I am in process of working on this painting for Art 4 All People that I developed after meditating. The quote below it sums up the painting but I never thought of it until deep into painting.
"I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...but anywhere is the center of the world."
Black Elk - Oglala Sioux
Here are the symbols that came to me in meditation
THE ACORN - To the North
The acorn is the seed of the mighty oak tree. It symbolizes potential and strength.
"The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.Closing
- Napoleon Hill
"For every Mighty Oak there was a Nut that stood it's ground"
- Anonymous
During the time of the witch burnings it was practice for one witch to give an acorn as a secret means of telling another witch that she was also a witch.
"A mantra is a one- or many-syllable sound that transcends the mind and emotions. If repeated for it vibrational effect, it brings us to the level of Swaha. A mantra is like a seed: its simplicity hides the potential power it holds. Seeing a tiny acorn, it is difficult to imagine the mighty oak tree within, Likewise, though it might not seem like much, the smallest mantra (like Om), when repeated with the heart, has the pwoer to unite us with our Divine nature." - Nischala Devi, p.110 The Secret power of Yoga
THE WILD ROSE to The East
"To Native Americans in many western tribes, wild roses were a symbol of life. Paiute, Nez Perce, and Interior Salish people believed that wild roses kept ghosts from causing harm to the living, so they were often placed in the homes or clothing of people who were in mourning or felt haunted. Wild roses were also sometimes attached to cradleboards to bring vitality to infants. In some tribes, rose motifs were used in quillwork, beadwork, or other Native arts to represent survival and vitality as well. Wild roses also played a role in traditional Native American herbal medicine, and rosehips (the fruit of wild roses) were eaten as food in many tribes, either directly or as part of a pudding. "
THE CONCH SHELL to the South
The conch is the most ancient musical instrument known to humans.
"A gift from the great ocean, it was held as sacred, and reference is found all over ancient Indian literature. It is seen in the hands of almost all gods and goddesses, whenever they were happy or going off to war. In Buddhism the conch shell’s call is meant to awaken one from ignorance, and is a sign of victory over suffering. In Chinese Buddhism, the conch shell signifies a prosperous journey, and in Islam it represents hearing the divine world.
The spiral formation inside the conch is symbolic of infinity. The space , which gradually expands in a clock-wise direction. The shell is like the human journey of life. The hard casing protects life. The pearl inside (a scallop or oyster), and its aquatic nature associates it with the feminine, lunar, and virginity that is symbolic in music. The conch shell’s spiral form and relation to water cause it to represent the beginning of existence. "
http://www.csseashell.com/shells-as-religious-symbols-and-the-meaning-of-life/
A DIAMOND to the West
"Through Remembering the Sef, or Vairagya, we become lucid and vibrant like a diamond. Millions of years of pressure on a simple limp pf solid coal transforms it into a pure, transparent diamond the reflects and refracts light. This prismatic effect showers rainbows of colors on everything without discrimination (viveka). The diamond also appears to take the color of any object nearby. But once removed it is perfectly colorless again. Likewise, when our minds and hearts clearly refelct our true nature, we may acquire many things, but nothing permanently taints our clarity." - Nischala Devi
". . . the Diamond Self is a reference to our essence, the energetic presence we came into the world with and that is and will always remain intact despite external circumstances." - Diane Mandle
Diamonds represent faithfulness, love, purity, innocence, and relationships filled with love.
They inspire creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness, faith, endurance, and helps in manifesting abundance in all areas of life.
"Diamond is a symbol of the richness of the Self. As the hardest mineral of all, it is especially esteemed owing to its beauty, purity, and ability to reflect light in a special manner. Diamond brings purity, and clear positive resolution of all problems that bother us, especially after we have become willing to admit our wrong perceptions and approaches, or our unreal expectations. Diamonds work together with other crystals in accentuating their vibratory, healing qualities and can be used for example in crystal healing therapy.
Diamonds are created far within the depths of the earth. In the normal course of events, a human being cannot make a diamond. It requires the pressure and heat of the depths to do that.
Jungian therapy is aware that “the depths of the earth” often symbolize of the unconscious depths of the psyche. A diamond symbolizes the reality of the self: it is forged without human intervention in the depths, just as the self is created in the depths, in the vastness of the unconscious, independent of the conscious mind and ego.
Diamonds are famous for incredible hardness and durability. They symbolize the durability and resilience of the true self, and of the yearning that we all have for a connection to the lasting persistent nature of psyche, and of our own deepest identity In the times of life when we often feel most fragile and vulnerable on the conscious level, Jungian therapy knows a deep need of the individual is to come into contact with the reality and persistence of the self. Often the meaning of dreams revolves around encounters with this reality.
Diamonds have very complex shapes. They often have many, many facets. In this way, they bear a resemblance to the human personality, which has a multitude of dimensions and aspects. Jungian therapy lives in the awareness that, like diamonds, we are multi-facetted — many facets not even being conscious. To understand the meaning of dreams containing the symbol of the diamond, we must understand the multi-dimensional beauty and wonder of the diamond as an image reflecting the endlessly diverse and multi-facetted reality of the individual self."
Diamonds concern the fundamental reality of who we are.
