SourceAbraxas on Gnostic Gems
A cock-headed, serpent-legged figure interpreted through divine emanations.
Historical talisman traditionsLoading Lumitheca…
Codex
Objects & Symbols
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Ace of Cups
A cloud-borne cup, water and a descending sacramental emblem give this Ace several symbolic layers.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ace of Pentacles
A cloud-borne pentacle raises a distinction between material prosperity and its benefit.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ace of Swords
A crowned sword represents force whose outcome is not uniformly favourable.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ace of Wands
A hand from a cloud presents the suit's single stout wand.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceAnkh
Egyptian sign of life interpreted as a talisman of creative continuity.
Historical talisman traditions
Atalanta Fugiens
Maier’s alchemical emblem book brings engraved images, epigrams, prose and three-voice music into a single sequence.
Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)SourceBagua Trigrams
Eight-line combinations used within the Pavitts’ account of Chinese talismans.
Historical talisman traditions
SourceBaphomet in Lévi
The composite goat figure used to represent equilibrium and the Absolute.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
SourceBook of the Dead
A variable collection of funerary texts rather than a single fixed book.
Egyptian funerary religionSourceBulla
A Roman amulet container worn as a sign and safeguard.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceCaduceus
Mercury’s serpent-entwined rod as an emblem of persuasion and reconciliation.
Historical talisman traditions
SourceCanna’s Stone
A stone chair used in a healing legend alongside the water of Canna’s well.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
SourceCaridwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration
The year-long preparation that concentrates its power into three drops.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 editionSourceCarn Cabal’s Returning Stone
A stone marked by Arthur’s dog that cannot be permanently removed from its heap.
Welsh folklore, Wirt SikesSourceCartouche
The enclosing name-sign treated as a safeguard of personal identity.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceCornucopia
The overflowing horn as a sign of provision, abundance, and fortune.
Historical talisman traditions
SourceDante's Living Shadow
The traveller's interruption of sunlight distinguishes him from the surrounding shades.
Dante, Purgatorio
SourceDeath
A rider whose passage joins mortality with transformation.
Western Tarot symbolism
SourceDeath-Stone
The haunted stone on Nasu moor that contains a fox spirit in Davis's retelling.
Japanese legends, Davis retellingSourceDjed Pillar
The amulet called Tat, associated with stability and Osiris’s backbone.
Egyptian funerary religion
Dragons around the tablet to Confucius
A tablet to Confucius stands within a shrine framed by carved dragons in Hayes’s photograph.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
Eight of Cups
A departing figure gives the Eight an image of leaving an earlier concern behind.
Western Tarot symbolism
Eight of Pentacles
Stone work supplies an image of craft that can be preparatory rather than complete.
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