Dunedain Star Brooch...

[doghsin]

Doghsin, I think you may be reading into this a little deeper than exists. We're just a group of like minded Tolkien geeks that want to discuss what we each interpret as Tolkien's vision. We have no structure inside or outside the forum (beyond Andy being the chieftain) and if we did, I think I'd be one of the first to jump ship!

i hear ya.

i realize that every person is unique and will have different perspectives and take away different things from this community. some of the posts ive read here led me to believe that a lot of you were attempting to bring more 'organization' (if thats the right word). basically viewing this as a kind of 'fiction based SCA' in its forming stages. but because im new here and still havent read all the posts, its no surprise that i could be totally wrong.

ive been constantly taking notes to help me articulate a post ide like to make explaining my view on what being a ranger means to me. im not even sure i fit in here (with regards to the RP aspect)and maybe ive come here expecting to find something that doesnt exist, but out of all the groups ive found, i think this is the best place for finding similarly minded people.

again though, i was under the impression that some of the posters here were making an effort to take this community 'to the next step'. and even if not, its still fun to fantasize about, eh?

below is a link to a short clip that gives me great inspiration on how i choose to live my life. in some ways it doesnt fit this community, but imo, it is right on the money.
sometimes it is

[mcapanelli]

You mean this

The Heart Sutra.

Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, The Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

Here, Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.

Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and non-attainment.

Therefore, Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainment that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!

[Gareth]

...

[Mirimaran]

The pin don't make you a Ranger, YOU do.

Well said, Gareth! I don't think any of us attended a secret initiation to call ourselves Rangers of the North, and I made my own star years ago. I think the intent was to have a Ranger star that would identify members of this particular forum, so when cast near and far at faires and gatherings we could recognize one another and then proceed to the secret handshake and etc

Now for me, and others I know, being a Ranger is not just something I like to write about, or portray at faire, but try to emulate in real life. I try to be a person who is reliable, dependable, forthright, honest, as brave as I can be in the face of a situation, who helps the poor and downtrodden, and battles the Shadow in all it's forms; for the Enemy ever works at destroying the wills and spirit of Men, and if we Rangers do not stand up to the Shadow, who will? In this world, we are stripped of bow and spear and sword most days, and left with our wits alone to outsmart those who would seek to destroy rather than create. We are here to show others that Men can be a bulwark against evil, and not it's pawns. We should inspire and encourage, we should be examples to others what a Ranger can be in this world.

That's my take on it anyways...and I would be proud to wear the Star of this Ranger troop every single day

[mcapanelli]

That's all fine and dandy but I'm here for the handshake and the secret Tengwar decoder ring.

Really though I think we're all here for our own reasons. For myself it's about learning primitive survival skills and being in comune with nature min a way that's lacking in our modern and to me vastly overdeveloped world. It's also a chance to combine my love of historic combat and weapontry with my life long love of fantasy and Tolkien. I'd add more but the little ranger is crying

[Willrett]

Very well said guys. I think we are all here for the same basic reasons but where it can go from there is up to the individual. I found this site buy doing google searches for rangers when I came across Andy's amazing site, after I read all the info (a few times) I happened to look at the links and off I went.

As far as this topic goes. I think rangers can have several affiliations and so have many different pins, brooches, necklaces, ect. I think we need a group symbol for this site to show our unity, but also you can have them for any other group or clan as well. One for here, one if you part of ST Huberts, one for your local area or core group, hell there could even be one for each section of the country (east, west) its all a personal choice what you want to show and when. I am currently coming up with a few designs for myself and hope to get each made.

[doghsin]

(my final post of derailment)

mcapanelli, i should have given a better description on my reason to post that vid.
although i have many Buddhistic tendencies, i agree more with the Daoist philosophy.

anyway, the reason Ghostdog, and that scene in particular, is one of my favorite movies (as corny as it can be in places) is that i love that hes a character who identifies with an 'archetype' from ancient history and devotes his life to exemplifying the ideas he feels connected to. even though i personally dislike the Samurai for many of the same reasons i dont like the Euro aristocratic Knighthood, this is something i respect.

its not 'living in the past', its bringing the past into modern living.
to use your life the way you feel it should be, not blindly imitating what you see around you (living on autopilot), but searching out what gives inspiration and meaning to your life, regardless of time and place, and going 'all the way' with it.

were getting payed per comma in our posts, right?

[Greg]

I, think, it's, somewhere, in, the, dunedain, manual...


,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I, hope.

[Willrett]

I, think, it's, somewhere, in, the, dunedain, manual...


,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I, hope.

I think we need a pocket version and cheat sheets, its a pretty big book.

[Gareth]

...

[Greg]

I think, as awesome as a standardized design would be, everyone's going to have their own personal preference for star brooches and the like, so we'll probably never end up choosing one that everyone is okay with. That being said, this thread could function VERY well as a place to post a photo of YOUR own design(s), etc. If you get yours made/make one and someone likes it, you can easily contact them and work out a way to get one for yourself, but it's become fairly clear to me that we're going to wind up running in circles as to what design we all like, so perhaps that's something we shouldn't necessarily be looking for.

[Peter Remling]

Whle we all have our preferences, if the cost was affordable I think, most here would want a copy of whatever design was chosen.

[Greg]

Alrighty, I got to work in MSPaint, which is my favorite drawing program, and punched out all of these. If you guys like where this is going, I'll set up a poll as a separate thread so we can have some voting.

I apologize if it seems like I haven't included your idea in my process, and if anyone thinks I've overstepped my bounds, please let me know. I simply observed the overall consensus for what everyone seemed to like in a star, and put that all together to make some concrete options. I've been drawing in MSPaint for years, and am at the point where I can do many things that people can only accomplish in Photoshop, so if you have a major complaint, let me know and odds are, I can draw it.

The stars I've drawn all look pretty much the same, but there are two sets; one set of four/eight-pointed stars, and one set of six-pointed stars, reflecting what most everyone here seemed to like.

The two-toned colors are to show depth; this would be made of steel, silver, or pewter, I'd imagine.
BEAR IN MIND, NOTHING HERE IS NECESSARILY TO SCALE. WE CAN ALWAYS CHOOSE TO MAKE THE POINTS MORE NARROW, OR MAKE ONE OF THE RINGS THINNER/THICKER. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TALK ABOUT ANY ADJUSTMENTS YOU'D LIKE TO SUGGEST.





The second star I'm in the process of drawing, but it looks exactly the same, except with six equal-length points. I'm partial to the eight points, likening it to a compass, but that's just me. My favorite is the third one.

[Eledhwen]

I don't think you can overstep your bounds really, so no worries on that score.

The designs are nice. I've been considering embroidering a star design on my blouse collar...yep, I put collars on my shirts/blouses..and I tend to make them a little more appropriate for my build. Just like the leather jerkin, the which is planned to have a star stitched to it as well.

The one I use tends to be of six points with smaller stars between each of the arms, mostly because somewhere I can't recall that star design was associated with Eärendil and I thought it fit nicely.

Good job on those.

Siani

[dwayne davis]

Did any one else get a memmo on us having a manuel?? I never get memmos..