Dylan & the kolovrat

acinnamon-girl:

Okay, I’m starting this post
with a mea culpa. The other day, @depressioners pointed out something that has me facepalming. When I blogged
about Dylan and runes a couple of months back, I compared his symbol for
fate to an Icelandic Vegvísir.

This was
partly because of the way he scribbled the dashes at the end of each line –
sometimes they faced in opposite directions, sometimes they punctuated the ends
like a cross – but now I’m thinking those quirks were more likely due to his rushed,
haphazard way of sketching while thought writing.

@depressioners
mentioned when reblogging the post that Dylan sketched kolovrats, and that’s a
much more accurate description of his fate symbol! (Thank you, @depressioners!)

In his day
planner, we can see more fastidious examples of Dyl-ovrats:

The arrows in the second sketch are especially interesting, maybe suggesting what Dylan saw as the infinite, unstoppable wheel of destiny.

Polish
painter Stanisław Jakubowski
shared the kolovrat with the world in a 1923 book that compiled a collection
of Slavic symbols. It’s
an eight-armed Slavic swastika also known as the “little sun”, because it
symbolises the sun and represents eternal life. How intriguing that the
Sunshine Boy himself was drawn to it then – another synchronistic sun motif in
his short life (also see: his Setting Sun t-shirt and his plans for an alternate existence in sun-streaked Arizona).

Another
source describes the kolovrat as symbolising “the infinity and repeating
the cycle… in fight between Good and Evil”. It must be kismet that the symbol
Dylan chose to represent fate in fact represented another of his
preoccupations:

 “the battle between good & bad never ends…” – April 15, ’97

An eight-armed swastika that
bears a strong resemblance to the kolovrat was also used as the emblem of the
Vehmic courts, a tribunal system in Westphalia, Germany, from the 13^th
century until around the 16^th. 

The Vehmic courts dealt more in punishment and retribution than justice, giving this
seal a darker, undertone in contrast with the kolovrat. And around 1995, Nine
Inch Nails borrowed this
emblem for several Downward Spiral-era t-shirt
designs (example below).

It’s probable that Dylan became
familiar with this symbol through his interest in Nine Inch Nails, assigned it
his own meaning, and began drawing it regularly.

In his day planner for the week
of February 16-22, 1998, Dylan even planned what looks like a shirt design that incorporates the kolovrat/Vehmic court seal front and centre, with a
downward spiral on the left arm and the everlasting contrast symbol on the
right.

Isn’t it incredible how the
symbols Dylan was attached to had pertinent meanings beyond what he was likely aware of?
And yet, if you believe in synchronicity and signs, it makes perfect sense at the same time…

A kolovrat with a downward spiral in the centre…

Somehow I missed spotting this post but it’s a great dissection @acinnamon-girl 🙂  And @depressioners is spot-on identifying the symbol (I do so miss their presence on the tag and their ah-mazing artwork, btw. 😉 <3) 

As pointed out, Dylan’s half-baked ‘symbols’ t-shirt design was sketched in his day planner in Feb ‘98.  Interesting to note that it’s fresh on the heels of the January Incident (his van theft arrest on 1/30) and the waiting period of being processed into the diversion program. This time period was the absolute worst for Dylan:  he got busted for two traffic tickets and was caught scratching ‘Fag’ on the locker next to his. He was also out of a job since having quit at Blackjack at the end of the previous year.  Life had suddenly taken a massive turn for the worst and suddenly being the gifted, golden boy with a smooth and perfect track record was now a distant memory. So, he was dealing with some difficult and traumatic blows around this time period that this collection of symbols he resonated began to solidify into the patterned reflection that signified the gist of his self-perceived miserable life. As Dylan was getting sucked down ‘the up to down; down to up’ neverending drain that was the Downward Spiral and equally, felt the push-pull-push struggle of the equal forces of dark and light and the potentiality for good or evil as part of Everlasting Contrast symbol, the Kolovrat represented the unending journey in a circular, cyclical fashion – either from right to left or left to right, eternally spinning.

All three symbols are joined together as one as seen here what I like to call Dylan’s mandala.

It’s side-note interesting that Dylan’s family origins have a connection to this Slavic symbol (A portion of present-day Slavic people are classified into East Slavs (chiefly Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians). I don’t think it means a thing honestly but I thought I’d just throw that out there. 

My nutshell understanding of the Kolovrat symbol is that it is an ever-spinning, neutral/constant sun force – which sounds rather positive and life eternal life-giving. 🙂 At least, this appears to be the case for the clockwise version of the Kolovrat.   Dylan’s often quick sketch rendering of the symbol, he loosely connects the spinning circle’s directional, chicken-scratched, barbed-like endings in a reverse, counterclockwise direction instead.  He directly connects his version of the symbol as a sort of self-decreed divine ‘Fate’.  We know this because, in a passage or two, he even wrote out the word “Fate” but then scratched it out, opting to add the symbol in its place.  In everything I’ve read about the Kolovrat beyond your post, the symbol doesn’t appear to have much, if anything, to do with ‘Fate’.  The only thing that comes to mind in relation to how Dylan applies his symbol is in connection with the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ 10th card in the Tarot deck. The wheel symbol, on some of versions of Tarot cards, are drawn like the Buddhist Dharma wheel (which is  “the wheel of the law” and the order of Nature. The moving wheels symbolize the movement of cosmic order)  but looks nothing much like a Kolovrat though it’s meaning more closely resembles Dylan’s use of ‘Fate’.

“The ups & downs of fate are forever, good & bad, equal me.” – DBK

The Wheel of Fortune card is connected to Luck, Chance, Change, Destiny, Revolution, and Consequence and represents the cyclical nature of good and bad influences that can and do befall us in life at a moments notice – fluidly moving back and forth between good to bad and bad to good situations in life.  If the card is received upright it signifies good luck, karma, life cycles, destiny, a turning point – but reversed, bad luck, negative external forces, out of control.

As is the nature of fate, sometimes surprises aren’t so happy. Yet, what is “good” or “bad” is all in our interpretation. When what may appear as an unsavory event showing up unexpectedly in our lives we must try our best to recognize some potential good from the situation. We may not see any benefit in the tragedy – but down the line, (when the Wheel turns again) circumstances from that tragedy may lead to amazing and positive influences. 

“Obviously, this fight can never end. Good things turn bad, bad things become good, the ‘people’ on the earth see it as a battle they can win. HA fuckin morons. If people looked at History, they would see what happens.” – DBK

 The Wheel of Fortune is also about consequence and  “what goes around, comes around."  This is in line with the concept of Karma which is a philosophy that proposes every action we take affects everything else – what we sow, so shall we reap – for every action there is an equal reaction. It would seem likely that Dylan gravitated to NIN’s use of the reverse, counterclockwise Vehmic courts symbol seen in their merch at the time in connection with the Vehmic symbol of both punishment and retribution (or Karma as with the Wheel of Fortune’s Dharma-like wheel) in relation to justice and reward with its sharp barbs on the end of each spoke frantically spinning (I love the way he draws it with the directional arrows that you posted up above!) :))  Such a representation must have had a heady appeal for him in his sense of feeling disempowered in life. Just like the heads and tails of a coin, this is just the darker, flipside, an aspect of the Kolovrat, clockwise, sun wheel or like receiving the reverse or upside down Wheel of Fortune card in a spread. In sense, ‘Karma is a bitch’ but we must surrender to fate and weather that which is dealt us. Conversely, as in relation to the Vehmic symbol of punishment and retribution, so must others. Essentially, now others must suffer as I have myself.

Anyway, that’s my food for thought meanderings that came from this great post. I’ll stop here for now. 🙂