Black ink is the most difficult ink to work with. Cinnabar and gold are forgiving — they sit on top of the xuan paper, they dry bright, they look like themselves. Black ink sinks into the paper, and once it sinks, it cannot be lifted. If you make a stroke wrong, you start the seal over. I have started obsidian seals over more times than the other three lines combined. The reason I kept the line is that the people who wrote the original characters kept them too, and they did not start over. They committed to the stroke as it landed.
Why obsidian is for the days you have to be braver than you feel
The four lines in FORÊ are not interchangeable. Vermillion is for love. Gold is for money. Amethyst is for clarity. Obsidian is for the third category, which is everything else — the morning of the meeting you have been avoiding, the night before the conversation you keep postponing, the week of the move, the year of the loss, the decade of the slow recovery. Obsidian is not a protection against bad things happening. Obsidian is for the version of you that has to do the hard thing anyway, while the hard thing is still happening.
The 25 obsidian characters (selected)
The obsidian line, like the amethyst line, is entirely blind-pool. The 25 are not a fixed library. The 5 most often pulled in the first six months are:
- 勇 (Yǒng) — Courage. The character is 甬 (a long passage) with 力 (strength) inside. The seal for the morning of the meeting, when the passage is long and the strength is small.
- 敢 (Gǎn) — To dare. The character is 敢 with 耳 (ear) on the left and 敢 (dare) on the right. The seal for the conversation you keep not having, because the hearing of the answer is what you are avoiding.
- 立 (Lì) — To stand. The single-character seal for the day you cannot sit down any longer. The day you have to make a decision, even the decision to not decide yet.
- 行 (Xíng) — To walk, to act, to do. The character is a 彳 (small step) on the left and a 亍 (large step) on the right. The seal for the moment between thinking and doing.
- 定 (Dìng) — Settled, fixed, calm. The character is 宀 (roof) over 正 (correct). The seal for the day you need the roof to feel solid under you, even when nothing underneath has changed.
The other 20
The other 20 obsidian seals include 忍 (to endure, with care — not just to suffer), 忍 (different character, to be patient with), 持 (to hold, to maintain), 守 (to guard, to keep), 護 (to protect, the more formal version), 抵 (to resist, to arrive at), 撐 (to prop up, to hold open), 撐 (different character, to persevere), 撐 (third character, to hold together), 撐 (fourth), 退 (to retreat, the wise version), 進 (to advance, the brave version), 戰 (to do battle, with yourself), 勝 (to win, the small wins), 敗 (to lose, the survivable losses), 傷 (to wound, the wounds that teach), 痛 (pain, the kind that passes), 悲 (sorrow, the kind that does not), 孤 (alone, the good kind), 群 (together, the chosen kind). Each one is a specific character with a specific folk usage. Each one arrives in the blind pull.
How to use an obsidian seal
- Pull one. Do not look at the others.
- Read the character. Read the gloss. Read the single sentence. Do not interpret.
- Write the character on a small piece of black paper with white ink. Carry the paper in your pocket, not your wallet. The pocket is for objects you touch with your hands. The wallet is for objects you forget. The seal needs the touch.
- For the seven days you carry the seal, touch it once in the morning, once in the evening, when you are not thinking about anything in particular. The touch is the practice.
- On day eight, decide. The seal has done its work, or it has not. Either is correct.
What an obsidian seal is not
It is not armor. It will not keep the bad thing from happening. It is not going to make you feel less afraid. It is a single black character on a small piece of paper that you touch twice a day for a week, and the touch is the practice. The character is a thousand years old. The fear is yours. The decision to act anyway is also yours.
The 25 obsidian seals are in the blind pool at /products. From $6.99 a pull, 3-pull bundle at $16.99. $5 off with code FORERUI-LAUNCH.