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The Holistic Arts Fair Association, which produces the Holistic Arts Fair each Fall in San Jose, was founded on February 27, 1998, the day after a famous total solar eclipse in Pisces. The two interacting circles represent the Moon and Sun as they left their eclipse. In order to be whole as individuals, which the Holistic Arts Fair seeks to help us to do, we must understand our relationship to the cosmos, especially the three planetary bodies which give us life, the Sun, Moon and Earth, which are all aligned during an eclipse. The Sun represents the male, active (yang) aspect of our life force, while the Moon represents the female, receptive (yin) aspect.
The two interacting circles are part of the "flower of life" symbol in sacred geometry, which is said to be the source of everything. The middle part of the diagram in which the circles interact, which I later learned is called the Vesica Piscis (like "Pisces"), represents creativity, in which the yin and yang are synthesized. On the left side of the diagram, one of the circles is only half visible. This stands for our ironic acronym, HAF (or "half"), spelled by the initials of Holistic Arts Fair. Thus we are half as well as whole. In order to know our need for wholeness, we also need to know our halfness, or as Stan Dale says, in order to be potent (yang), we also need to be able to be vulnerable (yin). Plus, in order to participate in the greater whole of society, the cosmos and the Spirit, we also need to be whole beings as individual parts of that greater being, and we need to know how the two halves of our being (yin and yang) fit together.
On the right is a simplified impression of the Hindu "Shri Yantra" symbol, which represents creativity and openness to the divine. Just as yin and yang, and Sun and Moon, represent the "right and left" halves of our mind and body, the Shri Yantra can represent the axis that links heaven and earth through our backbone and the 7 chakras, which correspond here to the 7 points of the pyramids pictured in the symbol. The top pyramids flow downward from heaven, and the bottom pyramids flow upward from earth, meeting in the center (the heart chakra). I later discovered that this image is also related to the "zero point" symbol, and to the "holy grail" symbol described on the last page of the novel The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. It is also related to the symbol for the Merkabah, which is our internal chariot of ascension. My essay on Bach and the chakras describes the meaning of some of these things in terms of my favorite music.
Sometimes, beneath the half circle on the left (now usually omitted from the logo image), are two paint brushes, showing that the Holistic Arts Fair is itself a work of art created by all its participants, and that it offers the opportunity to experience not only the power of the healing and spiritual "arts," but visionary arts and crafts in the more literal sense that also heal and inspire us. The brushes also look a bit like a fork and spoon, and we hope your experience of the Fair is indeed a delectible and delicious one. Enjoy! Remember, we have free admission to most events and free parking!
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