Friday, March 5, 2010

Round 3 - Debrina's Contribution to Lisa J's book




I've chosen to play with Lisa's title, "Roots Beneath the Layers" to explore the shamanistic beliefs of my European ancestors.  I've chosen Yggdrasil - the World Tree - as my focus for this round.  I first learned about this cosmological structure in Brian Bate's "The Real Middle Earth". 

My pages fold up into a nice neat signature of 12 pieces (see above illustration).  3 is a universally magic number and Yggdrasil comprises of 3 parts.  I want to concentrate on each part separately, so with some witchery stitchery, I have constructed a 3 part layout to my segment of pages.


The first part is the upperworld - Asgard - where light, elvish beings, the gods, goddesses and the deities reside.  If this sounds reminiscent of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you'd be correct.  Tolkien was fascinated by Saxon mythology and drew his inspiration from their cosmological and mythological constructs.


The book unfolds to reveal the rest of the tree...the underworld (the lower part of the tree is hinted at with the quote above - this is not stuck down yet; nor are these white pages finished...much more layering to do...).


The middle part of Yggdrasil is revealed.  Midgard is the real middle earth, the spiritual world of living beings, such as animals, plants and human beings.  I will be using the pages to the left of the tree to illustrate these realms as I am describing them here.


Finally, Yggdrasil is revealed in its entirety - Niflheim (Hel) are the roots of the tree.  Here is the Underworld, where Nidhogg the dragon sleeps and the dead reside.  Hel (Christian root word for Hell- scuse the pun) is the powerhouse of the subconscious; inhabited by underworld entities that we may fear but where we may also obtain our greatest source of potency.

9 comments:

  1. Well, I guess I better continue my tradition of posting the new round's first lot of updates ( I always start with a hiss and a roar). My momentum hasn't slowed down, I might add, so stay tuned for more updates tomorrow probably.

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  2. love this Deb, love trees, love the magic, symbolism and myth, you rocked it!! xo

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  3. i am loving this! love the trees and the zillions of extra pages and flaps. this is going to be phenominal! not that i would expect anything different from you. i must know what the tree is made of.

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  4. This is so incredibly awesome! Symbolism, mysticism, the world tree, books that fold and reveal more as one looks deeper....Yum!

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  5. Hello Leslie and Alicia - yes, I'm just at the beginning... and I have NO IDEA what's next! But I love to mull...that's half the fun. What I do know is that I want to convey layers of meaning and depth...you hit the nail on the head there, Leslie! Thanks for your insightful comment!

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  6. Oh Cat - I forgot to say hi to you! Hi! Alicia - here's the guff on the tree: The tree is cardboard with a layer of moulding paste then scrapped back to look like bark, then umber dye, then shellack, then ageing black ink, then shellac to seal it all in. Next, I sewed it onto bunched up organza backed onto white card. Don't know why I didn't write that to begin with.

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  7. LOVE IT! this is so very amazing..love your thought process and where you are taking it all..very creative and unique. It's a great reminder that with each new book we have the opportunity to take our creativity to a new level..which you have certainly done so well here!!
    I owe this blog a post myself...

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  8. Glad to see you are keeping up traditions, LOL! Great unique ideas heer Debs, really outstanding. Look forward to seeing it all evolve and one day getting my hands on it too. Maybe the book wont manage to get posted back. JUST KIDDING, I felt that, ROFL! Ah but seriously a great take on the theme. Mwah!

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  9. This is wonderful. I do love trees and all its magic it hold.
    Katelen

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