Talismanic Magic

Талисманная практика эпохи Возрождения обычно рассматривается в русле истории медицины или же истории науки, противопоставляемой философии как когерентной и систематической дисциплине. В трактате флорентийского философа Марсилио Фичино «О жизни» (1489) приводится множество описаний предметов, стяжающих те или иные астральные влияния. В русле неоплатонической антропологии и онтологии талисманы могут пониматься как развернутое свидетельство влияния надлунного мира на подлунный, внятное лишь мудрецам – тем, кто обладает особой способностью познавать мироздание.

A detailed commentary and analysis of the Medieval Islamic philosopher Al-Kindi’s magical treatise ‘On Rays’ (also known as ‘On The Stellar Rays’ and ‘The Theory of The Magical Arts’). In this independent research project, I have attempted to describe and explain the content of the treatise in depth, and also explore its connections with other esoteric traditions, from Islamic mysticism and Sufism, to Hermeticism and Western occultism. My aim in producing this work is to revive this fascinating yet generally unknown text, as this has not been done in full since Zoller and Hand’s full English translation of the text in 1993. It has also been an opportunity for me to practice and develop my own research skills and academic writing before I begin my undergraduate degree later this year.

The three-headed goddess Hekate is well known from texts and depictions from the middle of the first millenium BC onwards and also a common motive on so-called magical gems from the third or fourth century AD. The present paper presents a collection of the known attestations of magical gems with a depiction of Hekate and classifies these into different groups. The representations of the goddess clearly represent her typical appearance with three heads or faces, but can be separated into groups of triprosopos, trikephalos or a depiction with three heads and three bodies.

In West Africa, Berber groups such as the Tuareg of Mali and Niger use inscribed silver jewelry – rings, pendants and plaques – as talismans. A ring with a curved or flat frontal area may be inscribed with a linear cipher or, if large, carry a “magic square” design. A survey of 132 Tuareg/Berber items revealed that the symbol repertoire appears to be drawn from overlapping categories that include Eastern Arabic and Perso-Arabic numerals, and possibly Western digits and Indian Devanagari numbers as well; Arabic letters; Tifinagh and Libyco-Berber characters; and the Islamic Seven Seals (the ism al-aʿzam or Greatest Name). Most items combine symbols of different types, and reflections and rotations of stock symbols are common. The magic squares sometimes display complete or partial symmetry, with diagonals containing repeats of a single symbol. No two designs were identical, but it was possible to define sub-groups based on style and content. With numerical considerations seemingly secondary to aesthetics, none of the magic squares were mathematically competent. Tuareg gri gri plaques also carry magic square designs, but seem to contain mainly Tifinagh letters. A distinct set of rings also carry Tifinagh-based magic squares; recently-made items of this type may be “Tifinagh alphabet” souvenirs made for tourists. Cryptic apotropaic rings are also found in East Africa. In Ethiopia, especially among the Oromo in the southwestern highland district of Jimma, smiths inscribe white-metal or silver rings with talismanic symbols. The former are just convex circular bands of hard alloy into which glyphs are stamped using simple punch tools. Being softer, silver rings may instead bear symbols incised by scratching or engraving. For either material, the symbols are typically arranged evenly around the ring band; there are usually two circular series, and sometimes the symbols of the upper circle are a reflection (through the ring’s equator) of those in the lower. The Ethiopian symbol repertoire appears to be drawn from Eastern Arabic and possibly Devanagari numbers; Arabic letters; the Islamic Seven Seals; and unique symbols that resist identification. Most Ethiopian rings combine numerical and non-numerical symbols, and reflections and rotations of characters are common. As one might expect from this makeup, there is a significant overlap with the symbol repertoire of Tuareg rings. The most extreme similarities occur in the small subset of Tuareg and Ethiopian rings that carry complete sets of the Islamic Seven Seals.

Amidst the rich panoply of Jewish Kabbalah, Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) resonates the most with modern, philosophically minded seekers of direct mystical experience. Abulafia was unique amongst Jewish mystics in providing precise instructions for personal spiritual practice. Despite a severe rabbinical ban, the subterranean influence of Abulafia’s complex of ideas and meditation techniques is evident upon many central figures in the history of Religion and Philosophy, including Chaim Vital, Pico della Mirandola and Spinoza.

