Historical talisman traditions
Hand of Fatima
An open-hand charm interpreted through protection and sacred family memory.
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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.
97 entries · A–Z
Historical talisman traditions
An open-hand charm interpreted through protection and sacred family memory.
Egyptian funerary religion
A protective beetle amulet connected with the heart and judgment.
Historical talisman traditions
A household and occupational charm whose position is explained through retained luck.
Japanese heroic legend, Davis retelling
The miraculous gift associated with Hidesato's title My Lord Bag of Rice in Davis's tale.
Egyptian funerary religion
The red buckle amulet invoking the protective power of Isis.
Historical talisman traditions
A valued stone interpreted through both talismanic protection and ethical qualities.
Baughan’s historical astrology
Baughan describes jupiter as favourable and assigns its house or houses to Sagittarius and Pisces.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
The initiate’s lamp in Lévi’s account, whose triple flame represents reason illuminated by knowledge amid darkness.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
Shiva’s sacred emblem, represented in one legend as a pillar whose limits cannot be found.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
The Thigh Stone, which returns to its own valley despite attempts to remove it.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
The folded mantle used as an emblem of complete self-possession.
Goethe’s Faust, Part One
The ornaments given to Margaret in Faust, circulating in secret after an earlier gift was surrendered to the priest.
Baughan’s historical astrology
Baughan describes mars as dry and assigns its house or houses to Aries and Scorpio.
Historical talisman traditions
Hathor-associated ornament described as a charm of family prosperity.
Baughan’s historical astrology
Baughan describes mercury as of common or conditional influence and assigns its house or houses to Gemini and Virgo.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A fairy gift that grants music to an unskilled player and compels listeners to dance.
Theosophy, Besant and Leadbeater
The coloured forms that Thought-Forms claims musical performances leave above their surroundings.
Ceremonial magic literature, A. E. Waite
The varied inscribed and geometric designs reproduced in Waite's Book of Black Magic and of Pacts.
W. B. Yeats’s A Vision (1925)
The contrasting objective and subjective tendencies that Yeats calls the two Tinctures.
Historical talisman traditions
Binding forms whose auspiciousness depends on what they hold or hinder.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The self-moving aerial car that carries Rama and his company towards Ayodhya.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 edition
The small bag that turns Gwawl’s claim into a trap.
Japanese celestial-maiden tale, Davis retelling
The garment that enables the celestial maiden in Davis's Robe of Feathers tale to dance and return to her lunar home.
Baughan’s historical astrology
Baughan describes saturn as cold and assigns its house or houses to Aquarius and Capricorn.