The Ice Prince Sets:
Two Rather Special Symbol Sets ...
The Greek cargo ship, The Ice Prince, on route to Alexandria in Egypt went down on Tuesday, 15 January 2008 off the south coast of England.
More than 2,000 tons of timber washed up on the coastline, and many residents of seaside towns went to fetch some salvaged wood to mend their fences and for art projects of all kinds.
A 10 foot plank of this wood appeared mysteriously in my garden where it spent the last 23 months soaking up the ambience.
Upon investigation, the wood turned out to be Scots Pine aka Pinus Silvestris (var Laponica Hartman) from Iggesund and Umea in Sweden.
And so it came to pass that one day I thought Iād like to make something with symbols out of this wood.
The thought that came to me was to make a set of 23 wooden dice, but only one of the 6 faces would have a symbol, and the other 5 would remain blank. Which would mean that if these dice are cast, only some symbols would reveal themselves.
There is a possibility of not getting *any* symbols at all in this reading; should that ever occur, it would be a special occurrence, for this deck to be able to fall silent.
Quite fascinating ...
Now it so happens that the essential oil of Scots Pine is one of my all time favourite scents and existences.
It is one of those energy forms I find particularly soothing when there is a lot of stress about; bringing clarity, bringing about a smooth flow and awakening that connection to the natural Even Flow of things.
The great age of the pines puts things into perspective; and amongst trees, they are great survivors.
Here is the entry for pine from Aromatherapy 4 Your Soul.
Pine: "Wisdom"
Pinus Sylvestris: Strong, resonant, lifting, upraising, deep strength, acceptance, wisdom.
Pine is a good remedy for people who feel Peter Pan like, as though they never properly grew up or stepped into their full powers as an adult to create your own reality, your own kingdom around you. It is also perfect for people who have acquiring more and more book learning confused with real knowledge or wisdom.
And here is the pine story:
There once was a man who knew everything, but had done nothing. As such, he felt safe and extremely powerful. He was always giving good advice to everyone, whether they wanted to hear it or not; and his theoretical knowing of all things at all times was veritably frightening.
One day he was in his home, and a winter storm blew the front door from its rusty hinges. It got very cold and the fire in the hearth became extinguished. The man examined the hinges and was well pleased to have discovered what had happened and to know exactly where things had gone wrong. He also knew how to collect iron ore, how to smelt it and how to fashion new hinges for the door.
He further knew all about woodwork and the effects of prolonged exposure to the cold, and so many people were quite surprised to find him, stiff as a board, frozen to death, right there, in the middle of his house, a few days later.
n the context of making a symbol set, there are so many interesting strands to this, on so many different levels.
The one I'd like to highlight is that a symbol set is NOTHING if it isn't used.
Knowledge of the symbols is NOTHING AT ALL.
It is only in the act of using that knowledge to make our lives a better place, sometimes to save ourselves, protect ourselves from harm, or even to survive.
This is two-fold for me as a message.
There is the actual USAGE of the symbol set/s, rather than having them lie about and gathering dust.
The second message is to ACT upon the information we have received from using the symbols.
And of course, the symbols can be metaphors for all manner of other things and activities that firstly, bring forth ideas, and then secondly, have to be acted upon to make them count for something.
A fascinating combination ...
Symbol dice are under construction ... And, in the meantime ....
And, after all of that, here are ...
The Journey Continues ...
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