THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION TOTEM

During my last term in Canada I audited a course at Regent College called, "The Christian Imagination." I thoroughly enjoyed, amongst other things, singing workshops, a visit to a sculptor's studio, watching films, hearing lectures and I successfully joined in with a play reading even though I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I wasn't required to submit a piece of art for the end of the course as I was auditing the class but decided to anyway. I was fascinated looking at other people's paintings and photographs and listening to their writing and music on the last evening, which also happened to be our last evening in Canada.

I had a go at doing a totem style pole that told the Christian story which you can read more about later if you are interested. It ended up looking quite scary in it's own way but it was meant to be in a roughly First Nation style and one thing I discovered in Canada was that eagles are magnificent creatures but never look cute and friendly.

An edited version of what I read to the class about my "Totem"

The journey towards this picture began a few years ago whilst wandering around Winchester cathedral. I was puzzled when I looked up and saw carved pelicans over some tombs and wondered why such a strange bird had found a place in the cathedral. I later discovered that according to legend the pelican pierces it's own breast in times of famine to feed it's own blood to it's young. As a result the pelican came to symbolise Christ's sacrifice on the cross. I began to wonder how many other symbols I was missing when looking at historic buildings and paintings so I started reading the book, "Signs and Symbols in Christian Art" by George Ferguson. (A lot of my information came from this book.)

On walking around the Museum of Anthropology at UBC I was interested to learn that totem poles were not entirely the religious idols that I had thought but represented a family's histories, stories, and beliefs using the animals and mythical figures associated with each family. I wondered why it was mainly animals used to tell the legends on the totem poles, then I realised that there are numerous animals that we use to tell the story of the Christian family, from creation to eternity. We end our year in Canada tomorrow and I wanted to try out the red and black colours used in a lot of the First Nation art. I thought that it would be fun to see if I could create a totem style pole using mainly animal symbols described in the Bible or regularly used in historic Christian art.

The evil serpent creeps around the foot of the pole just after the beginning of time. Hidden above him is the butterfly who is sometimes seen on the Christ child's hands in paintings of the nativity. It symbolises the fact that hope for mankind will come through the death and resurrection of Christ. An ox and ass stand watch, as in many nativity scenes, linking to the prophecy in Isaiah 1v 32 " The ox knows its owner and the ass his master's crib."

I especially like the pelican in this picture looking down lovingly towards its young. It reminds me of God's heart towards His people,

"Jerusalem .......how often I have longed to gather your children together , as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings"

The lion has become associated with the resurrection and Christ the Lord of Life. The lion is also one of the four animals that appear in Ezekiel,

"Their faces looked like this: each of the four had the face of a man and on the right side of each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle."

The eagle, historically has been a symbol for, the resurrection, new life begun with baptism and strengthening of tired Christians. The eagle also appears in Revelation 4 v7,

"In the centre, around the throne , were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like and ox and the third had the face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle."

These animals were thought to represent the four evangelists and in a more general sense the inspiration of the gospels

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At the top of my pole rests the symbols for the Trinity. The lamb and dove are widely recognised as Jesus and the Holy Spirit. For the perfect, architect of the universe who is our loving and merciful father I could find no animal that symbolised Him with the honour He deserves so I drew a crown to represent the almighty ruler over all.