Light

Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.

—Le Corbusier

There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.

—Edith Wharton

Deemed to be the most vital Element of Design.

Light is indeed the most important of Design Elements. Another related Element of Design is Color. In first discussing Light and Color with my design students, I would begin by saying, Light is Color, and Color is Light.

So first, Light.

When applying Light in a composition, two factors are natural light and manufactured housing units.

What is Light? Certainly, we know that it allows us to see in a much better way than its contrast; Light alters perspective. What piques my interest about Light the very most is what I am unable to sense in the natural and manufactured use of Light. That unseen is the frequency of Light.

Light is the electromagnetic energy from the sun or even other celestial bodies, from fire, or from artificial sources traveling in wavelengths that range in size from too long (infrared) to too short (ultraviolet) to be seen. 

Aside from wavelength and visible spectrum, the manner in which a room or object absorbs and reflects light, the kind of light that makes an object or room visible, and the physical condition of a person’s eyes, all are equally intriguing. 

This Christmas Eve morning while out hiking, a double rainbow appeared in the sky toward the West; the morning sun was golden breaking thought the rain clouds. The refraction of the light created a magnificent grand rainbow that arced from horizon to the Sangre de Christo (The Blood of Christ) foothills. The second rainbow was lesser in nature.

I started to weep, thinking about this blog post that I had not yet finished writing. Susie Grace, my German Shepherd, who was leading the way, turned to look back at me.

When visible light is refracted or broken in wavelengths, as by a prism, the colors of the spectrum are revealed, from red (the longest wavelength) to violet (the shortest wavelength). Light refraction is the visible, like the rainbow; it is that part of Light that illuminates Color.

So, the Beauty and Order of Light and Color are both science and art.

And this leads me to the Spiritual. Based on everything I’ve read in my life, I have come not to just believe, but to know, that science and art are of God.

When in a PhD program in the mid-1990s, I would repeatedly encounter material about quantum physics and the theory of Rupert Sheldrake while researching at Case Western University libraries. It was not until the year 2000 that I returned to school to study art and design and historic preservation at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio, that I would spend many days in its library perusing the stacks; from those wanderings, I read much material on religious history. Later, I would go every Thursday for years to a library in Lakewood, Ohio, where I once lived.

I labored within myself under the mountains of information I read during those years trying to disseminate meaning and connection.

My Southern Baptist upbringing would be a driving force in my life, volleying me between fear to acceptance and back again. The continuum was exhausting coupled with the mere living of life itself.

I thought often of scriptural references about Light.

And I wondered about the relationship of discipline to the knowledge of the Light of Christ Consciousness. That’s when I encountered a book by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way. Thus began the habit of writing Morning Pages and the encountering of synchronicity. My first encounter with synchronicity was studying the psychologist Carl Jung. The habit of journaling and happenings of synchronicity and my study of design allowed the coalescing with Light. Between metaphor and allegory, Light started to make sense.

Alchemy occurred when I combined a further habit of breath work and yoga. And then I volleyed back to the understanding of Love through the Duality of Life, Light and Darkness.

Is this why Light and Color impact our minds (the receivers of Consciousness) and hearts (the electromagnetic nature of self where Light resides) so dramatically? According to scientist Rupert Sheldrake, 

Morphic Resonance is a process whereby self-organising systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems. In its most general formulation, morphic resonance means that the so-called laws of nature are more like habits. The hypothesis of morphic resonance also leads to a radically new interpretation of memory storage in the brain and of biological inheritance. Memory need not be stored in material traces inside brains, which are more like TV receivers than video recorders, tuning into influences from the past. And biological inheritance need not all be coded in the genes, or in epigenetic modifications of the genes; much of it depends on morphic resonance from previous members of the species. Thus each individual inherits a collective memory from past members of the species, and also contributes to the collective memory, affecting other members of the species in the future.

Rupert Sheldrake

Philippians 2:5

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”

King James Version (KJV)

I liken this Morphic Resonance to the synchronicities encountered, but it is what we do with these encounters that allows the Light to connect us to the Beauty and Order and Truth in life.

