VÉ

Vé

Stars made of us

The Old Norse spoke of vé and the people of Old England called their sacred spaces wēoh - “a place to worship”. They looked around at the land and saw in its details a psychogeographical reflection and drew philosophical meaning. Landscape topology connecting with pagan deities.

Our Heathen ancestors recognised vé as groves and wéos - “idols”, as well as their temples. There are related words in several languages that have their root in the Indo-European word vík - “to separate”  – implying a realm behind mundane reality; the spaces where Gods and Goddesses reside.

The stars and sky, the hills and land and the trees and forests were our first cathedrals. With the landscape as our temple, we did not contain our consciousness nor our deities with the temples walls. We are all made of stars and each of us contains the secrets of the universe.

Although the idea of an externalised sacred space can become alluring, I prefer the action of looking inwards for answers rather than outwards. The ultimate Temple is our own bodymind. I believe in the transformative power of sound, sonic alchemy, to create our own sacred inner space.

CD information

The work is the artist’s interpretation of vé and documents his experiences of cosmic awe. It explores the spaces glimpsed through prolonged meditative practice and psychonautic explorations. The work evokes the power of magickal spaces, outside of linear time.

The cover artwork is one part of a painting completed in 1998. The artist worked with ideas relating to inhibitory gnosis, cosmic awe, the interconnectivity of all things and the power-filled, pregnant void – Ginnungagap.

The painting was cut into four sections and presented in a limited edition of four CDs, each featuring three compositions and one quarter-section of the painting, which were given to friends. More copies will be available soon on CD and digital formats with the cover artwork in the form of a limited edition print.