Tag: objects
-
Gold Leaf Talisman
In our work we describe objects as vessels for knowledge animated by shamans/magicians. How does this “animation” work? For example, one researcher told the short tale of a talisman made of gold leaf, held in the pouch of an old woman whose grandfather entrusted her with it. She has no idea what it is or…
-
Conclusion
At the beginning of the project, I was unaware of the multiplicity of facets being brought to bear on this one condition: the condition of LOVE and its relation to the emergence of the soul. It seemed that all the swirling maelstrom of magic and form, energies and sympathies, were part of an external system…
-
Instruments
After examining the situation through various facets, and in the final writing of the report, I realized that the search is to find not objects but instruments. As instruments of magic, the ritual objects are used as communicators, and also as connectors to the unseen realms. Those of us whose objects have been accepted by…
-
About the Collection
The Archivist gave her presentation, a formal report to the assembly. It became clearer to me over the years of my study, that there was no end to the variations and alternates that were offered, and that there were innumerable cabinets, boxes, containers, temple goods and burial talismans, along with all the sacred and secular…
-
The Assembly
Seated at the table, I quickly took notes as to who these characters might be, wondering what objects they might be stewards of. I had heard tell of others, earlier appointees who declined the invitation to the table, the whole cosmic undertaking being too much for them. Even if some of us could have been…
-
Presentation and Vision
I was lost and broken when I first arrived at the Seatemple Inn, and unsure as to what was expected of me. “Don’t worry,” the clerk had told me as I surveyed the empty lobby, you will meet the others soon. Were the others at an event that I hadn’t been given clearance to attend?…
-
Simplicity to the rescue
This was not to be a complicated metaphysics, a difficult jnana yogic treatise, an interior dance obscura. This was to be a simple description of the form, purpose and meaning of the objects in several of the wunderkabinetts that have been documented so far. They did communicate, and they did hold meanings far beyond their…
-
Bavarian weather figurines
The Seeker and The Wise One would then be constant presences to provide context, continuity, and a narrative thread. Down through the ages we have engaged in the game of the seeker and the wise one. Once the seeker has found what was her soul’s seeking, unique to her and to her time and place…
-
Parade of Images
The Wise One spoke directly to the group, but her eyes locked with the Seeker at one point. “I am here to offer some guidance to those seeking a clear, strong, heart-based, mystical pathway,” she said, then turned back to the group, before she pointed out the slide presentation. “We are to begin identifying sacred…
-
The Oracle
They were old things. Neolithic. Repurposed. Because no one knew what they had originally been for. This was the oldest of the cabinets. Small, with a dark and carven door. Squat and unprepossessing. Easily ignored. He pointed it out to me, “Have you seen that yet?” I shook my head. He opened the door and…