Salut ! We are some of the Sewn Signs, one of the many visual languages used across cultures.
In 2012 Ioana gave us back our voice because indeed we can speak about those who gave us shape and meaning. And it’s crucial to talk now, as the world is at a crossroad.
We are in a big family, together with Kanji characters, the hieroglyphs, the traffic signs, the logos and even with the emoticons in your smartphones. As simple drawings, we don’t have any magical powers. But if you invest in us with a certain meaning or set of values, you can use us as visual matras when you need.
While characters are visual expressions of sounds, we are not so easy.
It’s important that you understand that we are a convention. It’s very difficult for you to figure out what we represented for people of the past because many aspects of your life differ greatly from their customs.
But one thing is for sure: we don’t depict nature in a photographic manner, we are rather a code of laws that keeps the world functioning. We can also carry out your message, once you learn our grammar and the art of needlework.
Other sewn symbols are often motifs we pick up from nature. Symbols of plants and animals, and all living things inhabiting our earth, below and above us, that we should strive to understand and respect. Our ancestors believed that beyond our realm there are many other worlds and life-forms, like fairies and angels. And though our research is based on science now, we continue to explore the unknown. Before maps, compasses and calendars, people would use the night sky as their guide. The stars and their movements also helped farmers sync their work to nature’s rhythm. Shepherds and explorers also oriented themselves by tracking fixed stars. Meanwhile, these days it’s practically impossible to get lost with so many maps and modes of tracking time. You can still pick your fixed star, a symbol that reminds you to stay on track and follow your goal. There might be dangers, bad friends or deceit along your journey, but the symbol of the protecting eye can remind you to tread lightly and see clearly between good and evil. The bee and the ant are symbols for teamwork. They remind us to work smart and to communicate, to appreciate our peers and look out for the whole community. Birds are portrayed as the messengers between our worlds. They symbolize freedom of the soul and remind us to strive higher and follow our intuition.
To explore and think outside the box, moving past our limitations and prejudices. The sun teaches us how to plan our time and use our energy wisely. The grain will remind you of abundance and harvest, of multiplying your achievements and investing back into yourself. The Tree of life shows us we have steady roots, allowing us to grow stronger, supported by our ancestors. Sometimes your heritage can be a great spiritual treasure. Work that honors the earth, with care, trust and hope will be rewarded. But even though nature is generous, people become greedy. They sabotage the soil with harmful substances and take more than they need, damaging our whole ecosystem and causing sickness and extinction. We have a symbol for this too. Wilting and fading away may seem sad, if we look at it as the death of something. But this is the state that restarts the normal cycle of life. It brings us back to nature’s essential rhythm. A rhythm we can understand by observing plants. A wilting flower with its falling petals may seem dead, but it’s quite the opposite. The flower’s life force has been transferred into its seeds, which will bring rebirth when the spring comes.
Please keep in mind that the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation is a complex science: semiotics. If you want to discover more about “The Language of The Goddess”, read Marjia Gimbutas’ book.