I sat for several hours last Friday night with pendulum and grimoires, seeking the symbols for my left ankle tattoo. It was divined that the emblems accompanying the original spiraling path shape need to be removed for clarity and construction due to intended size and medium, and some specific alchemical notations included instead. The five symbols are copper, filter, oil, saffron and Virgo. The overall design is going to follow the overall shape and appearance of the design which illustrates the Egyptian perception of the flow of energy between heaven and earth. The fire circle at Forestdance the year I went to Costa Rica turned out to be this pattern, with a main fire and a root fire. That added second fire is part of the Illumination fire structure too. One cool detail that doesn't happen at the Oregon fires which did happen in Costa Rica was the brewing of a tea from plants on the land each night to support an aspect of each night's fire.
"Things bright and clear being so obtained
The King and Queen being begot togeathere
Being put presently in the Secret Prison,
Feed them with heavenly Dew; not Watry things."
~ from 'A warning to the false Chymists or the Philosophical Alphabet by Thomas Rawlin' folios 14-55. This work was printed in Latin, Thomas Rawlin, Admonitio de Pseudochymicis, seu Alphabetarium Philosophicum in quo refutatur aurum potabile Antonii, 1611.
I got involved with the rangoli team the last night at Illumination 2013 and showed them this same design. The two guys heading it up discussed for a bit and then dug out the jugs of playa dust they'd collected at Burning Man 2012 and used that to lay most of the design. We ran short for some of the inner bits and the color changed slightly if you knew what you were looking for. The smaller symbols got dropped out for space considerations but we kept the scarab. On my ankle, I'm going to take that out too because I'm down to just a few inches of size.
There are some days approaching which are positively-attuned and in the phase of Fixation, and that seems like a good time to get inked, so this might be happening next week. It'd be healed before P-con if I do that, which would be another vote for next week too.
Speaking of cons, last Thursday I had my second night of ECCC minion training. It was everything you ever wanted or needed to know about the show floor area and how it works or doesn't work. It was raining, but I had a new umbrella with me (so it functioned the way it was supposed to) and I found a different bus stop to wait at to catch a bus home afterward than last time. Everything went much faster. Two sessions down, two to go.
Last Saturday I got together with Kalla. We have both been busy with family for the last couple of weeks. There was actual sunshine, it was a gorgeous winter day. We went up to Saint Edwards State Park in Kenmore, WA. It used to be a monastery and then a seminary. They have a wonderful, Paganish, stone structure called the Grotto out behind the old seminary building. I got some great macro images of spiderwebs. After our outdoor adventures, we grabbed some dinner and had a very serious pow-wow about K's con workshop and plans beyond. Very productive banter. I had delicious yam tacos, but something in them set off several hours of inflammatory aches and pains and I haven't figured out just what it was. ...le sigh...