Cosmic Path – Turas Cosmaí

1. The Great Flaring Forth

In the Beginning was Mystery (Thomas Berry)

The Big Bang or the Great Flaring Forth are names we give to what we cannot describe or imagine as humans. Once there was no time, energy, or space. Then somehow, everything that would ever be exploded out, rapidly and with an inconceivable force. Everything we would ever know, our entire 13.7-billion-year-old history, began.

Light bursts forth! The shards of mirror here capture reflected fragments of the sky, the field and our faces as we look down. This reminds us that everything we see here today is made of elements present at that first moment, ingredients which in time became hydrogen, hedgehogs, humming birds and Handel’s Messiah.

The Great Flaring Forth was an explosion wild with possibility, unknown endings, and creativity. What might that tell us of its source?

2. Galactic spirals of existence emerge

Over billions of years the elements of our universe spiralled, swirled, expanded and collapsed. In this tension early stars formed and collapsed, giving birth to newer stronger elements each time. Not long after the Big Bang, billions of galaxies formed as things swirled into orbit around suns. Tiamat, our galaxy’s grandmother star, collapsed and then exploded out creating the elements of the Milky Way. Then about 5 billion years ago a third-generation yellow dwarf star emerged to become our sun, Brother Sun holds all the elements of our particular solar system in its orbit as we spin around it.

On Spanish Point beach, in the hot summer of 1934, cartographer and artist Thomás O’hAodha carved a star into the Black Rock at Spanish Point, as a blessing for swimmers. This image is used here to represent Tiamat. Around her, swirling arms of rocks, stars and molecular gases reach out, reminding us that this Universe is still in constant movement and change.

In the slow story of time, rebirth and evolution, can you see life emerging?

How many stars can you name? When is the last time you let them look at you for an hour?

3. The Earth coalesces into a planet

Our planet began as flying pieces attracted to each other, stuck together. Gravity pulled swirling gas and dust into a hot central core, with a solid crust and rocky mantle. Movement of tectonic plates, molten lava and water from asteroids allowed differing dusty landscapes to develop slowly. Without a protective atmosphere this was a harsh world. Yet the instincts of stone, water and algae was to live and evolve. These elements began to create the conditions for something very special to happen on this pale blue dot we call home. For all our self-importance, it is good to remember that we humans only exist because our planet has six inches of topsoil and it rains (P. Harvey).

Without moving molten rock, human life would not exist. Consider that continents are still being formed and shaped, that the earth continues to create.

4. LUCA – united through our tiny ancestor

There are three basic life forms on earth: bacteria, arechaea and eukaryotes (which includes us animals), and our genetic code is remarkably similar – we evolved from a common source.

About 4 billion years ago LUCA (the ‘last universal common ancestor’) existed in deep hot sea vents. LUCA was one of many life forms at that time, but it is now recognised as the most recent form from which all surviving life on earth is descended and connected.

This mosaic echoes the previous one. As earth is forming a protective atmosphere, tiny organisms are forming cell walls. Life supports itself as precious RNA is guarded and passed on. This is an artistic impression of what LUCA may have looked like, with clouds of water vapour surrounding the image as a reminder of the earth’s atmosphere.

What is the smallest thing that God could care about or the least powerful person, plant, or thing that I take care of? What makes these things precious?

5. The earth learns to feed from the sun

All living things need energy to grow. The sun, one million times bigger than earth; throws out such energy in an act of cosmic generosity. About 2.6 billion ago, cyanobacteria learnt to absorb infra-red light from the sun. Over the next billion years, more complex forms of bacteria like algae, then moss and liverwort, all learnt how to capture visible light and turn it into energy. Today scientists are hopeful that we can use these processes to create new clean fuels for a healthier world.

This mosaic represents plant cells filled with tiny round chloroplasts, which contain chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is unique in that it captures the sun’s energy at a particular wavelength, enabling plants to absorb that energy and use it to build tissue. For instance, phytoplankton, the tiny floating plants that form the basis of the entire marine food web today, contain chlorophyll.

How does the sun affect me, my energy, and my moods?
When do I take time to notice, acknowledge this relationship, and give thanks for Sister Sun?​

6. Life swims towards light

When we humans think of light, we usually think only of eyesight. However, for billions of years the sun was primarily experienced here as warmth or as energy. Before life had eyes to see, it used other senses to survive and thrive. Many organisms, especially those in the deep sea, still use other senses most.

Chlamydomonas are a green algae whose lineage diverged from land plants over 1 billion years ago. They are unicellular organisms with ion channels (membrane proteins might be more familiar terminology) that are directly stimulated by light. They are usually green, cup shaped or oval, with red spots for photosensitivity. This mosaic represents two Chlamydomonas, moving in water towards the light. At one corner are streams of yellow representing the light flowing in. Galileo wrote: “The Sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the Universe to do”.

