Dreamdance - The Elders

 Dreamdance Oracle: The Elders

Size: 9x13 inches

Medium: Watercolors

For prints and detail closeup views: -click here-

Based on Native American fancydance.  

Satyros Phil Brucato writes about this card:

It’s a timeless dance: the circle of youth, maturity and age. Within it, we Dance our lives, surrounded by an audience of kindred spirits, loved ones and strangers. Ideally, the Elders among us – including, someday, the Elders we are or will become – show their vitality and uphold the traditions that keep us strong. From those Elders, tokens of wisdom and experience fall. Will those legacies be trampled in the dirt beneath careless feet, or saved and passed on to future generations? Will younger people even want those legacies, or will the Elders’ Dance be lost in the shifting dust? It’s our place to decide what is salvaged and what is lost. 

In the various powwow fancy-dances, salvaged traditions get dressed in bright colors, combined into new and vibrant forms, and then displayed in vigorous displays of spiritual fun. Old and new elements blend into spectacular forms of restorative art. Both Dancers and Audience, however, must remain mindful of the steps and their traditional importance. In a moment’s ecstasy, it’s easy to lose sight of important things and have them snatched up, ignored or destroyed. If and when you join the Elder Dance, be careful not to lose sight of precious things, scatter them, or hoard them for yourself. Age grants perspective, but that perspective does not always involve wisdom.

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Some of the sketches that led to this painting: