Weaving

The Loom is a metaphor for the structure of life.

Excerpt from ZATI The Art of Weaving a Life

In the Weaving a Life approach, the seven sticks of the Weaving a Life loom represent seven aspects of living in our bodies.

The Being and Doing Sticks are the edges of our lives. Stillness (being) and action (doing) are two modes of outer life. They are motivated by our thoughts and feelings; the Being and Doing Sticks separate the Feeling and Thinking Sticks, but connect them as well.

The Listening and Talking Sticks express two modes of verbal communication. Listening requires stillness; Talking requires action. Listening is a kind of Being and Talking is a kind of Doing, so the Listening and Being Stick connects to the Talking and Doing Stick. The two connect to each other at a single point.

The loom is constructed in three pairs, with the seventh stick as the culmination of the whole structure. It connects listening and talking to being and doing to thinking and feeling and creates a single point of connection at the top from which stability radiates down into the whole.

The Feeling Stick is the root stick, my grounding stick. It is the basis on which I will begin to weave my life. The Thinking Stick is the upper member of the pair. Feelings and thoughts are two primary modes of our inner life. Each plays into the other. The Thinking Stick is set apart, yet parallel to the feeling stick, and the warp wound between the two forms the energetic circuit upon which my life as a whole is woven. If the feeling stick is at the root or foot, then the Thinking Stick is at the heart of the loom.

My loom forms a gateway into experiencing myself holistically, to re-identify myself as I truly am, myself as more than the sum of my parts. The Listening and Talking Sticks cross each other at a single point on the Creator Stick. My loom is a tool with which I create a potential reality so that I can think/feel, listen/talk to my life before playing it out in the field of doing and being.

The Creator Stick is my connection at the top from which stability and peace radiate down into my whole life. With the Creator Stick, the whole structure becomes a house for the inner warp, as my body is a house for the inner life. With the strength of each stick, we have the solid framework we need to weave thread by thread, moving back and forth between being and doing, building toward the center of our self as Creator and the awareness of our Creator as our self.

The Warp is formed in the energy field between Thinking and Feeling. Life is made of the daily actions woven on the vertical framework of our most sacred values and beliefs. Feeling and Thinking, Being and Doing are woven together in the matrix of the Self. The patterns of our lives are visible in the fabric of our daily actions, built thread by thread.

The Batten is a teacher not connected to my loom but used constantly in the weaving on it. The Batten is the instrument of choice. In the Navaho tradition, the batten is handed down from grandmother to granddaughter as a sacred tool. With the Batten you create your pattern by choosing the threads of the warp you will lift, or the threads of your life that you will follow. These choices will produce your beautiful weaving like a flower from your hands.