Exotica Botanica

Last Saturday we went to Seattle again for Saturday University at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The talk was called "Circling the Center: Pilgrimage in the Tibetan Cultural World." We took with us Pratistha and Shweta, friends from Kathmandu. Pratistha and Shweta are both Buddhist and the day was also Pratistha's birthday. Our friend Pam joined us as well. We all learned so much at the lecture and then went back to the house of P and S to have amazing Nepali food and do puja for Pratistha's birthday.

We enjoyed the talk tremendously. And plan to go again tomorrow (Saturday). The museum is in the same park as the Conservatory, so we couldn't resist going in and getting a tropical blast of warmth and flowers.

Small Decisions That Changed Everything

Each New Year's Day I can't help but think of Florence. Her and her family brought so much into my life, and into the lives of many. These flowers were scattered new year's day into the Gulf of Mexico in the same place Florence and her husband's ashes were tossed. It's a ritual her daughters and son-in-laws, and once myself, perform each year about this time. I feel so honored to have been included.

For 25 years, along with whatever else I was doing, I did end-of-life care for over 30 people in Seattle and on Vashon Island. Florence was my last hospice client. I almost didn't take the job. It seemed very short term and not many hours. At least at first. I ended up caring for Florence for 7 1/2 years. And she took care of me, too. She showered me with love. You never know when you take on a job what it will bring, and this job was one of those that at the beginning I could have had no idea what gifts would be opened up. And they keep opening.

Every day of ours lives is like that. Last night at a friend's for New Year's Eve, Kevin asked each one of us to share a decision we had made in the last year and what that decision meant for us. It was amazing to hear what people shared. And today as the new year begins I have been reflecting on some of the smallest decisions I have made and what results they have brought. They are like Russian dolls, but beginning with the smallest, the result of the decision gets bigger and bigger as the ramifications unfold.

Of course one of them was the decision to go to a Peruvian mysticism community outreach meeting on a day when I was sick and and at a time when I didn't travel off Vashon Island very much. That was where I met Bill. Two months later I realized I was in love, and three months after that we were married. As cliche as it sounds, the day we married was the happiest day of my life to date, though truly, I have had so many days with Bill that have been nearly as equal. This was three and a half years ago, and I think of it as the beginning of my life.

This reminds of a day in January in 1984, I was 23 years old. A friend asked me to take a tai chi class with her so she wouldn't have to go alone. I didn't know anything about tai chi, but decided I would go and try it. The teacher talked about her recent trip to China as part of a group tour. At the end of the first class I turned to my friend and told her I was going to China. To put this in perspective, I had never travelled outside the country, I didn't have a passport, and I didn't know China was "closed," though it opened to individual traveller's that year. I just felt compelled, like a force beyond myself was guiding me, and I had no choice at that point. A year and half later, I was there. I loved it! I spent 3 months travelling around with a woman friend, Connie, who asked to join me just before I was to leave.

We went to lots of wonderful places in China.

Saw amazing things.

We met wonderful people everywhere.

We were invited in for tea, a meal, a party, an english lesson. Rarely did anyone speak english, and we knew no Chinese.

We ate great food, all the time.

And we stayed in some charming places.

Because of Connie, we went to Tibet, and again, because of Connie (more adventurous than I) we went to Nepal. But there in Tibet I met Narayan, a Nepali mountain climber who would also change my life. Once in Kathmandu, he took charge of my sightseeing and even took me trekking.

Narayan died just a few years later in an avalanche on Mt. Everest. His death brought me closer to these good friends of his who would become family, bringing so much love and joy into my life.

My Nepali "sister" Lalita holding her son Bijay, me with their daughter Rashmi in front, and Lalita's husband Hom in 1985. They would go on to have two more children, twin boys.

Rashmi is grown and married with a little girl of her own, Aleya.

Her brother Bijay is married as well, and they have a son, Arush.

I would return to Asia soon to live in Japan, but that is another story for another time.

Only as I write these two "small decision events" right now am I realizing they both have a spiritual beginning.

And that leads me to one last realization about a small decision. It was the decision to take an astrology class that inspired me to finally sit down and read Julia Brayshaw's beautiful book: "Medicine of Place." I realized then that Julia, who was joining my astrology class, was an avid sacred geometer, as am I. We got together for soup and sharing and our Sacred Geometry Study Group was soon born, and grew fast! This has been such a gift for me. As well as pushing me to deepen my spiritual studies through geometry, it has brought me into circle with some of the most wonderful people in Olympia. They have become important friends that feed my heart.

The marriage of five and six. Inspired by John Michell's book: "How the World is Made: The Story of Creation According to Geometry.

