Mala Making

[Long Yun]

I'm making a mala and here are the beads I've chosen:

 

108 rudraksha beads symbolizing the destruction of ignorance

3 natural dzi resting beads to protect from evil and give good health

6 bone spacers to remind me of impermanence and come to terms with death

6 copper/iron/brass spacers to bring good health (Tibetan medicine metals)

1 undetermined material guru/stupa bead

 

What should the guru bead be made from? Anyone know of any special, symbolic, or traditional materials for guru beads? Stone, wood, or seed. It doesn't matter to me. I just want it to have a deeper meaning than the cedar one I have planned. Cedar is only symbolic of smelling good

[shontonga]

I'm making a mala and here are the beads I've chosen:

 

108 rudraksha beads symbolizing the destruction of ignorance

3 natural dzi resting beads to protect from evil and give good health

6 bone spacers to remind me of impermanence and come to terms with death

6 copper/iron/brass spacers to bring good health (Tibetan medicine metals)

1 undetermined material guru/stupa bead

 

What should the guru bead be made from? Anyone know of any special, symbolic, or traditional materials for guru beads? Stone, wood, or seed. It doesn't matter to me. I just want it to have a deeper meaning than the cedar one I have planned. Cedar is only symbolic of smelling good

 

 

One of my loves is mala making!

 

OooOOo, Cedar is interesting stuff to work with?

Has Much much more to it than smelling good and keeping away moths!

It is also used for it's procreative qualities. The ways it is procreative are sort of a shielding way but also in a strengthening way? Might be interesting for you to find out how it's been used traditionally. even the seeds are used in similar ways. Ghost beads are still very much used. They are made out of juniper or cedar. Granted this may not be taoist use but it's the(a) native American way. One of the explanations that I really like of Cedars energy/spirt is ~ " Provides stability to the wandering soul. " If you wanted to know more about it there is probably alot of info on the web too! Will help you out if you can't find any.

 

Any bead could be a guru bead but often when teaching folks to make them we end up making a tassel of beads. Might be nice to see what elements are missing if you wanted to go the 5 E rout? How would you represent water? Fire? You have Wood and Metal and sorta have earth depending on how you define things but could also use a hand made clay bead ... maybe even make it?

 

The numbers used are also an interesting study. 108 is traditional(Buddhist(like 99 Muslim/59 rosary christian) ) but other numbers are also used for other reasons, other results.

 

Have Fun with it! Love to see a picture someday down the line!

Just finished one recently made out of aquamarine some sweet spinel, love it.

Have you made any before?

 

Stay well!

Shon

 

Sounds Absolutely Perfect so far, and like the meanings are already special for you.

I could go on and on about malas but will make this way to long, lol, but feel free

to ask if you have any question!

[Long Yun]

How would you represent water? Fire?

 

Have you made any before?

 

I could go on and on about malas but will make this way to long.

Haha, how would I incorporate these? Color? Enhydro quartz? Volcanic stone?

 

Yeah, I've made one out of just old wood beads from Walmart. I made some shell spacers and used tigers eye, russian jade, and amethyst rest beads. Made a tassel out of black linen. Speaking of which, what would some good colors be for tassels? What colors represent what?

 

Please, do go on! I'd love to hear more about malas.

[Long Yun]

Have Fun with it! Love to see a picture someday down the line!

Just finished one recently made out of aquamarine some sweet spinel, love it.

I'd love to see some pics of your malas too It's always great to see some design ideas.

[shontonga]

I'd love to see some pics of your malas too It's always great to see some design ideas.

 

sorry am just passing through quickly but will get back to this soon!

tomorrow? Will see if i can get some pics? may be not so great quality but will try!

Stay well!

Shon

[Long Yun]

I'm thinking that color will be the easiest way to incorporate them. Perhaps one red spacer and one blue one on either side of the guru bead. And I guess I'll either stick with the cedar, or use some kind of nut that we have at home (we call it a buckeye, but I don't know if that's what it really is) Any more traditional suggestions?

[shontonga]

Haha, how would I incorporate these? Color? Enhydro quartz? Volcanic stone?

 

Yeah, I've made one out of just old wood beads from Walmart. I made some shell spacers and used tigers eye, russian jade, and amethyst rest beads. Made a tassel out of black linen. Speaking of which, what would some good colors be for tassels? What colors represent what?

 

Please, do go on! I'd love to hear more about malas.

 

Ahh, let's see?

Sorry I haven't had much time to reply, hope you've still had fun thinking about it all!

 

OooOOo an enhydro would be very cool? Could add it to the end as or below the mountain bead.

Volcanic stone would work nice too? Obsidian is usually readily available.

What we usually see is black obsidian but it comes in every color of the rainbow, it's volcanic glass.

Pumice stone you can find in drug stores, usually sold for callus removing,lol, good for feet!

It's also volcanic and easy to carve, though has a rough feel to it, I think you could color it, it floats!?!

With the "Russian Jade" If you are working with it for energetics and want to look it up, it is actually Serpentine.

