Historical talisman traditions
Abraxas on Gnostic Gems
A cock-headed, serpent-legged figure interpreted through divine emanations.
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A symbol's meaning depends on its setting. Follow an object or image into the book, illustration or ritual that uses it, then compare other appearances while preserving their distinct contexts.
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Historical talisman traditionsExplore the trigrams through the source account in the collection.
Historical talisman traditionsFollow a familiar emblem back to a particular explanation.
Historical talisman traditions97 entries · A–Z
Historical talisman traditions
A cock-headed, serpent-legged figure interpreted through divine emanations.
Historical talisman traditions
Egyptian sign of life interpreted as a talisman of creative continuity.
W. B. Yeats’s introduction to W. T. Horton, A Book of Images (1898)
The comparison between symbolic art and a talisman in Yeats’s introduction to A Book of Images.
Historical talisman traditions
Eight-line combinations used within the Pavitts’ account of Chinese talismans.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
The composite goat figure used to represent equilibrium and the Absolute.
Historical talisman traditions
A Roman amulet container worn as a sign and safeguard.
Historical talisman traditions
Mercury’s serpent-entwined rod as an emblem of persuasion and reconciliation.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A stone chair used in a healing legend alongside the water of Canna’s well.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 edition
The year-long preparation that concentrates its power into three drops.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A stone marked by Arthur’s dog that cannot be permanently removed from its heap.
Historical talisman traditions
The enclosing name-sign treated as a safeguard of personal identity.
Theosophy, Besant and Leadbeater
The patterned sound-plate and pendulum examples used as analogies in Besant and Leadbeater's account of thought-forms.
Historical talisman traditions
The overflowing horn as a sign of provision, abundance, and fortune.
Dante, Purgatorio
The traveller's interruption of sunlight distinguishes him from the surrounding shades.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The haunted stone on Nasu moor that contains a fox spirit in Davis's retelling.
Egyptian funerary religion
The amulet called Tat, associated with stability and Osiris’s backbone.
Historical talisman traditions
A protective eye emblem whose divine associations vary within the compilation.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A fairy gift whose value or continued arrival depends on secrecy.
Goethe’s Faust, Part One
The incomplete sign that admits Mephistopheles but prevents his departure.
Manly P. Hall, The Sacred Magic of the Qabbalah
The five-pointed star accompanies Hall’s account of spirit finding support in the four elements.
Historical talisman traditions
A Chinese grouped bat motif in the Pavitts’ compilation, bringing wishes for luck, wealth, longevity, health and peace into one emblem.
Buddhist legend, Davis retelling
The eight-petalled flower formed from a dragon's jaws at the end of Davis's Golden Lotus legend.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The sword given to Yamato that cuts a path through burning grass.
W. B. Yeats’s A Vision (1925)
Expanding and contracting figures through which Yeats represents opposed tendencies and their movement.