Symbolic Art and Ancient Cultures
Jun 01, 2017
Finding the Force Lesson 3 Video:
Today I'm here to tell you a story you can probably relate to, which is a journey of exploration, looking into the deeper mysteries of life and what we’re here for. There are 3 parts to this video
1: A bit about myself 2. The ancient mysteries I have researched and 3. Symbolic language in art. It is necessary for us to begin to gain an understanding of symbolic language as well as the way that ancient peoples saw the world, and I will provide some information and guidance as you are Finding The Force. It’s your journey, and I am just here as a guide.
Consciousness comes from awareness from having an awareness of what's going on inside of you emotionally spiritually and mentally. We need to practice daily, yoga, meditation, tai chi or some related discipline in order to see progress. This often also requires a human being to improve their physical vehicle as well because your journey is only going to be as good as the vehicle you are in - in this case that is your body.
By understanding symbolic language and larger concepts it allows us to see the world and our experience from a more spiritual and elevated perspective, which of course is going to give us more consciousness and bring us closer to The Force.
1.My Background
About 25 years ago as a teenager growing up on the East Coast (after having moved all around the country) I found myself waking up into a place that was quite frightening for me because the world didn't seem to have much concern for quality of life, for the earth, or the women and children. I also noticed that my friends of different racial backgrounds had seriously different quality of life than I did even though we had a very humble lifestyle back then
The thing that worried me the most was the level of stress and anxiety I saw in the “adults” and as I was going to an Ivy League prep school with extremely disciplined Jesuit priests teaching us, I understand perfectly well what would be the rigors of a professional life if I followed the Ivy League path.
I began to read as many books as I could find on different spiritual traditions including Tibetan, Zen, Buddhist philosophy as well as later, scientific research on Reincarnation and the expansive possibilities of the mind. Of course, as an added synchronicity it turned out that someone I knew very well was actually a kung fu master and was able to begin to instruct me and help me to grow.
I ended up getting a scholarship to American University in Washington DC, and I was able to attend the School of International Service where I acquired two Bachelor's degrees - one in International Relations and Politics and the other in Latin American Studies and Literature. By the time I got done I was ready to travel the world looking for experiences in what had already begun to look like Culture and Shamanism (though I didn’t know it then). One of my professors indicated that if I wanted to continue studying what I was interested in I would probably have to find a teacher of sorts a Shaman like in Carlos Castaneda's books. That kind of blew my mind, but really it sounded great!!
Since my grandmother was Native American and she had told me that all of the Indians were probably just plain dead or at least that there weren't very many of us left, then I decided to go looking abroad for the culture I sought. HAHAHA
I was looking for a place where I could find people who still had consciousness and some type of spiritual culture so I travelled to and lived in Spain, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean in search of people with higher consciousness.
It turns out that there is no particular place on the planet but rather, there was once a time where this consciousness existed. I began to find monuments all over North Central and South America where the fingerprints of the gods who did once have a higher way of being are recorded. But without a codebreaker, all I could do is just stand there and stare, for the languages and the knowledge I was told, had been long since lost.
Luckily that's not altogether true anymore, if it ever was. There is still a great deal of culture alive but it had to be hidden a bit, transfigured into Christian symbols and also kept in Oral Tradition and passed from Master to Student. What I lacked really, was a Teacher.
2. Ancient Cultures
Eventually I found my way to the Southwest where I am grateful to say that at Native American Medicine man took me in and taught me, after many years of proving my worth in very difficult situations. I realized pretty quickly that my people had not all died or been killed but rather herded up onto pieces of land called reservations.
Luckily my teacher was also international and so he took me to a gathering called the Return of the Ancestors, where I was able to meet Tribal Elders and Shaman from around the world. This allowed me to compare and contrast, also from the academic perspective of culture, looking at the similarities and the resonance of the cosmologies of these many different cultures. It turns out that we all have a lot In common. Some basic things are non-killing, care of family, respect for the Earth and Prayer to Creator.
Under the stars and in the Ceremonial Areas, the elders would tell stories about what it was once like before our consciousness fell. These fascinating stories about how many different worlds had existed on the same planet were contained in their oral traditions about those times.
I was invited (by means of having had a very special dream) to dance with a group of people who are carrying on the old Ghost Dance tradition which will be remembered as part of Wounded Knee Massacre that took place at the reservation of the Lakota people. This is a balancing dance to the Sun Dance, one is by Moon, one by Sun, one by Night, one by Day, one for the Ancestors Healing and one for the People’s health.
