What do you know about The colombian rock art spiral. A shamanic tunnel?

Spirals have been found in the form of pictographs or petroglyphs in most countries and cultures throughout the world. A simple design, it’s possibly the most common rock art motif in Colombia, appearing more times in the form of a petroglyph than a pictograph.

Colombian petroglyph spirals tend to be curvilinear while pictograph spirals are generally angular and painted in red; however there are many exceptions (Marriner 2002:5). Easy to engrave or paint, they may have been used for both exoteric (for the general public) and esoteric (only for the initiated) purposes in pre-historic Colombian rock art.

This study examines spirals and their identified uses in different cultures. It also investigates the possibility of a common underlying shamanic theme in many spiral motifs.

All Colombian Indians interviewed during this study, and many others interviewed by other researchers, stated that all designs engraved or painted on rocks, or painted on ceremonial objects or tribal huts, were representations of things seen during trance visions. The spiral is a common Colombian rock art motif and also a universal phenomenon apparently seen by all shamans during the transition between stages 2 and 3 of a trance state. There is a logical connection between the experience of moving through a spiral or vortex during a shamanic trance and its representation in Colombian rock art.

Many, if not all, Colombian rock art sites were sacred places charged with supernatural power for the shaman. The shaman utilized this power to realize shamanic trips and fly into other worlds. A spiral may have been used to mark a sacred spot where an altered state of consciousness trip took place. It may have been used repeatedly by the shaman as a mandala to enter the spirit realm through a spiral carved or painted on stone at the same spot. The shaman may have believed that he was actually passing through the rock art spiral to enter the spirit world.

Visions seen during a trance state may be culturally influenced and structured but the motifs seen and recorded are pan-human phenomena.

http://www.rupestreweb.info/espiral.html

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