Symbols, Foreign Languages and Intention in Henna

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Posted by Kenzi on November 23, 1999 at 04:28:44:

After a thread on the subject of doing henna/tattoos in other
languages, specifically languages with non-latin alphabets, I got to
thinking on the subject. I believe (and welcome any feedback or
discussion) that our intention is the key ingredient when doing a
design on someone in a language that is not our own, or with which we
are not entirely familiar. By intention, I mean the feeling behind
the design as imparted by the henna artist. For example, if you are
doing one of Catherine's upcoming peace designs, if you want the
magic of the design to manifest itself for the recipient, you should
have "peace" as your intention. And that if you are hennaing "peace"
on someone and silently planning murderous revenge on your landlord,
your intentions will not be pure. Likewise, if you are hennaing just
some symbol, whose meaning you don't know, it is just henna on skin,
without the magical properties it can embody (if you choose to
believe this).

I saw some recent program on the Discovery channel about mummies in
which scientists were trying to discover and then recreate the
methods which ancient egyptians embalmed and preserved bodies. They
used replica instruments, they copied ingredients and procedures
exactly and also said the prayers that priests once said over the
corpses. I wondered if these incantations would have the same effect
if they were said by a 20th century scientist as part of a necessary
step in an experiment without any particular intention of honoring
the specific gods mentioned, instead of by a priest of the time who
believed fully in what s/he was saying. Basically, would the prayers
have any effect without the intention.

If you are keen to express intention, maybe talking with the client
about their feelings about the design and the meaning behind it would
evoke that intention, or silently repeating a song or chant or prayer
that reflects the meaning of the design while hennaing the person, or
playing music which reflects it.

I am curious to hear how you all see your intentions behind the
designs, and what you do to bring it about.

p.s. just a little example, a client asked me to do a design based on
a tattoo of a panther...I was not crazy about the design and would
have rather done something different....lo and behold, the design
hardly took at all, it was the lightest stain I have yet achieved!

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