SIGNS OF LIFE

The five shapes expressed in the artwork and poetry on the accompanying pages are symbols used worldwide in native cultures. Angeles Arrien, a cultural anthropologist, studied the origins of over 1,200 symbols so she could learn the consistencies of each symbols’ meaning cross-culturally. She discovered that five basic shapes appear in the art of all native cultures: the circle, the square, the triangle, the cross and the spiral.

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Arrien’s study confirmed that each culture gives similar meanings to the five shapes. In her book Signs of Life, Arrien states: “The circle symbolizes wholeness, the square indicates stability, the triangle represents goals and dreams, the cross stands for relationship and the spiral means growth.”