These are some of my Hand embroidery samples and their inspirations- which came from the idea of the 'external soul' in folktales- this concept is based on some extracts from a book called 'the golden bough' by Sir James George Frazer- in which he describes how;
"In the opinion of primitive man, the soul may absent itself from the body without causing death. such temporary absences of the soul are often believed to involve considerable risk, since the wandering soul is liable to a variety of mishaps at the hands of enemies and so forth. But there is another aspect to this power of disengaging the soul from the body.
The savage thinks of the soul as a concrete material thing of definite bulk, capable of being seen and handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to be bruised, fractured, or smashed in pieces"
In folktales the world over, the soul is described as a physical entity- a thing that can be stored in secret places, within other beings and imbued with magic- i took the inspiration for my embroideries from this particular extract-
"in another Hindoo tale an ogre is asked by his daughter- Papa, where do you keep your soul?
"Sixteen miles away from this place," he said "is a tree. Round the tree are
tigers and bears and scorpions and snakes; on the top of the tree is a great
fat snake; on his head is a little cage; in the cage is a bird;
and my soul is in that bird"