I wonder what I am doing now, or have done recently, that will be one of these great unfoldings of wonder. I can tell you I called an old friend, Kim, from high school the other day. We don't talk or see each other often, sometimes years go by. Late in the conversation I told Kim I was reading the "Bagavad Gita" and really getting so much out of it. She told me she tried to take a class in that when we were freshmen in college, but it was too hard. She told be she was reading "Autobiography of a Yogi." Bill had traded for that book last summer and I have been wanting to read it. But there is always so much to read. Kim said she was a little bogged down in the book and I suggested I read it too so we could talk about it and help each other along. Well, in three days I am over half way through book. And I am already wondering, is this "small" decision to read this book going to change my life?

(One of Bill's drawings from a group geometry night.)

Sacred Geometry

This set of geometry drawings shows 3 "seeds of life" on the side - one of each done by Bill, myself, and our friend Don (top from bottom). Don was inspired to overlay the three for this beautiful collaboration.

Every two weeks on a Sunday evening my sweetie Bill and I gather with a group of interesting people to "do" sacred geometry. I am often asked "what is sacred geometry?" and I am often told "I'm in to sacred geometry!" What I have learned over the years is that sacred geometry means a lot of different things to people. So everything I say here is my own experience and understanding only.

Bill studied cosmic mandalas till he learned their geometry. He then taught us to draw them at geometry group one night. All our drawing is done with a compass, straight edge and pencil. And then the coloring!

Cosmic Mandala for sale in Kathmandu market, Nepal.

Bill teaches our granddaughter McKayla to draw a simple form: "the seed of life.".

From Josh's sketch pad: "the flower of life."

Tiling detail on a temple in China.

As I have stated before, I got interested in sacred geometry through plants. It is often easy to see their geometry. I was amazed to learn things about the different spirals and how they grow. And then I started learning about square roots. Wow! I was venturing beyond the plant kingdom into the realm of energy and how it forms into matter (or not). It has been so fascinating.








Printed on a "golden" proportion rectangle of blue paper.

Many of us learn about using sacred proportions like the golden mean for art and design. And this has been a part of my application of the teaching. But I have to say one of the best parts is training your eye and mind to recognize patterns in nature and understand the energy/physics behind them.



There is a very spiritual side to sacred geometry. I have barely scratched the surface of this in my years of study and hesitate to say very much. But here is an idea of what I mean. In Nepal and Tibet there are temples of stacked shapes. If you grew up there you might learn that each shape as it rises from the ground represents water, earth, air, fire, and wisdom/ether and represent stages of enlightenment. The round base also symbolizes the entire world and the mark between the eyes in said by some to mean unity. In Islamic cultures geometric patterns and exquisite calligraphy tell their story. I am learning that islamic tiling patterns hold meaning that teach and inform you as you spend time with them. In Europe, as the churches and temples were being built by those knowledgeable of sacred geometry, some amazing places were created that awe and inspire those whose step inside.

A temple in Tibet

The geometry of a Vietnam War cemetary in the Philippines.

An experimental farming basin built by the Inca, Peru.

A temple in Hong Kong.

Fields of grain, China.

A temple in Patan, Nepal.

(You may have guessed from the pattern - this photo is of the doorway as you step into a great pizza place in Olympia - Old School Pizza.)

In Oakland, California.

The purpose for building in sacred shape and proportion is so a person may wander in, knowing nothing, and be informed through the energy of the geometric construction that was shaped to hold the knowledge and teaching. Of course if you were a mason or like-minded person you could perhaps walk in and take in the teaching on a different level - knowing what the builders were conveying more specificly. Our bodies and spirits are made of energy and there is a resonance that can happen. We all experience this when we walk into a place that is holy to us (be it church, temple, forest or meadow) and we can be moved to tears, hope, joy, and healing. Sometimes the geometry is used because it is beautiful or practical. But it is the element of transformation that defines the sacred, and the sacred creates the possibility of tranformation.


My interest in sacred geometry is very wide, and my application still growing. I am learning all the things I can do with it. And what does it mean to "do" sacred geometry in our group? It can mean anything! We study nature's shapes, we draw geometric designs, we use it for personal growth and understanding, we talk philosphy, astrology, numerology, and even about what sacred geometry means. We have made different sized golden mean calipers and so much more.

Seven is one of my favorite things to study. It's all about mystery. It's angle is an infinite number, and therefore impossible to draw/create precisely. It has magical mathematical principles. Seven is usually the geometry of medicinal/poisonous plants. And seven goes on and on. This drawing is from my sketch book.

So this posting is primarily a show of pictures taken mostly by myself, a few by Bill, and a few by my step-son Josh - showing many of the ways geometry appears in nature and in human designed projects. I hope you enjoy them!

A mandala of Josh's (it wouldn't all fit on the scanner).