There is also a wonderful Jewish medicine wheel, described by Rabbi Gershon Winkler in his book "the magic of the ordinary". Because different indigenous medicine wheels have been developed with specific focus on a specific ecosystem, there is going to be a lot of variation! The Hebrew wheel uses the "four winds" which later became known as the four archangels: Gabriel, Uriel, Rafael, and Michael. Regarding visual icons, I like to suggest five universal symbols as described by Angeles Arrien. While these interpretations of the symbols are not the same as hers, I think they work well. One version of an "open space medicine wheel" has the four directions of leadership, community, (self organizing) structure, and (self managing) action, plus the transformational dynamic of repeatedly moving around the four directions. The symbols could be:
For leadership, a triangleFor community, a circleFor structure, a squareFor management, a crossFor transformation, a spiral Angeles wrote about the "four principles" in her book The Four-Fold Way. She articulates four directions of a wheel using these practices: 1) show up 2) pay attention to what has heart and meaning for you 3) speak your truth without blame or judgement 4) be open to the outcome. For her, the "four principles" are universal principles of detachment, and they ALL live within the fourth direction: be open to the outcome. We therefore can find other aspects of Open Space to correspond to the other three directions, and these include the invitation, the theme, the bulletin board, the marketplace of conversations... Michael and Chris have written about this. We can also relate the four principles to four directions, as in this thread, but notice that's another layer of the depths of Open Space! How would the above symbols relate to the four principles? enjoy! Jeff Aitken List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:12:31 +0200 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OSList] Visual Icons for the 4 Principles & 1 Law As a sidenote, I just want to point out that there is not one Medicine Wheel, but many, according to different tribes and different parts of the globe... When you use one, it would be good to name where 'your' wheel is coming from; as a way to honor the ancestors. My two cents on this beautiful Monday morning, Ria On 17/04/11 23:34, Catherine Pfaehler wrote: Dear Harold To my humble experience with the medicine wheel, this feels exactly right, it’s a grand idea. I hope Chris Corrigan feels called to answer, he works with the Native Americans a lot. The order of the principles is not so important to me. And the wheel doesn’t have to be explained following it in the circle either. You can go from one principle to the other (in Harrison’s order), jumping around in the wheel (in your order). One can find a direction per principle from different perspectives, thus placing the same principle in different possible directions without this being a mistake (this is only my opinion, perhaps there are more others who have a clear picture of which principle must go to which direction of the medicine wheel – up to you which idea you want to follow). Different tribes of Native Americans also have different explanations of the medicine wheel and of the colours they use for a direction. As to possible symbols – perhaps the Native Americans or other native people have found some already which they would like to share? What comes to my mind (following your order of the principles) is - North: draw some people, all going into the same direction? - East: a sunrise for action starting? - South: draw a smiley, and perhaps also a smiley who is crying? Depict some emotions, perhaps also a smiley who is afraid. Or a bolt of lightning? - West: a moon and stars for quietness settling in, uniting reflection with ending? What about “Be prepared to be surprised” – my favourite, as it is so wonderfully paradoxical – could this be written in letters, on the back? Or could you use a question mark and an explanation mark next to each other? Make sure you print enough (organic?) T-shirts and offer us an internationally fit mail order possibility which includes Europe, I’d love to have one! Heartfully, Catherine Catherine Pfaehler lic.oec.HSG Open Space Begleitung Burckhardtstrasse 2 CH - 3008 Bern Telefon +41-(0)31 - 536 05 31 Mobile +41-(0)76 - 488 15 46 [email protected] www.open-space-begleitung.ch Von: Harold Shinsato [mailto:[email protected]] Gesendet: Sonntag, 17. April 2011 18:43 An: [email protected] Betreff: [OSList] Visual Icons for the 4 Principles & 1 Law The conspirators for the Open Space Technology facilitated Missoula BarCamp put the 4 principles on the event t-shirt last year, and since this year we're holding it in a beautiful new building, the Native American Center on the Missoula campus of the University of Montana, the t-shirt idea the passionate/responsible person is pursuing is to use an aboriginal style iconography for the 4 principles and one law. (Maybe think cave drawings.) I know the visual icon for the one law is two feet. That's easy enough and perhaps that could be in the center of this t-shirt design. But what of the 4 principles? Any ideas? Whoever comes is the right people Whenever it starts is the right time Whatever happens is the only thing that could have When it's over it's over This might be a stretch - but what do people think about correspondences to the 4 directions of the Native American medicine wheel? The directions of sunrise and sunset clearly seem to correspond to start time and end time. I wonder if whoever comes could be north and whatever happens could be south? A quick google search turned up this image which summarizes the aspects of the medicine wheel (direction, element, color, principles): http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/chikiken/pic63.gif North -> Air, Animals, White, Receives Energy, Mental Aspect, Wisdom and Logic (Whoever Comes?) East -> Fire, Sun, Yellow, Determines Energy, Spiritual Aspect, Illumination and Enlightening (Whenever it starts?) South -> Water, Plants, Red, Gives Energy, Emotional Aspect, Trust and Innocence (Whatever Happens?) West -> Earth, Black, Holds Energy, Physical Aspect, Introspection and Insight (When its over?) Even the ordering seems to fit! Very curious as to folks thoughts - especially as to how the convey the principles through simple icons. -- Harold Shinsato [email protected] http://shinsato.com twitter: @hajush _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: [email protected] http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: [email protected] http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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