“GAIA CHAKRA MEDICINE WHEEL” by Bob Paltrow
I think of this piece as a prayer.
This is the ‘artist’s collector’s version’ of an image I’ve created for use on a poster for the 1st Global Earth Repair Conference, to be held in Port Townsend Washington, May 3-5th, 2019. (Website: https://earthrepair.friendsofthetrees.net/ )
The conference will focus on topics including Broad-based popular movements, Funding Earth repair; Earth Repair in the Global South; Indigenous People’s Earth Repair; Earth Restoration Camps; Ecosystem restoration; Reforestation and afforestation; Soil regeneration; Ecological agriculture; Remineralization; Biochar, Myco-remediation, Erosion control; Bioengineering; Grassland regeneration and grazing; Reversing desertification; Water harvesting; Native plant biodiversity; River, stream, riparian repair; Marine restoration; Mangrove restoration; Ethnoecology; Agroforestry; Permaculture.
MEDICINE WHEEL — It will take many forms of medicine to heal—to save—our planet. Environmental, agricultural, meteorological, creative, innovative, physical, intellectual, emotional, heart medicine. Balance. Cultivating conscious awareness. Spiritual medicine: holding a belief that Earth and all life is sacred. Having the focus, dedication and will to do what it takes to nurture, protect and save what we have. Its all for one, or none for all. (More info on Medicine Wheels: http://visitcherokeenc.com/cherokee-medicine-wheel/, http://www.native-americans-online.com/native-american-medicine-wheel.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_wheel )
ROSE — There is one rose at the 11 o’clock position on the circle of hands. The rose commonly represents love, and I use it to represent love of the Earth, and the ever-flowering of creativity and genuine love for the Earth that manifests in real care and action, by all the people who live that every day. Who make it a priority, who embody it. In the little ways, and the big ways. Inspired by all the activists and organizations out there devoted to doing the good, hard, real work.
3 SPHERES: The three spheres run diagonally top left to bottom right: the sphere with the owl; the sphere containing the Earth; the sunrise above the mountains at bottom right.
THE UPPER SPHERE (with OWL) The owl swooping in represents enlightenment and the application of ancient wisdom. The owl is unemotional. It sees the reality. It does what it needs to do to survive, but it lives in balance. The owl in flight is completely silent.
THE LOWER SPHERE (MTN. SUNRISE) — represents the dawn of a new day and the real world opportunities—and risks—afforded us each day. The positive actions we take. The consequences we consider, and those we don’t. The causes and effects. The Karma.
THE MIDDLE SPHERE — The hands encircling the Earth, holds the world upon which we live as human beings. Humans live halfway between the physical and spiritual. We need both to heal the planet. The globe in the middle pours forth water into our Salish Sea, otherwise known in our region as Puget Sound. The waterfall represents life giving forth life—life is cyclical, its capable of sustaining itself. Life gives unto itself. And so it should be with humans and nature. We are life, in this life, and it is our duty to keep life alive and thriving. That is the way of life. The other way, the way we’ve been doing it, the way we’ve been ‘living,’ is an illusion of life, that is actually death.
LIGHTHOUSE — LIke the lighthouse that guides ships traveling, we must shine a light for all life to move and travel freely and safely.
CIRCLE OF INTERLINKED HANDS + VINES — It will take all people, everywhere, working together to get it done. There will be no miracle, other than the power of unified consciousness. Strength of unity and cooperation are the only ways to preserve life on this world as we know it.
INTERTWINED VINES — Humans are part of nature. We are intertwined with it. We are not separate from it. Separation is a false thought. Separation from nature causes dissonance. That dissonance accrues and accumulates and damages to the point that we’re living in a catastrophe incubator of our creation. In a historic nutshell is where we are as a species, alive on the planet at this time. There are consequences to our combined actions. We must embody nature, tie ourselves to it, be part of the continuous, contiguous, integrated thread that binds all of life together. That is not only sustainability, its going to be necessary to survive as a species.
LEAVES FLY — The leaves flying off the wheel, illustratively, are meant to suggest spinning and movement of the wheel. Symbolically, the leaves scattering to the wind represent impermanence and change.
7 PT. CHAKRA STAR — The star shape inside the circle of hands has 7 points. Each of the 7 points is intended to correspond to on of the 7 chakras.
Chakras—in Indian thought—represent each of the centers of spiritual power in the human body, usually considered to be seven in number. In this piece I’ve created, I would ask that we consider the health and body of Gaia, Our Earth Mother, and all the aspects to preserve and serve her health; and keep her whole. And that is what keeps us, human beings as well as all life on the planet, whole. To honor Her.
