The theme for this week's Friday Illustration is 'Karma'. That's usually taken to mean the big cosmic boomerang that occurs via 'the Will of God' regarding the consequences of our actions. Some place this 'consequence' as happening 'in the life to come', ie., "You were a rat in the last life, so you come back as a rat." I would rather put the responsibility for this in our own hands and regarding the here and now.

Thus, "Our Future Is in Our Hands". It is our choices which determine the type of future we get.

I was pondering possible Egyptian symbology for 'grasping', as meaning 'it's in your hands', and that served to inspire the symbology in this illo.

In one of my forums, we were discussing the symbology of the 'Was' scepter, regarding the user grasping the 'head of Set'. One respondent thought this could have less than optimal implications. However, I thought of other symbols which are grasped in the hand. One of the meanings of the ankh is the 'life force' and that the holder has the ability to both take and give life force. The ankh is usually clutched by the hoop in the hand. This grasping symbology could mean in regards to the Was scepter that Set's energy 'is in the hands' of the one holding the scepter. This may have been understood by most to mean only gods and kings could wield this power. However those who seek their inner divinity and sovereignty can aspire to this. I am reminded of a Setian phrase (I'm not sure if it was taken from ancient times or is a new phrasing), "Great Is The Might Of Set, Greater Still He Through Us!" Thus, the noble sovereign has Set's power to wield.

The key to the quality of our life is in the choices we make, for each choice brings consequences.

When I began, I had in mind how this illustration would look. At first I went to the Printmaster art library, to get ideas for hands, keys and doors, and thought to do it strictly from assembling and reassembling clip art from there. But then I just used those as ideas, models from which to draw for the key and keyhole. Also, I used my own hand, holding a small disc, for the model of the hand.

Multiplying the keyhole emphasizes multiplicity of choices. Also I thought of the Pythagorean number symbology in which the number four represents things becoming materialized, actualized. Or did that association come as a side effect of four looking more dynamic than merely three? Whatever, it works.

Also, as 'side effect symbology', (the real reason is I held the disc in my left hand and sketched with my right hand, though flipping the image digitally is possible), it being a 'left hand' can also symbolize the Left Hand Path, which emphasizes the role of a person's own Will in determining their path.

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