SourceAbraxas on Gnostic Gems
A cock-headed, serpent-legged figure interpreted through divine emanations.
Historical talisman traditionsLoading Lumitheca…
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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.
Western Tarot symbolism
Eight of Swords
A bound figure surrounded by swords is expressly described as temporarily confined.
Western Tarot symbolism
Eight of Wands
Flying wands carry the numbered suit into an image of swift motion.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceEmerald Table in Lévi
The Hermetic text used to connect upper and lower worlds through analogy.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental MagicSourceEye of Horus
A protective eye emblem whose divine associations vary within the compilation.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceFairy Money
A fairy gift whose value or continued arrival depends on secrecy.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
SourceFaust’s threshold pentagram
The incomplete sign that admits Mephistopheles but prevents his departure.
Goethe’s Faust, Part OneSourceFive Bats of Happiness
A Chinese grouped bat motif in the Pavitts’ compilation, bringing wishes for luck, wealth, longevity, health and peace into one emblem.
Historical talisman traditions
Five of Cups
Three fallen cups and two remaining upright make loss and remainder part of one composition.
Western Tarot symbolism
Five of Pentacles
Two figures passing a lit window receive explicitly incompatible interpretations.
Western Tarot symbolism
Five of Swords
A figure controlling the field watches two others retreat while their swords remain on the ground.
Western Tarot symbolism
Five of Wands
Five youths brandish staves in a scene described as mock combat.
Western Tarot symbolism
Four of Cups
An offered fourth cup meets a seated figure's dissatisfaction with the three already present.
Western Tarot symbolism
Four of Pentacles
A figure holding several pentacles gives possession a concrete visual arrangement.
Western Tarot symbolism
Four of Swords
A knight's tomb effigy is described in prayer, linking repose with memorial imagery.
Western Tarot symbolism
Four of Wands
A garland joins four foreground staves beside a bridge and a house.
Western Tarot symbolism
Golden Lotus
The eight-petalled flower formed from a dragon's jaws at the end of Davis's Golden Lotus legend.
Buddhist legend, Davis retellingSourceGrass-Cleaving Sword
The sword given to Yamato that cuts a path through burning grass.
Japanese legends, Davis retellingSourceHand of Fatima
An open-hand charm interpreted through protection and sacred family memory.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceHeart Scarab
A protective beetle amulet connected with the heart and judgment.
Egyptian funerary religionSourceHorseshoe Charm
A household and occupational charm whose position is explained through retained luck.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceInexhaustible Rice Bag
The miraculous gift associated with Hidesato's title My Lord Bag of Rice in Davis's tale.
Japanese heroic legend, Davis retellingSourceIsis Knot
The red buckle amulet invoking the protective power of Isis.
Egyptian funerary religionSourceJade and Moral Virtue
A valued stone interpreted through both talismanic protection and ethical qualities.
Historical talisman traditions
SourceJataka Tales
Stories of previous births in which the Buddha-to-be develops his dedication.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and CoomaraswamySourceJudgment
A trumpet’s summons calls the figures from their tombs.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceJustice
Accountability according to deeds, distinguished from spiritual election.
Western Tarot symbolism
King of Cups
A cup-bearing king sits amid sea imagery, with a ship and a leaping dolphin.
Western Tarot symbolism
King of Pentacles
Bull-head throne symbols accompany a pentacle interpreted through the elements.
Western Tarot symbolism
King of Swords
A judging king holds the unsheathed sword as an emblem of authority and office.
Western Tarot symbolism
King of Wands
A flowering staff and lion throne place this court figure within the animated Wands suit.
Western Tarot symbolism
Knight of Cups
A quietly riding knight carries the cup suit into a scene of approach and invitation.
Western Tarot symbolism
Knight of Pentacles
A slow horse and an exhibited pentacle give the Knight an image of steady external service.
Western Tarot symbolism
Knight of Swords
A rider in full course is compared with the ideal hero of romantic chivalry.
Western Tarot symbolism
Knight of Wands
A moving horse makes travel and haste central to this court card's description.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceLamp of Trismegistus
The initiate’s lamp in Lévi’s account, whose triple flame represents reason illuminated by knowledge amid darkness.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental MagicSourceLingam
Shiva’s sacred emblem, represented in one legend as a pillar whose limits cannot be found.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and CoomaraswamySourceMaen Morddwyd
The Thigh Stone, which returns to its own valley despite attempts to remove it.
Welsh folklore, Wirt SikesSourceMantle of Apollonius
The folded mantle used as an emblem of complete self-possession.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental MagicSourceMargaret’s gifted jewels
The ornaments given to Margaret in Faust, circulating in secret after an earlier gift was surrendered to the priest.
