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The seal displayed
below is composed of nine points forming a square. The interpretation of this simple pattern which, in the traditions of heraldry, is said to be the most elementary aspect of any blazon or coat of arms, has evolved in a surprising variety of ways. It has found many applications, some unexpected: it is a secret, a riddle, a conundrum, an enigma, an exercise in reasoning, a philosophical diagram and an instrument of initiation. It also provides the ground-plan of a game akin to hopscotch called Ananta (children usually call it Anaan). Forbidden (along with kites) by the recent dictatorial regimes, the game is once more widely played by children throughout the land.
The riddle itself is simple enough and has been widely reproduced, though few people are aware of its origin and true significance:
“One line, three turns, nine points, join them all.”
Or, in more austere terms: “connect all nine points with a single line forming no more than three angles.”
The seal of the nine points is first and foremost the royal seal and was inscribed on a famous gold ring and known as the Diard-en-Dnaid , traditionally worn by of kings of Gondwana. This ring appears to have been lost when Ramanag XIII, the country's last king, was deposed and sent into exile in 1904.
The motto, inscribed in abbreviated form on the border of the seal, is the following :
Lorum Possibilitatis Tenet Realitatem – Intollerablilis Inversio
The Possible holds the Real on a Leash
the Opposite would be Unacceptable.
While the original source of this device was not generally known in other parts of the world, its paradoxical assertion (which turns on its head the usual assumption that “the real alone determines what is possible”) has been widely quoted over the years, ever since its publication by the late itinerant poet and epigrapher, Christian Dotremont, who traveled widely through Gondwana in his lifetime.
The circle is occasionally flanked on either side by a Lion and a Unicorn rampant. The lion wears a collar with a chain or tether. In an obvious reference to the motto, the unicorn holds the other end of the tether daintily between its teeth.
The esoteric aspects of the seal are fully developed in the Book of the Threefold Question (now extremely rare), printed in 1579 on the presses of the Monastery and Fortified City of Fata Morgana. Copies are still found in the library of that Monastery and in the Royal Library in Levana. Each of the nine points of this diagram has received a name and a complex system of interpretation of each one of the points was gradually elaborated over the ages. In the Monastery of Fata Morgana alone, seventy distinct schools of thought grew out of this simple pattern.
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