Influencing our own world
Charms have been a part of everybody’s life from the beginning – since cavemen and before any form of organised religion was even thought of. Contrary to some people’s understanding, charms and amulets are harmless and positive – a means of protection against the ’evil eye’ and for the attraction of good fortune. All major religions astutely incorporate the use of amulets – from crucifixes and Hamsa hands to Dharma wheels and the Quran.
Superstition, though considered taboo and contrary to prescribed conventional doctrines, continues to prevail. Everyone would like to positively influence the ‘secret powers of nature’ – most people believe in some form of luck. And the use of charms and amulets remains a subtle but potent part of our lives and our beliefs today. Who hasn’t ‘touched wood’, carried a St. Christopher, picked a four-leaved clover, saved a horseshoe or even worn ‘lucky underpants’ or suchlike, just in case?
When we believe in something enough, it becomes true.
Symbols and tokens are tangible manifestations of these beliefs; a kind of prism or magnifying glass to concentrate and focus nature’s mystical powers, and then to influence the enigmatic energies relentlessly and invisibly at work.
An amulet is an object that protects a person from harm and misfortune, and/or attracts good fortune – a charm. The power of an amulet was and is greatly enhanced in proportion to the strength of belief of its owner. Such personal amulets have been worn for protection or ‘good luck’ for tens of thousands of years, (such as the stone donut), since the times of the hunter-gatherer, and today they remain no less effective.
Charms are, usually, objects of a personal nature which are believed to have some magical power. More precisely, since the coming of homo sapiens around 150,000 years ago, charms have commonly taken the form of the amulet, an object, often worn about the person, (as a pendant or a bracelet for example), that protects them from trouble and danger and attracts good luck.
Amuletic graffiti, routinely carved into the fabric of buildings, from cottages to manor houses and churches especially around thresholds, (openings such as doorways, windows and fireplaces), is often misinterpreted and is erroneously entitled a ‘witch mark’. In fact, these protection marks, (‘apotropaic marks’ as they are correctly called), were created from a deep seated, universal and instinctive, superstitious/quasi-religious belief in the need to protect oneself and one’s property against harmful spirits. Such beliefs were widely held despite powerful religious preaching, attested for example by the use of the cross and holy relics, (amulets by any other name!), by the most devout of Christian clergy.
A lychgate, incidentally, is a portal into the unknown world.
From ancient custom, the lych – Anglo Saxon for corpse – was rested on its bier under this protective porch at the entrance to the church and graveyard, in preparation for the coming burial.