Anytime wobbly thoughts prevail, I find that I must recenter . . . with breath work, mantras, prayers, meditation and visualizing. Regarding a design project, I look within to my mind’s eye and imagine the interiors of a given space. And, the architecture is ever as much key. But, the Light is so notably important to the All. As a designer, one must consider more than just the aesthetics; Light and Color are vitally important to the physical and psychological responses to the space as well, and even affect health.

I lost the Light after 2012. What came flooding in was a relationship containing too much personality disorder coupled with the psychosis of the last few years that has taken the world to the depths of insanity.

And I begged and pleaded with God and asked, Why?

And as synchronicity would have it, I had a dream one night. I was married to this well-known man; we were preparing dinner in our kitchen. In real life, this person is married. So, I felt the confusion in my dream that what I was dreaming really wasn’t real. But, the Light in the kitchen in my dream was breathtaking; the feeling was surreal. As I was taking food out of the oven, he placed his hands on my shoulders and said, Why don’t you ask for what you really want?

I woke up from the dream. When I went hiking the next morning and many mornings since, I have asked myself, What is it I really want? The morning sun is just rising over the eastern foothills as I am returning home. And as the morning Light touches my face, I say the Our Father’s Prayer.

For nearly 30 years I have been a part of an organization that fundraises to support scholarships, loans, and grants for women in their educational pursuits. At the beginning of each monthly meeting, we recite the Our Father’s Prayer. For decades I would refuse to recite the part ‘And keep us from Evil’ because I simply refused to recognize that such exists.

Well, I changed my mind about the existence of Evil particularly since 2016 and my witnessing of the out-and-out corruption of Government and the many world entities. I have been outraged by the Evil promoting events since 2020 and more so now. I have now resumed reciting the whole of the Our Father’s Prayer for these expressed reasons.

That dream occurred a year ago. For months I contemplated, What is it I really want?

I vacillated from the material to the Spiritual and finally, in the Spring, I realized as if someone whispered it to me while Susie Grace and I were out hiking one morning. Truth. What I really want is Truth.

I devoted an entire year to writing two books. The day the whisper of Truth came, I have been inundated since then with information of Truth that has come to me from new friends and old. But it would not have been possible without the Light.

I love metaphor. I love parable. I love allegory. That’s why Light and Contrast and Repetition make such sense now. The Duality of Life has taught me this. Oftentimes, metaphorically, Light and Dark are represented as Good and Evil. However, Creation represents Light and Dark in a much more interesting way than Good and Evil.

But, what has been even more significant is what is identified in Scripture regarding Light, as well as Darkness.

Contemplate this Old Testament reference to Light and Darkness . . .

Isaiah 45:7

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

King James Version (KJV)

The Beauty and Order of this scripture illumines the way that the Creator uses Evil for Good, though more importantly, through this, the Light reveals to us the Miracle of Life and how vital it is not to defile the life bestowed upon each of us, including our bodies (Home).

Hence, Isaiah also prophesied the birth of Christ in Isaiah 7:14.

Jesus is the Light. No man comes to the Father but by me (the Light). The imperceptible. That which is hidden until revealed. That which is within each of us. But we will not connect without habit, without repetition.

And that is when the Light will become known Within, when Truth will reveal itself and awaken us from Darkness.

I grieve for the many family and friends who have believed the lies. I wish they could know what I know. Know about the Truth that has come to me since last Spring. But, I have had to release them, and allow them their own path of finding Truth.

I smile, remembering the Sunday School song that I once learned when I was 5 years old, based on Matthew 5:15.

This little Light of mine
I’m going to let it shine.
This little Light of mine
I’m going to let it shine.
Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.

Matthew 5:15

“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”

King James Version (KJV)

On this very Christmas Eve, let in the Light of this tradition, this repeated celebration of the Light that has come.

Let this Light reside within your Home. This Light is the Holy Spirit that lives within the Heart. Christ Consciousness, that is our Revealing. The Kingdom is Within.

Light. Deemed to be the most vital Element of Design. Merry Christmas Everyone.

–Kimberly B. Gray, Santa Fe, New Mexico