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Circles and Cycles
To us an infinitesimal fraction of a second is an entire lifetime to
an atomic particle, just as our lifetime is a split second in the life
cycles of earth, and the earth’s life is a split second in the life
of stars and galaxies.
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Split Seconds:
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Atomic
Cycles, Quantum Physics. |
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Seconds:
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Heart
Beat, Breath. |
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Day: |
Rotation
of Earth. |
| Month: |
Lunation
Cycle. |
| Year: |
Solar
Cycle, (seasons). |
| 60,000 yr.: |
Alternating
Universal Female and Universal Male Influences. |
| 20,000 Yr.: |
1
Glaciation Cycle, Aboriginal Culture. |
| 720,000 Yr.: |
Earth’s
alternating Magnetic
Polarity. |
| 240 Mill. Yr.: |
Continental
Drift from South to North and back. |
| 280 Mill. Yr.: |
Possibly
the Solar System completes an orbit around the centre of the
Galaxy or Milky Way. |
Carl Jung says that one of the most powerful religious symbols is the
circle. He says that the circle is one of the great primordial images
of mankind and that, in considering the symbol of the circle, we are
analysing the self.
The circle represents time with the movement of the day and the three
hundred and sixty degrees. The official Sumerian year was three
hundred and sixty days with five holy days that don’t count, which
are outside time and in which they had ceremonies relating their
society to the heavens.
And Joseph Campbell says:
“The circle on
the other hand, represents totality. Everything within a circle is one
thing, which is encircled, enframed. That would be the spatial aspect.
But the temporal aspect of the circle is that you leave, go somewhere,
and always come back. [From the womb of mother earth to the tomb of
mother earth. Ed.] God is the alpha and the omega, the source and the
end. The circle suggests immediately a completed totality, whether in
time or in space.”
From: ‘The Power of Myth’ [pp. 214-219]
“Mandala” is the Sanskrit word for
“circle”. But it is a circle that is symbolically designed so
that it has the meaning of a cosmic order. When composing a personal
mandala, you are trying to symbolically coordinate your personal
circle with the universal circle. The making of a personal mandala is
an act of discipline to pull all the scattered aspects of your life
together to find the centre of your spiritual being, the Axis Mundi,
the still point in your seemingly chaotic world.
Whenever the number four or some squared form appears in a dream, Jung
has noted that some aspect of the dreamer’s wholeness is scattered.
Furthermore, he noted that circles seem to represent wholeness in a
natural level, without beginning or end. The squares seem to indicate
wholeness possibilities on a more conscious level.
The wedding rings that people wear are symbols of two lives coming
together in union to one whole, in the image of God.
Most indigenous cultures use some form of the circle as a teaching
tool to help them to understand the natural forces, not only around
them, but also within them. The Lakota, for example, use the medicine
wheel, however, their nature, in the northern hemisphere, like the
sun, moves clockwise over a southerly arc. So my adaptation for the
southern hemisphere has had the characteristics of the north and south
swapped, and then, like the sun here, we move around the wheel in an
anti-clockwise direction over a northerly arc.
Hehaka Sapa, or Black Elk, that’s Nicholas Black Elk who is not
biologically related to Wallace Black Elk, was a member of the Oglala
Tribe of the Lakota, or Sioux nation. In 1930-31 he dictated the
following passage to Flaming Rainbow as part of his autobiography:
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and
that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and
everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong
and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the
nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished. The
flowering tree was the living centre of the hoop, and the circle of
the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the
south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and
mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us
from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the
World does is done in a circle. The Sky is round and I have heard that
the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The wind, in
its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for
theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down
again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round.
“Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always
come back again to where they were. The life of man is a circle from
childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves.
Our tipis were round like the nests of birds and these were always set
in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests where the Great
Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.”
And when John G. Neihardt interviewed Black Elk for his book ‘Black
Elk Speaks’, he spoke of his first vision as a young boy thus:
“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and around
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 the sacred hoop of my people was one of many
hoops that made one circle…”
Then he goes on to say that the sacred central
mountain was Harney Peak in South Dakota. And then he says; “But
anywhere is the centre of the world.”
Joseph Campbell explains that this statement distinguishes the actual
mountain in the vision and its connotation as the Axis Mundi, which is
the central point where the movement of time and the stillness of
eternity come together at the soul of each individual. So for every
individual being, it is as if the whole world revolves around them,
but the trick in life is to realize the responsibility of taking care
of your sacred hoop of the world as well as your Axis Mundi, because
all hoops are connected.
Looking at my medicine wheel that has been adjusted for the southern
hemisphere, you can see that the east is where all things are born
into the manifest world; the sun gives birth to the morning, so this
is the direction that we start all things. In the ages of man from
birth to old age we find that the north represents adolescence; the
west, middle age; and the south, the elderly.
The Axis Mundi is where you connect the manifest world of Earth Below
to the spirit world of God Above. So I would like to finish with an
example of my morning and evening prayer that is suited for the
southern hemisphere.
