[OSList] Visual Icons for the 4 Principles & 1 Law
Jeff Aitken
magic.teams at hotmail.com
Mon Apr 18 09:25:45 PDT 2011
Here is an edit to one part of my recent post:
One version of an "open space medicine wheel" has the four directions of leadership, vision, (self organizing) community, and (self managing) action, plus the transformational dynamic of repeatedly moving around the four directions. The symbols could be:For leadership, a triangleFor vision, a circleFor community, a squareFor management, a crossFor transformation, a spiral
blessingsJeff Aitken
From: magic.teams at hotmail.com
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:03:15 -0700
Subject: Re: [OSList] Visual Icons for the 4 Principles & 1 Law
There is also a wonderful Jewish medicine wheel, described by Rabbi Gershon Winkler in his book "the magic of the ordinary". Because different indigenous medicine wheels have been developed with specific focus on a specific ecosystem, there is going to be a lot of variation! The Hebrew wheel uses the "four winds" which later became known as the four archangels: Gabriel, Uriel, Rafael, and Michael.
Regarding visual icons, I like to suggest five universal symbols as described by Angeles Arrien. While these interpretations of the symbols are not the same as hers, I think they work well.
One version of an "open space medicine wheel" has the four directions of leadership, community, (self organizing) structure, and (self managing) action, plus the transformational dynamic of repeatedly moving around the four directions. The symbols could be:
For leadership, a triangleFor community, a circleFor structure, a squareFor management, a crossFor transformation, a spiral
Angeles wrote about the "four principles" in her book The Four-Fold Way. She articulates four directions of a wheel using these practices: 1) show up 2) pay attention to what has heart and meaning for you 3) speak your truth without blame or judgement 4) be open to the outcome.
For her, the "four principles" are universal principles of detachment, and they ALL live within the fourth direction: be open to the outcome. We therefore can find other aspects of Open Space to correspond to the other three directions, and these include the invitation, the theme, the bulletin board, the marketplace of conversations... Michael and Chris have written about this.
We can also relate the four principles to four directions, as in this thread, but notice that's another layer of the depths of Open Space! How would the above symbols relate to the four principles?
enjoy!
Jeff Aitken
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:12:31 +0200
From: ria.baeck at vitis-tct.be
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: Re: [OSList] Visual Icons for the 4 Principles & 1 Law
As a sidenote, I just want to point out that there is not one
Medicine Wheel, but many, according to different tribes and
different parts of the globe...
When you use one, it would be good to name where 'your' wheel is
coming from; as a way to honor the ancestors.
My two cents on this beautiful Monday morning,
Ria
On 17/04/11 23:34, Catherine Pfaehler wrote:
Dear Harold
To my humble
experience
with the medicine wheel, this feels exactly right,
it’s a grand idea.
I hope Chris
Corrigan
feels called to answer, he works with the Native
Americans a lot.
The order of the
principles is not so important to me. And the wheel
doesn’t have to be
explained following it in the circle either. You can
go from one principle to
the other (in Harrison’s
order), jumping
around in the wheel (in your order). One can find a
direction per principle from
different perspectives, thus placing the same
principle in different possible directions
without this being a mistake (this is only my opinion,
perhaps there are more others
who have a clear picture of which principle must go to
which direction of the
medicine wheel – up to you which idea you want to
follow). Different
tribes of Native Americans also have different
explanations of the medicine
wheel and of the colours they use for a direction.
As to possible
symbols
– perhaps the Native Americans or other native people
have found some
already which they would like to share? What comes to
my mind (following your
order of the principles) is
-
North: draw some people, all going
into the same direction?
-
East: a sunrise for action
starting?
-
South: draw a smiley, and perhaps
also a smiley who is crying? Depict
some emotions, perhaps also a smiley who is afraid. Or
a bolt of lightning?
-
West: a moon and stars for
quietness settling in, uniting
reflection with ending?
What about “Be
prepared to be surprised” – my favourite, as it is so
wonderfully
paradoxical – could this be written in letters, on the
back? Or could you
use a question mark and an explanation mark next to
each other?
Make sure you print
enough (organic?) T-shirts and offer us an
internationally fit mail order
possibility which includes Europe,
I’d
love to have one!
Heartfully,
Catherine
Catherine
Pfaehler
lic.oec.HSG
Open Space
Begleitung
Burckhardtstrasse
2
CH - 3008 Bern
Telefon
+41-(0)31 - 536 05 31
Mobile
+41-(0)76 - 488 15 46
c.pfaehler at open-space-begleitung.ch
www.open-space-begleitung.ch
Von: Harold Shinsato [mailto:harold at shinsato.com]
Gesendet:
Sonntag, 17. April 2011 18:43
An:
oslist at openspacetech.org
Betreff:
[OSList] Visual Icons for
the 4 Principles & 1 Law
The
conspirators for the Open Space Technology facilitated
Missoula BarCamp put the
4 principles on the event t-shirt last year, and since
this year we're holding
it in a beautiful new building, the Native American
Center on the Missoula
campus of the University of Montana, the t-shirt idea
the
passionate/responsible person is pursuing is to use an
aboriginal style
iconography for the 4 principles and one law. (Maybe
think cave drawings.)
I know the visual icon for the one law is two feet.
That's easy enough and
perhaps that could be in the center of this t-shirt
design. But what of the 4
principles? Any ideas?
Whoever comes is the right people
Whenever it starts is the right time
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
When it's over it's over
This might be a stretch - but what do people think
about correspondences to the
4 directions of the Native American medicine wheel?
The directions of
sunrise and sunset clearly seem to correspond to start
time and end time. I
wonder if whoever comes could be north and whatever
happens could be south?
A quick google search turned up this image which
summarizes the aspects of the
medicine wheel (direction, element, color,
principles):
http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/chikiken/pic63.gif
North -> Air, Animals, White, Receives Energy, Mental
Aspect, Wisdom and
Logic (Whoever Comes?)
East -> Fire, Sun, Yellow, Determines Energy,
Spiritual Aspect, Illumination
and Enlightening (Whenever it starts?)
South -> Water, Plants, Red, Gives Energy, Emotional
Aspect, Trust and
Innocence (Whatever Happens?)
West -> Earth, Black, Holds Energy, Physical Aspect,
Introspection and
Insight (When its over?)
Even the ordering seems to fit!
Very curious as to folks thoughts - especially as to how
the convey the
principles through simple icons.
--
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush
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