Hoops are mandalas, circles, portals, wheels, clocks, rings, irises, and symbols of sacred geometry. The circular shape of the hoop makes it an ideal addition to altars, meditation nooks, sacred spaces, and decorations on/in homes, temples, buildings, barns, etc. Many modern (& European-descended) hoopers are beginning to see what indigenous American people and hoopdancers have known for a great long while, as clearly evidenced through the sacred art of Native American Hoop Dance: a clear connection between the symbol of the hoop and spirituality. I am visualizing a picture of a target- a series of hoops one inside the next; the smallest & most central hoop being you and your soul, then your family, friends, strangers, nature, earth-planet, universal big, overarching higher powers, all infinitely stretching outwards. And beautiful also, to realize that no matter where our ancestors came from, the hoop symbol connects us far beyond our biological families, to the larger family of Human beings, and the even larger family of: All Living & Growing Things on Earth. When I was recently living with some friends in the woods, there were mandalas (see: hoops) on all of the altars. The largest altar being outside, it has a screen decorated with a big & beauteous mandala behind it, along with a bench in front of it on which to sit and pray or just be. An addition that I made to this altar during my stay was hanging a hoop (halo-style) above the bench in front of the altar. I wrapped it in some glow in the dark tape so even in the darkest of nights, you can see the spectacular-circular hoop-goodness glowing in the middle of the trees and better find your way on the path! Around the outside of the hoop I twisted some vines from the very same forest, to help further fuse the slick-plastic-urban-ness of it with the surrounding native trees. Here is a picture from a moment when I was sitting on the bench in front of the altar, looking upward. Watching the trees through the hoop- a veritable portal to the clouds in the sky, helps me feel a little more calm, held, and centered in both the more sorrowful and sublime times of this life~