DIRECTIONS
The need to see what’s just “over there” has written our entire human story.
The call to an adventure and meeting challenges along the way is the trajectory we all travel. Creativity is part of working with that journey, expressing who we are and how we see ourselves in the world.
Myths, symbols, and art outlive their maker, traveling through time to be translated and teach.
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A few thousand years ago, my own Celtic ancestors were master craftspeople. They were known by neighboring cultures for proudly wearing jewelry that displayed their skill in metal working. They wore strong forms with intricate details, reflecting the intertwining ways they saw in nature.
Our lives unfold within nature’s tangled web, and we are easily lost navigating its wilderness. Indigenous peoples around the world had a core connection to the directions as more than orientations to cosmic orbits - each holds particular energies, putting the callings of life in place.
The Celts held each direction on a “spirit wheel” - the directions around the horizon (East, South, West, and North), which circle around our sovereign Center - the axis between Above (the heavens) and Below (the earth).
The spirit wheel reminds us our journey orbits around a center, and we are always heading home.
The thing about centers of gravity in an ever expanding Universe is...their position is always changing. We must continually go out and around the wheel. If we’re not moving forward, we’re stuck.
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I go on a journey each time I pick up my hammer, using simple tools to create symbols much the same way as my ancestors did. In my own voice and time, I tell their stories in each direction.
DISCOVER THE GIFTS OF THE DIRECTIONS
take a turn around the wheel…NORTH
WEST
ABOVE
CENTER
BELOW
EAST
SOUTH
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust,
swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity.
Life is eternal.
We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other,
to meet, to love, to share.
This is a precious moment.
It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
PAULO COEHLO, THE ALCHEMIST
CENTER
From the center we begin, to the center we return. In the primal Irish traditions of my ancestors, Sovereignty is a goddess at the center of the wheel. She holds the living hub of energy that connects all the directions.
To find and hold our center - are we standing in alignment with our destiny, the people around us, and Earth beneath us?
THE COMPASS
A circle has no beginning or end, and is whole in itself. When we see journeys from another perspective, the end of one is but the beginning of another, and wherever we go, we are already there. The compass reminds us that each direction is relative to our center - home.
EAST
The place of hospitality and the extension of the limitless bounty of Source energy to Earth.
As an extension of that abundance - how can I become the offering?
THE BOW
Symbolizing the feminine, the bow is open and receptive. It resembles a vessel - arms to cradle, a basket to gather the bounty of the earth, a pit to hold the warmth of a fire.
It’s shape follows the arc of the sun - rising in the east, it travels westward on a journey each day through the South.
SOUTH
Where we remember to listen for the ‘great song’, known as the Óran Mór in Gaelic. It is felt as inspiration to all creativity, but especially music.
Sounds bring feelings we can’t see or measure, bridging the invisible and visible worlds.
What am I? The awareness of the song, or the great song itself?
THE WATERFALL
Waterfalls symbolize the gateways between the worlds - where we fall in love with the great song at the heart of all creation.
In the South, we experience current of feeling like the flow of water- channeled but not stopped or contained.
WEST
As the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, this direction is the yearning for knowledge, and the place where the ancestors reside. We look to the West to see the future, learning from where we’ve been.
Remembering, who I want to become is calling to who I am now.
TERRACED EARTH
A seed planted in darkness is hope - growing towards the light.
It is cultivated with the nutrients returned by what grew before, in an eternal cycle of renewal.
The terraced earth is a place to hold this miracle of light from dark.
In the West, we prepare for night, a passage through the mystery to find the dawn.
NORTH
The North represents the darkness, the long night, the place of battle - where we are tested and refined. As I hammer metal from a soft coil into an intentional form, I think of how it’s the force of battles fought that shape us.
Remembering - the only true battle is the one within. Every day holds some kind of struggle, giving me a choice of how to meet it.
THE SPEAR
Representing the masculine energy, the spear represents the courage it takes to seek the truth and pierce its essential core. The endeavor takes practice, skill, and testing on the “battle ground”.
ORBITS
SUN
EARTH
MOON
CRESCENT
GRAVITY
GROUNDING
AXIS MUNDI
where the poles hold the earth on its axis
We are the meeting point of infinities, a bridge from earth to sky. The human experience is one of mystery, paradox, and polarity. A journey around the wheel is an orbit - our gravity held by the axis between the directions.
THIS JOURNEY
…is a the trajectory between birth and death, a human life lived. No one escapes the adventure. We only work with it differently.
JON KABAT-ZINN, WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE: MINDFULNESS MEDITATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Take it moment by moment. Breath by breath. Step by step.
You’re making great progress! Now make a little more.
The journey is the destination.
