The Fractal of Man

fractal_of_man

One formation caught my attention this summer of 2007.  I called it the Fractal of Man.  It appeared at Chute Causeway in Wiltshire England on the 26th of July. It took on similarities of Starglyphs that have appeared since 1997, beginning with a formation at Milk Hill.  This was the first formation of its kind.  It was a six-pointed star fractal with a series of circles that encompassed it.  This Starglyph began a new symbolic journey, that to me, was to become a language that supersedes the common knowledge found in symbols and opened the doors to an unfolding universe.  The very nature of the Starglyph demonstrates that thought within its structure, as you can see from my article “Six-pointed Star ~ Koke Fractal.”six_pointed_star_1997

Some of the most important symbols I found were the circle and square. They reoccur in a hidden manner throughout many Starglyphs.  They are symbols related to my ancestors.  The square has long since been seen as a symbol of the earth and the material realms.  Its four corners can be seen as earth, wind, fire, and water.  These too, are elements connected into and understood within the Native American medicine wheel, found through the unseen square within it.  The medicine wheel is an infinite symbol with many meanings.  It can take life times to truly understand it.  It is a symbol that was carried by the Native American plains people originally, although many other natives honor it and have made it their own.  It is used extensively by the Sioux Nation, as this nation carries it with their sacred bundles.  The Sioux have long since made this symbol from porcupine quills, to be worn on clothes, and carried in ceremony.  The Sioux Nation along with other plains nations has used the medicine wheel for many thousands of years.  In the late 1990’s, a sacred elder of the Anishinabe brought forth much understanding of the medicine wheel and many books were written about it.  The Anishinabe are another plains nation.

Although this is a bit off the topic, I feel a few points need to be mentioned here, because of confusion I have seen.  I have noticed people of the European nations misunderstanding the origin of Native people and their ways.  They don’t seem to realize the vast difference of traditions and teachings that can come from different nations.  Hopi and the plains nations are as different from each other as the Buddhists are from the Jewish traditions.  Yet, there is a common similarity that can be seen among all Native nations.

medicine_wheelRecently on a website, I saw a portrait of a Native American wearing braids, a breastplate and holding a ceremonial pipe.  This person was labeled a Hopi.  The website didn’t seem realize that it was Sioux or plains people who carried and wore these objects. The Hopi people’s ways are much different. See the following for more information.: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/hopi.html.

The Hopi Nation holds the understanding of the 5th world, which many have heard of. This world is an understanding important to all people. However, the Hopi have never carried the ways of the pipe, braids, breastplate, or worn eagle feathers.  They don’t wear the symbols you see on popular native clothing; most of what you see comes from the plains people.   We people of the plains do not carry the way of the 5th world, although we honor the nation for their ways and see they carry truth in what they say.  Our symbols are different than those of the western native people and Hopi Nation, although we can understand each other and could sit down and smoke the pipe together.

Red_Cloud_PostersThe Hopi reside in a reservation in central Arizona.  They possess kachinas that are spirits of their journeys.  They are the only native nation that possesses these.  The plains people are of an entirely different way, involving the buffalo and many animal spirits most commonly known around the world.  It is the plains people who speak of all the different animal spirits you would find written in books, such as the owl, bear, and wolf.  Animals are in all native cultures but not spoken of in the ways you might find as totems you read about. The plains nations were 1000 to 2000 miles or kilometers from the Hopi.

hopi_kachinasThe plains people have carried with them many of the overlapping symbols often found in the wheat field symbols.  We carry the symbols most known to the world, such as the medicine wheel.  The origin of the white buffalo legend is also from the Sioux Nation.  It was a way given to an elder called Chief Hollow Horn when he was gifted a sacred bundle containing a pipe, along with its seven rites.  It is the plains people who lived with millions of buffalo that roamed the countryside and we are the people who held them in high order in ceremony and journeyed with them.  Perhaps these websites are a small beginning to understanding our cultures:

Sitting_Bull_PostersThe pipe as a spiritual instrument goes back even farther.  My people believe that we carried the first pipes.  We are considered a Sioux and Plains Nation.  The pipe goes back in my ancestry 7,000 or so years and is in our museums.  It is spoken about in our original creational stories.  These same pipes were found in Cahokia, an ancient mound city.  In the story, it is explained how this pipe was made of red clay.  It is the clay which comes from the land of my ancestors in the plains.  The plains people were the only people on earth to possess the pipe in their traditional way of spirit, and that still is true today.

