I've been spening time working in my "Henna" sketchbook this week....
...I find it helps to really get "into" the subject.
The first thing done....
...was a cover....
...because it had only had a plain blue one before.
More pages have been filled....
...with "Henna Goddesses"...
....and some Ancient Berber letters...
These are something I'm finding very interesting indeed. They were used on special
haiks along with magical symbols that afforded protection to the wearer.
There is a
haik of particular note...
...one that belonged to a "wise man/magician/healer"...
This has a great number of symbols painted on it...
...an example of one is here...
As soon as I saw it, it struck a chord....
...as I have a number of books illustrated by Rachid Koraichi, an Algerian sufi artist.
These are a couple of pages from "Rumi - Le miroir infini" (Rachid Koraichi/Marina Lostia)
...and these are from "Tu es mon amour depuis tant d'annees" (Rachid Koraichi/Nancy Houston)
This book is never far from my hand.
Any book with words like....
"Tu es mon amour depuis tant d'annees, dit l'ombre a la lumiere et la lumiere a l'ombre......... sans toi je ne suis rien"(You are my love for all time, said the dark to the light, and the light to the dark.....without you I am nothing)
...and...
"sans femme, pas d'homme.... sans homme, pas de femme.... offrandes reciproques...."
(Without woman, no man.....without man, no woman....reciprocal gifts)
...should have a place in everyone's home........
Sorry!...I haven't worked out how to find the letters with accents yet :-(
