I don’t know what my deal is you guys, but I’m really into hamsas (also Hand of Fatima) and healing/spiral hands lately. The Hamsa is a talisman against the Evil Eye and is also generally for luck etc; I saw the spiral hand motif a lot in Arizona and it appears in Native American art as a healing symbol (I couldn’t find very many on flickr, however).

1. Hand of Fatima, 2. Hamsa, 3. Hamsa array, 4. Hamsa, 5. Hamsa, 6. Hands, 7. Hand Of Fatima Copper And Sterling Silver Pendant Necklace, 8. The hand of Fatima, 9. hand of fatima

I even made a journal with the motif:

I’m sure this is extremely meaningful symbolism somehow. Also, I think am going to return to the journal. I will probably continue to use flat pages if I have a specific composition layout in mind or something. I don’t feel like there is any sort of continuity between unbound pages. Having them in a book kind of forces them to have a relationship with each other even if the subjects or styles are unrelated and I feel like it more appropriately documents that particular “chunk” of my life. So for me, journaling requires a journal. I had considered binding up the completed flat pages, but I dunno, I feel like that’s forcing them together somehow; they need to start and end together or it doesn’t work. Am I overthinking it?? haha

(about 5 minutes from now I will be complaining about the constraints of a book and return to flat pages…some people are never happy! )