The Eye of the Universe
Blue Sapphire Signet Ring
Eco sterling silver
Size X - US 11 1/2

Alan Watts once described individuals as an ‘aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.’

Our experience of daily life often runs contrary to this. We understand ourselves as distinct and independent units, separate from all that we experience, but those of mystical persuasions across cultures and traditions have consistently argued for a unified reality that lies at the ground of being.

Their experiences have led them to question the reality of separate forms, understanding separateness as an illusion that recedes as we delve into deeper states of consciousness through meditation, mystical or psychedelic experiences.

This can be destabilising and can make us question our own sanity; it has certainly driven some into states of psychosis.

There is a temptation towards megalomania; the idea that ‘I am it, and I am all there is’ can lead to grandiosity on a grand scale. But I think the truer way to understand this experience is by understanding our conscious experience as a fragment of a greater whole, a wave in an ocean. In some sense, the wave is its own entity and yet it is also indistinct from the ocean; it cannot be imagined without the underlying unity with the sea.

In the same way, perhaps we are a fragment of the divine or greater consciousness, depending on how you want to understand it. We are the aperture through which we can witness our own very individual experience of the greater whole, but we still rely on those other fragments to complete the picture.

This is a miraculous realisation. We are granted the opportunity to experience this highly unique manifestation of consciousness. Perhaps this also takes the pressure off. We aren’t here to tick off a long list of goals and aspirations; we are here to simply experience what it is to be a human being, with a very particular set of attributes and characteristics in a specific period of time. We are here to witness.