About Chakras:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra
http://soundings.com/quieting-monkey-mind/
https://chopra.com/articles/what-is-a-chakra
The Sanskrit word Chakra literally translates to wheel or disk. In yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda, this term refers to wheels of energy throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, which align the spine, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head. Each of the 7 chakras along the spine has a corresponding color; and corresponding aspect of consciousness. From top to bottom (crown of head to perneum):
MAGENTA = Crown Chakra = Spirituality
PURPLE = Third Eye Chakra = Awareness
BLUE = Throat Chakra = Communication
YELLOW = Solar Plexus Chakra = Wisdom Power
ORANGE = Sacral Chakra = Sexuality / Creativity
RED = Root Chakra = Basic Trust
ORCA & PNW
My home is Bellingham, Washington, about a 20 minute drive to the US-Canadian Border. I love it here, and have depicted the landscape that I see in my area of Western Washington: the bay, the forest, the islands, and looking west: the Olympic Peninsula; and bordering in the east and rising up in the BC Canada, The Cascade Range and local area peak Mt. Baker WA. The Global Earth Repair Conference will take place in the spiritual heart of the Pacific Northwest, in Port Townsend WA on the shores of the magnificent Olympic Peninsula. The Pacific Northwest, encompassing Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia and some part of southern Alaska, represents possibly the last and largest swaths of unspoiled wilderness in the world. And it is disappearing fast. Pollution, clear cuts, over fishing, poor forest regulation, mining, coal exports, oil and gas, increased tanker traffic in the area, risks posed by pipelines, forest fires. Gaia is under attack.
ORCA:
The Native Orca symbolize family, romance, longevity, harmony, travel, community and protection. They are said to symbolize protection for those who travel away from home, and lead them back when the time comes to return.
I had the insane luck of being in the right place at the right time—the honor of seeing a superpod of orcas, on a whalewatching trip in 1996. We left on a boat-watching tour out of Fairhaven WA, taking a walk-on ferry to San Juan Island. Once there, we had a 2 hour layover before boarding again, and we motored around San Juan Island for about 20 minutes before we the superpod. A ‘super pod’ is when the 3 main pods of the Puget Sound area congregate as one, for a short time, I think generally a couple of weeks to a month, during the summertime. We saw 99 orcas that day! There were so many swimming around our boat, it was hard to keep track of them. Babies breaching, seeing packs of 6, 8, 10 of them swimming towards us and then by us. Three swam by the bow of our boat, and as they arced and partially surfaced by our boat, they were so close (30 feet? maybe less . . . ) I could hear the water streaming off their backs as they gracefully swooshed past. I was in awe—tears at that point, it was humbling, beautiful, mind-blowing. It was also mind-blowing how many tourist boats—whale watching tourists from all over—that were darting in and out in incredible numbers, there was so much boat traffic. It just did not seem healthy or sustainable for those whales at that point, and 20 years later, there’s 25 less whales. Its startling and scary.
As of September 18, 2018, there are 74 Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orca) in Puget Sound. (Source: https://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=Births%20and%20Deaths ) Mothers have not had successful births; stillbirths. Whales are dying. Starvation is an issue, there are not enough salmon for them to eat. There are not enough salmon because of pollution, over-fishing, climate change. Noise pollution, pesticides, a host of other issues have affected the orca and the integrity and stability of the entire ecosystem. The same health issues that adversely affect orca, ultimately affect us. We are doing it to them, we are doing it to ourselves.
The orca represent all the splendor and magnificence of the area, and heart-breakingly, the demise of our world. In determining the most highly evolved species on Earth—and factoring homo sapiens propensity for self-sabotage—a case can be made that the orca are the most evolved species on the planet. The orca are us. If the orca become extinct, humans will become extinct, and that is solely my belief. Although I’m almost certain others would hold that belief. The rapid decline of the orca population’s numbers and overall health in Puget Sound bear the sound of a death knell for us all.
We have to act now.
MEDIA TO CREATE THE PIECE —
Digital. I feel the best aspect of digital illustration—for me, anyway—is the effect and control and the ability to use light (and by consequence, shadow). I really strive to interject light into my pieces, especially to evoke creativity, excitement, wonder, positivity, elevation of consciousness. Light is inspiring and pleasing and powerful. And we, as humans, can’t see anything without light!
HOW?. WHAT’S A VECTOR? —
This piece is almost entirely rendered in Adobe Photoshop, predominantly as vector shapes. A vector shape is a drawn shape that represents a sequence of commands of mathematical statements. (For a better explanation: https://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/definition/vector-graphics )
Basically, they’re plotted points that create shapes. What’s great about them, is they can be rendered at any size—an inch all the up to the side of a building or a blimp—and not lose any resolution. They never become pixelated, the way a blown up photo can. Elements like the woods, islands, mountains, orca shapes, the shape of the hand(s) in the wheel: I draw those in pencil, then scan, render (trace) them as vector shapes, and colorize them and give them effects in Photoshop.
ABOUT —
The name of the conference, “Global Earth Repair,” suggests rather clearly what the possibilities for concept would be for an image to represent the conference and its topics of interest, study, concern, response and application. I claim no authority on any science, culture, or spiritual practice! Just concern and appreciation for life—for every and all beings— for this beautiful world.
Michael ‘Skeeter’ Polarski, Director of The Friends of the Trees Society, is producing and spearheading this inaugural event along with a variety of activist and concerned sponsors. The criteria for the image was to create something that represented the Pacific Northwest, and the Earth. Other than that, it was pretty open-ended, open for interpretation.
When I saw the topics, and that one of them was ‘Honoring the Earth,’ I coupled that with ‘Global Earth Repair,’ and saw the image of a medicine wheel. The idea of many hands, many colors, many people, many cultures ‘intwined’ together came to mind. I worked through several ‘views’/versions of the hand shape before settling on this one. I emphasized ‘intwined,’ because of course the vines became a visually and metaphorically binding element for the ring of protection around the Earth.
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