"Unity" is the word that first came to me as I write this statement describing my mural drawing proposal for this project. The composition of my drawing integrates imagery that represents ancestral wisdom and knowledge of human conscious evolution on this earth and universe.
Starting at the foundation of the mural we have a turtle and a reptile which both represent the earth. The american continent is called turtle island by its original inhabitants. They believed that at one point the planet was completely covered with water and it was a turtle that emerged from its depths bringing earth on its back forming the american continent. The serpent symbolizes the earth by showing us how the energy undulates and transforms.
Then we have a woman in a cross legged position wearing a headpiece like a crown. She is called Chalchihutlique, the jade serpent women. She is the primordial energy that moves all the waters' side to side like serpents. On top of her we have Elegua, an Orixa, an African entity. She is a messenger from the heavens to the earth and the guardian of infinite journeys. She is also attributed to music and dance which harmonize the energies with her axe and her gourd that she holds in each hand. In her crown the four corners circle is present to honor the northern native people and the four directions. This symbol is painted in four colors yellow representing the Asian people, red the Native American people, white the Cacuacian people and black the African people.
On both sides of her lower half we have two stars. The one to the left was created by the first chinese sailors in a compass/tool to measure the directions of the winds using the north and south magnetic fields of the earth. On the right we have venus which was used to mark the solstices and equinoxes by the turtle island inhabitants for agricultural rituals that marked times for planting and harvesting crops. Next moving upwards we have a thunderbird from the pacific northwest cultures symbolizing creation and destruction, and divides the heavens from the earth. It is known that the eyes of the thunderbird are symbolic of the sun and that when the bird wakes in the morning it would bring the rising sun, and when it closed its eyes at night, the sun would set. Its thunderstorms and electrical discharges cause simultaneous destruction/creation of macro/micro organisms upon the earth. It is important to mention that the thunderbir's wings are shaped in a geometric symmetry addressing the mathematical sciences emphasising that the mural honors this observation in nature too. There's a fire pot on each of the bird's wings which symbolizes the sun and its energetic forces to make life sustainable on this planet earth. The smoke that is emitted by the fire welcoming the stormy grey/black clouds unifying the fire with the water.
Next to the thunderbird's legs they're two rounded symbols. The one on the left is called Cultrun, a "Mapuche Drum." It is a percussion instrument for ceremonial use, its flat surface representing the earth's plain. Within is the circular design of the mapuche cosmovision: the Meli Witran Mapu, (the four cardinal points), and within these are the sun, the moon, and the stars. This symbol represents the knowledge of the world as it is viewed by our southern relatives. To the right side we have Ometeolt, "Nahualt Duality." Energy in chaos enclosed in a circle to be harmonize and to manifest "Nahuiollin," four dimensional energy emerging with beauty like the flowers. Enclosing both symbols are thunder bolts that drop from the thunderbirds wings.