The Merkaba Molecule sculpture was made by Launch pad artist Spencer Edgerton and his crew.
In May, Launch Pad artist Spencer Edgerton made a beautiful sculpture called The Merkaba Molecule. Spencer says, “The inspiration for my latest sculpture came from research I was doing for the original Heart Chakra Temple sculpture prototype. At the time, I had been asked about creating a building inspired by the lotus form of the Hindu Anahata Mandala containing a Hologram as its centerpiece.”
In the course of researching the possibility of making a hologram he discovered something called the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. It’s a way of creating a 3D image that appears to float in the air. To make a 3D version of this viewable from all sides, he started making pyramid-shaped translucent projection screens.
Simultaneously, while researching the symbolism and mythology surrounding The Heart Chakra, he came across mystical texts, thanks to fellow Launch Pad artist Thom Jordan, explaining that the part of the symbol that looks like the “Star of David” was actually an attempt to represent a Hindu concept called Shatkona, which is the union of Male (upwards triangle) and Female (downwards triangle).
In the American New Age reinterpretation of this symbolism, the symbol can be extended into the third dimension to become the Merkaba Light Body. This concept is something like an energy aura, and invokes a field of study called Sacred Geometry.
The Sacred Geometry concepts draw inspiration from mathematics to denote spiritual ideas. One such idea is Metatron’s Cube which uses a Stellated Octahedron to tie together several other concepts.
One such concept is the Flower of Life, which is made out of overlapping circles that have a harmonious mathematical relationship with the Stellated Octahedron.
He came up with the idea of supporting it inside a system of rings like the Flower Of Life. He had already done something like this previously when I built an aerial trapeze apparatus for Cirque Roots called the Orbit, which you can see below.
So in this present sculpture, the Merkaba is an illuminated sculpture inside another sculpture called the Molecule. The Molecule gets its name from the ball structures at the intersections of the circles, which he hopes to someday recreate in a larger form and integrate digital projectors into. This would fulfill the promise of being able to use holographic projections in 3 dimensions in conjunction with the current internal lighting system of the Merkaba Molecule.
He started with a 3D print of the Merkaba. The Merkaba is technically a stellated tetrahedron. All the stainless steel parts were made with Spencer’s plasma table from his original CAD designs. The Molecule is three tangentially intersecting rings.
The sculpture has 8 LED flood lights inside, but it’s ultimately a projection screen for sacred geometry video content.
The Merkaba Molecule was constructed at Launch Pad Enterprise by Spencer with lots of help from his friends and crew. He says, “I would not have been able to make this sculpture without a generous grant from the Arizona Regional Burning Man arts team. It was first shown at their event ” Saguaroman” at Landy McLandface in 2022.
Thanks everybody!
