FIBERLOK MOUSERUG, CIRCLE OF LIFE



The Circle of Life is never ending. It is the message of the elders - the Chosen Ones- give to their sons and daughters, to their children and their children's children to the Seventh Generation.

The Elders give spiritual direction, the wisdom of thousands of years flow through their lips. They ask only the chance to pass on to others the way of life and love for the Creator.

The Sun is round, so are the Moon and the Stars. They travel in a cricle throughout the Universe. In fact, most creations in the Universe are circular. Everything depends on everything else and is called the Circle of Life.

The Circle of Life robe was designed to honor all the elders and their responsibility to teach that all things are interrelated and an equal part of the whole.

"We are like drops of rain which will one day return to the ocean."

The Elders know they themselves are here as a Seventh Generation and their way of life has been preserved because of the foresight of the previous generation.

"Life is like a path and we all have to walk the path. If we lay down, we lay on the path. When we get up, we walk the path again."

The Circle of Life teaches us we are all children of the Earth, that we all share an equal place in the circle, that when mixed together, the four sacred colors of yellow, red, black and white - which represents the four Directions or race of Man - create brown, the color of Mother Earth.

"When we walk upon Mother Earth we always walk softly because we know the faces of the future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground."

This robe honoring the Elders speaks of universal understandings. The east represents the Sun and is yellow, the south represents the warmth and vitality of life-blood and is red, the west represents darkness in the night sky and stars and is black and the north represents the purity of snow and is white.

Each of the Four Directions represents a stage in life; east symbolizes birth, south, the vitality of youth, west, the maturity of experience and north, the wisdom age.

"True wisdom comes when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you."

The borders are based on designs found on ceremonial pipes called puzzle pieces. The cross reinforces the Four Directions and represents the four quarters of the world and universe.

"When we light the Pipe we talk to the Four Directions. It is the link between the Earth and Sky."

The Circle of Life exemplifies a world of dissimilar things coming together to form a harmonious beautiful pattern to the Elders who have kept these concepts alive for many generations.

"The Creator created the Earth, our Mother Earth, and gave her many duties; among them to care for us, His people. So let us put our minds together as One, and give thanks. May the World we leave be a better one than what was left for us."