Awen Sculpture

This nature shrine was inspired by the Druid symbol “Awen.” Awen is a symbol made up of three lines with three dots on top. Much like the three sticks I have placed here, and the three flowers hovering above. In the Druid tradition, it is supposed to represent energy coming down from the sun. The sun is very sacred to the Druids. The Awen energy can be related to Qui, Chi, or Prana in other traditions. However, the difference is it is very much about creativity, and inspiration. Something is said to have “Awen” when it is a powerful or beautiful creative offering that flowed through the artist/ writer/ musician/ etc with ease and momentum. When that happens, we say the “Awen” is flowing! When someone speaks an inspiring truth beautifully we say “Awen!” I speak a lot about symbolism throughout this blog. Also the similarities of symbols found throughout different traditions. Letters are symbols too! I find it interesting that if we simply took the “w” in Awen and flipped it upside down it would become an “m,” making the word “Amen,” the ending of prayers in Christianity.

I was inspired by the negative space created in this spot in the stone wall, where a rock had been removed. It was calling for some three dimensional intervention.

As most if us already know, the number three is a sacred number in many cultures. One of the places we see the number three equated with the highest spirituality is in Christianity; The Holy Trinity. Currently the Holy Trinity is known as; The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost. While “The Holy Ghost” is often believed to be the feminine aspect of creation, this version of the trinity is still decidedly lacking in female presence. I find this to be disappointing and unbalanced. I had written a poem on this topic awhile back, and would like to share it here.

“Our Father who art in Heaven…”

But what of our Mother here on the ground?

Beneath the deep roots we sprung from.

What of our Mother; This great land,

This vast sea, from which all life emerged?

Who works endlessly to nurture, to provide for,

To protect our fragile, tender bodies?

This culture, this society, has lost its way.

It has lost its groundedness, and

Therefore its sanity.

Spiraling upward and outward with barely a hold on its roots,

Barley a toe on the ground,

Barley a loosening grip on reality.

Chaos, violence, disrespect for the sacred;

We muddle through the dark, ever expanding skies,

lost, confused.

Always grappling with something higher,

Something just out of our reach.

Maybe the answers we seek lie right here with us?

Within Her,

Within the cellular memory of our own anemic blood.

What if Enlightenment was found in biting into a perfectly ripe fruit?

What if Holiness is quenching ones thirst with cold, clean water?

What if truth and passion dwell in the fires of our hearths?

What if our freedom simply lives in the wind that embraces our face, spilling our hair outward in all directions?

Spirit? Yes! We have not lost the Holy Ghost.

We must “have faith,” But faith in what?

We have lost our faith in the land.

Pouring all our hopes into the unattainable.

Renouncing our bodies as sinful cages of our spirits.

Renouncing our home a dispensable object,

A prison to be freed from to “rise above.”

To what End?

The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost;

Who kicked the Mother out of the Holy Trinity?

Who booted Eve from the Garden?

And I ask you;

Was that a wise decision?