Symbolism in "Origins"

• Isis (woman on right side) - the great Egyptian mother goddess; the maternal spirit; restores Osiris to life; goddess of fertile waters; associated with the sun.
• Nephthys (woman on left side) - sister of Isis and wife of Set; mother goddess of the dead; personification of the dusk; assisted in restoring life to Osiris; associated with the moon.
• Great mother goddesses (women in the middle of the mural).
• Osiris (integrated with the fish and crocodile at the bottom of the mural) - life and death, god of fertility.
• Air - two stylized birds on each side of the water pot.
• Fire - the black wash pots above the heads of each goddess.
• Earth - grid of squares.
• Water - water flowing from the kneeling woman into a pool.
• Water pot - a symbol of the great mother; primeval deep; nature's womb.
• Lions - day and night; life and death. A pair of lions are the guardians of the doorways and the gates of morning and evening; the emblem of yesterday and tomorrow.
• Elephant - the bringer of rain and fertilizing waters.
• Ram - typified the soul. Form used by the four Egyptian gods of the elements [Amen-Ra (fire), Osiris (water), Qeb (earth), Shu (air)].
• Double-headed crocodile (carries Osiris on his back) - divine reason.
• Beetles - symbolized the sun crossing the heavens.
• Triangle - earth's generative power, physical stability, the pyramid and these trinities (birth-life-death; life-death-rebirth; body-mind-soul; father-mother-child; heaven-earth-underworld).
• Triangle upon a square - divinity and humanity; heaven and earth; the spiritual and corporeal.
• Circle - the sun, the ideal form and completeness; also the planets.
• Square - high degree of perfect; foundation.

• Railroad tracks - life's barriers and route to freedom.
• Family unit - the extended family that must rise together.
• Wash pots and wash boards - the labor required for subsistence.
• Shotgun houses - a southern architectural form common in African American communities, also represent a temple.
• Seven fires - the West African ceremony of the new harvest year.
• Seven pots - the seven polar stars used as basis for the first African calendar.
• Women in doorways - the enduring support of the family.
• Comb spirits - new spirits in people as they rise up and overcome the barriers in life.
• Men with light in doorways - bring forth the new seed.
• Wings - the spiritual influences in African American life; "Wings Over Jordan."
• Heavenly circles, squares, bubbles - cosmic energy, those microscopic forces that continuously replenish the earth.
• Turtle - water.
• Bird - air.
• Red - earth.
• Wash pots - fire.

Diop, Cheikh Anta. (1986) Great African Thinkers. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.

James, George G.M. (1988) Stolen Legacy. San Francisco: Julian Richardson Association.

Sertima Ivan Van. (1984) Black Women in Antiquity. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Sertima Ivan Van. (1989) Egypt Revisited. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Masse, Gerals. (1988) Ancient Egypt the Light of the World. New York: African Islamic Mission Publications.