The Bagua Spinner

The Weight in the Palm 

Motion · For the energy that has nowhere to go

There is energy in your hands right now that has nowhere to go.

SOLUMA's Bagua Spinner is cast from solid brass, engraved with the eight Daoist trigrams — 八卦, the eight fundamental patterns through which Daoist cosmology describes all change and transition in the natural world. It is precision-balanced for sustained, quiet rotation. Not a fidget toy. An object for the hands when the rest of you is waiting — in a meeting, between difficult conversations, in the minutes before sleep.

The eight trigrams of the bagua are not decorations. Each represents a state of nature — sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, lake — and in Daoist thought, each state contains within it the seed of its opposite. Thunder carries the possibility of stillness. Mountain carries the possibility of movement. To hold the bagua in your palm is to hold, in miniature, the idea that no state is permanent. What is tight will loosen. What is fast will slow. The spinner gives your hands something to do while the rest of you remembers this.

The ceramic bearing allows for smooth, extended rotation with minimal sound. The brass will develop a natural patina with daily use — the mark of an object that has been held, regularly, by one set of hands.

One hand. A slow turn. The day exists somewhere else for a moment.