I did a painting that sorta shows my take on this subject. It shows how my view of it is more circular, rather than a ladder or line. I did this painting three years ago. Trouble is ... I can't figure out how to insert the image. Can anybody help me with this? I do have a photo of the painting, fuzzy tho it might be.
At the bottom of the "reply" window on the right hand side of the screen is a green button that says UPLOAD. If you click on the "browse" button to the left of that green button, you can, as cman said, find the picture on your computer and upload it.
It does have to be from the "reply" option that isn't "quick reply".
Thanks guys, but I tried that. When I do the upload thing, there's a graphic of a gear that spins round and round, and then after about 60 seconds it stops, but nothing happens. Does the html option, also at the bottom of the reply page have something to do with this? Sorry, Sir Guess, for this technical interruption.
Not sure how you did that, but I'm glad you got it posted. If you click on that picture, you can see the painting a little better. In real life, the colors are much brighter. Anyhow, some of the descriptions on this thread made me think of my painting:
Sir Guess - "Our firstborn sense of self most naturally becomes our deepest widest grand canyon of self as we age."
Roy - "That which I was I will be again."
Belle - "Could those be spirals off of the center?"
I did some reading about traditional medicine wheels a few years ago, and one thing I read was that if you are a healer, it's good to make your own wheel, so I did that. Medicine wheels are normally read in a clockwise direction. The number four represents balance and wholeness, ie four seasons, four phases of the moon, etc. You can choose any four things to depict on the wheel. I think Roy will understand the four aspects of being a person - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - which I tried to show too. This wheel is definitely mine, and some of the meanings are obvious, while others are more private. Mostly, I wanted to share how ... after all our learning and living ... we come back to where we were and what we were in the beginning. To my way of thinking and seeing, the wheel works to describe this, because it is continuous (which offers hope) rather than linear (which sets up goal-seeking). In the Native tradition, there is a "Red Road" - see it in the painting? - meaning the path we walk in our lives on earth, and a "Blue Road", meaning the path we walk with God, before and after our earth time. For me, the painting shows some different parts of my own history, as it moves through the life seasons - the horses can't figure out which way to go, the eagle finally gets to see the whole picture, and so on. Interesting notes: The wild roses were chosen to show the emotion aspect, and this segment of the wheel I had to do over and over again, the hardest part for sure. Also, I realized when I was almost done with the whole thing, that I had the moon phases running backwards! So I had to correct this - my desire regarding Time, perhaps? All of this taught me a lot about myself and my progress or lack of progress in relating to God and the Universe. It was fun too.
Fascinating and absolutely beautiful, Shifra! I've heard of medicine wheels, but never knew much about them. Thanks for the lesson as well as the significance of it in light of your personal life and art.
continuous & hope vs. linear & goal seeking - very perceptive and interesting way to word that. Makes perfect sense and I guess that's why I tend to shy away from lines, ladders, things with a hierarchy to them....
Interesting that your "Red Road" is vertical and the "Blue Road" is horizontal. Is there any significance to that, or am I reading too much into it? ^_^
What is that to the left of the roses? A manuscript?
And, how do you know you got the phases of the moon wrong? Maybe you painted them exactly the way they needed to be painted.
The segment to the left of the wild roses is just a computer printout of various signs and symbols. It's supposed to represent the Mental aspect of the four: Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual. I have used this part of the Wheel in teaching some of my clients (expectant parents, grandparents, single moms, etc) how if one piece of this is ailing, it is best to look at the three other pieces, and not just the obvious problem. It's about addressing the whole person. This is why I liked what you wrote about the spiral. Maybe these four segments actually link three dimensionally to the next bigger ring, or the next smaller ring.
In this one, my own Medicine Wheel, it moves from Time (the moons), to Person, to Elements, to Totems, to Seasons. I prayed each time I sat down to paint a little more, and God really put it all together, to show me some important lessons. For example, why is there a red flag sticking up into my Childhood (the Springtime of my life)? I didn't plan that. Having to re-do the Emotion segment was an eye-opener too. If you run your finger over that part, it's really rough, because of all the previous attempts to represent Emotion. I remember one of my attempts was a lightening storm. Ooooo - way too angry! And adjacent to the Emotion segment is the Element of Fire. It too had to be re-done several times, and started out as a forest fire, a little scarey, so I had to tone it down, another message ... to me ... about me. The Season in that quadrant corresponds to my time in TWI. I was in the Summer of my life then. I tried to show Summer as a County Fair, but the tents and flags turned out looking like a concentration camp. How appropriate. As I processed my Way experience more and more, it evolved into the picnic basket, which looks lovely, but in reality I don't eat bread or watermelon. Both make me sick. Weird, huh? The Autumn has been much more peaceful, and the painting of this part came quite naturally. No do-overs. And on and on and on ... I could talk about this stuff for days. Sorry.
