RUNES OF SAMSARA

Chrome Type graphic graphic design metal samsara icon design icon system iconography Symbology symbols

THE RUNES OF SAMSARA

This project is a graphic experiment with the purpose of exploring new concepts that could be interesting for future material, in this case, i play with something that i've interested last days, runic iconography.

The investigation is based on the hinduist Samsara wheel that is a buddhist concept stemming from Hindu philosophies. Commonly translated in english as the “Six Realms of Karmic Rebirth”. This concept is the principal inspiration of one of the villians of naruto shippuden series too, Pain. All the rune icons represents each kingdoms that I will explain below

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Deva

The realm of heavenly beings filled with pleasure; the deva hold godlike powers; some reign over celestial kingdoms; most live in delightful happiness and splendor; they live for countless ages, but even the Deva belong to the world of suffering (samsara) -- for their powers blind them to the world of suffering and fill them with pride -- and thus even the Deva grow old and die; some say that because their pleasure is greatest, so too is their misery.

Humans

The human realm; beings who are both good and evil; enlightenment is within their grasp, yet most are blinded and consumed by their desires.

Asura

The realm of anger, jealousy, and constant war; the Asura (Ashura) are demigods, semi-blessed beings; they are powerful, fierce and quarrelsome; like humans, they are partly good and partly evil.

Animals

The realm of animals and livestock, characterized by stupidity and servitude.

Hungry ghosts

The realm of hungry spirits; characterized by great craving and eternal starvation.

Hell

The lowest and worst realm, wracked by torture and characterized by aggression.

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It should be noted that the hexagram shown as the main symbol, despite being the main religious symbol of Judaism, has no purpose to promote or represent any religion, simply its use in this work is merely for another specific motive that I investigated, because , like any geometric figure, the hexagram has very subjective and abstract meanings and one of the most used, apart from religion, is magic, which fits very well for the theme of this project