Honoring Souls Transitioned: The Mercaba art installation at Doug's House

In the metaphysical world, it is universally recognized that we are all light beings. As such, we all have a “light body”, which is different than an ‘aura”. The light body is much larger, and encompasses many aspects of our being. "The Lightbody or Mercaba is sacred geometry that transcends space, time and dimensions. It is an aspect of the body that activates each cell to a specific resonance and reestablishes a higher connection with the creative Light of God.”

In developing my concept for the challenge of representing and honoring the 600 souls who passed through Doug’s House, I drilled down to the most fundamental, unifying image I could think of. I know that energy never dies, so all of those 600 souls are now assimilated in the whole of Universal Consciousness. Their individual energies have merged with the whole. What more perfect symbol could there be? The living Mercaba. While I researched images to describe the shape of the Mercaba, I had vision of depicting 600 points of light that came together in the Cosmos to form one cohesive shape of the collective Mercaba. I then created a Mercaba using exactly 600 dots, with some being outside of the whole, in a pattern to create movement, sweeping in toward the main shape. I found a spectacular image of deep space taken by the Hubble Telescope. I mapped out small circles (which were the same diameter as the light bulbs) where each light would go, and overlaid the dots onto the Hubble image. I had that image printed out on a vinyl canvas, which was stretched over an 8’ X 4’ convex frame. Then I needed to decide what kind of lights to use. Eliminating many options, I decided the most simple execution would be to use readily-available Christmas lights, which come already strung together. I cut each circle through the vinyl, making an X with an exact knife. One by one, the lights were pushed through from the back side to expose only the tiny bulb. These were glued into place.

When I lit the piece for the fist time, it was a very emotional moment for me. I felt the energy of those 600 souls, glowing before me. My hope is that all who look at this piece will feel the bright light of each of the souls who chose Doug’s House as their safe and sacred place of transition.

-Cindy Goldman, Artist & PT Board Member