"The Heart of Jewish Meditation: Abraham Abulafia’s Path of the Divine Names" translates three of Abulafia’s meditation texts to provide reliable access to this fascinating historical figure for modern acolytes of the heretical eternities.

Humanity had an interest to supernatural being and situations since the existence of human being
and applied in various ways for satisfy this interest, used a variety of methods. At the beginning of these
methods magic, sorcery and talisman comes from such applications. Since the existence of humanity, albeit
in different names and shapes, these applications have found a place in almost every society and continued
to exist until today. in this study, we are try to determine how to use the concepts of magic spells and charms
in the Divan Poetry.

In the earliest concrete examples of magic squares from Chinese, Indian, and Arabic literature, the squares are valued not simply as mathematical curiosities but as objects of wondrous powers. Recent research on early Arabic awfāq (magic squares) literature has identified a large corpus with several known authors, but studies of this corpus tend to focus on mathematical analyses. This article sketches a cultural history of awfāq, which contextualizes them within wider Islamicate culture, situating awfāq literature within the oeuvres of the scholars who produced it, and locating those scholars within networks of patrons, colleagues, and institutions. Beginning with magic squares in pre-Islamic cultures and the continuation of those traditions, this article explores Islamicate legends of the origins and transmission of the awfāq and surveys the corpus of Arabic awfāq literature from the mid-third/ninth to the late sixth/twelfth centuries in an attempt to grasp the background, context, and significance of the great popularity of awfāq in talismanic practices associated with the Science of Letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf).

Marsilio Ficino's De Vita libri tres (1489) has been an important influence on the history of magic in the Christian West, both for its transmission of ancient and medieval astral magic and for his reflections on licit and illicit forms of practice and how this magic worked. This article introduces his ideas about "subtle" matter (Spiritus) and considerations concerning suitable material for the fashioning of magical amulets and talismans, attuned to the influences of the planets and stars. It then moves on to discuss the impact of these ideas on subsequent generations of magical practitioners. These include Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, author of the sixteenth century's encyclopedia of magic, De Occulta Philosophia (1533), whose influence can be see in the designs of talismans in the British Museum, and his contemporary, the revolutionary alchemist and idiosyncratic magus, Philippus Theophrastus Paracelsus, who provides instructions for the creation of magic mirrors and talismans in his Archidoxis magicae (1570). The chapter concludes with a brief look at the work of someone extremely familiar with Agrippa and Paracelsus's works, the theosophical alchemist, Christian Cabalist and hyperphysical magus, Heinrich Khunrath, whose magical mirrors, concrete examples of engravings from his Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (1595), can still be found in the British Library.

This essay considers the relationship between texts and images in magical works produced in the thirteenth-century scriptorium of Alfonso X, El Sabio - The Wise, King of Castile, Léon, and Galicia (1221–1284). With the upsurge of translations from Arabic in the twelfth century, the Christian West discovered a vast amount of new material relating to a broad range of knowledge, ranging from medicine, law, and philosophy to astrology, alchemy, and magic. One of the most important new genres of learned magic introduced into the West during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is that of “Image Magic”

En este trabajo ofrezco un rápido bosquejo de una nueva línea de interpretación arqueológica que podríamos denominar con el apelativo de “arqueología arquetipal”.  El concepto de arquetipo fue una de las principales contribuciones de Carl Gustav al mundo de la psicología y, desde aquí, a los estudios sobre mitología comparada.
Un ejemplo de arqueología arquetipal sería el que aplico en este artículo a la religiosidad popular del Magreb y la presencia en ella de los arquetipos de la Gran Madre y el Viejo Sabio.