What can I see, here? How do I use my sense of sight to appreciate the world I live in?

7. Complex life emerges

The evolution of life is complex. While we may not know everything about the early species of life on this planet, it all mattered. For by its existence, we exist.

One example of early complex animal life is the Dickinsonia, an extinct genus of lifeforms that inhabited sea beds around Australia, China, Russia, Ukraine, about 600-500 million years ago. Dickinsonia fossils range from a few millimetres to about 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) in length, and from a fraction of a millimetre to a few millimetres thick. I once again urge you to use visual examples instead of a series of words and numbers. We only know about these animals through the imprint they left on stone. As they died their bodies lay down, and fine sand sifted round them into lines and crevices, forming a ‘death mask’ impression that over time hardened into sandstone rock.

“The fossil is not the animal. The fossil is not the bones of the animal.
The fossil is the stone’s memory of the bones of the animal.
And that’s a poetry older than words.”
Jarod K. Anderson

What marks, signs or scars have we humans left on earth for future creatures to find?
How will we be remembered?

8. Cycles of Life and Death as life-forms diversify

Now life forms begin to see each other, to fight for survival, and to reproduce sexually. Species evolve or perish with increasing speed. ‘Extinction, not survival, was the rule’ (Carl Sagan).

As humans we often view death and suffering as enemies of life, but they are an integral part of existence, as necessary to our species as oxygen. If countless species didn’t risk living life in all its fragility and complexity, we humans would never have come to be.

Ostracoderms (literally shell skins) were armoured jawless fish that lived over 500 million years ago. This mosaic is an artistic impression of these small fish – can you find the surprise at the edging, which came from a gravel path outside the workshop where we created these mosaics?

How has change helped me to evolve into a better person? Where might I need to ask for help as I continue to become the most fulfilled version of me?

9. Life flourishes: The Golden Ratio

Amidst all this competition and suffering, there was also a huge flourishing of colour, diversity and beauty as life forms sought to attract what they needed and to warn off what they did not. An efficiency emerged across new life forms that Fibonacci, a 12th century mathematician; discovered. We can see this Golden Ratio easily in a Nautilus shell, in spiral galaxies and ferns, in hurricanes and sunflowers. This logical life instinct begins small and then with increased confidence spirals out. Its ratios have been considered a mark of beauty and excellence in nature, art and architecture for centuries.

Nautiluses are a living link to the ancient past. A cousin of the octopus, they’ve been around over 480 million years, nestling in deep ocean reefs before dinosaurs walked on earth. One corner of this mosaic, below the Nautilus shell, is blank – a negative space to allow you, the pilgrim, to look up and breathe for a moment. There is so much happening now as every type of life form tries to survive and develop. The beauty, colour and creativity of nature is almost overwhelming!

How many life forms can you see as you look around right now?
What is the most beautiful or the most unusual thing you’ve seen in creation?

10. Humans express themselves outside of their bodies

Aristotle wrote that the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Over 5 million years ago, several species emerged on planet earth which we would easily identify as ancestors of humans. Up to this point, species passed on their learning through DNA (by producing healthier offspring), but somehow humans learnt to express their learning outside of their bodies – in symbols, language and writing. This meant learning could be shared faster and wider, and so humans evolved quickly.

Complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity began to emerge. About 200,000 years ago., two children in what is now Quesang, Tibet, left a set of five handprints and five footprints on a travertine boulder. A mark on the mud, to see themselves, the now-fossilized impressions may be the world’s oldest known cave art. This mosaic impression here has the hand of an adult and child to allow you to place your hand on the tile.

In a world with no mirrors, what might it have felt like for a child to see themselves expressed in a hand-print? How would you express yourself in symbols on this earth?

11. Agriculture – Humans manage the land

While humans began to control fire about a million years ago, attempts to manage animals and plants are far more recent. For a long time, nomadic humans followed animals for food, foraging what they could as they moved. Agriculture as a way of life which allowed families and communities to stay in one place is only about 11,000 years old on planet earth. Here in Ireland, the Céide Fields, found under the bogs of North Mayo, show us farm fields from about 3,500 BC.
Farming is central to our existence to this day, and all our sacred texts speak of humanity’s responsibility to care for the land from which all our nourishment springs. Agriculture is the practise of this good stewardship. Pope Francis reminds us that “We must care for nature, that nature can care for us”.
This mosaic has various images of Irish farm life. Lift your head from the mosaic and look around at the hedgerow, grasses, birds and small animals around you. Close your eyes and listen. These sights and sounds are all part of the mosaic of farm life too – and we should support all plant and animal life, as they support the biodiversity we live in.

