pete.young Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Starting today in a couple of threads (Jim Marshall and the Band Van one), I keep seeing a combination of letters: a backslash, a lower-case 'm' and a forward slash. Looks like: " \m/ " (but without the inverted commas). Any idea what this ought to be? I'm on Firefox 11.0 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Metaaaaaaaaaal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Sorry, unhelpful - you know the devil horns? It's them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderbird13 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 (edited) another chance to remember a great loss - this is the proper devil horn sign [attachment=104237:photo.jpg] sorry the pictues a bit small Edited April 5, 2012 by thunderbird13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andydye Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 [quote name='thunderbird13' timestamp='1333629361' post='1604515'] another chance to remember a great loss - this is the proper devil horn sign [attachment=104237:photo.jpg] sorry the pictues a bit small [/quote] RIP RJD once again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Oh silly me, I assumed that it was some piece of HTML tomfoolery that Firefox was refusing to interpret! Thanks for the explanations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashell Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Glad you asked, Pete. I didn't know what it was either. I even googled it but couldn't find it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 It's debatable if the gesture is symbolic for the devil. In an interview from 'Metal, a Head-Bangers Journey', RJD claims providence for using it first. He says it something called the 'Malchai' (IIRCC), which he learnt from his Grand-Mother. It's primary purpose is to ward off evil spirits, ensuring the protection of the user and is not a symbol for Devil worship. However it depends on your point of view of what the Devil, and his role in the greater scheme of things is. In pre-Christian Pagan worship the Old Horned God, The Green Man, or The Man of the Woods was an antler wearing half man, half beast and was the consort to the Earth Goddess and not a symbol of evil, but one of fertility and hunting. The Christian faith (allegedly, not by me) turned the Old Horned God into the Devil to ward folk away from old pagan faiths towards Christianity. Do you have an Morris-Men in your area? There will usually be one of them running around wearing antlers, and the whole Morris Dancing thing is steeped in Pagan fertility symbolism. Anyway, others have laid claim to using it on the rock stage first. Alice Cooper and Gene Simmons (predictably enough) being the other two that spring to mind. But, it has become the universal gesture for all things rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderbird13 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I'v also been told that the sign spells out 666 as if you look at it sideways you have 2 six s made by the little finger and the curled up middle fingers and 1 six made by the index finger and the curld up middles and the last six being upside down and made by the thumb and the curled up fingers - probably thought of afterwards though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 (edited) Ah, well, since Ronnie Dio's family was originally Italian (wasn't his real surname Padovano or something similar?), I think he just copied the horns sign which Italians use in the same way as the British touch wood to ward off bad luck. Also, horns usually = devil in most cultures*. Edit: should have read Christian cultures Edited April 6, 2012 by bluejay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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