Blessings to the Seven Directions looks to sacred geometry and varying lineages of wisdom traditions that recognize both a horizontal and vertical structure of lived experience. The series consists of six works: East/Spring, South/Summer, West/Fall, North/Winter, Above, and Below. The design of each piece is structured around a Celtic infinity knot, a looped pattern that has no beginning and no end. The horizontal axis of existence is represented by the cardinal directions of east, south, west, and north, and the corresponding seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter. It refers to the temporal plane of life in which time is chronological and space is particular. The vertical axis is represented by the directions above and below. It refers to the eternal plane in which time and space are unbounded. (Above and Below are still in progress and are not currently pictured here). The human heart, situated at the intersection of the two axes, represents the seventh direction of center. Together with the viewer, these works constitute a symbolic sphere that embodies and blesses all dimensions and cycles of existence. 

The Circle
by Nancy Wood

All is a circle within me.
I am ten thousand winters old.
I am as young as a newborn flower.
I am a buffalo in its grave.
I am a tree in bloom.

All is a circle within me.
I have seen the world through an eagle’s eye.
I have seen it through a gopher’s hole.
I have seen the world on fire.
And the sky without a moon.

All is a circle within me.
I have gone into the world and out again.
I have gone to the edge of the sky.
Now all is at peace within me.
Now all has a place to come home.