As Above, So Below

Floating World (Plaukiojantis Pasaulis)

First nature, then “civilization”, then back to nature.

A distant relative left Mariampole, to work in the coal mines of eastern Pennsylvania, to build a new life. While working he died in a mine accident, leaving a wife and 9 children behind.

Anthracite is the highest quality coal. It burns the best to build industries, and towns, and lives.

My great grandfather (a German-Lithuanian) came from a town near Mariampole, then called Jasinowo. It was a shtetl, and is now an empty field. The town was built, and unbuilt (unbuilt is the wrong word of course). 

Nature came back. 

We work with porcelain and bones. Like coal they come from the earth to be with us for a while so we can build. Then return to the earth to either poison or feed life. 

I cast the branches of the birch in bone china. With my online Google-stalking of Kaunas, Mariampol, and less populated areas, birch and pine showed themselves again and again. The birch is a ghost or bone in the New England woods (near my current home), one you can see from far away under the darkest canopy. I read that it is a Pentacost tradition it to decorate your home with flowers and greenery, including birch branches. It gives visiting souls a place to rest while visiting. 

As above, so below.

Kaip aukščian, taipir žemian.