Coral

Coral is known as the ‘garden of the sea’. Coral is believed to represent beauty out of perceived ugliness and transformation with an end result of extraordinary joy. Coral forms in warm waters from the skeletons of marine animals that live together in a symbiotic ecosystem. As the colony grows, branches form a unique pattern. Coral shows that as we embrace the future, our past remains as our foundation as we branch out and adapt to the new world and its potential challenges. Another ancient myth supports the themes associated with coral. The myth is about Medusa, a once beautiful woman, turned into a hideous beast by Athena. Medusa was capable of turning a person to stone with a glance. When Medusa was eventually beheaded, it is believed that some of her blood dripped into the sea to form, what we know today as, coral. This legend suggests that although Medusa had been an ugly, evil creature, her blood produced a healing crystal as beautiful as her former self.