Don't know if I was playing at a way of being an angel. Who me? But for me, this was a way of touching my own spirit, angelic or not.
Sir Guess is right, painting (or dance or poetry or journaling or whatever) is healing and guiding for many of us. Truths come out that you didn't even know were inside of you.
well...i wish i had more time and energy to participate here
once again i have fallen into a state where my typing fingers dont work very well to convey what is going on inside
mostly because it would take many many hours to compose
and i dont have them right now
nor do i think i can convey why without being misunderstood as being merely severely critical
but thanks for playing along like you guys have
thanks for sharing your work, Shifra
maybe one of these days i'll carve out a way to present my thoughts on art history, theory, practice, etc...especially as it pertains to spiritual healing and the topic of ladders of faith and such
and so as to honor shifra's wonderful contribution
i think i finally found the words...so i just want to add a few thoughts...
i think the medicine wheel process is a very good and healthy example of a view of the first four levels of the spectrum...in a very general sense
...which then puts one on the brink of a kind of 5th perspective ...which is a classic aboriginal form of touching our mortality and its relationship with the rest of the universe
to repeat what i have mentioned before...every level brings a new gift and a new problem
much as the first chapters of the book of revelation describe
the gift of this level is that our heart is wide open and ready to hold all in a wide open compassionate embrace.
the problem is that it also tends to reject most all critical and important distinctions, mistaking them for earlier ways of making distinctions.
and so it reacts quite allergically to any notions of vertical hierarchy of any line of development.
which then puts a lid on talking about authentic development.
and we have a higher percentage of people at this green level of development than any other time in history
...a cultural flatland at the level of the heart that feeds our worst kinds of narcissism
and keeps culture from supporting further development
and so we get our democratic plurality from this level
our environmental concerns
our civil rights
women's rights
but god forbid one mentions the value of even higher stages of awareness and activity that have existed for thousands of years
which are NOT the same as the mythic elitist claims of religions, cults and the occult
so there is a huge need to keep moving..keep growing...keep developing beyond this 4th perspective
rather than mothering us into higher stages...we get sMothered instead
Your medicine wheel is gorgeous, Shifra. The visual symbols are very powerful.
Seeing life in a circular or spiral progression instead of linear is also a big part of pagan thought.
Wiccans cast circles, a bubble of sacred space, protected, not completely earthly, but touching the higher, spiritual realm, when they do their rituals or even meditation. It is a meeting place where our spiritual selves are more free than on the earthly plain, a place where we can more clearly learn, join with the divine, set needed changes in motion...
There is ascending and descending in that sense--moving for awhile into the higher plain, then descending back to our world. Trancing, meditation, shamanism...all seek this, but it is a brief journey for us humans.
and so as to honor shifra's wonderful contribution
i think i finally found the words...so i just want to add a few thoughts...
i think the medicine wheel process is a very good and healthy example of a view of the first four levels of the spectrum...in a very general sense
...which then puts one on the brink of a kind of 5th perspective ...which is a classic aboriginal form of touching our mortality and its relationship with the rest of the universe
to repeat what i have mentioned before...every level brings a new gift and a new problem
much as the first chapters of the book of revelation describe
the gift of this level is that our heart is wide open and ready to hold all in a wide open compassionate embrace.
the problem is that it also tends to reject most all critical and important distinctions, mistaking them for earlier ways of making distinctions.
and so it reacts quite allergically to any notions of vertical hierarchy of any line of development.
which then puts a lid on talking about authentic development.
and we have a higher percentage of people at this green level of development than any other time in history
...a cultural flatland at the level of the heart that feeds our worst kinds of narcissism
and keeps culture from supporting further development
and so we get our democratic plurality from this level
our environmental concerns
our civil rights
women's rights
but god forbid one mentions the value of even higher stages of awareness and activity that have existed for thousands of years
which are NOT the same as the mythic elitist claims of religions, cults and the occult
so there is a huge need to keep moving..keep growing...keep developing beyond this 4th perspective
rather than mothering us into higher stages...we get sMothered instead
i dunno if i am making sense
feel free to ask me to clarify
Your post put me in mind with a site I enjoy, a feminine spirituality site
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year2027
God first
Beloved Todd and others
God loves us all my dear friends
What if its not about climbing up and down the ladders of Faith or to the left or right of faith but climbing inside the ladder of faith itself ?
to the inner self from the outer self
from stages up, down, lelf, right to the true stage insideout
that which is hidden within climbs outside and that which is out side climbs inside
how would that changed our thinking
some say the world is upside down but what we are turn inside out
image is outward look but our outward look is flesh
a lot to think about
thank you
with love and a holy kiss blowing your way Roy
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Shifra
I did a painting that sorta shows my take on this subject. It shows how my view of it is more circular, rather than a ladder or line. I did this painting three years ago. Trouble is ... I can't figure out how to insert the image. Can anybody help me with this? I do have a photo of the painting, fuzzy tho it might be.
