The Seven Valleys: Reflections through Art

Course: The Seven Valleys Through Creative Arts Exploration (2025)
Faculty Mentor: Peggy Caton
Students: Cynthia Groetzinger, Diana Hudson, Pattie Lacefield, Connie Lopez, Karen Mueller, Marilyn, Valerie Perdue, and Catherine Walters-Shaw

Editor’s Note: Wilmette Institute’s course The Seven Valleys Through Creative Arts Exploration was very popular this year. Twenty participants actively participated, and eleven of them received certificates of completion. We hope you will enjoy seeing the art and reading the reflections and responses below from eight participants and their instructor, Peggy Caton.

Cynthia Groetzinger (Casper, Wyoming)

“Paragraph 87”

Comments from Pattie Lacefield: “Hello Cindy, Love your creation! Very inspiring, presenting possibilities inside perplexities (a measure of uncertainty) 🙂 May I share this with friends, as I’m enjoying the simplicity of this profound mystical choice?! :-)”

Diana Hudson

I read the Seven Valleys again, all in one reading, followed by the Tablet of Ba and Ha, reflecting, as I read, noticing being drawn to certain passages, which I tried to express in this drawing. Me, likened to a tree aflame, with a heart at the center, and a dove perched on the branch, now rooted, after wandering, lost, represented by the purple paths, with a magnetic pull, grounded, and on the path to the Beloved. There is no color at the end, as it is beyond color, and beyond the veil of light, yearning to be in the shadow of His Presence.

Editor’s Note: This graphic was digitally painted over an image from a coloring book depicting a view of the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and the Visitors Center at Bahji, in Israel.

Comment from Peggy Caton: “Diana, what an intriguing depiction, drawing, collage, painting, bas relief… the bright colors and form against a backdrop of purple and black sacred city. You have arrived!

Comment from Catherine Walters-Shaw: “This is amazing! I especially love that you are a tree, and the purple steps, the paths of being lost and then finding your way to The Beloved!”

Pattie Lacefield

“True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness”

Peggy Caton’s comments: “Pattie, wow! It drew me in. The rose, perfect in its own being, layers of color leading to the heart center, then the qualities on the four sides, poverty and nothingness facing, true and absolute facing, then the words stemming from the letters also facing. It draws me in, layer after layer. From a distance, it first appeared to me as a rose surrounded by words and letters from another language, an ancient language. Only upon closer look did I see the letters and words were in English.”

Connie Lopez (California)

“No beginning and no end to Knowledge”

The longest story in our history is the relationship between humanity and God.

Comments from Karen Mueller: “Such a beautiful integration with your choice of Writings and beautiful illustrations- I would hang this on my wall and look at it every day!”

Comments from Diana Hudson: ”The Quotes are ones I’d like to remember from our journey together, especially ‘the beginning of religion is love…and for us to manifest that love to His servants,’ and the bird and the rose, and the horse expressing that love too, with innocence and a connection to the oneness.

Karen Mueller

“Integration of the Seven Valleys”

This piece was more about the process for me than the result. Because this was my first trip through The Seven Valleys, I chose watercolor with which I have almost no experience. I also chose to work wet on wet – a method I haven’t done and which offers the least amount of control. My first effort at pulling wet paint off the paper was only partially successful so I ended up using some white paint. The process felt a bit like my stumbling through the valleys.

Peggy Caton’s comments: “Karen, your joyous expression I can see also as hands waving and reaching up to the sky.”

Marilyn

“The Seven Valleys”

I read The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys when I became a Bahá’í in my teens. I have found that, as I have grown older, I am able to understand the valleys better, although not perfectly.

The image I created depicts 7 valleys, each delineated with different colored stones. The last Valley is of white crystals, signifying purity.

Peggy Caton’s comments: “Marilyn, this feels so rich and textured, layer upon layer, unfolding.”

Valerie Perdue

1. The Valley of Search and Calcination
   1. The bare feet represent the patience and perseverance to walk the spiritual path and give us a glimpse of the gold that is possible.
   2. The burning away of impurities is seen in the black ash of the ankles and the lower legs aflame. Fire burning away preconceptions.
2. The Valley of Love and Dissolution
   1. Love consumes the self and accepts suffering as part of devotion.
   2. Dissolving the ashes in water as the conscious mind gives way to the unconscious. The upper legs are shown in water to represent this surrender to forces beyond ourselves.
3. The Valley of Knowledge and Separation
   1. We begin to know through inner recognition.
   2. Clarification of what is authentic and what is vain imaginings. Discernment and insight are symbolized by white for the clarity of air in the lower body.
4. The Valley of Unity and Conjunction
   1. There is only oneness as God acts through all things transcending dualities.
   2. Uniting opposites e.g., conscious and unconscious, masculine and feminine, shadow and light. This level is shown on the right (masculine/yang) side of the upper body in dark brown representing earth with botanicals to show integration with Level 5.
5. The Valley of Contentment and Fermentation
   1. Inner peace arises regardless of outward conditions.
   2. Creative rebirth, illumination, or inspiration following inner death. The level is shown on the left (feminine/yin) side of the upper body in light brown with blooming botanicals.
6. The Valley of Wonderment and Distillation
   1. Astonished by the infinite mystery of God, we know that our understanding will always fall short.
   2. Ongoing refinement and purification are represented by silver for “vapor” and the movement of the soul. At this moment, the left arm is rising
7. The Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness and Coagulation
   1. The seeker possesses nothing, not even selfhood, and is perfectly free.
   2. Spirit and matter unite. Embodiment of spirit in daily life. The gold of the head and hands shows this spiritual realization. Note the gold line through the center of the body symbolizing the embodied universal axis mundi. As with the ring-stone symbol, the vertical line of energy we receive revelation, are transformed and are aligned with the Will of God.

Comment from Peggy Caton:  “Valerie, beautiful work, so expressive of the entire experience.”

Catherine Walters-Shaw

“Heart to heart…”

“Heart to heart they whisper hidden secrets, soul to soul they unfold abstruse matters.”… the feeling that I have gathered together with my Bahá’í community. The love, the instant heart connections that don’t need words. This Divine Rapture can be felt…

This also reminds me of teaching the Faith. I want everyone in this realm with me.”

Peggy Caton’s comment: “Catherine, beautiful mandala of community and diversity.”

Additional Contributor Bios

Catherine Walters-Shaw (Mount Laurel, New Jersey)

My name is Catherine Walters-Shaw, and I am passionate about learning, creativity, and community service. After retiring from a career in International Compliance Regulation, I began taking classes in art and music as a way to serve and bring the arts into my local community. What began as service has become a source of deep personal joy, fulfillment, and tremendous fun!