Having fun with talismans...

Someone mentioned I haven't blogged for a while. So here's an excerpt from a day in the life of R.O. ...

0) When I entered into the cave, I received the tablet zaradi, which was inscribed, from between the hands of Hermes, in which I discovered these words:
1) True, without falsehood, certain, most certain.
2) What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.
3) And as all things were made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation.
4) Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon.
5) The wind carried it in its womb, the earth breast fed it.
6) It is the father of all ‘works of wonder' (Telesmi) in the world.
6a) Its power is complete (integra).
7) If cast to (turned towards- versa fuerit) earth,
7a) it will separate earth from fire, the subtile from the gross.
8) With great capacity it ascends from earth to heaven. Again it descends to earth, and takes back the power of the above and the below.
9) Thus you will receive the glory of the distinctiveness of the world. All obscurity will flee from you.
10) This is the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.
11a) Thus was the world created.
12) From this comes marvelous adaptions of which this is the proceedure.
13) Therefore I am called Hermes, because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole world.
14) And complete is what I had to say about the work of the Sun, from the book of Galieni Alfachimi.

Today I woke up thinking about talismans. Emerald tablet talismans. I thought it would be cool to come up with something that was lunar and solar and represented the great work.

So we made silver talismans tonight on a solar day in a lunar hour. We had a lump of silver from a one-ounce coin we had melted before. We melted some into lumps, then heat them and beat them with hammers until they were disc shaped. Then we engraved them with a dremel tool.

We put the image of the sun in the topmost triangle and the image of the moon in the lower one. We placed the elemental signs in the remaining four triangles and a Hebrew Samekh in the center. We consecrated them and placed them on our altar.

I think the symbolism is pretty apparent. It's not a traditional talisman, and it's not particularly astrological. It's simply something that reflects the thing we do. Ascend, descend, generate.

I'm going to wear mine, I think. It's not high art, or lost wax casting. It's primitive, and raw, and it is all mine. I like it because it is totally about what we do, and why we do it. It is simply magical, for its own sake.