I learned story after story, culture after culture, ceremony after ceremony, and realized that the one thing that these people all had in common for certain was Consciousness and the desire to come into harmony with all of Creation. This is how we Find the Force and building their personal power by doing this in community, forming a group Consciousness as well.
But they were all Finding the Force in their different ways. I also began to see the symbolic language through their stories (what westerners would call “mythology”) and occasionally they remarked that there were records on the Temples where we could still see the legends of the Ancestors - I knew from travelling they were all over the Yucatán, Central America and South America. During this particular gathering we actually went out on field trips to these different sites of the southwest, demonstrating the Southwestern Version of Divine Fingerprints in places like Chaco, Aztec and Montezuma's well.
So part of our program with Finding The Force is going to include tours to sacred sites as well as encounters with traditional medicine people who still understand the culture and cosmology of their ancestors. This is a huge part of the journey and I highly recommend you join us if you can. There will also be initiatory experiences that we can do together, and these will open up special energies and ways of thinking for you.
But for now I will also begin to get you familiar with the symbolic language of many tribal people across the Americas in order to help you understand better the elders when you have the opportunity to hear them speak.
3. Art and Symbols: The Cross and the Tree
Behind me in the video you will see a painting of a tree that has 13 branches reaching up and 13 branches reaching down. Depending on the culture and cosmology it could be 7, 9 or 13 and each tribe has its secret numbers and it's own cosmology, often having to do with the symbolic meaning of numbers, characters and animals.
Here we are going to discuss the symbolic nature of a tree in general as well as the cross because they are two themes which come up again and again all over the world and especially in Mesoamerica.
The Tree is a symbol of the mind and in certain traditions from MesoAmerica we hear that God is considered the branches or the sky and humans are considered the roots of God and the earth is mother. Master Andres Segura speaks elegantly of this in writing as well as lectures. Another great reference is Ian Lungold, and our trip to the Yucatan for New Year’s 2018 will feature Medicine People from the Merida area with vast knowledge also.
Let’s think of a tree and its main parts. The trunk is the column in our body and the axis of our world, whence energies flows in and out. Moving up and down the trunk is symbolic of moving up in consciousness (towards the sky/father) and moving down the trunk represents moving into physicality, even also into the unconscious (towards earth/mother).
Symbolically, the flowers and butterflies represent ideas, birds are messengers, and the fruit of the tree is the product of our labors here. The fruit is the very reason for existence - which according to the Ancestors is the continuation of the energy of God on the material plane. It’s the meeting of Father with Mother, producing children who, in turn continue their existence and nourish the further birth of light into matter.
Many words for God in different languages simply mean “I am that Which IS” or “I am becoming that Which IS” and so is the meaning also in Mesoamerica. That’s why the tree is a beautiful symbol - it shows this relationship of Heaven and Earth and the constant reproductive cycle of those seeds and fruits.
The Cross is another symbol which is actually part of the tree and in most traditions these crosses were represented in wood. The Cross is the place in the Tree where we achieve a perfect balance between the four elements. It is also the middle of the Tree where God (Heaven) meets Flesh (Earth). It’s a symbol of our incarnation as flesh and our Heart is in the center with arms open wide.
One of many ancient symbols that we can in history, the cross (the equilateral cross) has always been a symbol of the planet earth because it also represents earth, air, fire and water. Here they’re in perfect conjunction, leading to Life itself. We also referred to the Cross as the Medicine Wheel in some north American traditions and Mesoamerican cultures, and I can only assume that others do as well in since it's an easy organizational tool to show to anyone in the Tribe.
The different directions are east, south, west and north. Of course the sun rises in the east so that is fire, south is earth, West is Water, North is air. In age there are also symbolic directions - east is birth, south is adolescence, West is adulthood, and north is elderhood. In Seasons, East is Spring, South is Summer, West is Fall and North is Winter. I have also included a very nice depiction of this medicine wheel with all of those categories.
Please feel free to join us at Finding The Force on Facebook by registering at www.Findingthe Force.com. You'll get into the private page, you'll find all kinds of bonus materials (including the transcript to this) some free introductory materials from chapter 1 and lots of other goodies. We are going to keep building this all over the world, training the trainers so they can help everyone in Finding The Force.
I hope that you understand how special it is this opportunity to raise our consciousness together and to shift the planet without having to convince anyone else to do any work except for just finding the force within ourselves because when you change your mind you change the entire world.
