Art as Spiritual Compass
Isn't it aggravating when you use GPS, and it says to “head North”? Chances are that this happens when I already don’t know where exactly I’m headed. I’m fully dependent on this digital device’s sense of direction—so how do I know which way is North? Should I open the compass app? How often can we determine the direction we are traveling without consulting another app or a landmark? Our inability to locate ourselves is an understandable result of our techy world. However, it also communicates a more significant disconnect between our physical and spiritual lives, and the missing link seems explicitly grounded in nature.
Now I love modern amenities as much as the next girl, but I think we can also be more aware of how they cut us off from the natural world, each other, and our intuitive ways of knowing. If you are familiar with me or my works, it is probably no surprise that I embed deep spiritual themes and healing in the art I create, especially in thinking about the intuitive resonances between embodiment and the elements.
Tidal Pools
This four-work series meditating on the cardinal directions is no different. These explore the spiritual resonances of the directions and elements through quiet, contemplative abstraction. These works embody my curiosity around the pull of the cardinal directions as well as a longing for a more embodied understanding of the energetic and spatial relationships within the natural world.
All of our ancestors relied on relationships with the natural world for survival at some point in history. Directional knowledge was literally survival. From the sustenance found via foraging, farming, fishing, or hunting, directions held functional significance for both the individual and the collective good. And the spiritual significance of the directions and their relationship to the landscape of earth and sky has held meaning across time and cultures. The importance of the directions varies from culture to culture, as do their names and meanings, but they universally have been a tool of grounding in place, space, and meaning.
Navigating the Tides
It is important to note that while direction seems fixed, it is also highly mutable. Depending entirely on relation to other objects and places, direction as a spiritual tool— like so many others — is what you make it. I am sharing my meditations on the Western understanding of cardinal directions, but I encourage you to explore what the directions mean to you.
Abstract Art
as a
Meditation on Direction
North
home
embodiment
abundance
inspiration
EaRth
North is good for grounding and connection to the feeling of home. Like the North Star guiding navigators on land and sea, the North is the direction of being; it isn't about building or shaping but full embodiment, rootedness—in that way, it seems only natural that earth is North's elemental companion.
Being from the United States, a piece of our nation’s history is inextricable from our understanding of what the North embodies symbolically: The vision enslaved Black Americans had of the North was as a signifier of freedom. Following the North Star through the wilderness was risky, but promised the possibility of escape from oppression and inhuman cruelty. The North symbolized a chance at a new life, agency, personhood for those whose right to home, family, and secure grounding had been stripped away. Sadly, the geographic North did not always live up to this promise. Moreover, the legacy of that period of US history remains structurally embedded in our social, political, and economic systems to this day. Still, the metaphorical power of that hope is an essential embodiment of what the North and earth energy represent to me.
South
energy
passion
creativity
motivation
expansion
FIre
The South and fire are all about the metaphorical heat and sparks. Geographically speaking, for those in the Northern Hemisphere, the South is associated with warmer temperatures, making fire an apparent elemental association to the South. The heat we feel in our muscles from movement, the sparks of creativity that turn into blazes of passion, the drivers of expansion and motivation are all elements of the South. Fire is a powerful agent of alchemy, transmutation, and change.
As we have learned in the aftermath of volcanic eruptions and forest fires…
from fire’s destruction comes
the richest and most fertile soil
for new growth.
As we have learned in the aftermath of volcanic eruptions and forest fires, from fire’s destruction comes the richest and most fertile soil for new growth.
East
expression
communication
growth
mindfulness
security
Air
The East is the direction of air and all things mental and related to communication or acts of expression. The things that push you to express may belong to the South (creativity) or the West (intuition), but the act of speaking or writing or otherwise giving movement to your thoughts is rooted in the East.
The sun also comes to mind when thinking of the East, and while the sun may seem like a more fitting metaphor for fire, it very much represents the themes of the East. Of course, the sun's rise each day contributes to this connection, but more importantly, it is about the promise of its continual (re)birth—consistency and security—a reminder that light always comes after darkness.
At the same time, the sharing of the sun’s rays shows the spreading of ideas and inspiration.
The sun’s illumination is a metaphor for understanding—how our inner knowing moves into the light, a dawning manifestation of the unspoken intuition.
West
emotion
intuition
grace
protection
healing
wAter
The West is is associated with the water element and the flowing of emotion and intuition. It also is a space of grace, protection, and healing. The West is where you turn to allow your sacred knowing to flow. The sun also has a relationship to the West because this is where it finds it's ending each day. In this way, we can see the West's tie to intuition. Because while the sun may have just risen, we intuitively know that it will travel to the West where we can no longer see it. The subsequent darkness of night asks us to see without our eyes and travel in the sureness of divine protection, which provides healing and forces us to exert grace with ourselves and others.
An Invitation to Place
If you are looking for meditation on what the directions mean for you, try thinking about a meaningful place: your home, your community, your room—what do these spaces hold to the north, south, east, and west of them?
Is the ocean to the south of your town? Maybe South for you is related to water. Is the library to the north of your house, maybe North is about expansion and knowledge for you? Even if you don't use these ideas in any spiritual practice, it can be helpful to place yourself this way and ground yourself in an understanding of where you live your life.
