[Anst-dancers] Badge for the Guild

[Craig Shupee']

Greetings Dancers –

I have a suggestion for our guilds badge.  Forgive the length, but I want to 
try and be clear.

As I see it – the badge must represent two things clearly – dance and 
Ansteorra.

I made use of the heraldic consultation table at Coronation this weekend, 
and this is what I have learned and would like to offer.

First, concerning the colors on the badge, I think we should use Or and 
Sable.  Currently – we have no color associated with out guild or with 
dance.  The colors we do have are the black and gold, and they easily 
symbolize the kingdom.  Other colors on the Kingdom devise are gules and 
vert (red and green), which we could also use.  Argent (white) is an option 
as well as the other metal.

Second, I think we should employ an ‘Ensign of Allegiance.’  This is a late 
period Italian heraldic practice that could show our loyalty as a dance 
community to Ansteorra.

Its blazon would be: “on a chief or a mullet of five greater and five lesser 
points sable.’

That is:
A gold bar across the top of the badge with an ‘Ansteorran Blackstar’ in the 
middle of the gold bar.

With this ‘Ensign of Allegiance’ in use, we would need to makes these 
decisions:

The badge’s field:  sable, vert, or, gules (black, green, red) to match the 
Kingdom device.

And a charge:  Either or or argent (yellow or white) and something that 
represents dance.

If we keep the badge very simple we would have the following:

Sable, {charge chosen by guild } or, on a chief or a mullet of five greater 
and five lesser points sable

A black circle with some charge the color of gold in the middle of it with a 
gold bar across the top of the badge with an ‘Ansteorran Blackstar’ in the 
middle of the gold bar.

Then we would only have to choose the charge we thought best represented 
dance, since we would have already shown commitment to the kingdom as a 
guild.

There has been the mention of a peacock feather.  This implying the pomp and 
showiness of dance.  Applied to this idea we would have:

Sable, a peacock feather or, on a chief or a mullet of five greater and five 
lesser points sable.
-or-
A black circle with a gold peacock feather in the middle of it with a gold 
bar across the top of the badge with an ‘Ansteorran Blackstar’ in the middle 
of the gold bar.

Another option could be legs in some form, such as:

Sable, a triskelion of human legs or, on a chief or a mullet of five greater 
and five lesser points sable.
-or-
A black circle with three gold legs conjoined at the hip the middle of it 
with a gold bar across the top of the badge with an ‘Ansteorran Blackstar’ 
in the middle of the gold bar.

“A triskelion, Greek for three-leg is associated with progress and 
competition, and originated in ancient Greece, where it for instance was 
used on coins.  Nowadays one can find the triskelion on the coat of arms of 
the Isle of Man, the island between Great Britain and Ireland.”

The above is butchered from the following websites:
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/16/1632.html
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/32/3217.html

They show a picture of a triskelion.  (It also shows how it is related to 
other symbols, which some people have expressed concern over.)

We could also do a foot, a slipper, shoes, or legs in a different form.

Once we decide on a favorite, and possibly on a few back ups, we can 
unofficially present them to the Kingdom Herald, and he will start us on 
correctly filling the forms out, conflict checking, and getting Crown 
approval, etc.

~Philip

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