The story of the “Six Spiraling Feathers” Peace Sculpture by Sandy Erwin
Early Fall 2023 I had completed a commissioned carving of 2 feathers, a condor and eagle feather together, symbolizing a Native American saying “When the Eagle and Condor fly together there will be peace on earth”. The seed was planted.
One morning I woke up with the idea for this carving. My usual process on most carvings is to draw it on graph paper and then translate that to the log. I was not able to fully draw this one, so I made feather templates and taped them onto the log till it matched the concept in my head of spiraling, yet I also wanted to create the illusion of spiraling in and out. As I am a self-taught chainsaw carver (www.shecarvers.art), I still wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. So, I tell myself “let’s just see what happens” the fun begins and the sawdust flies.
The end result was what I had envisioned, and after carving I wrote about the symbolism and meaning that was coming to me while carving. Much of the symbolism and meaning reflects how I view, understand and make sense of the world. How I earn my living is as a Jin Shin Jyutsu Practitioner and Licensed Massage Therapist (www.statecollegemassage.com). Jin Shin Jyutsu translates as “The art of the creator through compassionate man.”
I sent pictures of the carving with brief description of meaning and symbolism to Consistory. The next time consistory met they voted to accept the Peace Pole carving, and to then leave the decision up to Trustees as to where to place it.
After carving the next step was to come up with the languages. The languages we originally suggested were: English, Spanish (our languages), A Native American (They were here first), Braille (If I can carve it), German ( because of Faith’s roots).
The final languages we had decided on, and also asked for feedback from Consistory on were: Native American (Lakota), Spanish, Swahili, German, Chinese, English. The goal was to choose six languages, that could be written with the English alphabet, and that would represent as many people all over the world.
Native American was chosen to honor the original peoples. Unfortunately, the language of the tribes who lived in this area, has been lost. Annette contacted John Sanchez (https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/people/individual/john-sanchez), who is our local Native American expert, for a translation.
MĪTAKUYÉ OYASIN It means we are all related! Usually said at the end of a prayer and is widely used by many tribes. Spanish was chosen to represent Annette’s native language as well as about 10% of the world. QUE LA PAZ PREVALEZCA EN LA TIERRA German was chosen to represent the roots of Faith UCC in particular. MÖGE FRIEDEN AUF ERDEN HERRSCHEN Swahili and Chinese were chosen as other languages that represent a large number of people from other continents. AMANI IDUMU DUNIANI YUÀN HÉPÍNG JIÀNGLÍN DÌQIÚ All translations of the above four languages are from https://peace-pole.com/clickable-translations/ English was chosen to represent my native language. MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH
Unfortunately, after all our research, I soon realized that I was not capable of carving the phrases as I envisioned. So, Annette and I explored the Rivet (https://therivet.org/), learned how to use some of their equipment, and came to the conclusion that we were still not going to be able to have the words the way we envisioned.
Then one day the end of February, while walking to my mailbox a pick-up truck stops in the road. The driver starts asking me about carvings in my yard, well long story short, he is a neighbor (Terry Barnes) who also does engraving. My ears perked up and I showed him the “Peace Pole”, he had ideas of ways we could add the words to the carving. (Divine intervention?)
Symbolism and Meaning (Artist Statement) of Carving
Feathers: Represent inherent virtue, power and wisdom. Native American culture sees them as a Spiritual agent of great Power. Christianity says the feather represents Faith, Hope and Charity. My idea then is that with the peace pole we are hoping to bring about a more peaceful world, to do that we need a Spiritual Agent of Great power; a Feather.
Six Feathers: Because six is the number that represents balance, discernment (something we hope all leaders utilize). Six is also a number to harmonize fears. And because of what feathers represent, inherent virtue, power, wisdom, faith, hope and charity.
The feathers are floating in a spiral: The spiraling represents how energy moves from source to us and from us to source. it spirals up and down also in and out. With each exhale energy spirals in and down, dense-ing from no-thingness to matter. With each Inhale energy spirals up and out as matter returns to no-thing. Imagine our exhale to be the Creators inhale, and our inhale to be the Creators exhale. Our Prayers of Peace with each Breath.The spiraling gives movement to the piece, inviting the viewer to walk around the sculpture, while praying for peace.
The center “pole”: Also has movement representing the fluid nature of life. It also has deep random areas carved within, inviting the viewer to look within, to go deeper. To Now Know Myself. To let Peace begin within.
The base of the carving: represents the individuality of all people, yet at our core (the center of the pole) we are all connected.
The various colorations of the wood is natural: and represents the various skin tones of the world.
The Red Leather with six languages: Leather is a natural material that compliments the wood, it is a skin representing our superficial layer to the world. Language is the superficial way we communicate; the deeper way is with the heart. The color red represents our sameness, under that skin we all bleed red, and have a red heart.
The Tacks used to attach the leather are small raised polished brass: representing the seeds of light from each prayer.