{"id":4752,"date":"2019-11-17T11:37:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T16:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/?p=4752"},"modified":"2020-06-09T10:51:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T15:51:03","slug":"more-scarab-bracelets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/more-scarab-bracelets\/","title":{"rendered":"More (scarab) bracelets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of the lovely scarab bracelet pictures sent in by site visitors :) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of my absolutely favorite sites on the interwebs is etymonline.com<\/a> :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got hooked when I went on a James Hillman kick about a year ago. Which started when I began another dream project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have ridiculously good dream recall. I suppose I was born with it (although I also think it’s related to being a writer — I even published a little ebook titled Writing, Dreams, and Consciousness<\/a> on the topic). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good dream recall is one of those blessing\/curse things. If I commit to recording dreams every morning, it literally consumes several hours of my time — because when you remember 3-4 dreams in great detail you can easily end up with 5000+ words’ worth of writing. Needless to say this eats into my work time. It also leaves me with a perplexing mess, because although many times I “get” at least some aspect of some of my dreams, very often their message eludes me. I am convinced (call me nuts) that every single element of any dream is there for a purpose. But oh, man. Figuring out what that purpose is? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite these issues, several times in my life I’ve decided to suck it up, Buttercup, and record dreams. Every morning, no exceptions. And so that’s what I did, for about six straight months last year. Write ’em down, then try to interpret. And I found Hillman, and fell hard because he is (was) a Jungian with a lovely touch when it comes to dream interpretation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My absolutely favorite Hillman book is his Animal Presences<\/a>, which deals with animals in dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes, this post is actually about scarab bracelets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started collecting them after I dreamed I had purchased one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not <\/strong>that I recommend acting out your dreams in 3D reality, despite the fact that the Native American peoples, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), did exactly that; I’m sure they were on to something, but someday I’ll tell the story of what happened to me, one time — I was young and stupid, realized I was re-living a dream scenario and grabbed it, a bit too literally, by the pointy end of the stick. I rather made a fool of myself. Ouch. Also, this will be a story that is released only after I’m dead hahahahaha — yes I’m still embarrassed by it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Hillman: one of the cool things he does to enrich dream interpretation is consider the etymology of the words we use as we articulate \/ label a dream’s visuals. Sometimes looking at dreams this way can lead to apparent dead ends, in my experience, but other times it can be quite revealing — dreams often use “word play” — if you dream about a bee, it might “be” about “being,” for example. And if you push at dreams this way, you can sometimes start to feel them as a kind of language. “The symbol communes,” writes Jeffrey Kripal in <\/a>The Flip<\/a><\/em>. You start to feel dreams as a language the way you start to think in a foreign language once you’ve truly begun to learn it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s how I came to etymonline.com<\/a> and became a regular visitor, not only when I noodle dreams but when I write, and want to dig precisely into the nuances of a particular word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link, linking, linked <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This morning I looked up bracelet<\/a>. Not hugely interesting, to be honest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“ornamental ring or clasped chain for the wrist,” mid-15c., from Old French bracelet (14c.), diminutive of bracel, from Latin bracchiale “armlet,” from bracchium “an arm, a forearm,” from Greek brakhion “an arm” (see brachio-<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But our scarab bracelets aren’t armlets. They’re link bracelets — and things do warm up if you move to the idea of links and linking.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no Old English work for “link.” The word appears to be Scandanavian originally. However, there are a couple of German relatives: “Gelenk”, which means “articulation, a joint of the body; a link, ring,” and the Proto-Germanic word “khlink,” which is the source of the German word “lenken:” “to bend, turn, lead.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love this, because it reminds us that links are connectors but also relate to flexibility (bending) and process (leading). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how about this — call it a thought of the day: we sometimes seem to horribly separated from everything — from each other, from Spirit, from understanding — but perhaps we are more linked than we realize. Perhaps what we perceive as separation is actually a bending. The link is there, we’re just not able to “see around the corner” to understand where, exactly, we’re being led. We just need to trust it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, my posts about scarab bracelets are linking me to people I’d otherwise never meet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coincidence? Or spooky symbols at a distance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

:)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some of you are sending me emails and sharing your experiences with these funny little bracelets. And also pictures, which is a delight, and which I get to share, now — another delight :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So on to the bracelets … <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This is the underside of the bracelet pictured above :)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Starting with this picture of the back of the bracelet I shared at the top of this post. The bracelet’s owner also made a sketch of the markings on the back of one of the scarabs. Although the two leftmost markings are familiar, the other three are completely new to (see here for sketches I made of the markings on my bracelets<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reader sent me some pics of an interesting variation of the scarab bracelet style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scarab
Love this variation — I bet it looks beautiful on it’s owner’s wrist! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The cabochons on this bracelet are set on a diagonal … I’ve never seen a bracelet with this design. And I must say, if I were to come across a bracelet styled like this on ebay or etsy, I’d be very tempted to buy it — just because it is so unusual :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although the bracelets’ stones vary in size and shape, many of the same markings crop up over and over.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She also sent me a pic of that bracelet flipped over — and here we go, those familiar \u201chieroglyphs\u201d — basically identical to the marks carved on several of my bracelets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which once again suggests that these stones were all being sourced from a small number of producers … <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stones on this bracelet look molded rather than carved. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That said, there are bracelets out there with stones that are made of glass or other materials. Another set of pictures one of my readers sent is a bracelet with stones that appear to have been molded rather than carved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a close-up of one of the cabochons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setting is really pretty though, isn’t it? And the designer made sure that you could see the \u201chieroglyphs\u201d :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top view of the bracelet with the glass scarabs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a top view of that same bracelet. It reminds me in design of the one I own with the small stones, which I love to wear when I’m looking for something a little lighter and more delicate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s it for now but please, if you own one of these, I’d love to see and share more photos! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her new apartment is a Tower. Will her Prince be far behind?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

P.S. for convenience: if you haven’t seen them yet, my first post about these bracelets is here<\/a>, and I posted about the “hieroglyphics” here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pssst! Do you read romance novels?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe to my e-newsletter<\/a> and I’ll send you a free e-copy of my upcoming novel, Once Upon a Flarey Tale! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my absolutely favorite sites on the interwebs is etymonline.com :) I got hooked when I went on a James Hillman kick about a year ago. Which started when I began another dream project. I have ridiculously good dream … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[406],"tags":[1343,1342,417,418],"class_list":["post-4752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scarab-bracelets","tag-mid-century-jewelry","tag-scarab-bracelet-hieroglyphs","tag-scarab-bracelets","tag-vintage-jewelry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4752"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7073,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions\/7073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}