History of Astore

third half spirit

Astore: The legend of a symbol. 

 

I once heard an old legend about a goshawk that was able to appear in a wide array of forms. Its power consisted in becoming a team spirit, as healthy rivalry and encouraging self-improvement.

It was very difficult to see, but everyone knew it was there--it could be felt. By simply flapping its wings once, it could transform a muddy playing field into comfortable seats in which to share the experience with friends.  By flapping them twice, it could turn sweat into aroma and the grimace of effort into a smile. And by flapping its wings three times, it was said that it could conjure the players´ ancestors, who were reincarnated to share the same areas and places where they had sweat years and even centuries before.

The goshawk was a mythical spirit, the spirit of the mountains by the sea. But there was a moment when sports stopped being what they had once been, and became a confrontation, an unsportsmanlike fight. That mythical spirit, which had flown between fields of crops as well as line-covered grass, was locked in a cage.

At this point, gone were the times when after competing, teams would share those moments of a healthy challenge, the times when a shirt stained with sweat, hope and rematch became comfortable attire, and the third spirit was forgotten, the sincere arm, the moment when one felt proud for having competed with the person that looked into their eyes, and whose eyes they looked into...
But the goshawk is an animal that is characterised by its great ability to adapt, for being able to adjust to spaces and environments. It is elastic, dynamic, flexible, sombre, absolutely elegant, and above all, tenacious.

To such an extent that the goshawk was able to consume itself and reshape itself, so much that it discovered it could squeeze through the bars of its cage. That was the ability to adjust to circumstances, to see a reality in constant change, and to be able to adapt oneself not to the changes of an era, but to an era of changes.

The day came when it peered its head through the bars, and the day came when it was not just its head that came out, but rather its entire body. And since it did not like what it saw, it decided to transform itself into a symbol. However, a special symbol, a symbol with powers. It believed that the best way, and possibly the only way, to transmit everything that it had once been, was to attach itself onto skin, to the skin of people, close to their hearts.