← digital pilgrim

marks

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  pilgrim

  a cowled pilgrim cut out of a halftone aura, a lotus opening beneath. drawn from the tattoo on chad's right arm, where the aura is already a halftone, which is what let it come across to a screen unchanged. it was pinned in the front door's corner until the drifting column replaced it; the small cut of it is still the favicon, which is why it is the mark in use.

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  tree and heart

  the same tattoo with the figure taken away: the heart is the hub, branches go up from it and roots down. too detailed for a corner -- at 112px it collapses to a speckled disc -- so it is held back for a social card, where the branches would have room.

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  bloom

  a meditating figure whose crossed legs are the lotus. in the tattoo the body does not sit on a flower, it becomes one, so the petals are rooted at the waist.

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  ethiopian cross

  an ethiopian orthodox cross. the arms are pierced rather than solid, so the light comes through them, and every shape here is outline for that reason.

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  christogram

  ic xc nika -- jesus christ conquers. the cross quarters the field and the four letter groups sit in the quarters, the way they are set on an orthodox cross and pressed into the bread.

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  seal of melchizedek

  two interlocked squares, making what appears to be an eight pointed star. the most purely geometric of these, and the one the pixel lattice suits best.

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  ark of the covenant

  the mercy seat: two cherubim facing, and the empty space between them where god was said to meet and speak. the gap is the subject, so the middle of the lid is left bare and the only warm pixels sit in the nothing.

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  bata drums

  sacred double headed drums, played in sets of three to call and speak to the orishas. the pinched waist is the whole silhouette.

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  seven african powers

  seven, in a ring, with the way in marked. the seven most called on of the orisha.

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  crown

  a crown, for the lion that is spoken of rather than drawn. a lion at sixty four pixels is a dog, and the crown carries the same claim without the risk.

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  uncarved block

  pu: the pattern of the world before it is shaped. decorating it is the one thing the idea forbids, so the mark is a plain square and the aura does all of the talking.

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  the western pass

  the gate laozi is said to have written the dao de jing for the keeper of, before riding out through it and disappearing. a road going away from the reader.

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  kundalini

  the coiled one resting at the base of the spine, the two currents crossing, and the seven centres up the channel.

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  flame

  fire taken from the gods and handed to people as knowledge and craft. the only mark here that is about the cost of carrying something.

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  chalice

  the cup, and what is held above it.