From the Artist - Colleen Gorman:
(Description provided in a clockwise motion)
Spiderwoman String Theory
Spiderwoman is at the threshold outreaching to the Universe and casts a web of Time. Eagle plume is an ancient symbol of faith. Dimensions going into different dimensions make webs of reality.
Time is an Entity.
Sandpainting outline design on 2018 March Universe Study. The fabric of Time and Space cast. The Milky Way is a Tree of Life. Milky Way makes life, which comes through to every individual’s umbilical cord. The eye of the world. Starts at the Crossroads (House of the Rising Sun, Chaco-The Sun Road). The Crossroads- East to West is the path of the Sun; North to South is the path of the Milky Way. Symbolic of the cross that’s existed since the beginning of Time; the one that has nothing to do with crucifying, but rather Life.
Mother Earth in a Sphere
Nahasdzáán. Located below Yadilhilth/ Father Sky.
Shiprock at night. A doorway to the Sky.
A path to Pleiades.
Knowledge Glyphs
Linear Dimension View: Going up 13 Heaven Cycles and down Nine Hell Cycles. European imposition of western world values imposed on an indigenous concept; revealed through Roman numeral numbering system.
Indigenous View: Indigenous Age of Reasoning/Enlightenment. Indigenous age of ignorance. A cycle of time.
Top Glyph: First Heaven Cycle. The dual god, feminine and masculine, everything that comes together. Next Heaven Cycle starts November 2038 (1 Reed). Messiah figure for Southwest area arrives in 1207 as I-itoi in southern Arizona. The current 260-year Messiah cycle is as follows- 687 A.D. is Pacal in Palenque + 260 years=947 for Kukulakan/Quetzalcoatl in Chichen Iztza. + 260 years= 1207 I-itoi Hohokam/Anasazi + 260 years = 1467 Montezuma Mexica/Aztec + 260 years= 1727 Handsome Lake/Iroquois.
Center Glyph: 13th 52-year Heaven Cycle / 1st 52-year Cycle of the Underworld. Time Duality. Represents last Heaven Cycle (1492 marked on Sacred Calendar in this cycle), and first Hell Cycle (this cycle begins in November 1518).
Bottom glyph: 9th Hell Cycle. Started November 13, 1986. New Fire Ceremony. Indigenous New Year. Pleaides directly overhead at midnight. As above so below. Venus travels through the underworld for 8 days. Rising of Venus as the Morning Star Twin at Sunrise while Pleaides sets.
13 52-Year Heaven Cycles/Hell Cycles
Earth’s year count cycles. Each 52-year cycle starts at 1 Reed. Extrapolated from the 260 Day Sacred Calendar starting at 1 Reed and using the pattern 5 to the right and 5 down to move through time by one solar year (364 days). Leap days (unnamed days) accounted for at the end of the 52-year cycle. New Fire ceremony marks beginning of each cycle. Gregorian leap year/day approach- 1/4 day x 4 years = 1 day/4 years. Indigenous approach- 1/4 day x 52 years = 13 days/52 years. Heaven cycles/Indigenous Age of Reasoning/Enlightenment denoted in left hand framed calendar. Hell cycles/ Indigenous Age of Ignorance/Dark Ages denoted on right hand framed calendar. 1492 correlates to 2012.
260 Day Sacred Calendar
Based on 13 and twenty. Move through time one day at a time by moving down one cell at a time. At bottom of column move up to top of next column. Repeat until reach end of calendar. Restart cycle at beginning. To move through time in twenty day increments, move to right by one cell. 260 days used to plan human from conception and birth. Cylindrical viewing (folding calendar on paper into a tube-cylinder shape) allows one to view time as a spiral. Cylindrical viewing of calendar on transparent paper allows for 3-D viewing of time as a double helix.
Zia Symbol
Solar year division painted into four equal parts to indicate 91 days per season. Zia symbol an ancient scientific calculator. Can be used to calculate scientific equations, such as the Indigenous golden mean ratio, Tetrahedron and indigenous pi based on 13 rather than 12.
About Colleen Gorman:
Colleen Gorman is Diné from Chinle, AZ, and now living in Albuquerque, NM. She is a mother, a teacher and a founder of the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School. She also volunteers for Quote Unquote, Inc. as board president. Some of the knowledge for the Indigenous Time concept is sourced from Roger Cultee, Quinault, executive director of the Indigenous Research Center. Visit the Indigenous Research Center Facebook page for more information about applications of Sacred Calendar systems and Sacred Geometry.
Mural Assistants included Jeremy Charley, Kim Close, Tachii’nii Gorman and Ann-erika Whitebird.