Amulet AtlasPractices
Making, charging, wearing, feeding, retiring. A charm is a verb before it is a noun.
Charge (2)
1336 CE to now
Taking an object to where the power is, rather than bringing the power to the object. The move has two directions and this record keeps them apart.
1200 CE to now
The step that makes a made thing a charm. A clay tablet pressed in a temple yard is clay until somebody chants over it; a printed slip is paper until a shrine stamps and…
Dispose (1)
1501 CE to now
Putting a charm in the ground and leaving it. Under a hearth, at the far corner of a property, in the threshold, in a well, in a wall.
Feed (1)
1501 CE to now
Giving the object something to consume. Liquor poured on a cloth bag, a lit cigarette in a plaster figure's mouth, rice and salt and water set out in front of a paper…
Inherit (1)
1830 CE to now
A charm that passes from one person to the next and gathers weight as it goes. The object is the same object; what changes is that it now carries a line of people.
Make (5)
600 BCE to now
The step after the writing: the sheet is rolled into a tube, folded into a packet, or creased into a shape, and then cased, sewn or sealed. From that point the text is…
600 BCE to now
Writing the words that do the work. Lead scratched with a stylus, parchment ruled and lettered with a quill, silver foil punched with a blessing, metal foil incised with…
1550 BCE to now
Tying, as the whole of the charm. A knot needs no words, no metal and no kiln — two colours of wool twisted together, a leather strap knotted into the shape of a letter…
1773 CE to now
Putting the charm inside the cloth rather than on a cord. A pouch is stitched shut over what it holds; coins and hair are sewn into a belt; a charm is quilted into a…
2500 BCE to now
The charm put into the skin, where it cannot be dropped, stolen, sold or taken off.
Renew (1)
1764 CE to now
A charm with an expiry date. The old one is taken down, returned, burnt, buried or tied to a tree, and a new one takes its place on a fixed day.
Retire (1)
1764 CE to now
Ending a charm in fire, on purpose and in public. Old talismans go back to the place that issued them and are burnt together at a set ceremony; wish-plaques are burnt to…
Trade (1)
1382 CE to now
Money changes hands and an object becomes yours. It is the ordinary route to a charm almost everywhere — a tray in a lane, a counter inside a temple gate, an aisle at…
Wear (6)
201 CE to now
A string of a fixed number of beads or knots, run through the fingers so that the hand keeps count while the mouth says something.
3000 BCE – 1964 CE
Objects buried under a building, at the start of it, by people who did not expect anyone to see them again.
2686 BCE to now
Amulets put into a burial — on the body, in the wrappings, in the chest cavity, in the hand, around the coffin.
301 CE to now
Putting the charm on the way in. A parchment case screwed to a doorpost, a horseshoe nailed above a door, a woven cross in the rafters, a painted star on a barn, a paper…
undated
The charm written and then destroyed on purpose, so that a person can take it. Words are written inside a bowl, water is poured in, the writing comes off into the water…
1281 CE to now
The rule that a charm is not to be seen. Hoodoo mojo bags are made for one person and kept on that person, out of sight: men in a trouser pocket, women clipped to the…