Service Description

“Shrines, places regarded as holy because of the associations with a divinity, a sacred person or relic could include a niche or setting for a statue, picture or other object arousing or designed to arouse devotion.” Shrines and Relics had the power to inspire balance, offer protection, comfort, peaceful meditation and connection with your place in the world. They were part of people's lives, visually as well as philosophically. These were open to infinite interactions - curing diseased body parts with anatomical votive offerings, inspiring pilgrimage routes, offering opportunities for reflection and prayer, dropping coins for wishes, tying scraps of fabric representing desires, lighting candles, fastening padlocks for eternal love, or even if just a reverence for historical tourism, it’s easy to get caught up in the what if…. Avoiding misfortune to fall upon us or our loved ones is still wired in subconsciously …saluting a magpie, throwing salt over the left shoulder into the eye of the devil, saving teeth or hair, once for mourning jewellery (now for stem cells!), breaking a mirror - these were thought to be portals to the soul. Avoiding walking under ladders/akin to the gallows where you might meet your end, blessing a sneeze to avoid black death ... .we are all, in one way or another still totally immersed in custom and tradition. In this more narcissistic age, what sustains our souls? We are now the chaotic co-creators of an ever evolving society, saturated by choice, forever adapting and adjusting socially, technologically, intellectually, spiritually and culturally. What is important to us now? This workshop offers an opportunity to re-interpret past universal symbolic deities, shrines and relics in response to our current time, identity and place. All materials supplied.