Object study of a pottery amulet, ostensibly from Israel/Palestine, which came to light in a deceased estate. While it seems to date from Late Antiquity, almost every aspect of this pendant is unexpected. Its shape – a three-armed star – lacks amuletic precedents. Its surfaces bear crude figurative images which seem to have been incised after the clay was fired. On one face, three male anthropomorphic figures – reminiscent of figurae magicae from the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) in their crudeness, disposition and ambiguity – surround a central five-pointed star. On the other face appears another male anthropomorph together with two horned deer or antelopes, two canine or feline predators, and a fish; the man and the animals all seem at peace together. The bucolic scene continues onto one edge thickness, where an additional stag-like beast appears with two more of the predators. The scenes do not conform to known templates, such as the repertoire from magical gems, and resist interpretation. The two other edge thicknesses contain pseudo-inscriptions.

The present article is an investigation of talismans and prayers emerging from the recently dried Zāyandehrud riverbed. Adopting an archaeological approach, this article seeks for the relation between these materials and the surrounding ritual behavior through evaluating the former. These materials are the only remnants of a behavior that is essentially immaterial. They are created to be thrown into the river and hidden in it with the intention of triggering the magical effects or breaking up them. These material objects which are discovered by chance and because of the river water stop flowing represent a covert behavior of the people of Isfahan who tend to secrecy and leave little material evidence of their behaviors. Without trying to make any judgement on any behavior, the main goal of this study is to evaluate and analyze one of the behaviors of a contemporary people through the lens of their remaining material cultures. To have a more accurate picture of various layers of this cultural behavior in the city, three different communal space i.e., mosque, shrine and cemetery have been also surveyed. At the end, after providing a brief historical background, there is a discussion focused on this kind of attitude toward the mysterious knowledges within the context of modern everyday life in Iran.

In the heart of Istanbul, on the site of the former hippodrome, stand the remains of the Serpent Column, one of the most ancient and most enigmatic monuments in the city: a three-headed snake made of bronze to which various sacral and magical properties have been attributed in the past by pagans, Christians, Muslims and Jews. Originally set up as a votive offering in Greece’s most sacred site, Delphi, the column commemorated the Greek triumph in the Second Graeco-Persian War (480–479 BCE). This powerful icon of victory, couched in pagan principles of cosmology, was brought to Constantinople in the fourth century CE to become an emblem of the universal rule of the Christian Roman emperor. In late Byzantine and Ottoman times, the Serpent Column was seen as an apotropaic talisman safeguarding Constantinople from poisonous snakes. In this paper it is argued that the column retained its status as a powerful sacred object for so many centuries because in Constantinople it came to be associated with the Brazen Serpent lifted up in the desert by Moses (Numbers 21:4–9), which in turn was believed to prefigure the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (John 3:14–15).

In this paper we will overview different types and categories of Persian Shiite talismans and amulets (wood, stone, iron, textile, etc.). Fabrication, distribution, and function of such material religion will be the main aim of this presentation. For this paper we may also use some footage of ethnographic documentaries.

 Öz Eski Mezopotamya sakinlerinin zihin dünyalarında, dönemin bilim ve kültür düzeyiyle iç içe gelişen inanç sistemlerine bağlı olarak, kendilerine sürekli zarar vermek için fırsat kolladıklarını düşündükleri, çok sayıda metafizik varlık yer almaktaydı. Bu varlık, kimi zaman yeraltı dünyasından yeryüzüne gelen kızgın bir hayalet/ruh, kimi zaman ise korkunç derecede kötü bir cin olabilirdi. Cinler ve hayaletler, insanlara genellikle herhangi bir sebep olmaksızın saldırabilir ve hem fiziksel hem de ruhsal rahatsızlık verebilirlerdi. Dolayısıyla insanların maruz kaldıkları hastalıklar ve felaketler doğrudan cinlerin ve hayaletlerin birer eylemi olarak görülmekteydi. Ayrıca bu kötücül varlıkların nezdinde suçlu ve masum aynıydı ve bir insana saldırırken ne etik değerleri ne de sosyal *

This article presents an ethnographic study of the use of talismanic practices in the management of emotions in contemporary Northern Ethiopia. Here, the socially reprehensible emotions of jealousy and lust are contextualized within the Christian Orthodox system. I argue that such a study must lead to an exploration of how the materialization of the immaterial through the talisman is fundamentally problematic within the Orthodox context. Emotions are deemed reprehensible because of their close relationship to the body and the material. They signal an excess, an inability to contain, a loss of control over the schism that must divide mind and body. I ask the question: to what extent does the talisman function as a “sub-system,” managing emotions through witchcraft in parallel to the more normative systems within the Orthodox context?

