Instrument to look at the sun through your finger

You point a small pinecone-shaped object toward the sun. You place your finger in front of the opening and look through it. What you see is a red, celestial-looking form – like a moon or a planet – surrounded by darkness. It gives the impression of being very close to something that is actually extremely far away.
The instrument contains built-in lenses and functions as a tele-microscope. What you are actually seeing is a close-up of your finger, but what you imagine is an image of a distant celestial body.
The object combines two opposing forces: the Dionysian and the Apollonian. The Dionysian represents immersion, loss of self, and unity with something greater.

The Apollonian stands for limitation, control, and clarity. Your eye wants to go further, to move into and beyond the sun; the finger sets a boundary and protects you from losing yourself (from blindness). Both forces are needed to produce the image: without the Dionysian drive there is only darkness, without the Apollonian restraint there is only blindness. The pinecone is a Dionysian symbol. It appears on the thyrsus, the staff of Dionysus, and represents fertility, continuous transformation, and change.