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cman
don't use the fast reply, use add reply
at the bottom you can browse your computer for the picture then click upload
circular sounds cool too, a circle seen from the side is a line
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Belle
Shifra, I'd love to see it!
At the bottom of the "reply" window on the right hand side of the screen is a green button that says UPLOAD. If you click on the "browse" button to the left of that green button, you can, as cman said, find the picture on your computer and upload it.
It does have to be from the "reply" option that isn't "quick reply".
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Shifra
Thanks guys, but I tried that. When I do the upload thing, there's a graphic of a gear that spins round and round, and then after about 60 seconds it stops, but nothing happens. Does the html option, also at the bottom of the reply page have something to do with this? Sorry, Sir Guess, for this technical interruption.
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cman
how big is the file and what type of file is it?
could be you need to convert the type of file it is
right click the picture and save as .png file to my pictures
browse to that picture and try to upload it
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Belle
This is Shifra's beautiful painting, "White Woman's Medicine Wheel"
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Shifra
Thanks, Belle!
Not sure how you did that, but I'm glad you got it posted. If you click on that picture, you can see the painting a little better. In real life, the colors are much brighter. Anyhow, some of the descriptions on this thread made me think of my painting:
Sir Guess - "Our firstborn sense of self most naturally becomes our deepest widest grand canyon of self as we age."
Roy - "That which I was I will be again."
Belle - "Could those be spirals off of the center?"
I did some reading about traditional medicine wheels a few years ago, and one thing I read was that if you are a healer, it's good to make your own wheel, so I did that. Medicine wheels are normally read in a clockwise direction. The number four represents balance and wholeness, ie four seasons, four phases of the moon, etc. You can choose any four things to depict on the wheel. I think Roy will understand the four aspects of being a person - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - which I tried to show too. This wheel is definitely mine, and some of the meanings are obvious, while others are more private. Mostly, I wanted to share how ... after all our learning and living ... we come back to where we were and what we were in the beginning. To my way of thinking and seeing, the wheel works to describe this, because it is continuous (which offers hope) rather than linear (which sets up goal-seeking). In the Native tradition, there is a "Red Road" - see it in the painting? - meaning the path we walk in our lives on earth, and a "Blue Road", meaning the path we walk with God, before and after our earth time. For me, the painting shows some different parts of my own history, as it moves through the life seasons - the horses can't figure out which way to go, the eagle finally gets to see the whole picture, and so on. Interesting notes: The wild roses were chosen to show the emotion aspect, and this segment of the wheel I had to do over and over again, the hardest part for sure. Also, I realized when I was almost done with the whole thing, that I had the moon phases running backwards! So I had to correct this - my desire regarding Time, perhaps? All of this taught me a lot about myself and my progress or lack of progress in relating to God and the Universe. It was fun too.
Thanks for letting me share it!
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year2027
God first
Beloved Shifra
God loves us all my dear friend
you have blessed my heart and yes I understand
thank you
with love and a holy kiss blowing your way Roy
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Belle
Fascinating and absolutely beautiful, Shifra! I've heard of medicine wheels, but never knew much about them. Thanks for the lesson as well as the significance of it in light of your personal life and art.
continuous & hope vs. linear & goal seeking - very perceptive and interesting way to word that. Makes perfect sense and I guess that's why I tend to shy away from lines, ladders, things with a hierarchy to them....
Interesting that your "Red Road" is vertical and the "Blue Road" is horizontal. Is there any significance to that, or am I reading too much into it? ^_^
What is that to the left of the roses? A manuscript?
And, how do you know you got the phases of the moon wrong? Maybe you painted them exactly the way they needed to be painted.
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Shifra
The segment to the left of the wild roses is just a computer printout of various signs and symbols. It's supposed to represent the Mental aspect of the four: Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual. I have used this part of the Wheel in teaching some of my clients (expectant parents, grandparents, single moms, etc) how if one piece of this is ailing, it is best to look at the three other pieces, and not just the obvious problem. It's about addressing the whole person. This is why I liked what you wrote about the spiral. Maybe these four segments actually link three dimensionally to the next bigger ring, or the next smaller ring.
