itself in terms of social relatedness and ecological healing. (1993. p.27) She believes that the existing mythologies of our present culture are leading us to destruction (1993. P.117) and she questions and redefines the role of art and the artist in culture. Gablic believes our culture/nature relationship should be that of relatedness, interconnection and participation rather than that of dominance and alienation.
The feminine principal and ‘the Goddess’ have been expelled from our society creating a spiritual disconnection from the land and nature. We treat the land as a commodity which can be bought, sold and exploited for capitalist gains. The feminist principal encompasses the power of imagination, myth, dream and vision. It is a philosophy of the interconnectedness and interdependence of life will begin to redefine itself in terms of social relatedness and ecological healing.
These issues will be elaborated in following points.
Symbolism, spirituality
Australian Aboriginal spirituality
What inspires me about Australian Aboriginal art and the belief system is that all things share a common oneness – natural things and living things of which humans are a part all share a common life essence and there is a spiritual identification with the natural environment. The art gives a tangible, visible and symbolic focus for the spiritual.
We have learnt that Australia is not terra nullius belonging to nobody, but in fact it may have been inhabited up to 150,000 years ago. Aboriginal art and spirituality is a great gift to our nation, as migrants to this country we have learnt a reverence of life that celebrates land as a living thing and the mother–source of all things living. The ‘Dreaming’ encompasses the past, present and future, creation, creativity, spirituality, morality and laws about the preservation, nurturance and enhancement of life. It is fundamentally about the human relationship to land and the cosmos.
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief and the feeling within yourself that allows you to become a part of the whole environment around you – not the built environment, but the natural environment, … Birth, life and death are all part of it, and you welcome each.
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that all objects are living and share the same soul or spirit that Aboriginals share – a kinship with the environment.
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that the soul or spirit will continue on after our physical form has passed away through death – the spirit will return to the Dreamtime from where it came. The Dreamtime is the environment that the Aboriginal lived in, and still exists today, all around us. It is everything that is living and that shares a common soul or spirit and this includes the entire environment.
The Aboriginal gift: Spirituality for a Nation Eugene Stockton
Science, religion, mythology and metaphysics
Radical ecology and the ‘Gaia’ principle.
James Lovelock Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) and The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our Living Earth (1988)
Carolyn Merchant Radical Ecology: The search for a Livable World (2nd edn 2005)
The Gaia principle sees the planet earth as a living organism.
The Gaia hypothesis, named after the Greek earth goddess Gaia, states that the physical and chemical condition of the surface of the earth, of the atmosphere, and of the oceans has been and is actively made fit and comfortable by the presence of life itself. It offers the idea that Gaia, a self–regulating, cybernetic system and a living earth, is more than the mere sum of its parts. Life itself plays an active role in maintaining the conditions necessary for its own continuation. Lovelock’s central idea is that “the living matter, air, oceans, and land surface form a complex system which can be seen as a single organism and which has the capacity to keep our planet a fit place for life.” (Merchant p.105)
According to the Gaia Hypothesis, we are parts of a greater whole. Our destiny is not dependent merely on what we do for ourselves but also on what we do for Gaia as a whole. If we endanger her, she will dispense with us in the interests of a higher value – life itself. (Lovelock p.vii)
After reading the book on radical ecology and viewing Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, I am really concerned about the state of the planet. I share Joseph Cambell’s belief that we need a new spirituality that view’s the earth as sacred. This encompasses a revival of the Goddess principal in our economic, political, social and religious life.
The aim of radical ecology is to help bring about a more liveable world.
It pushes social and ecological systems towards new patterns of production, reproduction, and consciousness that will improve the quality of human life and the natural environment. It challenges those aspects of the political and economic order that prevent the fulfilment of basic human needs. It offers theories that explain the social causes of environmental problems and alternative ways to resolve them. It supports social movements for removing the causes of environmental deterioration and raising the quality of life for people of every race, class and sex. (Merchant p.8)
Today there is a huge tension between economic forces of production and local ecological conditions. Capitalist production creates accumulating ecological stresses on air, water, soil and biota (including human beings) and on society’s ability to maintain and reproduce itself over time. (Merchant p.8–9)
The global ecological crisis at the moment is “the result of deepening contradictions generated by the dynamics between production and ecology and by those between reproduction and production.” (Merchant p.9)
Ecology, production, reproduction and consciousness interact over time to bring about ecological transformations … Human consciousness … includes representations of ‘nature’ reflected in myth, cosmology, religion, philosophy, science, language, and art, helping to maintain a given society over time and to influence change …
Ecological revolutions are brought about through interactions between production and ecology and between production and reproduction. These changes in turn stimulate new representations of nature and forms of human consciousness. (Merchant p.11)
My work focuses on the human consciousness level – myth, cosmology and philosophy. I make representations of nature/land that are symbolic rather than representational to reflect my personal philosophy that nature is sacred and that we are part of nature not separate from it.
