Growing art and architecture together in the verdant landscape of the Natural House Project produces a Temple… This Hermitge at Compton Verney is now radiant and alive… wheat grains are sprouting in ears both buried and exposed, chitinous residents and shy rodents share shelter… and soon after Aphelion, on the seventh hour of the seventh day of the seventh month of the Gregorian year 2007, an ergonomic cube of earth and clay was placed at its centre…. celebrating the square of earth in the centre of the circle of cosmos, the circle of the horizon… a lunar, stella, solar theatre exteriorof calibration and inspiration. This temple honours the earth, matter, material and mother… this temple honours the heavens, the sun’s zenith, the northern constellations, the lunar cycle of 18.61 years…. this prayer of responsibility and sensitivity is spoken in the symbolic languages of ecological art and architecture.

Picture by Jo Hallington

When we explore the roots of art we discover spirit, ritual and relgion. The early paintings and carvings upon rocks and in caves beng interpreted as depiction of the sacred hunt, or as spirits and dreamworlds…. early theatre being the enactment of myth, ceremony, ritual and religious observance… early music being songs of enchantment, cries of bereavement, prayers and praise… early monuments being long barrows, henges, causewayed enclosures, cursuses and megalithic structures. We discover the rich symbolism and cosmology of round dwellings (Ger/Yurt/Tipi/Lodge) governing the placement of objects and movemnet throuh the space and social codes of practice magnifying spirit and conectedness into every moment. We see houses having spirits… a genus locii… we see a careful and sensitive placement of settlement and dwelling place within the landscape through geomancy, feng shui, vatsu vidya, folk lore and sacred geometry.

Picture by Jo Hallington

It is this sensitivity to material, to spirit, to a sense of place, to nature’s way, to traditon and ancestral wisdom upheld before profit and economy that shapes the Hermitage here.

The most appropriate and succinct blend of Architecture and Art being a House of Spirit… the Temple, Shrine, Tabernacle, Gurdwara, Church, Mosque, Grove, Chapel, Lodge, Stupa… the veneers of all the beautiful faiths and follies slip away as the common denomiator of life shines through… this is life… water is life… nature is life…. the environment bonds all of the human kingdom together… environmentalism being the highest form of materialism… joining all races in an ecological responsibility and co-operative return… a multi-faith temple… honouring and nourishing all, rejecting none… the pointed arches of the doorway and windows here do not follow combined gothic principles, but the form of the willow withies, when stuck into the earth and tied at the top… the point of the thatch guiding our consciousness to the heavens…. the house of earth rooting us deep into presence and place…. a marriage of heaven and earth.

Picture by Jo Hallington

The pigments here are blended from earth ochres, charcoal and chalk… I find it difficult to say… “it is done”… “finished”… knowing that I could continually visit for the next year smoothing a wall and neatening some thatch here, refining a window there… a rose motif is painted above the door…. Sun, high summer, scents and secrets… the clay finish upon the walls sealing in the darkened Yew tree earth… a wash of fish oils and egg white could be added for weather proofing… silent contemplation and meditation… the interior smooth and drying…. when dry, a coat of natural paint could be added… on the walls hang physical mnemonics and subtle doorways to a re-emerging knowledge… a miniture besom, a feather brush made of willow and goose feathers, a ‘witch’s ladder’ of wheat straw rope and feathers, a corn doll, a cube of earth, a sun window, a stella window, a moon calender…. a circlet of green willow.

As I left, the house was quickly explored by colourful families, wide eyed children and graceful elders.

There it still stands, emanating and radiating… inspiring the younger generations and growing warm smiles of hope upon the old.

Hermitage with a situation now vacant… a temptation arises to stay a few years… but that would be a distraction in itself from the true work.

And I… I step back into the coracle of service and know the current that brought me to the shores of Compton Verney will guide me again to another…

I finish now with feelings of fulfilment and gratitude.

Work is Worship

Fare well through these changing times

Chris