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Frithjof Schuon Archive

This painting by Frithjof Schuon was done in 1962, and measures 18 by 21 inches. A chief sits silently in front of a fire, whose smoke rises to heaven, and he sits in front of an encampment of tipis with painted symbols. To the chief’s right is a shield on a stand and he holds a single eagle feather in his right hand. “Sending a voice” is an expression used in Native American prayers (for example in Black Elk’s prayers to the Great Spirit recorded in the 1940s) that refers to joining the supplicant’s voice to the ‘voice’ of the powers of the universe, invoking them for guidance, etc. The painting is reproduced on p. 15 of Images of Primordial and Mystic Beauty (Abodes, 1992).

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