@Misty Cool! I've wanting to create a poster version of the Oculist billboard to put on my wall.
I have a few examples of how I'm trying to walk the line.
I live in a hippie mountain town. The kind of people who live in this town are inspiring, but frustrating. There is lots of amazing art, creativity, but along with beliefs I can't accept.
One source of constant conflict is over astrology. I do not believe astrology can predict anything about your life, but I love mythology and symbolism. To build a bridge, I made this:
This is a 3D model of the solar system I created using NASA data. If you double click, you can center the perspective on any planet. You can also change the view from the rocky planets to the whole solar system, and also each moon system:
https://observablehq.com/d/8b01545347057429
This dissolves boundaries, which makes people on both sides of the issue uneasy. For the scientism crowd, asserting the heliocentric model shuts down astrology. For the astrology crowd, asserting how planets look from earth shuts down objection from people who don't know about epicycles. This chart uses real data to transition between both perspective, and many more. If the geocentric model is egocentric, and the heliocentric model is abstract-rational, then what I created is a multi-polar model, only possible with computers.
When you can see the orbits, there are a lot of natural questions. Why does astrology only care about the angle of the planets against the background stars, and not the distance of the planets to earth? If humans colonize mars, what would astrology be on Mars, since the planets would have totally different relative orbits?
This is a gentle challenge to both the scientism and astrology orthodoxy. I learned a ton making this, and helps me appreciate the beauty of nature. I can use this to have a wonderful conversation with anyone, and made something that I can give as a gift. Most importantly, I can stand 100% behind this.
One more quick example. I love Taoism, especially the Tao Te Ching, but when I tell people, if they are familiar at all, they bring up the I Ching, which has 64 descriptions of combinations of yin and yang in symbols called hexagrams. The I Ching started as a divination method from prehistoric China, but has also be interpreted purely in a philosophical and poetic context.
I made this diagram to appreciate the symbolism and mathematics of the I Ching as well as integrate multiple historical perspectives into one integrated mandala, inspired by the moon phases on the outside:
https://observablehq.com/d/e3ad3d0060994d0e
In both of these, I've taken what I find inspiring and put them in a form where I can 100% stand behind while not excluding the people and perspectives I disagree with. I'm trying to be constructive and active. I don't have the time to do something like this for everything but this is where my heart is. I want to build unity without forcing conformity.
And for both, I'm in this grey area. I'm using modern astronomy to connect the muse Urania and ancient mythology. I'm combining binary mathematics with symbolism and poetry. I feel we are all one spirit at the end of the day, and what I'm devoted to is the good I see in other people. Every person is a reflection of my higher self trying to teach me how to be more of who I truly am. This puts me between many groups, but I can never put both of my feet in one group or the other.