I looked down at this waxing, a few words ran through my head and I gave a snort of derision – pffft!! Oh, that’s ridiculous! I have no time for this nonsense, this is a binner! Mr S popped his head around the door and asked what I was chuntering about? I held up the image – This crap! What do you see? My jaw drops as words come out of his mouth identical to my first thoughts – A slumbering ancient giant of rock… arm outstretched making the \m/ hand symbol… Oh! Seriously man!! GTFO of my head!!! He convinces me not to bin it and think further…
I say to him, OK, there’s the obvious rock music reference to the hand shape but what else could it be? He puts on his Buddha boy head and tells me that it’s also known as the Karana Mudra – a hand position used to remove obstacles and quieten unhelpful thoughts… Hmmm, maybe that would be useful… But it’s half resonating and I don’t feel that it’s bringing the full story to me of what I need to read… We carry on chatting and discuss that it’s a very well known hand shape so probably has many meanings and the meaning you ascribe depends on your tribe…
Being the super lazy person that I am, I decide the quickest way to get an answer is to consult the Google oracle… It is indeed a widely used symbol with variations in meaning… It can symbolise a lion, be used to summon the Horned God, it can convey an insult, it can ward off the evil eye, it can show allegiance etc…etc…etc… It’s pretty global. One way or another it’s out there in the collective consciousness…
I read further down and discover that aging rock legend Gene Simmons tried to register trademark the hand signal… I let out a belly laugh… He tried to take ownership of something used across the globe before he started using it…HmmmKay! Now, this is something that is fully and hilariously resonant to me after receiving a recent text message trying to dissuade me from using my artwork… I’d prefer not to go into that publicly… Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping gods, oops sorry let sleeping dogs lie… After all, if you lie with dogs, you get fleas…
Another Rock God -Ronnie James Dio of Black Sabbath fame was interviewed and asked if he was the one who introduced the hand symbol into the metal subculture? Dio sounds like a much saner guy. His response…
I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That’s like saying I invented the wheel…
I won’t be binning my Rock God or any other pieces of my artwork for that matter… 🙂 I’ll Roll them out as I choose… Rock ‘n’ Roll baby! ROCK ‘n’ ROLL \m/
The pure and blessed way 