Reliquaries of Remembrance: Contemporary Altar Services

By Pamela Nagley Stevenson

I have been living a quiet life as a studio potter in the
Slocan Valley for twenty-eight years, and have been teach-
ing clay part-time at Kootenay School of the Arts for the
last decade. Raised amidst the cultural crossroads of
Honolulu, in my parent's world of the Philosophy
Department at the University of Hawaii, I am profoundly
influenced by world faiths and cultures. After dreaming
one night of a shining
fiery body of sacred
vessels that stood
together as an offering
from many paths, this
project began to man-
ifest. In vision I saw a
central form within
each different altar
service that func-
tioned as a Reliquary, not to contain dead relics but instead
to embody the living spirit of an ennobling virtue. Each
grouping of forms referenced a different religious culture,
and exemplified a divine human quality or virtue that I
believe must be lived if we are to save our planet and our-
selves. Through remembrance of lives and cultures given in
creative service to these qualities the Reliquary Urns func-
tion as sacred vessels. They are supported by a symbolic
holy lamp, plate, cup and bowl for offerings. 1 choose
seven qualities that most compellingly connected both
visually and intuitively with specific cultural eras of artistic
flowering and religious tolerance seen in my dream.
Referencing chapter sixteen of the Bhagavad Gita, I focused
upon the following traditions and decided to use the
Sanskrit names of these universal cardinal virtues:

Sattva-samshuddi - purity of heart
SUFI ISLAM

Dana - charity
EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Ahimsa - non-injury
VEDIC HINDUISM
Daya - compassion
SOUTH EAST ASIAN BUDDHISM

Mardavam - gentleness-harmony
ANCIENT CHINESE ANIMISM-TAOISM

‘Tejas - radiance of character
MINOAN GODDESS CIVILIZATION

Kshama - forgiveness
TIBETAN BUDDHISM

June 2004

The dream forms and their symbolic surface designs came
into vivid focus to express an essence of each chosen culture
in porcelain. A modest arts council grant enabled me to
work with an wonderful apprentice, recent KSA Clay grad-
uate Noam Ash, who assisted me both in studio with heavy
work and with the three firings in my wood kiln KIBRIYA,
(translated as "The Glory" from Rumi's Persian poetry).
The event of a wood
firing for me is a con-
secrated act of will
and devotion; it is
also a form of Yajna -
in Sanskrit a fire - rite
offering and a practice
of prayer. The wild
torrent of flame leaps
and roars, caressing
the pots in ecstatic swirls of glory leaving a searing narrative
of the twenty-two hour journey to white heat through con-
stant attentive stoking. The completed vessels stand
vibrantly alive, flame patterns flashed forever on the carved
skin of the porcelain that glows as if still warm. My inten-
tion is for this body of work to increase realization and
practice of the powers of human virtues and to inspire
hearts and minds to celebrate our creative and spiritual
diversity and our potential for peace.

I am made of the substance of God,

I am a spark of the flame of spirit

I am an atom of the cosmic flame.
Paramahansa Yogananda

Action is a meaning within a person,

and when that meaning is one with Love,
The fire of Passion radiates all around,

and in every dimension,
And miracles abound.

Rumi

Photos by Jeremy Addington

Potters Guild of British Columbia Newsletter Il