So many of the symbols carry understandings, and people often want to know what those are. The same holds true for the symbols in the fields.  Many of those crop circles, whether they are man-made or Star-nation made, carry understandings common to native people.

Many people question whether the Starglyphs should be defined or possess a meaning that describes them.  It is true, they do remain infinite when meanings have not been attached to them.  When meaning is attached to a symbol, it narrows it to a finite, limited thought.  Yet it is through this action that it can be integrated into our world.  Understanding symbols can evolve our journeys.  It is true that when symbol is not defined, it can still assist our world by simply seeing it as symbolic reference in spirit.  Yet, I wonder where my people would be today if the medicine wheel had never had a meaning attached to it and it was just simply left as something to be viewed.  Where would we be if we had not consciously brought it into our world, and come to understand that it was related to four sacred directions and four elements of the earth?  Where would we be now if we had never seen there were sacred colors that sit in these four directions, that carry an understanding on the wind?

I was once compelled to define the medicine wheel. This was around the time when I first connected to the Starglyphs in 1997.  How does one define the un-definable but speak with the heart of my people and the journey of my road.  This question guided my words in a direction that I believe best describes the medicine wheel.

medicine_wheelI wrote this:  It is a symbol of the heartbeat of the people and a drawing of one’s self in harmony.  It is the circle of life of no end and is where all things exist and is our walk with the Spirit.  It is where all things come together as one and is the soul of man.  It is the fire within us as it rests gently in the spirits of the waters.  It is our heart song of the buffalo and is the four seasons of our walk.  It is the sleeping bear and the eyes of the Eagle Spirit.  It is the fire within our lodge and the smoke that spirals gently into the Great Mystery.  It is our connection to ourselves, the grass and trees, the deer and a cloud drifting gently across the sky of our spirit.  It is the light in a dewdrop of the morning sun and is the circle of nations.  It is the connection to our brothers and sisters and all things around us from Stone People Nation, to the Star People Nation.  It is the four sacred winds that blow gently through us and the directions that we reach out to assist others on the walk of our circle.  It is the Great Shield of Truth within the hearts of all human beings when they choose to listen closely and walk in harmony.

While the Starglyphs can be understood with no meaning attached at all, at the same time meaning can be derived from ancient understandings.  Symbols open the door to expand our connections to ourselves; earth, sky and the universe, and to yet other levels beneficial to all human beings.  In our ways, these meanings behind symbols can surface in the important moments and at the time of true need, to assist one on their journey.

In the five-pointed star, much can be derived that can assist one on their journey.  One way to understand this star is to understand each point and how it is represented.  It is my belief, the Starglyph that appeared at Chute Causeway in Wiltshire, is the star that most represents mans’ coming to the Earth Mother and it is the Fractal of Man.  The five-pointed star is commonly used by people throughout the Earth when a star is to be represented, whether they be young or old.  The people have proclaimed it their star through their actions.

five-pointed_elementsI believe its very understanding is derived from the natural force it is attached to.  One way to understand the five-pointed star is through the light of its origin.  Before the star came the square and its four points.  This square is what I have been talking about.  It is the fourth fireplace of the journey of symbols whose origin was the circle.  Understanding the square as the material, the four elements, the earth, wind, fire and water of which we are made, creates a good beginning for understanding the five-pointed star.  It can be understood as elements comprising the energies of the universe coming together.  Their coming together in this unique manner reveals Spirit.  Spirit is found at the center of the square, in the place of nothingness, and is where all things are created.  These four elements combining with Spirit make the way we begin our walk on the Earth Mother, the way we are born into the world.  All together they are representing the points of the five-pointed star.  So it is the coming together of the earth, water, wind, fire and spirit.

It is my belief this fractaling star formation of five-pointed stars is an expression of our ever expanding journeys as we walk on the Earth Mother.

five_pointed_starIf this five-pointed star Starglyph were not of Star Nations in origin and was made by the hands of man, it would still be very much in alignment with the very nature of its meaning and therefore would be a Starglyph.  The Star Nation people truly have a way of opening people to their higher understanding.  They open the doors for us to see what we are made of and to also know man’s ability to understand our never ending nature as we journey on the Earth Mother and in the Universe.

Many blessings,
Bearcloud