I put together a lecture and research paper on rangoli, explaining the history, significance, practice and technique of Indian women's sacred art: rangoli.  I taught the class twice at Sirius Rising and once at Starwood. Personally, I'm fascinated by the concept of an art form practiced primarily by rural post menopausal women.  I had no idea how strong an effect creating rangoli would have on the participants!

This is the first rangoli we did at the Brushwood summer 2002 festivals.   It is about 30 - 35 feet across, done with rice flour onto a dance ground spread with clean sand..  This is a lotus pattern, symbolizing purity.  It is also  is also an interlocking knot  meant to symbolize a "net" to trap the "evil eye", by dazzling it with complexity, and then entangling it.  The 5 dots in the center of each space are "khamsa" patterns (the 5 dots) to blind the evil eye. The white lines are rice flour. When dusk came, we put tea lights in the center of each khamsa ... lovely!  The drummers started up.  People gathered. Then the women who created the rangoli lit the central fire and danced it into the dust.  A night long trance dancing and drumming fest began.

To see the full pattern and how we created this, go to the next page! >>>>>>>>>  http://www.sphosting.com/reverndbunny/evilnet2.html

I want to thank Jason Isla, head of the wood busters, for taking the time to listen to me talk about Rangoli, and for helping me undertake these three projects!  Without his help, the support of the woodbusters, Tracy,  the enthusiasm of Jeff Mc Bride, and Josh Levin Ph.D., none of this would have happened.  Their help benefited many people, and I'm very grateful to them!