Not Jade but still a very cool stone, used a lot for drawing energy up the back like kundalini stuff. Worth looking up! Lot's of times it has black in it, if you take a magnet to it and it sticks that's magnetite, also a good stone.

 

Your mala sounds beautiful. woods steady strength with amethysts gentleness, tigers eyes grounded courage mixed with a bit of the seas "purity". Linen has long fibers that lent to it's strength, nice to have a natural string on them. Lot's of times the linen is waxed and stiff when you make things with it but it gets nice and soft as it's worn or worked with.

 

As far as colors there is So many ways to interpret them!

Depends on the tradition one is following and then there is off shoots of those same traditions,

and then within those are individual peoples interpretations.

Be interesting to look up the tcm descriptions for them.

 

Not sure what your background knowledge is, or if this will make any sense,but

this is basic TCM (5 elements) kind of description?

 

Black(blue)= Water, Extreme Yin, North, Hearing, Fear/worry, Winter, cold,Wisdom

Red = Fire, Extreme Yang, South, Touch, Joy/Love/Hate, Summer, Heat, Propriety

White(silver?)=Metal,Lesser Yin, West,Smell, Worry(grief/guilt/regrets/lamenting), Dryness, Righteousness

Turquoise(green)= Wood, Lesser Yang, East, Sight, Anger/resentment, Wind, Benevolence

Yellow= Earth, Center/Neutral, Center, Taste, Obsession/Empathy/Sympathy/Thoughtfulness Reflection,Damp,Sincerity

 

Not sure if this is a help, lots of ways to work with it though?

 

This is just a very ragged tired description, I'm afraid,

just wanted to get back to you!

 

Will try and get some pictures as time allows, right now it's hard to come by!

 

Stay well,

Shon

 

If this doesn't make sense feel free to say and will tweak it, lol!

[Long Yun]

Ahh, let's see?

Sorry I haven't had much time to reply, hope you've still had fun thinking about it all!

 

OooOOo an enhydro would be very cool? Could add it to the end as or below the mountain bead.

Volcanic stone would work nice too? Obsidian is usually readily available.

What we usually see is black obsidian but it comes in every color of the rainbow, it's volcanic glass.

Pumice stone you can find in drug stores, usually sold for callus removing,lol, good for feet!

It's also volcanic and easy to carve, though has a rough feel to it, I think you could color it, it floats!?!

With the "Russian Jade" If you are working with it for energetics and want to look it up, it is actually Serpentine.

Not Jade but still a very cool stone, used a lot for drawing energy up the back like kundalini stuff. Worth looking up! Lot's of times it has black in it, if you take a magnet to it and it sticks that's magnetite, also a good stone.

 

Your mala sounds beautiful. woods steady strength with amethysts gentleness, tigers eyes grounded courage mixed with a bit of the seas "purity". Linen has long fibers that lent to it's strength, nice to have a natural string on them. Lot's of times the linen is waxed and stiff when you make things with it but it gets nice and soft as it's worn or worked with.

 

As far as colors there is So many ways to interpret them!

Depends on the tradition one is following and then there is off shoots of those same traditions,

and then within those are individual peoples interpretations.

Be interesting to look up the tcm descriptions for them.

 

Not sure what your background knowledge is, or if this will make any sense,but

this is basic TCM (5 elements) kind of description?

 

Black(blue)= Water, Extreme Yin, North, Hearing, Fear/worry, Winter, cold,Wisdom

Red = Fire, Extreme Yang, South, Touch, Joy/Love/Hate, Summer, Heat, Propriety

White(silver?)=Metal,Lesser Yin, West,Smell, Worry(grief/guilt/regrets/lamenting), Dryness, Righteousness

Turquoise(green)= Wood, Lesser Yang, East, Sight, Anger/resentment, Wind, Benevolence

Yellow= Earth, Center/Neutral, Center, Taste, Obsession/Empathy/Sympathy/Thoughtfulness Reflection,Damp,Sincerity

 

Not sure if this is a help, lots of ways to work with it though?

 

This is just a very ragged tired description, I'm afraid,

just wanted to get back to you!

 

Will try and get some pictures as time allows, right now it's hard to come by!

 

Stay well,

Shon

 

If this doesn't make sense feel free to say and will tweak it, lol!

Makes good sense to me. I could use a black pumice guru instead of the cedar (black being water and pumice being fire, even though the stone itself is earth). That would bring both into the mala and would sort of symbolize one of the goals of inner alchemy... the joining of kan and li, but with a grounding earth influence. I think I may go with that one. Maybe a cedar stupa bead. Thanks Shon!

[Long Yun]

What could I possibly use to represent Jing/Qi/Shen by the way?

[Long Yun]

Finished the mala! I don't have any pics right now, but I really like the way it turned out. Used rudraksha, bone, dzi, and a lava stone guru bead with a smoky quartz stupa bead and a blue tassle. I left off the metal spacers, but I strung it on a white cord to incorporate the metal element. But regardless, I love it!