Charms, Amulets, Talismans & Spells

One page is filled with magical symbols, like an addendum to the latest emojis. Another offers spells; they lack the punch of the macabre but nonetheless send a shiver. In wondrous detail, author Marian Green shares dimensions of magic, each a separate yet connected form of enchantment. Superstitions and charms, amulets and spells, all of us find ourselves influenced or titillated by them to some degree, depending on our susceptibility and fascination.

Magic dates back millennia, to when whole landscapes and natural objects were seen as gods, whose presence signified good or malevolence. During those legendary periods in history before writing developed, magic was often present, inscribed on stones or interpreted on unusually shaped rocks. In the Middle Ages, the Church suppressed or banned all that was viewed as associated with pagan beliefs and folk healers. Village witches and wizards often had to practice in secret.

“Magic ritual works on a mental, psychic, and material level,” and amulets and charms, worn against harm and misfortune on a necklace or a bracelet, hold age-old promise. To this day, superstitions claim a lingering power, from how bats imply longevity in the East yet are regarded as sinister in the West to fingers crossed to ward off harm to amber as protection from throat infection.

So much one can learn here, whether of invisible spirits or talismans created for the Chinese New Year to appease the New Year God.

This is a small, elegantly illustrated book to carry around in order to see how magic is manifested in our daily lives and goes way beyond the conjurer in Las Vegas or the party entertainer who produces rabbits out of hats.