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For the past couple of years, I’ve been really interested in mandalas, and I’m intrigued by Jung’s work on mandalas and other symbols. A separate path (or so it seemed) lead me to permaculture, and through that I’ve just started to scratch the surface of an long-standing interest in Native American and other cultures (Mongolia!) which live or lived a life that was fully integrated in the nature around them.

I was thinking about our little “urban homestead”, and wanted a symbol for it. I thought about totem poles, but I was uneasy with adopting a symbolism that seemed so far removed from my ancestry. I’ve thought about my own heritage before…what in my life has been handed down from the German and the Swiss? Steve has some German heritage also, and I remembered the hex signs (or “barn stars”) of the Pennsylvania Dutch. From Wikipedia:

Painting or mounting “hexing signs” dates back to the pre-Christian era in Europe, when symbols and designs derived from or pertaining to the runes first appeared on buildings to invoke magical powers, either to hex or bring about good fortune. Over time, the practice took on several new meanings, especially as the number of those recognizing the old Germanic pagan religions declined; for some, the practice came to be about art and tradition; for others, the sign-creating was less-ritualistic, but still about “good luck”, especially for those concerned with good fortune in crop cultivation.

As it turns out, the modern symbology of the barn hex is pretty well established. And I realized that a barn hex was really a mandala. Click.

If you’re the kind of person who digs this kind of thing, I strongly encourage you to find a partner who’s a great artist. Steve took the idea and ran with it:

Here’s a closeup, before we cut it out:

And here’s the symbology of our barn hex:

• Blue: Protection, peace, calm, spirituality

• Brown: Earth, nature
• Yellow: Health, sun
• White: Purity, power of the Moon, energy
• Water Drop: Water, fertility, abundance
• Oak: Long life, strength, endurance

You might also recognize that this is the perfect collection of symbols for a homestead next to a water-and-Valley-Oak-filled Laguna de Santa Rosa.

Life is good. Very Good.