Cet article présente un sesterce d'Antonin le Pieux gravé de plusieurs croix et d'une formule cabalistique. Des parallèles avec d'autres objets portant cette formule permettent d'y reconnaitre un talisman des XIIe-XVe s faisant un réemploi conscient d'un objet antique.

Resumen: Estudiamos un molde para exvotos de plomo hallado en la ciudad de Jerez de la Frontera, la ciudad andalusí de Šarīš. La pieza es de cronología almohade (siglos XII-XIII). Este molde aporta una información muy valiosa sobre el mundo de la magia talismánica. Se identifican dos figuras: la primera corresponde a la parte superior de una representación antropomórfica (posible representación de la " Diosa Madre "), mientras que la segunda podría corresponder a una vaca. Abstract: In this paper, we studied a mold of lead for votive offerings found in the city of Jerez de la Frontera, the city of al-Andalus called Šarīš. The piece is of Almohad chronology (12th-13th). This mold provides valuable information about the world of the talismanic magic. Two figures are identified: the first corresponds to the top of an anthropomorphic representation (possible representation of the " Mother goddess "), while the second could correspond to a cow.

MONTANER, Alberto, «Historias de palabras (17): Talismán, la aclimatación», Rinconete: Revista diaria del Centro Virtual Cervantes [ISSN 1885-5008], 6 de junio de 2016, accesible en línea en <http://cvc.cervantes.es/el_rinconete/anteriores/junio_16/06062016_01.htm>.

This book is at the crossroads of the anthropology of religion, imagery and morality. It explores a major ambivalence in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church — the images they revere and the people who create them. Specifically, it addresses Orthodox image traditions and the moral identity of its “image- producers”. Its central thesis is that image-producers are socially problematic. They create objects that not only mediate relationships and exercise social power or agency, but also have the capacity to incite a moral discourse. Images in this context can have a spiritual impact that entangles their producers in a web of relationships with the visible, invisible, the material and immaterial: they necessitate an examination of the social agency that defines and obscures them. This book particularly looks at how certain Orthodox image-producers also function on the margins of the Church and treat, using talismanic images, “socially reprehensible” emotional disturbances.

. En este estudio presentamos un nuevo tipo de talismán figurado de época medieval islámica hallado en Nina Alta (Teba, Málaga). Este nuevo hallazgo permite avanzar en el conocimiento de la interpretación simbólica de los talismanes antropomórficos islámicos. La iconografía de la pieza que aquí damos a conocer permite vincularla con la ciencia de la correspondencia, conocida en el ámbito de la gnosis islámica con el nombre “ciencia de la Balanza” (ʻilm al-Mīzān) y practicada por los alquimistas.

En este trabajo presentamos un conjunto de talismanes de plomo figurados procedentes del yacimiento de Nina Alta. Recientes estudios realizados sobre este tipo de piezas halladas en otros puntos de al-Andalus y en Ceuta han permitido abrir una nueva senda para su correcta interpretación iconográfica y su uso ritual. Estos estudios sugieren que estos talismanes representan diversos astros de alto valor simbólico, como la Luna, el Sol y Venus. Tales arquetipos planetarios han sido asociados a figuras míticas como el rey Salomón y la reina de Saba. Esta lectura concuerda con la amplia difusión de la astromagiatalismánica en al-Andalus, cuyo centro de difusión todo apunta que hay que situarlo en la región de Anatolia y más concretamente en la ciudad de Harrán.

MONTANER, Alberto, «Historias de palabras (15): Talismán, la expansión», Rinconete: Revista diaria del Centro Virtual Cervantes [ISSN 1885-5008], 20 de abril de 2016, accesible en línea en <http://cvc.cervantes.es/el_rinconete/anteriores/abril_16/20042016_01.htm>.