Henna Designs

A couple weeks ago, I chaperoned a 7th grade field trip to the Renaissance Festival. Falconry and fun, fun, fun.

The boys grabbed a bite to eat and sat down to watch the acrobats. The stage happened to be right next to a henna booth, so I... kept one eye on the kids and ran off to get a design on my arm. It takes all of two minutes to get a small one done.

Now, when I lived in Abu Dhabi, I used to have henna on my hands and feet. Roses and scrolls, and all lovely sorts of flowers. That took a long time to dry. I keep things a little more discrete here in NC- just in case.

I picked a small dragon and the artist applied the design where long sleeves would hide the whole thing. Henna only lasts two weeks anyway. (This design is a couple of inches, enlarged here for detail.)

My sleeve rolled up, I went back to the boys.

Darling son rolls his eyes at me.

His friend says "Ooo. How much was that? I want one."

Chaperone Me cringes. : "What if your parents don't like it?" Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I think I sealed the deal.

Two of them run off to get designs done. One gets the same design as mine. The other selects a scary six-inch dragon. Claws and all - it looked ginormous on that small boy. I had a flash to the future where he is covered in ink. And I hope the parents don't hate me for it, but really - if that's what he wants, someday he's going to get it done. Right? (Help me here. I feel a little bit guilty.)

As they sat waiting for the precious design to dry, boy number one asked me - "How is henna part of the Renaissance?" This kid is thinking tattoos are a new thing - I can see it in his eyes.

Hmm. "Well - Remember the Crusaders from the middle ages? They went east and lots of ideas came back with them. During the Renaissance, there was trade with the east. And henna is a very old art. Older than the Renaissance."

Further:

From my previous posts you know, in the east, henna is mostly used for celebrations like weddings or feast days now. It originated in the fields, where women dyed their hands as a protection from the harsh work of the harvest.

This is my first ever ejderha - dragon design. In Turkey, and in many other eastern cultures, the use of animal designs is frowned upon or even forbidden. This stems from a firm stance against idolatry. 

Some beduoins tattoo themselves with black tribal markings, but I like henna (aka kına or mehndi) because it's temporary. Next time I can get something else that suits my fancy. Ink is too permanent for me.

Tao of the Phoenix & the Dragon

"While Eeyore frets ...

... and Piglet hesitates
... and Rabbit calculates
... and Owl pontificates
...Pooh just is."

That's the Tao of Pooh.

It was required reading for my roommate in college and I wonder if that's where she learned to be clueless. (Probably not.) I'm more of a cross between Eeyore and Piglet myself. In fact, good characters have more than just the one personality trait. (Usually that combination is more interesting than fretting and hesitating.) Matthew Rush argues that Finding Balance in our characters is essential to a successful novel and I agree.

Of course, when you have characters with unique, paranormal or superhuman powers, equilibrium can be harder to come by. Djinn energy can be an unstoppable force so the struggle for balance is a core element of Sybil's character arc. It's difficult for her to acknowledge kundalini/phoenix rising until she learns to manage it with a particular ballast.

In Taoism, the counterweight of the phoenix is the dragon.  Phoenix is female, representing the yin or the empress, and the dragon is male, representing the yang or the emperor.  An excess of one or the other is unwise, while equalization between the two is symbolic of harmonious yin and yang.

As any student of Taoism knows, there is no good or evil, only balance.