|
March 24, 2003
Hello,
Attached is the "Pagan Peace
Card" I made a couple of days ago. A few people have said
they enjoyed it. So I’m sending the final version out as you
probably received a work-in-progress.
First of all, here’s how I came
to "design" this card….
I find creative expression a way
that I deal with processing my feelings.
In the past week, while war was
breaking out I was painting greeting cards for a fundraiser at
the Unitarian Church of Vancouver and was also responsible for
opening and closing words for the "Ostara" (Spring
Equinox) worship service which was being put on by the Pagan
Group at my church.
Pagans (those who practise
"earth-centred spirituality"—our "sixth
source") honour the 4 directions of north, south, east and
west, often by "calling" in the directions at the
beginning of a ritual and "releasing" them (saying
"goodbye and thank you") at the end, and this was
indeed part of our service this past Sunday.
In fact, during this
intergenerational service that has been done for the past few
years, the children are led around the sanctuary to "wake
up" each direction in the person of someone dressed in the
colours and symbols associated with that direction.
The directions are associated
with certain colours, time of day, season, element and human
functions:
East—yellow, dawn, springtime,
air—is about intellect
South—red, noon, summertime,
fire—is about passion
West—blue, evening, autumn,
water—is about feelings
North—green, midnight, winter,
earth—is about the body and sensation
So, I had this idea about wishing
the world peace in all directions—north, south, east and west—and
also for our mind, spirit, emotions and bodies. The idea was of
making a greeting card that would have the peace sign repeated
four times and each coloured to correspond to the directions.
I tried it a couple of ways—but
it didn’t seem to "work", and then decided it worked
best as a "colouring book" style card--I.e. colour
your own—or "doodle art". My Art Education and DRE
background kicked in.
After a couple of tries, of
finding clip art and choosing a good "font", this is
what I came up with.
A number of people have sent me a
"thank you" saying they enjoyed the card, so I thought
I’d send the final version and the "instructions".
So, I’ve done my part. To use
the card, you just need to colour or paint and sign!
Colour it! Different traditions
use different colours, so if the colours I mentioned don’t
"fit" for you, you can dream up others.
Sign it! On the back of the card
is a place for the card-colourer to write or print their own
name (or draw their self-portrait!)
Please feel free to put your own
congregation name on in place of or addition to "Canadian
Unitarian Council".
If you use the card in your
program or congregation, I’d appreciate your letting me know.
Just because I’m curious of where it might turn up.
In peace,
Mary
Mary Bennett, Executive Director
Canadian Unitarian Council
executivedirector@cuc.ca
www.cuc.ca
|
