dance of the hawks

About five years ago, I met an interesting woman online. We lived across this continent from each other; so we never physically met, but for awhile we shared a friendship; then we lost touch. When I decided to write about the concept of soul mates, I wanted to start with the dance of the hawks which she had described to me in one of our conversations. Sometime after she and I no longer talked, I looked out across the creek and for myself watched two hawks perform the same spiralling dance. I already knew what it would look like as I had seen it in my soul.

The day she told me about the dance of the hawks and what she saw as its meaning (her words follow), I asked her permission to paint my interpretation of it. She said yes. The time was finally right. Thank you, my beautiful friend, for sharing your vision. I hope it drew to you that love for which you were searching.

"I went to the back field to smoke my pipe.
When I had just loaded it,
a hawk flew over my shoulder
swooped right down.
It was so close I felt the wind of its wings brush my cheek.
It flew up in a spruce tree that was about 20 feet in front of me.
There it joined another hawk.

And I prayed.
Creator, show me what a good relationship is for me...
that is what I was praying for...
I was so hurt and disillusioned...at the time.
Well the hawks ascended up in to the air
spiraling around each other and singing and dancing.

What that said to me was
a good relationship is one where
if they had flown too close together
their wings would have clipped each other,
and they would have crashed to the ground.
If they had flown too far apart
they would not have created the vortex
which helped them both soar.

They were singing and dancing
and each doing their own dance
and singing their own song--
together they created a vortex."

Anonymous

The pipe I painted here is my own from Pipestone, Minnesota, which is where red pipestone is found and pipes are still carved. The place has a good feeling to it because it is sacred space dedicated to peace. Since all of the tribes needed the stone, they would go there and not fight-- even if they were enemies away from there. To walk along the little creek, to see the red stone still on the walls, I could feel its good energy-- as I still do in the pipe I bought that day.

I have yet to smoke my pipe. A person should not use sacred symbols without understanding their meaning and doing it properly. In this case one of those understandings is that once you have smoked a pipe, you encase it in leather-- maybe for the same reasons I generally wrap my Tarot cards in black silk when I am not using them. I haven't yet made a case, but that time is coming.