The earth is the Great Mother, Gaia, the Goddess – she creates and maintains life on the planet.
It is a wholistic, pantheist, panentheist outlook where all things are interconnected. It is opposed to the Christian view of duality where man and God, man and nature are separate.
We are facing a great ecological and spiritual crisis where balance and harmony have been disrupted by human production and reproduction. We are destroying the planet – our Great Mother Earth. I believe that human consciousness needs to take a radical shift or we will be destroyed – can we change the exploitation of nature as a free gift to capital? Can we repair the damaged ecosystems, the resource depletion and pollution with better practice?
Spiritual ecology, like deep ecology, is the product of a profound sense of crisis in the ways that twentieth century humans relate to the environment. Like deep ecology it focuses on the transformation of consciousness, especially religious and spiritual consciousness … spiritual ecologists attempt to develop new ways of relating to the planet that entail not an ethic of domination, but one of partnership with nature. (Merchant p.118)
Radical ecology encompasses ecocentric ethics which are rooted in a holistic, rather than a mechanistic, metaphysics. The assumptions of holism are:
- everything is connected to everything else (abiotic and biotic components)
- the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
- Knowledge is context–dependent as opposed to the context independence assumption of mechanism, in holism each part at any instant takes its meaning from the whole
- The primacy of process over parts
- The unity of humans and non human nature (Humans and nature–partnership model rather than dominance and control)
Mythology
Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth 1998.
Jungian philosophy and psychology
The collective unconscious
Archetypal symbols and myths
Anima and animus
Ideas/Concepts include:
- birth
- life
- death
- rebirth
- the fragility of the environment
- cycles of change and time
- archetypal symbols
- reverence for nature, its sacredness
- the elements: earth, fire, water air
Joseph Campbell believes that this image, the Earth viewed from space, will be the symbol for the new mythology to come.
“You can’t predict what a myth is going to be any more than you can predict what you’re going to dream tonight. Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realisations of some kind that have to find expression in symbolic form. And the only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is the one that is talking about the planet, not the city, not these people, but the planet, and everybody on it. That’s my main thought for what the future myth will is going to be.
And what it will have to deal with will be exactly what all myths have dealt with – the maturation of the individual, from dependency through adulthood, through maturity, and then to the exit; and then how to relate to this society and how to relate this society to the world of nature and the cosmos. That’s what the myths have all talked about, and what this one’s got to talk about. But the society that it’s got to talk about is the society of the planet. And until that gets going you don’t have anything. …
When you see the earth from the moon, you don’t see any divisions there of nations or states. This might be the symbol, really, for the new mythology to come. That is the country we are going to be celebrating. And those are the people that we are one with.” (Campbell)
The mythological and the metaphysical
The Goddess is a symbol for an ecocentric spirituality where humans don’t have domination over nature and which celebrates the interconnectedness of all life and non living things in this planet.
I have been researching images, ideas and symbols from Neolithic times (‘Old Europe’) that relate to Goddess iconography. The references I have used are:
Marija Gimbutus The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images. (Reprint of new edition 1996) and The Language of the Goddess (1989).
Old Europe’ was characterized by a dominance of women in society and the worship of the Goddess incarnating the creative principle as Source and Giver of All. In this culture the male element, man and animal, represented spontaneous and life–stimulating but not life–generating powers.
Goddess Symbolism – the Great Goddess of Life, Death and Regeneration
The number three and its duplication apparently possessed a certain symbolic significance where the goddess was concerned. She was the mystery of life generating cosmic forces. She was the flowing unity of celestial primordial waters and as an owl she was also connected with the aspect of death.
Biological rhythms of plants and animals
Hybrid features of the statues – phallic, female, animal, alien? What is the artists’ intention, symbolic content – abstract, symbolic or conceptual? Not naturalistic
Human mental response to the environment – to interpret and subdue reality
To rationalize nature
Visual expression to mythology
Expression of supernatural powers
To transform and spiritualise the body and to surpass the elementary and corporeal – an expression of deeply implanted concepts and beliefs
Symbols include:
- The spiral, the snake – vitality and rejuvenation, life giving powers, the vehicle of immortality. Snake and phallus – stimulator and guardian of the spontaneous life energy.
- The Labyrinth – several levels of mythical water
- The triangle – the schematic rendering of the female goddess
- The cross – symbolically connects the four corners of the world or the cosmos. It is a universal symbol – it is based on the belief that the year is a journey embracing the four cardinal directions. Its purpose is to promote and assure the continuance of the cosmic cycle, to help the world through all the phases of the moon and the changing seasons.
