benajohnson:

mike-sullman asks: “What does the symbol mean?”

That’s a good question. I designed it years ago to be my own personal sigil/seal/symbol. I’d previously designed something that I’d lost the original file for, so this was my replacement. I was inspired by the way in which the Star of David is made of two interlocking triangles, and I wanted to make a similar design for what I sometimes refer to as the “Star of Ben” which is four interlocking equilateral triangles with two circles. It creates a star that is either 4, 8, or 16 pointed depending on how you count the points.

In many ways it represents my own delusions of grandeur to have a personal sigil not unlike a royal coat of arms. This is partly why when I color it in I use blue and purple. Purple and blue are both two of my favorite colors, but they also have aristocratic associations (though I have neither blue blood, nor am I of imperial stock).

The star is frequently misunderstood to be a pentagon, but as it has a number of points only in multiples of four, that would be incorrect. Additionally since it’s more based on the Star of David its inspiration is much more devout than devilish.

I’ve used this symbol for over a decade now, and I’ve frequently considered getting it as a tattoo, but now I find myself closer to doing so than ever before.

Modern mandala

xaos:

An “escape time” fractal generated by homemade software using recurrence relation z(n) = 1/(z(n – 1) + z(0))^2. By Fractal Ken.

But you knew that.