Sunday, February 6, 2011

Shaping Up with Hearts and Flowers



This little plain glass vase had been sitting in a little dark corner in my kitchen silently pleading to change it into something else. When I found that the theme for Mixed Media Monday February challenge is "Shape Up", the vase immediately popped as the candidate. This month's Melange team challenge is "Hearts and Flowers", and it seemed to me that I could mix both challenges in one vase!

I prepared the vase using layers of vintage paper and applying acrylic and water color washes. For the heart part, I wrote out a partial  text of  Shakespeare's sonnet "Love is not love" (up to "height be taken") around the base of the vase. I wrapped a tea dyed lace around the neck of the vase and added a flower on the side.



Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

(Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)



365 days of photography (24)

Yantras (kolam) for the Sun

Kolam (Mandala) the Sun


Navagraha kolams (mandalas) are sacred designs drawn to propitiate the planets and to invoke their blessings. These yantras for the the planets are said to originate from Soundarya Lahiri, a poem composed in praise of Devi by Sankara. Though yantras are typically etched on a copper plate, kolam is drawn in front of the home shrine using rice flour or can be drawn on paper or other materials also.

The image above is the mandala for the Sun. The line drawing is the mandala; I have added color and embellishments. Here are some significant astrological details regarding the Sun, the most important of nine planets:


The following are mostly common to both Western and Indian astrologies: 
(Italicized texts in parentheses are the Sanskrit equivalent of English words/names)

Sign: Leo (Simha)
Day of the week:  Sunday (Ravivar)
Direction: East
Season: Summer (Grishma) 
Nature: mildly malefic
Rulership of: Soul
Gender: Masculine
Father of:  Saturn (planet)
Significator: 1st and the 10th house in the natal chart
Exalted: Aries 10 deg
Directional strength: 10th house
Natural friends: Jupiter, Mars and the Moon
Represents: Father, government, authority, places of worship
Represents (physical): Bones, heart, eyesight, head
Favorable in houses: 3, 6, 10 and 11 in the natal chart


The following pertains to Indian mythology and astrology only: 

Name in Sanskrit: Surya
Lordship of nakshatras (lunar mansions): Krittika, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashada
Dasa length: 6 years
Aspects: the 7th house from itself
Yogas: budhaaditya , veshi, voshi and ubhayachari 
Represents: Devotion to Shiva


Navagraha Kirtana: Surya murte namostuthe by Muthuswami Dikshithar


Temples: The Sun Temple at Konarak, Orissa, India




Suriyanar Koil at Thirumangalakkudi, Tamilnadu, India




Note: You may copy the kolam for your personal use.