Can you name the ingredients of everything you ate today, and where they came from? What could be grown or raised locally, and how might we support local farming?

11. Spirituality – Human’s restless hearts taking root

From around the Middle Paleolithic era (250 – 30 thousand years ago), there is credible evidence of religious/ritualistic behaviour in the world. The Poulnabrone Dolmen in Co Clare (over 5,000 years ago) is one of most well-known of nearly 200 standing dolmens on our island. Rituals for our dead, language and symbols that ask for divine help, point to a conscious spirituality as humans made sense of the world and their own awareness. To paraphrase St Augustine, ‘human hearts were restless and they could not rest until they found rest in God’.

This mosaic depicts a cross section of a root. In it we can imagine life in all its organic detail and glory. We see hydrogen forming bacteria and cells, green algae reflecting colour, and water and glucose moving against gravity. On this Turas Cosmaí (cosmic walk), the mosaic symbolises all spirituality, all paths to God, all holy restlessness that calls us into unity with the whole of creation.

Where have I experienced wonder and awe, or a sense of divine presence in my life?

13. Humans living in an Industrial world

The Industrial Revolution (from 1760) was the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. This revolution rapidly changed how people lived and worked. It fundamentally transformed society – for instance living in cities not villages became the norm.

Seemingly inexhaustible energy sources combined with the belief that humans can control and use all the materials and creatures of the earth for their own profit– up to and including fellow humans –would prove deadly to a healthy society.

While we might land on the moon and fly to Mars, still one in ten humans go to bed hungry daily, up to one in three women experience violence in domestic relationships, and we are facing climate collapse as the released carbon of fossil fuels destroys our atmosphere and planet. Laudato Si (194) says: “A technological and economic development which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be considered progress.”

The image of earth on this mosaic is a rusted circular saw blade whose edges are busy and creating noise while ignoring the rust and collapse.

What is a human person and what is a person’s life for?
How much is enough money?

14. Looking out – Choosing a bright future

Look up to sky – beyond the blue is stark black and twinkling stars. This is not just some unknown frightening vastness, but our universal home balanced together in incomprehensible ways. Without hydrogen there is no us. Without rocks and water there would be no family to worry about, friends to laugh with or animals to care for. Without starlight, no sun and no green plants. We are only starting to understand that we are not a selection of separate objects but one amazing organism – the Universe.

This final mosaic mirrors the first as we come to see ourselves not as observers but as part of this Turas Cosmaí. Some of the same black and mirror shards appear but at its centre is the twinkling night sky and all lines now lead to unity not to expansion. Can you see yourself in it?

As we look up and face the sea now, can you see all that ever existed and all that ever may be? Is any part of creation irrelevant to your very existence? How can we walk respectfully and with love in our Common Home?

15. Thank you: Creating our Turas Cosmaí together.

“The Earth’s iron in your blood allows you to use oxygen created by
other species to empower your cells to live and produce energy.
How strange it is when I hear people talk about visiting nature as if they are an outsider.
With every breath you declare your kinship with nature.” JK Anderson

The Cosmic Spiral is a now well-known ritual which offers an embodied insight into our 14-billion-year-old story. It was first created in the mid-1980s by Sr. Miriam Therese MacGillis of Genesis Farm in New Jersey, who was inspired by the “New Story,” as then told by Thomas Berry. Here in Ireland, centres like An Tairseach in Wicklow have inspired us to create something similar on the west coast of Clare.

This Turas Cosmaí is deliberately created as a path not spiral, so that we can use a meadow without damaging the biodiversity. Our intention is not to tell the whole history but to invite you into the story by reflecting on some moments. A simple path cut by a local farmer creates space for 14 mosaics to be dropped discreetly into the earth. A QR code on the wall at the start offers a link to this website, to minimise paper. This Cosmic path would not be possible without a grant from Creative Clare, for which we are grateful.

Despite amazing resources and support, it’s very challenging to put 14 billion years into 14 tiles! Once an initial timeline was agreed, Noirin Lynch and Linda Hebenstreit gathered a group of artists to consider this proposal. Michael and Patrick Haran cut and maintained the path. Qwynn designed the 14 mosaic tiles for us and Gabrielle (Gabi) O’Brien taught us and facilitated the making of these mosaics across an extremely warm June, with the team of Linda, Gabi, Sheena Meagher and Shona Blake. The final task was to grout each tile, so a wonderful group of volunteers gathered on June 27th 2023 to be part of the journey. Huge thanks to Anne, Katie, Holly, Guillaume and Sara; to Fycsene, Anne, Mary, Bridget, Liz, Rita, Brid, Eithne, and Colette; and to Alecks our photographer. Each person shared the gifts they had generously – creating something far greater than any of us could have alone. We are grateful.

“It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift — your true self — is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.”

Thomas Berry, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche