Artist Statement
A few months ago, I read about Etsy sellers offering cheap imported jewelry which had supposedly been infused with the spirits of magical creatures. Although those extemp storytellers put a lot of work into the fictions they built up around this jewelry, they didn't make the jewelry itself. As a skeptic, a propmaker and a storyteller, I challenged myself to make something better.
The criteria were simple: create an object that that makes the user feel powerful through play (as the line between play and ritual is vanishingly thin), but that contains nothing that could possibly be considered magickal.
The result are Burning Scrolls, little slips of paper with doodles on them, a few sticks, a bit of incense and a long raffia tail, with which to tie the bundle together like an old world scroll. They also come with a piece of "sacred" chalk with which to mark the scroll as you perform the ritual related to it. Having added your own marks to the scroll, you tie it up and cast it into a fire, releasing it's energy.
With a self-imposed budget of $20 to put the result into production, I collected most of the materials from Dollar Tree, with a few key ingredients coming from Michael's. Between the florescent lights and linoleum floors of these retail behemoths nesting in a dirty shopping center on the side of I-35, these components had been waiting, processed and packaged. If there had ever been any natural energy in them, it was long since drained.
I also made sure that the means of production were simple and could be haphazardly performed, lest it be said that the creative energy I invested in the project somehow actually created magic. The first run of scrolls, which have already been created at this writing, took one afternoon to make (position of the moon was not taken into account).
I prototyped five different scrolls, applying meanings to them at a whim, relabeling the types of wood and the aromas of the incense sticks at random. Each one comes with ritual instructions that are part story, part game. The per-unit material cost of a burning scroll is about 47 US cents, shipping not included.
The destructability of each piece, indeed it's *need* to be destroyed, signals the inevitable end of the story. Art, and all experience, will eventually be forgotten, but here I offer the player a chance to control that decay. You can roll your scroll up and preserve it, or if you like, never even take it out of its package. You control the progression of its story, and *that* is powerful magic in and of itself.
A purchase from Rule of Three is a show of support for the storyteller. As stated, I am a skeptic and do not believe in the supernatural. All descriptions in this Etsy account referring to the magical properties of Burning Scrolls are works of fiction and will be labeled as such.
Peace, love and happiness - Haley
BONUS QUESTION: Why is your shop named Rule of Three?
Originally, I had plans to have this store run by three fictional characters, Thistle, Colwyn and Satcha, and the name was a pun on their partnership. I scrapped these characters because I was afraid that having a fictional voice attached to this might slip into actual deception.
The name means a couple of other things. I have a theory that when you sell three things bundled together, it creates an illusion that these objects interface to create some complete function. You can see this principle in action in the design of childrens' toys and other kit-based products. Three items seems to be the threshold for the claim "everything you need."
Of course, this is also a reference to the neo-pagan concept of karma, in which I have no faith - partly because were it real, it would have caught up with the world's snake oil salespeople long ago.