Goethe’s Faust, Part OneSourceMenat
Hathor-associated ornament described as a charm of family prosperity.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceMorgan’s Magic Harp
A fairy gift that grants music to an unskilled player and compels listeners to dance.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Nine of Cups
A satisfied seated figure appears before an arched counter stocked with cups.
Western Tarot symbolism
Nine of Pentacles
A garden and a wrist-borne bird accompany a deliberately tentative claim about ownership.
Western Tarot symbolism
Nine of Swords
A lamenting figure beneath swords gives the card an image of desolation.
Western Tarot symbolism
Nine of Wands
Eight upright staves stand behind a watchful figure leaning on a ninth.
Western Tarot symbolism
Page of Cups
A fish emerging from a cup turns the Page's contemplation into an image of thoughts taking form.
Western Tarot symbolism
Page of Pentacles
An absorbed Page studies a hovering pentacle while moving slowly.
Western Tarot symbolism
Page of Swords
An alert figure and disturbed clouds place vigilance at the centre of this Page's description.
Western Tarot symbolism
Page of Wands
A standing messenger turns the suit's wand into an emblem of proclamation.
Western Tarot symbolism
Pentacles
The varied inscribed and geometric designs reproduced in Waite's Book of Black Magic and of Pacts.
Ceremonial magic literature, A. E. Waite
SourcePhilosopher's Stone
The proposed agent of metallic transmutation whose aims and attributed powers Redgrove discusses.
Alchemy, H. Stanley Redgrove's historical accountSourceProtective Knots
Binding forms whose auspiciousness depends on what they hold or hinder.
Historical talisman traditions
Pushpaka
The self-moving aerial car that carries Rama and his company towards Ayodhya.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
Queen of Cups
This queen's description joins visionary contemplation with purposeful action.
Western Tarot symbolism
Queen of Pentacles
The Queen's contemplation of her symbol is described as an expression of intelligence and generosity.
Western Tarot symbolism
Queen of Swords
An upright sword and extended hand accompany the Queen's described familiarity with sorrow.
Western Tarot symbolism
Queen of Wands
Leaf-bearing wands connect this queen's symbolism with life and animation.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceRhiannon’s Unfillable Bag
The small bag that turns Gwawl’s claim into a trap.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 editionSourceRobe of Feathers
The garment that enables the celestial maiden in Davis's Robe of Feathers tale to dance and return to her lunar home.
Japanese celestial-maiden tale, Davis retellingSourceSeal of Solomon
Interlaced triangles interpreted as the joining of spiritual and material principles.
Historical talisman traditionsSourceSeven Greek Vowels
A vocal and inscribed pattern interpreted through the planetary heavens.
Historical talisman traditions
Seven of Cups
Visionary cups place imagination and impermanent attainment at the centre of the card account.
Western Tarot symbolism
Seven of Pentacles
A figure contemplating pentacles is paired with the source's frank admission of contradictory meanings.
Western Tarot symbolism
Seven of Swords
Five carried swords and two left behind accompany the source's admission of uncertain meaning.
Western Tarot symbolism
Seven of Wands
A figure above six raised staves holds the seventh from a higher position.
Western Tarot symbolism
Shiva’s Bow
The immense inherited bow whose breaking establishes Rama’s marriage to Sita.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
SourceSilver Apple Branch
An Otherworld token whose music brings sleep and delight.
Celtic fairy traditions
Six of Cups
Children and flower-filled cups support competing readings of memory and unfamiliar surroundings.
Western Tarot symbolism
Six of Pentacles
Weighed and distributed money supports a gift image alongside a cautionary supplementary reading.
Western Tarot symbolism
Six of Swords
A ferryman's manageable passage supplies a relatively calm image within the Swords suit.
Western Tarot symbolism
Six of Wands
Laurel crowns a mounted bearer whose companions also carry staves.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceSolar Bark
The sun god’s vessel and a vehicle of the glorified dead.
Egyptian funerary religion
Sowing Gold in Atalanta Fugiens
Maier’s sixth emblem gives the chymist’s work the form of a sower casting gold over prepared earth.
Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)SourceStaff of the Patriarchs
The support drawn from the hidden and enduring forces of nature.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental MagicSourceStrength
A woman’s gentle mastery of the lion rather than a contest of force.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceSuit of Cups
Vessels of nourishment, relationship, and emotional exchange.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceSuit of Pentacles
The coin-like Tarot suit, distinct from ceremonial pentacle talismans.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceSuit of Swords
A suit of force, discernment, tension, and qualified harmony.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceSuit of Wands
Tarot’s staff-bearing suit, with images of enterprise and contested achievement.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceTamate-Bako
Otohime's forbidden keepsake, opened by Urashima after returning from the Sea King's realm.