- Fish, snake, bird – the mystery of life lies in water, the snake winds round the universal egg. Water – primordial element to produce life, concept of genesis of the universe from an elemental aqua substance. Water snake and water bird are vehicles of energy. Waterbird – giver of nourishment, bisexualism of water bird divinity by emphasis of long neck – linked with the phallus and snake – concept of fusion of sexes
- horns, moon, crescent – the mysterious power of growth and nature – a lunar symbol, symbol of primordial sacrifice where a new life emerges
- egg – the primal element of the universe was conceived as water – the beginning of life an egg enveloped in water – primordial egg or vulva symbolism – the cosmic egg. Hybridisation of woman and bird where her body contains an egg – the supernatural.
- Fish – emblem of vulva or the phallus – symbol of the soul or the mystic ship of life – fish, egg shapes connected. Egg fish woman – primeval creator and mythical ancestress
- Caterpillar – transformation new life after death, bee, butterfly, double–axe shape or tree – the life process of creation and destruction is the basis of immortality. Bees, honey – regeneration
- Seed – fertility, life, related to egg. Bonding to the soil
- Decorative motifs – dots, spirals and meanders, animal masks with horns or ears, triangular or pentagon shapes
- The mask – the receptacle of invisible or divine forces – alien looking!
- The snake goddess – symbols of water, rain, snake and the bird – associated with the moon, the vegetal life–cycle, the rotation of seasons, the birth and growth essential to the perpetuation of life
The Spiral
From the book The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul by Jill Purse 1994, Thames & Hudson
Time itself is cyclic, and by the spiral of its returning seasons we review the progress and growth of our own understanding. (p.7)
The spiral is a symbol, it denotes eternity. The universe and man’s consciousness (the macrocosm and the microcosm) consist in a continuum and a dynamic whole – this can be expressed by the spiral. This symbol, which is perpetually turning in on itself, expanding and contracting, has an interchangeable centre and circumference, and has neither beginning or end – the spherical vortex. The spherical vortex has analogies in nature – the form of flow created by air and water. (p.7)
Archetypal flow and growth form – microcosm & macrocosm – spiral movement creates a centre. Water is the pure, potential and unformed matrix from which all life takes its being – ephemeral but changeless configurations – an order, kosmos Greek for order – matter has movement and organisation. The growth or human consciousness is the continuous refining of its own organisation, the ordering of its individual microcosm – we are the spiral and all the spirals within. (p.8)
The Shadow
Shadow – trace – personal identity
Occasionally and subtly my shadow will appear in images of my work. The shadow is a recurring symbol and metaphor in my work as it is the imposition of my own personality and vision on the landscape. It can also paradoxically confirm the artist’s presence in absence. The shadow represents a personal identity or self– a spiritual and physical connection with the environment. The shadow is ephemeral and intangible in its natural state becomes a ‘trace’ of myself and an ‘index’ of the human element in the work.
The shadow also represents this human identity and human presence in a state of flux, an imprint or intrusion against harmony and balance in the environment. It carries images of both cause and effect of human interaction with the environment as well as memory, experience and cultural fragments.
The shadow is also a personification of nature – ‘mother earth’ – embodying positive energies: a Jungian archetypal principle or primordial image. It can also be interpreted as the unconscious part of the personality that represents unknown or little–known attributes and qualities of the ego. The shadow usually contains values that are needed by consciousness, but that exist in a form or a psychic dimension, that makes it difficult to integrate them into one’s life. It can consist of many different positive and negative elements. Jung describes how a second symbolic figure turns up behind the shadow and called its male and female forms “animus” and “anima” which exhibit both good and bad aspects. The “anima” is a personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man’s psyche and his relation to the unconscious. The “animus” is the male personification of the unconscious in woman and may be the demon of death or a bridge to the Self through her creative activity. Jung believed that these symbolic forms reappear in dreams and art because humans have lost their emotional “unconscious identity” with natural phenomena. (Jung. 1964. pp.171–206)
Unity
The central philosophical question is that if images of land and nature are cultural and reflect our relationship to the environment, then how is this relationship changing today; is there an ideological or spiritual shift and is this shift necessary for the preservation of the planet?
There is a growing awareness in our culture that if we continue to destroy our environment it is to the detriment of this culture and that we may be the agent of our own extinction. We need to reassess our definition of land as a resource to be used and exploited to that as a primal source on which we depend not only for physical survival but for spiritual enrichment. The ideology encompassing the nature/culture dichotomy needs to be subverted to express co–existence rather than domination and where culture is once again dependant on nature.
My work poses the question or presents the idea of the unity of existence and the interconnectedness of life on the planet. It points to and reflects a necessary ideological and spiritual shift that may be necessary for our survival. In this sense my artwork does not aim to have a didactic function but rather to express or embody a shift in consciousness towards a spiritual connection with the land and to reflect the sacred power of the land. In view of our present environmental crisis, the focus will not be on the present state of destruction and disconnection but on the possibility of healing and reconnection. My work will reflect my own personal search for meaning and a spiritual connection with the land. I wish to explore my sense of ‘place’ in the landscape, which is more than just documenting or representing a view or being there but an inner sense of place which is spiritual and meditative.