Facing West
Facing West, 12x12, oil, © June Rollins
I intentionally painted the barn owl facing left, or west.
North, east, south, and west are the four cardinal directions. Cardinal is synonymous with pivotal, main, and essential. Every ancient culture used the four directions in some form or another. We still use them today. Savvy school teachers use the mnemonic, never eat soggy waffles, to impress their importance.
Symbolically, facing west is interpreted as turning from ignorance to wisdom. The Ojibwe medicine wheel identifies west as a time of introspection and looking within. West is also known as “little death.” Old beliefs are shed to take on new.
Whether we’re looking to the stars as our ancestors did, or down at our phones, the direction we’re traveling is as crucial now as it was then. Geographically and esoterically. Lewis Carroll knew this.
Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don’t much care where.”
The Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.”
Enjoying the journey,
June
