Galighticus

As an admirer of street art, I always have my eyes glued on the bricks and concrete that make up New York City. With the religious artifact project being assigned, I was excited to take what I find interesting and attempt to transform it into my assignment. After a few days looking up and down the facades of buildings for anything that could be deemed religious, a vibrantly spray-painted box truck surprisingly caught my eye. Parked on street across from Union Square Park, this truck was not just strikingly decorated, but strikingly decorated with Sri Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of spiritual and material wealth and an elephant spraying water from a golden vessel that is commonly associated with the Goddess. With this discovery I thought I had finally found my religious “artifact.”

A few days after finding the truck and snapping its picture, I uploaded it to my computer and took another look. The more I looked at the painting whilst enlarged, the more I saw. This truck was not just adorned with Sri Lakshmi, an elephant, and a beautiful background, but it also displayed a website; Galighticus.com, written in a cramped style directly positioned in the middle of the painted side of the truck. With this newfound information, I decided to go to the website to investigate and see just what “Galighticus” meant in relation to the Hindu components to the painting.

As I arrived at the website’s homepage I was completely taken a back, what was this website about, what was its aim? The main page of Galighticus.com has an array of visually engaging components such as outer space background, colorful text, and multiple pictures of religious figures. After getting acclimated with the visual effects, I was finally able to piece together what “Galighticus” was all about.

Galighticus.com is a website that promotes a spiritual consciousness that is lead by a man named Gano Grills. Gano Grills is a local New Yorker, who believes that every soul in this world has come to earth to take part in a certain role. Gano Grills believes that every soul plays an important role on earth, yet many do not know what their role is. With his spiritual guidance and the help of specific gods that created your soul, one can find their role and fulfill their potential here on Earth. Although there is much more to this belief system than what I briefly explained, I’d like to touch upon the fact that this faith that was created by Grills is non-denominational and exemplifies plurality of religion. The three gods that created Gano’s soul where Sri Lakshmi the Hindu Goddess of fortune, Shango the African God of storms, and Baldr the Norse god of love, peace, and forgiveness. The fact that this faith allows for a wide array of religious and mythical figures to work together to help individuals with their worldly journeys is something I find unique and actually characteristic of New York. It is unusual to think that religious figures from all different belief systems would in fact work together and cross religious boundaries in order to help individuals, but this faith created by Gano Grills believes in just that. New York is known for garnering inventive ideas and its acceptance of different beliefs and this spiritual awareness is both inventive and different in its own right. This religious outlook that has garnered a following in this city and around the world goes to show how different faiths and religious beliefs can overlap and in a sense work together. Everyone has the opportunity to garner this spiritual awareness which goes to show the embracing and inclusive qualities to this belief system which I think could only have budded and grown in a city like New York.

I recommend everyone take a look at Galighticus.com and see a different perspective on spiritual and religious beliefs. I also urge anyone who is ever near Union Square to check out the spray-painted truck that holds more significance than one may assume.