Coat of Arms

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I've been working on designing a set of personal coat of arms. It's kind of interesting to see what happens; I choose what I like and I choose what has meaning, but there are reasons for everything I like. None of it is random. Some things seem to have multiple meanings. It's more of an introspection than a creation. First there is the shield. (I'm not using the proper terminology because I don't know it all). It's divided into four sections by two diagonal lines. The top and bottom sections are solid black. The side sections are a deep blue, perhaps specked with stars. Across the top are three blood-red triangles. In the lower section, but slightly overlapping the others is a tree. The roots extend off the shield. The shield is supported on the right by a dragon and on the left by a lion. I like dragons, that is a representation of the more agressive side of my personality, of the powerful emotions of anger and destruction that I often feel. It is also representative of the fact that power can be disguised, hidden, or better yet channeled. Think of a dragon flying by, muscles rippling, but not all dragons are destructive- they choose when to unleash their power. The lion is on the left and a support because it is something outside of me. Where the dragon is more raw energy, the lion has personality and strength and nobility. The lion is male. I've got two ideas on what exactly it's supposed to be, and in a way I think it's a bit of both. One of them is Aslan. The tree on the shield is representative of my love of nature, my resistance to change,and they way I try to reach into and beyond (the crown not being confined to the one color section and the roots extending off the shield). It shows connection and drawing together. The color black is just because I like black. It's dark. It's got lots of possible meanings. The dark blue is the night sky and that blue is a color I really like. The blood red triangles at the top are pointing down, and they are a stylized continuation of something I'll get to in a minute (although I had them there before I put the other thing on, but it makes sense this way). Above the shield is a hand grasping a knife. It is off-center (to the right) with the blade pointing diagonaly down to the left. It goes under the red triangle, is darker in the black section, and shows clearly silver over the blue section. It is slightly behind the tree. (It's kinda big: if it didn't go behind some things, it would be overpowering.) Why? Cause a sword is too long. Behind this hand, reaching up from behind the shield, is another hand, open, outstretched, reaching upward. It represents straining for truth and for God. After some though about that hand, it came to me what else to do with it. Coming down from a source above the page is a stream of blood, running through the fingers and down the hand. The red triangles are a sort of stylized continuation of this stream of blood covering me. This is my declaration of salvation. It seems rather gruesome to me, but blood is the only covering for sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. His blood, His death, covers me so that I can live. Perhaps I should also find some way to indicate the resurection in there. However, that is a future promise, and it is none of my doing. About a background, I'm not sure. I was thinking of putting a sort of hill for the dragon and lion to stand on and for the tree to sink its roots into, but then that goes off the page and doesn't seem to prove a sufficient border/closure for my satisfaction. I'd also had the idea of rays of light, like from the rise of a sun behind the shield being a background. I'm not so sure how that fits, though. Another thought I'm having is some sort of creature with outspread wings on which the dragon and lion stand. Then either the head/mouth/beak (depending on the creature) supports the shield, or the tree roots become a sort of armish appendage on a humanoid figure (winged humanoid figure). I could also, I suppose, use a sort of scroll for them to stand on, but then I'd have to come up with words.