Artistic history

The Octagod amulet, or cosmic comfort coin, as a symbol of the Big Bang is essentially a religious work of art. But what is religion? Especially as it pertains to a symbol of the Big Bang?

Religion is many things. But in particular it can be personal or collective. In its collective form we all need a symbol of the Big Bang. We need a symbol of the Big Bang to give us the kind of global orientation we need to find and secure our place in the world.

On a personal level, this reality, this cultural need, can inspire artists to create various symbols of the Big Bang. Symbols that can for fill this need. But creating a deep and lasting symbol of the Big Bang isn’t easy.

Creating a symbol of the Big Bang begins with an exploration of Science and Religion. Human language emerges from the groundwork of human experience. But it can be filled with many misconceptions, superstitions and other subjective realities. Scientific language is different. It’s mathematical and it emerges from our technological interaction with the groundwork of the Universe. It’s the role of the “science-artist” to reconcile and merge these two. And so a creation of a symbol of the Big Bang proceeds

As an artist trying to create a symbol of the the Big Bang I studied a lot of science and sampled a lot of faiths. I came to understand the scientific world view. Just as I came to understand the religious aesthetic. But creating a symbol for the Big Bang was more than an art project. Creating a symbol for the Big Bang became a personal quest for ultimate context.

The story of science in its fullness, is a story about the Big Bang. How it started. How it evolved. And how it will end. We are a witness to this existence. And that’s part of what it means to have a symbol of the Big Bang. And that’s why this symbol of the Big bang looks like an eye. When we wear this symbol we are the universe seeing itself and being itself.

For the first time in history humanity knows its place in the scheme of things. A symbol of the Big Bang illuminates this understanding. But this understanding has to include an acceptance of death. We as individuals die, and so does the universe. So a personalized symbol of the Big Bang, to some extent, must also be a symbol about death.

So the Octagod comfort coin, this symbol of the Big bang has two sides. One side of this symbol of the Big Bang pertains to our place near the birth of the Universe. While the other side pertains to the death of stars and the death of the Universe as a whole.

Wearing this amulet, this symbol of the Big Bang, induces you into thinking about the Big Bang and your place in the Universe. Caught, as you are, between the beginning and the end of the Universe, this symbol of the Big Bang puts you into the “Radical Now’ your present moment. The present moment shows you just how far the Universe has come. The present, is for a moment, the “last word”. The age of a Universe, that has come this far. The amulet, as a symbol of the Big Bang, is an object that reminds you of this great dividing line.

This symbol of the Big Bang, this amulet, is a religious object that proclaims the glorious universe science reveals. It’s not a vision of heaven or an afterlife. But it does help to ease the anxiety of death. It’s a symbol of the Big Bang that says, if death is good enough for the Universe, than what’s my complaint?

The amulet symbol of the Big Bang creates a religious center. It’s a symbol of our past, present and the distant future. It’s a materialistic savior for a materialistic reality. It hangs over the heart and makes the Big Bang, from beginning to end, seem real. Your relationship to this amulet, this symbol of the Big Bang, informs your relationship to death. And so it becomes part of the the spirituality of scientific contemplation.

Einstein said it best, “Science without religion is lame. And religion without science is blind”. So hopefully a good working symbol of the Big Bang will help to bring these two incomplete half’s together.