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Native American Moon Shield

Usually, the moon is personified in myths as a female deity, but it is also known in some cultures as a male figure. Lunar symbolism brings together powers associated with the cyclical patterns in nature: the tide, the fertility cycle of a woman, the shedding of the snake’s skin. All of these repetitive modes of change, death and rebirth, are associated in lunar symbolism. The moon represents a force that expresses itself indirectly and through endurance rather than through direct aggression and oppression. It is the power of water to wear away the stone, the survival of the snake that disappears into the earth as it flees the hungry eagle, and the power of healing that comes through a connection with deep, vegetative forces in the psyche. The medicine shield of Chief Arapoosh of the Crow Indians offered physical and spiritual protection through the powers of the Moon, who is portrayed as he appeared to the chief during a vision quest. A deer tail and eagle feathers wrapped in red trade-cloth are fastened at one side of the shield. The head and neck of a crane are tied to the opposite side, together with crow or raven feathers, a length

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Early-Dynastic-III-Caduceus

Axis Mundi

The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, columna cerului, center of the world), in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world’s point of beginning. Because the axis mundi is an idea that unites a number of concrete images, no contradiction exists in regarding multiple spots as “the center of the world”. The symbol can operate in a number of locales at once. The human body can express the symbol of world axis. Some of the more abstract Tree of Life representations, such as the Sefirot in Kabbalism and in the Chakra system recognized by Hinduism and Buddhism, merge with the concept of the human body as a pillar between heaven and earth. Disciplines such as Yoga and Tai Chi begin from

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Olmec Twins & Jaguar

Three of the sculptures at El Azuzul shown in situ, as they were discovered. Olmec Twins & Jaguar – At El Azuzul another important monumental sculpture was found, a pair of twin males facing a Jaguar. This scene offers powerful image of duality and shamanic transformation as indicated by the postures of the twins. The first pair of statues, described as “some of the greatest masterpieces of Olmec art”, are nearly identical seated human figures. When discovered the two statues were facing east, one behind the other. Some researchers have suggested that these “twins” are forerunners of the Maya Hero Twins from the Popul Vuh, although their headdresses have led others to describe them as priests. The twin’s headdresses have been mutilated, probably to erase identifying insignia. Olmec Twins & Jaguar from the back These photographs of the three sculptures at El Azuzul shown in situ, are as they were discovered. Researchers believe that these sculptures had not been moved since Olmec times. This is a sculptural representation of two young Olmec rulers, twins, paying homage to a feline-jaguar deity. Each twin, like the figure in San Martín Pajapan Monument 1, is grasping a ceremonial bar with his right hand under

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