Today in Tasmania and elsewhere around the world, the movie, The Da Vinci Code, opens in countless theatres. I haven’t read Dan Brown’s book, but numerous friends have and I’ve decided to use one of the symbols written about within the book as part of a major landscape feature.
The Pentagram is a five pointed star that must be drawn with five lines to create the interior pentagon. Long associated with the planet Venus and the worship of the goddess Venus, it is thought to have originated from the observations of prehistoric astronomers. When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus plot a nearly perfect pentagram shape around the Sun every eight years.
Although historically used in many religious faiths including Christian, it is most commonly used today as a Neopagan symbol to represent earth, air, fire and water plus the fifth element of quintessence of Spirit.
My kind of symbol. Especially as there have been fundamentalist Christian attempts to ban its being worn on clothing in American schools.
I will use a surveyor to plot out Windgrove’s pentagram within an existing circle established a few years ago on the hill behind the Peace Garden. This circle’s diameter is 500feet/150 meters. Nice and large. The pentagon, itself, within the pentagram, will measure 100 feet/30 meters across. Try to visualize the drawing of the pentagram (first image) being laid down onto this hillside circle.
To fill in the star’s form, I will plant 3000 dagger hakeas. (The photo above shows a similar type of hakea growing next to my house.) This is a rather dense small tree and, because they will be planted just one metre/three feet apart, they will be impenetrable to all but wombats and rabbits. The best part is that in May of each year, this neddle sharp hakea bursts into white flowers.
Obviously, not an easy task. My friends, Dave and Zoe, who run the Frog Hollow native plant nursery, will be gathering seed and germinating the tiny plants. They will be ready next year at this time. Then, somehow, we’ll figure out how to put this many seedlings into the ground.
In around five years time, the first white blossoming pentagram will occur. How magical. I wonder if it will attract three wise women?
Posted by Peter Adams at 02:23 PM. Filed under: Art • Flora •
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