What is the alchemy of our immediate
environment?
Let us begin by examining our technology,
such as laptops, mobile phones, gadgets and toys, to unearth how they are so
much more than they seem. What are they made of? Essentially comprising of
circuit boards and fibre optics, they are made of glass which comes from sand,
which comes from grounded rocks. Our laptops and mobiles made by glittering
surf crashing against rocks! More than this, their plastic and rubber,
amazingly comes from oil, which comes from decaying sea creatures and plant
life found on the ocean bed, such as rainbow coral, zebra fish, pink jellyfish,
blue whales, white sharks and purple octopus! Actually, far more meaningful
than simple deconstruction or demystification, how enthralling we find life to
be, when we fully acknowledge the true origins, journey and destination of
every nuanced element in the physical world around us.
We strengthen ourselves by eating meat
originating from animals, while our vegetables come from vitamins in soil and
rain water from fluffy clouds, evaporated from the sea, and our medicine comes
from herbs in gardens and jungles! We dance in clothes made of silk, which
comes from silk worms, and in cotton, which is from cotton plantations! When we
protect ourselves with sportswear made of synthetic polyester, we are literally
wearing sea creatures! When our children play with dolls and remote control
cars, or ride tricycles and skateboards, all made of plastic and rubber, they
are literally playing with tropical fish, red crabs and electric eels! We watch
television in social gatherings on furniture made of wood, which originates from
trees in forests. We play with gadgets and toys made of metal mined from our
Earth, melted by lava, and pushed to the surface by tectonic plates.
What else in our lives might we examine?
Let us, society, ask collectively, what are the origins of our Art, such as the
decorations in our homes, work places and recreational places? What comprises
the materials of our houses, caravans, trailers, huts, caves, wigwams, cinema,
theatre, and stadiums? Who built and made these things? Let us, society,
individually and collectively remember and celebrate, these people! These local
cider-drinking builders who keep myths, legends and folklore alive, frequenting
our pubs! These eccentric fashion designers and romantic architects that flirt
and bed one another, exchanging ideas at our cocktail parties! These tragically
poetic singers & musicians of bands, who interact with the exotic dancers
at our strip bars and melodramatic poets & thespians at our theatres and
cabaret clubs. These impoverished artists and artisans who smoke hookahs and
drink coffee in our cafes. These tribes in lush jungles and sweat shop workers
in hot beautiful countries, who as slaves, are forced to make the goods we
consume!
Yet beautiful Eastern & Asian they -
these workers who are the very makers of these awe inspiring geometric patterns
manifest in their pottery, sculpture, jewellery and fashion - are never
actually associated with the alchemy of their unique craft, by the Western
peoples they sell them to. A “made in Taiwan” label on a toy, or a “made in
Nepal” label on a rainbow hoody is not good enough, because these simple labels
still do not do justice to the hard working crafters who continue to be
exploited, forgotten and left for dead, and even the transporters of these
goods meet the same fate. Imagine if instead we had publicly available, easily
accessible list of all the factories and farms who produced every element
comprising the product, along with options to donate to the workers to say
“thank you” and/or to fund a charity ensuring their wellbeing? More than this.
Imagine if we - metaphorically – “danced” for these workers, making our “thank you”
to them a FUN activity to participate in; a bonding exchange in social media,
such as Facebook & Twitter. We need all media, such as television, magazines,
and newspapers to include in their advertisements, the origin of every
ingredient and aspect of their goods, with a holistic website online with
an easy to use search bar, so that the public may quickly make a
check on anything they consume, with an option to donate and/or
support the makers of their chosen product. We need a revolutionary
radical change to our current ethos and fast!
I bring you… “Golgotharism!”
Golgotharism, inspired by the Christian prophet Jesus Christ’s ‘Stations Of The Cross’ - which maps out the many stages of his crucifixion on mount Golgotha - is the acknowledgement, examination, and celebration of our internal and external reality as human beings, on the atomic and cellular level, expressing in a obviously perceivable fashion, artistically, musically, theatrically or in literary form, our past, present and future, simultaneously, giving sacred cosmic reverence to all object(s) as they evolve and moves through time-space, whether with pride or horror.
When we embrace Golgotharism, as many
Psychedelic artists, such as Alex Grey, we come to place where we fully realise
the “illusion of separation”. We all consist of matter moving through
time-space, where our bodies are literally made up of physical ingredients
attracted and accumulated in world cuisine from all corners of the Earth. Each
element being literally near identical to one another in physical make up,
despite their differences in geographical origins - and in doing so, recognise
our Nationalism as being not from one country, but from one world. As one
species we call human, allowing us then to put aside our petty differences to
dissolve racism, classism and sexism, instead identifying ourselves as being
pure consciousness (electro-magnetic wave form information) manifest in diverse
Earthly forms, with identical brains.
Lamb from New Zealand. Pineapples from
Africa. Cheeses from Cornwall. Naans from India. Rice from Persia. Tomatoes
from Spain. All of this embodied in your Saturday night Kebab and can of Lilt –
something cosmic.
Golgotharism is about giving reverence to every aspect of what makes up our world; keeping everything sacred, so that we as society knows at any one point, where’s we’ve been, where we are, and we’re going, allowing us to never repeat our mistakes to evolve positively as one peoples.
Golgotharism teaches us to “Honours Thy
Parents” because we all come from our father’s sperm and our mother’s egg, and
in revering this path our Earthly being takes, we can as a society, learn to
treat elderly people and young children with respect, listening to their
opinions with heightened interest, instead of side lining them like we do
circus and carnival freaks, such as Torso Boy, Bearded Lady, Dwarves, Disfigured
Clown and Siamese Twins. Do we desire our children to look like
this? Of course, however, we do not all share the same values. Once we begin to
judge what atomic and cellular forms we desire the most, and attempt to protect
and revere these subjectively chosen forms, to the point where we’re trying to
make more of them. It starts to look very much like Stem Cell Research and
Cloning, Genetically-Modified Crops and Eugenics, the latter embraced by the
German dictator Hitler and his Nazi soldiers in World War 2, who created the
Holocaust in the 1940’s, which was the extermination of Jews on the basis of
their blood and physical appearance alone, in favour of creating a totally
blond, blue-eyed Aryan race. Perhaps if we saw the true beauty of other countries
races and their art forms e.g. song, dance, theatre, instead of our very narrow
perspective shaped by Western media, we would desire human diversity over racism.
Golgotharism not only instantly associates this beautiful environment with our radios, but also encourages us to protect this environment from which it came, protecting wild life. Imagine if we had a list all the factories and farms who produced every element comprising the product, along with options to donate to the workers to say “thank you” and/or to fund a charity ensuring their wellbeing?
Questions raised on Golgotharism include:
How can multiple births of object(s) be identified, acknowledge and expressed,
when they are seemingly infinite and eternal? Should certain trajectories of
evolution thus be prioritized over others, and who or what should govern this,
when our subjective tastes are so different from one another? Meta-Modernism,
for example, encourages the “coaxing of excess to presence”. When all matter is
bound to time, which is in a constant “flux” of evolution, then should the Art
intentioned to express it, itself, too embody kinetic movement? Romance and
alchemy is after all, by nature, an interactive event, which can sometimes, but
not always, be freeze framed.
Tigris Ta’eed ~ Cyberpunk, Poet & Artist