My Morning Prayer
Tunkashila (pronounced Toon-kash-she-la), Grandfather, Creator of all
things, Great Spirit, I give thanks for giving me life to walk another
day on this earth. I thank you for all your creation, all spirit and
all my spirit guides and helpers.
Maka (pronounced Muck-kah), Grandmother, the Earth, giver of all
matter, I give thanks for giving of yourself so that I may live in
this physical body and walk upon your surface another day.
To the East, I give you thanks for giving us spirit, the enlightenment
and far-sighted-ness of the Eagle, and for the birth of the Sun,
Morning and Spring. And I give thanks for the element Fire.
To the North, I give thanks for the trust and innocence of the Mouse,
for the warmth of Midday and Summer, and for the moon and the element
Water.
To the West, I give thanks for the introspection and intuition of the
Grizzly Bear or Koala, for the change of Evening and Autumn, and for
the Earth and Minerals.
To the South, I give thanks for the knowledge and wisdom of the
Buffalo or Kangaroo, for the stars and the element Air.
May all spirit work within me for the greater good of all. MITAKUYE
OYASIN (pronounced Mit-uk-we-arsin), which means ‘For all our
relations’, from the mineral people through all the plants, animals,
all human beings and to the star people.
Circles, Cycles,
Spirals and Spheres
Inspired by:
Frank Cullen of ‘Thoughtful Themes’
(From: ‘Earth People’
Volume 1 Number 4)
Frank's
Letter:
Hello Sitting Owl,
Received with great thanks your two magazines and found inspiration in
them. It is amazing how there is the common thread running through all
seekers, the search for true identity and the relationship that it has
with the whole of creation.
The circle is certainly, as you pointed out, the oldest of symbols,
but does it remain true for us. There has been a great development in
understanding and appreciation combined with the technical advances of
the limited physical human mind, and I wonder if the circle is a true
image.
A circle can only be seen if you are standing directly in front of it.
If the circle remains stationary and we move around it that circle
becomes a thinner and thinner ellipse until it disappears into a
straight line. But consider the sphere.
We know now that atoms neutrons, molecules and even DNA chains all
have the shape of a sphere. If we consider the sphere to represent us,
the sphere will always seem to be a circle no matter what direction
you view it from. The sphere also has a centre, which remains constant
no matter where you view it.
The sphere could represent the unlimited potential that we have within
us which comes into force in our lives when we are united with the
centre or the deep internal core of our being.
Please do not think this is a refutation of your excellent article,
because it is not and is not meant to be. It is possible for man to
get stuck in tram lines of thought, e.g. the concept of the soul first
came into being over 2500 years ago and aesthetic practices and images
of duality has been in human thought ever since. Even to Malcolm
Frazer oft quoted line "life wasn't meant to be easy" is a
throw back to the soul concept. Life wasn't meant to be easy, it was
meant to be ecstatic.
Man with his negative ideas over the centuries; have manipulated us
into living lives full of death, without connection to the internal
core of our being.
Best regards Frank.
Namaste’ Frank
Thank you for your important comments on the article ‘Circles and
Cycles’ in the March – April 2000 issue of ‘Earth People’.
However the human mind is only limited by its belief systems, a
subject I hope to be discussing in the future.
Firstly, the DNA chain is actually a spiral, which points out that:
although the Medicine Wheel represents time as a movement from birth
in the East around to old age and death in the South (for the Southern
Hemisphere), it also represents time in one year (the four seasons),
one day, and down to one split second of thought, where all aspects of
the wheel are considered and thus balanced so as to bring a balanced
judgment to that thought. We must balance emotion in the North with
conscious knowledge and wisdom (the Mind) in the South and balance
Spirit or ideas in the East with matter or manifestation in the West.
With this balance, it brings us to the centre of the situation (life,
or self), which is the Axis Mundi, or the source. However, the next
moment of thought, day, year etc. is again affected by the different
aspects of The Wheel, however it is never the same moment, day, year
or lifetime, so we have, by the previous judgment, made a step up, due
to a revelation or down, due to a lesson to be learnt. This step is
what creates what is referred to as the “Sacred Spiral”, which is
still represented by the Medicine Wheel circle.
And secondly, as you have pointed out the image of a sphere is much
worth considering, however the fact is that the sphere is still
represented in the Medicine Wheel, in that as you hold your centre
(Axis Mundi) in balance, you must also connect Father Sky, Heaven, God
etc ABOVE, with Mother earth, the material world, BELOW. As the Hopi
people say: “Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to my left,
beauty to my right, beauty above me and beauty below me. I’m on the
pollen path.” Meaning the path of life and Bliss.
According to Frank Fools Crow (Wanbli Mato – Eagle Bear) 1890 –
1989, the Ceremonial Chief of the Teton Sioux: The Stone-people Lodge
(Inipi, Purification or Sweat Lodge) not only represents the womb of
Mother Earth for rebirth and the universe but also, once the
above-ground part is covered and all items and tools to be used are
inside, it becomes the dwelling place of Wakan -Tanka (Great Spirit,
Creator, God the FATHER etc.) and Tunkashila (the SON) above;
Grandmother Earth below and the Persons of the Four Directions (the
HOLY SPIRIT).
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