Staffer WeeTanya drew to our attention this article from the folks who created the title sequence for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

If you’d been wondering what those dancing grains, and the patterns they make, are all about, then wonder no more! Or maybe, wonder a little more; it seems there are secrets hiding in the images… ‘Plains of Yonder’ are the team behind the sequence, and they took for their inspiration nothing less than the music of the Ainur itself. The patterns and images seen on screen reflect the phenomenon of cymatics, when ‘Vibrations of fine particles on a flat surface display striking symmetrical patterns that reflect audio frequencies.’

Plains of Yonder’s team write:

The sequence conjures an ancient and invisible power, struggling to be seen. Symbols form, flow, push, and disappear as quickly as they came. The unknowable realms of sound create fleeting visions of conflict and harmony that move in lockstep with Howard Shores’ opening title score.

Over a dozen hidden symbols reflect themes and storylines in the show.  Some are hidden in plain sight and others are far more subtle. Successive episodes reveal more meaning to the symbology.

What symbols have been spotted thus far? Two trees have appeared; and in the opening to Episode Three, there appeared to be something dark and perhaps sinister winding its way through the rest of the golden particles. Could this represent Melkor interweaving ‘matters of his own’? The beginning of all evil in Arda…?

Read the article here; and look out for symbols in the episodes to come!