In this one, my own Medicine Wheel, it moves from Time (the moons), to Person, to Elements, to Totems, to Seasons. I prayed each time I sat down to paint a little more, and God really put it all together, to show me some important lessons. For example, why is there a red flag sticking up into my Childhood (the Springtime of my life)? I didn't plan that. Having to re-do the Emotion segment was an eye-opener too. If you run your finger over that part, it's really rough, because of all the previous attempts to represent Emotion. I remember one of my attempts was a lightening storm. Ooooo - way too angry! And adjacent to the Emotion segment is the Element of Fire. It too had to be re-done several times, and started out as a forest fire, a little scarey, so I had to tone it down, another message ... to me ... about me. The Season in that quadrant corresponds to my time in TWI. I was in the Summer of my life then. I tried to show Summer as a County Fair, but the tents and flags turned out looking like a concentration camp. How appropriate. As I processed my Way experience more and more, it evolved into the picnic basket, which looks lovely, but in reality I don't eat bread or watermelon. Both make me sick. Weird, huh? The Autumn has been much more peaceful, and the painting of this part came quite naturally. No do-overs. And on and on and on ... I could talk about this stuff for days. Sorry.
Don't know if I was playing at a way of being an angel. Who me? But for me, this was a way of touching my own spirit, angelic or not.
Sir Guess is right, painting (or dance or poetry or journaling or whatever) is healing and guiding for many of us. Truths come out that you didn't even know were inside of you.
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sirguessalot
well...i wish i had more time and energy to participate here
once again i have fallen into a state where my typing fingers dont work very well to convey what is going on inside
mostly because it would take many many hours to compose
and i dont have them right now
nor do i think i can convey why without being misunderstood as being merely severely critical
but thanks for playing along like you guys have
thanks for sharing your work, Shifra
maybe one of these days i'll carve out a way to present my thoughts on art history, theory, practice, etc...especially as it pertains to spiritual healing and the topic of ladders of faith and such
space and grace...
+ODD
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cman
what some are saying-
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls...+ascend+descend
happens all the time
to stop and stagnate would be boring
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sirguessalot
interesting search, cman...rich results
and so as to honor shifra's wonderful contribution
i think i finally found the words...so i just want to add a few thoughts...
i think the medicine wheel process is a very good and healthy example of a view of the first four levels of the spectrum...in a very general sense
...which then puts one on the brink of a kind of 5th perspective ...which is a classic aboriginal form of touching our mortality and its relationship with the rest of the universe
to repeat what i have mentioned before...every level brings a new gift and a new problem
much as the first chapters of the book of revelation describe
the gift of this level is that our heart is wide open and ready to hold all in a wide open compassionate embrace.
the problem is that it also tends to reject most all critical and important distinctions, mistaking them for earlier ways of making distinctions.
and so it reacts quite allergically to any notions of vertical hierarchy of any line of development.
which then puts a lid on talking about authentic development.
and we have a higher percentage of people at this green level of development than any other time in history
...a cultural flatland at the level of the heart that feeds our worst kinds of narcissism
and keeps culture from supporting further development
and so we get our democratic plurality from this level
our environmental concerns
our civil rights
women's rights
but god forbid one mentions the value of even higher stages of awareness and activity that have existed for thousands of years
which are NOT the same as the mythic elitist claims of religions, cults and the occult
so there is a huge need to keep moving..keep growing...keep developing beyond this 4th perspective
rather than mothering us into higher stages...we get sMothered instead
i dunno if i am making sense
feel free to ask me to clarify
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Bramble
Your medicine wheel is gorgeous, Shifra. The visual symbols are very powerful.
Seeing life in a circular or spiral progression instead of linear is also a big part of pagan thought.
Wiccans cast circles, a bubble of sacred space, protected, not completely earthly, but touching the higher, spiritual realm, when they do their rituals or even meditation. It is a meeting place where our spiritual selves are more free than on the earthly plain, a place where we can more clearly learn, join with the divine, set needed changes in motion...
There is ascending and descending in that sense--moving for awhile into the higher plain, then descending back to our world. Trancing, meditation, shamanism...all seek this, but it is a brief journey for us humans.
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Bramble
Your post put me in mind with a site I enjoy, a feminine spirituality site
http://millionthcircle.org/index.html
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sirguessalot
yeah, i am familiar, Bramble
the millionth circle is a good example of what i am talking about
although its nowhere near as rabidly viciously anti-masculine as others
it is a more balanced example of a 4th perspective cultural movement
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Bramble
Yes, there are some groups out there just as cultish as TWi ever was, but with a different doctrine. Still about conformity, though.
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