Spiral - July 2012 Bead Journal Project

Each of my rune stones are intended to represent a force, for July, I chose to represent spirituality with a natural spiral - a snail shell.

The spiral has found its way into the art of almost all cultures, from ancient primitive rock carvings on all continents to today's corporate logos. They show up in Celtic art, native American petroglyphs, Nazca earthworks, Arabic architecture, Japanese rock gardens, Hindu spiritual texts, Australian aboriginal paintings and African art. Surprisingly, no religious or political group has claimed exclusive rights to the spiral. It remains non-sectarian, the spiral  seems to belong to everyone and excludes no one.

In terms of spirituality, the spiral symbol can represent the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness).

The snail shell was found in a walk in the woods; we find many especially in the spring. the shell required a quite deep bezel to secure it and I echoed that depth in the surrounding roadwork, giving the overall piece a great deal of texture and dimension.

Some consider the spiral a symbol of the spiritual journey. It is also considered to represent the evolutionary process of learning and growing. It seems that life doesn't proceed in a straight line. The path of life more closely resemble a spiral. We seem to pass the same point over and over again but from a different perspective each time, always moving from our center, but yet still connected .