Mandalas for the Planets

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

Photo Journal: Around Kapaleeshwarar Koil, Mylai, Chennai

Front View, Kapaleeshwarar Koil

This time I remembered to carry my camera with me when I accompanied my sister and my niece for a shopping trip to Mylapore, Chennai. As my sister went in and out of shops for the best Bharatanatyam jewelry, I quickly darted around to take some photos of the famous temple which anchors this bustling affluent residential and commercial community. The story goes that when Mylapore was an undeveloped hamlet several centuries ago, it was filled with mangroves where thousands of peacocks roamed freely. Mayil means peacock, hence the name Mylapore. Well, there is nary a peacock in sight these days. But Mylapore still retains vestiges of its pre-globalization charm and the temple attracts thousands of worshippers, especially on Friday evenings. People come not just to worship but also to shop and eat.

These photos were taken late in the morning when the temple was about to close for the afternoon. The images are presented raw, unedited.

Enjoy.

Thanks for visiting.

Eccentric Circles

The theme for this week's I am the Diva--Zentangle challenge #74 is Eccentric Circles. Since this is the year of Summer Olympics I chose its logo of five interlocked circles as my string. I changed its  perfect symmetry into elliptical shapes so that they look eccentric and connected them to look like a venn diagram.

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Petit Wood CoverJournals

This week's fun project is these little journals made with wood boards. I bought the wood boards from Michaels (they are available in the unfinished wood section and cost 29 cents each). I stained them first and did image transfer using Modge Podge. I got the images from the wonderful The Graphics Fairy .
I used several images from there.

I have described here how I did the Modge-Podge transfer. I have some additional do's and dont's: (1) use a laser print or a photo copy. Inkjet copies will smear, (2) Bold and large images and words (CAFE ) transfer better than images with lot of tiny and delicate details (Poems of Love), (3) Minimize the white halo effect by using a thin layer of glue.  Image transfer using glue is a tricky process, but when it works it is really lovely.

I finished the CAFE journal using coptic binding and the Poems of Love was completed using the accordian format.

Thanks for visiting.

Katrina and beyond

I just returned from a conference in New Orleans. This is my first trip to New Orleans and it is hard to be there without remembering the cataclysmic images of hurricane Katrina. Not that the location of my hotel, the French Quarters, was  much affected being several feet above sea level. In the Big Easy, the divide between the one percent and the 99% is a lot starker and it was this 99% that was most ravaged by Katrina. Little of that is visible in the French Quarters, a tourist hotspot. Except, for the permanent exhibition called Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and beyond at the Louisiana State Museum. From the continuous looping video of 24-hours before Katrina made landfall- the gigantic waves, the blinding rain, the toppling roofs, to the chilling breath stopping digital simulation of the breaching of the levees as neighborhood after neighborhood submerged in flood waters and to the stories of those witnessed it, it is haunting.

So, I decided to dedicate this week's I am the Diva Zentangle Challenge #73 Bridgen to the spirit of New Orleans. In Bridgen, string is the basis of the tangle. I used a grid map of New Orleans as my string and connected the various parts of the map (or string) with WAVES, HURAKAN, River Rocks and FLEURI (fleur de lis) is New Orleans' logo) and Fescu.

Thanks for visiting.

Weekly Challenge #72

This week's challenge at I am the Diva is "Tangelation Nation - Crescent Moon". Crescent Moon is one of the foundational, official tangles. Tangelation is using just one tangle and create variations of it. This is my version of this tangle. The "tile" is actually a 5" by 5" Ampersand aquabord. I created the background colors using Dr. Ph Martin's India inks. Crescent moon reminded me of blue color, so I painted the tile blue first. Then I drew the tangle using white gel pen. I intentionally left a blank space  and filled it with Sanskrit text. In writing the text, I rotated the tile so that a portion of the text can be read from each direction. As I had noted in my previous post, I will be using these as coasters. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Weekly Challenge #71

This week's challenge at I am the Diva CZT is to use the latest official tangle called Pea Nuckle. This is my version of this tangle. I used it as a link to other larger tangles. The "tile" is actually a 5" by 5" Ampersand aquabord. I created the background colors using Dr. Ph Martin's India inks. Then, I wrote a few sacred verses in Sanskrit using a gold pen. Then I drew the tangle using white gel pen and black Deco art pen. I will seal it with a clear acrylic sealer since I want to use it as a coaster. These aquabord are four in a packet; so they make a nice set.

On this box (below) I used the aquabord to paint the mandala design.

Thanks for visiting,