Japanese legends, Davis retellingSourceTemperance
The blending of life’s essences between earth and water.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ten of Cups
Ten cups arc above a household scene watched by two adults while children dance nearby.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ten of Pentacles
A household scene combines an archway, generations and dogs with family and archival meanings.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ten of Swords
A pierced prostrate figure receives an explicit qualification against a simple violent-death reading.
Western Tarot symbolism
Ten of Wands
A bearer weighed down by ten staves gives the card its image of burden.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceTetragram in Lévi
The four-letter divine name interpreted through manifestation and humanity.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
The bronze dragon and the imperial observatory
A dragon serves as the sculptural support for an astronomical instrument in Hayes’s frontispiece.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese DragonSourceThe Cauldron of Renovation
The vessel that returns slain warriors to life while withholding their speech.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 editionSourceThe Chariot
Triumph and directed power whose external victories have limits.
Western Tarot symbolism
The circular dragon eaves-tile
A coiled dragon fills the round face of the roof tile photographed by Hayes.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese DragonSourceThe Devil
Material bondage depicted through a horned figure and chained pair.
Western Tarot symbolism
The Dragon Stone at Kaifengfu
An artist’s drawing records the dragon-carved stone Hayes describes inside a dark imperial shrine.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
The dragon-mounted bell
Dragons form the support and suspension of the bell illustrated in The Chinese Dragon.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
The embroidered Dragon Square
An embroidered dragon badge appears in Hayes’s account of official robes and rank.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese DragonSourceThe Emperor
Seated sovereignty as executive power, reason, and realization.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Empress
Fruitful earthly life represented through stars, grain, water, and Venus.
Western Tarot symbolism
The Falstaff opera poster
The Falstaff design reproduced in The Modern Poster advertises Verdi’s opera through monumental lettering and a reclining figure.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)SourceThe Fool
The Tarot traveler poised between innocence, freedom, and uncertainty.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Four Stars above Purgatory
Four unfamiliar lights mark the southern sky at the beginning of the ascent.
Dante, Purgatorio
The Great Wheel in A Vision
The circular diagram through which Yeats organises twenty-eight phases, contrasting tendencies and human types.
W. B. Yeats’s A Vision (1925)SourceThe Hanged Man in Lévi
The inverted Tarot figure read as the adept and the completion of the great work.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental MagicSourceThe Head of Bendigeid Vran
The severed head that accompanies the survivors’ feasts before its protective burial.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 editionSourceThe Hermit
A lantern held aloft as an invitation from attained knowledge.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Hierophant
The public transmission of sacred order through an established institution.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe High Priestess
Keeper of a partly concealed law between contrasting temple pillars.
Western Tarot symbolism
The Historical Cones in A Vision
The red-and-black diagram that aligns dates, phases and historical Faculties in Yeats’s first A Vision.
W. B. Yeats’s A Vision (1925)SourceThe Humble Reed at the Shore
A flexible shoreline plant becomes Dante's girdle before the mountain journey.
Dante, Purgatorio
The imperial Dragon Tablet
Hayes photographs a dragon-framed tablet bearing a wish for the reigning emperor’s long life.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese DragonSourceThe Lovers
Human love shown beneath an angel within a scene of Eden.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Magician
A raised wand and downward hand connect intention with manifestation.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Moon
A path into uncertainty lit by reflection and shadowed by fear.
Western Tarot symbolism
The paired dragons on Hayes’s ancient brick
Two dragons coil through a circular form on the moulded brick illustrated by Hayes.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
The Philosophical Egg in Atalanta Fugiens
The egg, fire and sword of Emblem VIII form Maier’s allegory of generation and the appearance of new life.
Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)SourceThe sign of the Macrocosm in Faust
The image of universal harmony that proves insufficient for the scholar.
Goethe’s Faust, Part OneSourceThe Spirit of the Woman’s Sword
A luminous apparition leads fishermen to an abandoned sword, whose recovery resolves a coastal disturbance in Davis’s tale.
Japanese legends in F. Hadland Davis’s English retellings (1912)SourceThe Star
A figure pours the water of life beneath one great and seven lesser stars.
Western Tarot symbolismSourceThe Sun
Childlike directness and renewed consciousness under a bright sun.
Western Tarot symbolism
The sword of Welleran
The preserved curved blade that passes from heroic relic to Rold’s weapon, then becomes the focus of his horror at war.
Lord Dunsany, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories; London: George Allen & Sons, 1908 title page
SourceThe Three Golden Gifts
The apple, carding-comb and spinning-wheel that the girl trades for three nights of access to the prince.
Norwegian fairy tales: Old Tales from the NorthSourceThe Tower
Collapse interpreted as the breaking of a false house of thought.
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