Images

   Images are everywhere. In magazines and books, on the internet and even the walls of the businesses and cafes we frequent. Most are trying to sell us something the image suggests we need for our lives to be fulfilled or showing us a picture of what is happening somewhere in the world. Others are there to match the decor or simply make us feel calm  and at ease in a stressful environment. Occasionally they represent the creative work of an artist trying to show us how they see some aspect of this world. These images all have one thing in common; they are in and of the world. They are part of our experience of this world we come to know when we are in the South on the Medicine Wheel. The question I had when trying to create this site was; what defines an image that might connect you to the spiritual journey we find ourselves on when we move out of the South and into the West on the Medicine Wheel?

  The conclusion I have come to after taking many photos and observing other photos around me, is that those images that may be useful in our new journey fall into three categories. One would be images that symbolically represent this journey. The mandala, the yantra, the cross or crucifix, Hindu and Buddhist paintings would be examples of such images. When we come to know what these images represent, they become powerful reminders of where we want this life to take us. The second category would be those images that connect us to that place of unfiltered sensation we encounter when we are able to transcend the thinking mind. I like to call them psychedelic images. These tend to be extremely vibrant and colorful and accentuate how connected and integral the parts are to one another. They are seductive in that we find ourselves wanting to see this everywhere in the world around us and wondering why we cannot. The third category would be images that show us aspects of the world we do not see in our everyday lives. Macro photographs of plants and insects would be examples of these images. Showing us the world from new vantage points such as satellite photos of the earth or electron microscopy showing us what we cannot see with the naked eye are other examples. These can be very powerful in helping us understand how this world works and how everything is connected to everything else.

   Images in these three categories can be found in many different places. The Photos I’m posting here are ones I have taken and fit in the second and third categories described above.