Shigaab galbain: thoughts on life.

Size: 80x150cm; 2.6x5ft

Weaver: Pedro 

Materials ans methods: criollo sheep wool hand dyed with colorfast aniline dyes using an exhaustive method. Handwoven on a Zapotec style loom of the 16th century adapted from European styles. Woven using a 7 threads per inch reed for the warp.  

Design, patterns and symbols.

This rug depicts several variations of the life cycle symbol. It starts with the path of the warrion, a symbol that curls inward to show is that the path to discover our true face and and true heart is an inner journey of the spirt. The next pattern is a life cycle symbol that has gone a transformation and started to blossom, that is why it starts to curl upwards as it depicts the cosmic awareness. Next we have the basic four stepped life cycle symbol that reminds us of the basic biological stages of life that goes through major changes every thirteen years and the need to honor our natural rythms with ceremony  and self discovery. The next two rows are Pedro's interpretation of the vissions of the plumed serpent's teachings, we take geometrical patterns and combine them in different ways to explore ideas and filosphical concepts on our rugs. These two rows connect to each other and almost synchronize but not quite, it represents two different life cycles where one seems to almost remember its past; or the previous one it can almost foresee its future (depending on how you look at it). The idea is that part of our lives is dictated by human behavioural patterns that we can predict and foresee but in spite of that we can never fully predict or understand. It seems that some times we can have a vission that aligns with the totality of creation but due to the noise of life we loose track of that vission and we let other patterns form and take place in our lives leading us to misalign with our balanced vission. The important teaching on this geometrical study is to always seek to balance our spiritual vission with our earthly needs as shown in the symbol that join the hands starting to shape a Nahual (shaman) pattern.