Our Symbol for Duality

You can find this symbol in much of our work, interpreted in many different ways. (The symbols below are from photos of our embroidered belts.)

Duality and complementarity are an important underpinning of our worldview. We believe the universe is made up of reciprocal movements, always dual and complementary: darkness-light, formation-disintegration, heat-cold, birth-death, humidity-dryness, day-night. Duality expresses sets of two with different but complementary qualities. Our lives should also express this harmony with the cyclical cosmic movements. Through Mother Earth we construct our lives within this movement. We nourish ourselves with the strength and energy of Father Sun and recuperate our vitality each night in the presence of Grandmother Moon.

Of course, our reality isn't always this peaceful, but it is something we can reflect on to keep ourselves centered.

Learning the meaning of our Maya symbols

We invited Eli, a Maya spiritual guide, to explain to us the meaning of the symbols that we weave into our work. Of course, that is a subject for more than one talk, but he began by explaining that our ancestors wove the symbols into their cloth as a way of communicating. They were communicating their understanding about mathematics, the physical world, time, space, colors, different designs, and cosmic messages. They had a written language, too, but it was very difficult and only very learned people could read and write. But in those days, everyone could understand the meanings of the symbols woven into the cloth.

Besides everyday clothing, our ancestors wove ceremonial clothing and many other different cloths for many different purposes. (Maybe you would like to know more about that one day?) Many, though not all, of these cloths are still being woven today. We are pleased to learn about the meanings of these symbols, it is a way of reclaiming some of our identity that has been lost over the past 500 years.

Holiday Selling

We didn´t have any extra minutes last week to update our blog, we were busy participating in different local holiday selling events.

We were very pleased – our new red aprons and all of our shawls were very popular.

The photo below was taken before the beginning of the annual Alternative Gift Fair organized by Morristown’s Unitarian Fellowship. It is always a great event for us, we are grateful for their support. This was our fourth year participating, and it really is gratifying when repeat customers return and tell us how happy they are with their towels or aprons or whatever, and want to know what is new this year…and then make their purchase!

PS That is Caryn modeling our new red aprons.