Talismans, on the other hand, are inscriptions; symbols, drawn upon another object to effect a change, attract something, or act as a warding agent. You can inscribe talismans upon candles, engrave them upon your favorite jewelry, draw them on onion skin paper, frame them with tiny frames and hang them on the Yule tree...there are literally thousands of ways you can use a talisman. The trick with both amulets AND talismans, is knowing what SYMBOLS do what and where they should be placed in the emblem as a whole. Many symbols do different things when placed [engraved, drawn, etc.] on different metals and/or stones.

INTRODUCTION

Circa 75,000 years ago, in a cave near the southern Cape shoreline in South Africa, a human drilled tiny holes into the shells of snails and strung them as beads to make the oldest known jewelry - by at least 30,000 years older than the previous “oldest find.” Forty-one shells of the mollusk scavenger Nassarius kraussianus, with holes and marks in similar positions, have been found in a cave overlooking the Indian Ocean in South Africa. Archaeologists’ statements from France, Britain, and Norway published their findings in the April 16, 2004 issue of the journal, “Science.”

The shells appear to have been selected according to size, and they must have been brought to the Blombos cave from rivers a dozen miles away. The shells are marked with traces of red ochre, so they were either decorated with iron oxide pigment or they were worn by someone wearing the customary primitive body art; a practice which dates over 400,000 years!

The beads are dramatic evidence of modern human behavior 75,000 years ago. They are at least 35,000 years older than the earliest undisputed African ornaments - some ostrich eggshell beads found in Kenya - and are around 30,000 years older than some perforated teeth ornaments from Bulgaria and a string of sea shell beads from Turkey. They are the first evidence of artistic creativity and symbolism in a creature otherwise known only for stone tools and weapons.

"The Blombos beads present absolute evidence for perhaps the earliest storage of information outside the human brain," said Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen in Norway, the director of the cave project.

"Agreement is widespread that personal ornaments such as beads incontrovertibly represent symbolically mediated modern behavior. Until now, the oldest beads in Africa date to about 45,000 years...41 shell beads in sand layers at Blombos cave, accurately dated as 75,000 years old..."

The first hominids in Africa date back millions of years. Homo erectus, a human ancestor, emerged at least 2 million years ago and began to spread into Europe and Asia. Some 500,000 years ago, Europe and Britain were colonized by a species known as Homo heidelbergensis. The first anatomically Modern Humans, more slender and graceful than the Neanderthals, emerged less than 200,000 years ago. These people cooperated, hunted and made stone tools and weapons.

But around 40,000 years ago, something dramatic happened. Modern Humans became interested in art, ornament and beauty, and the things they left behind in caves in Europe and Africa marked them out as not just anatomically modern, but modern in behavior, too.

The Blombos cave discovery means that the theorists will have to think again. The Breakfast at Tiffany's urge for jewelry has turned out to be far older than previously believed. Two years ago, Prof. Henshilwood found ochre, marked with abstract geometric representations, in the Blombos cave, along with bone tools and fishing equipment. But the beads provide far stronger evidence of abstract thought. "Beads are an unequivocal argument that people are employing symbols to signify who they are," said Alison Brooks of George Washington University. "Body ornamentation seems to be a way humans [even today] symbolize status, vanity, and religious beliefs."

Therefore, we now know that from the early days of cavemen, man has protected himself with the use of amulets. An amulet is an object imbued with Magickal powers. Their designs and popularity may come and go in fashion over the years, but their purpose endures. Amulets provide people with protection, health, luck, fertility, power, success, and just about any other need.

To ancient civilizations, as today, these needs were controlled by the forces of Light and Dark. Prayers, offerings, and sacrifices were offered to the Good Spirits to grant blessings, amulets stopped the evil spirits from taking away both the prayers, offerings, and sacrifices; and the forthcoming blessings.

Originally, amulets were natural objects, but as civilization progressed amulets were fashioned into animal shapes, symbols, seals, rings, and plaques. These items were imbued with Magickal powers and inscriptions of powerful spells. While the act of inscribing an amulet makes the amulet a talisman, the intention of keeping it on display or carrying it on one’s person recategorizes it back into the realm of amulets.

The word amulet comes from the latin word amuletum. Amulets with inscriptions are sometimes called charms. An amulet is worn on the body, usually around the neck, but some amulets guard homes, tombs, animals, or buildings.

Ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, and Hebrews placed great importance in amulets. The frog protected fertility, Ankhs for everlasting life, the udjat [all-seeing eye or Eye of Ra or Eye of Horus] for health, scarab for resurrection after death. Some of the Egyptian amulets are massive, such as the stone beetle mounted on a pedestal at Karnak, which measures five feet long by three feet wide and weighs more than two tons.

The Babylonians and Syrians used cylinder seals which were imbedded with precious stones. Hebrews wore crescent moons to ward off evil. The natives of Africa carry amulets consisting of a pouch or box of medicine such as fruits, plants, vegetables, etc.

Three amulet symbols that are universal are eyes, crosses, and phallic symbols. Eyes protect against evil spirits and phallic symbols against evil. Crosses of all shapes and sizes mean so many different things. In Magick using the name of a Deity is equivalent to tapping into the Divine Power. In the old testament the hebrews gave the personal name of God as a four letter word called the tetragrammaton, translated as YHWH and pronounced YAHWEH. This name appeared in spellings on amulets to help Magickians conjure entities and also protect from attack.

Bits of parchment with scripture quotes, carried in pouches are amulets in various cultures. Ancient Pagans wore figurines of their Gods as amulets. In neo-Pagan Witchcraft the most powerful amulet is the silver pentacle, the symbol of the Craft. The sign of the pentacle, also erroneously called a pentagram, is used to protect sacred sites, honor the Deitites, and promote Pagan networking within the various Pagan communities throughout the World.

An amulet (from Latin amuletum, meaning, “a means of protection”) consists of any object intended to bring good luck and/or protection to its owner. Potential amulets include gems or simple stones, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants, animals, gestures, etc. even words said in certain occasions.

Every zodiacal sign has its corresponding gem that acts as an amulet for a person born in the gemstone’s corresponding month, but these stones vary according to different traditions. Since the Middle Ages, in Western culture, pentacles have had a reputation as amulets to attract money, love, etc. and to protect against envy, violence, and other misfortunes.

TALISMANS

Talismans are amulets which are written, drawn, or engraved for the purpose of a spell. These are usually carried for a required amount of time in order to absorb your energies, and then burned, planted, given to the wind, or sent down a river. If it is something meant to be worn, carried, or kept on display, it is an amulet, even though it is written.

There are literally millions of talismans. Some are ancient and simplisticly drawn, while others are intricately stylized with many smaller talismans within the greater work. The Seal of Solomon is an example of the later.

Symbology is key to creating and understanding amulets and talismans. Without a fundamental understanding of the sigils and icons involved, one cannot hope to understand the intenion of an ancient seal, much less create one of their own. The use of these devices is global. Ancient civilizations used them, and we use them prolifically today.

Here is a short sampling of commonly used ancient symbols as amulets and talismans.