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I received this lovely owl from my mother for Christmess. It is a charm she has had for many years, and finally it has become mine.
From where I'm sitting*, that's the key phrase to understanding the magical purpose of the amulet. What does your mother think about it? Is it her good luck charm? Does she instinctively think of it as somehow protective? If in doubt, I'd always take the word of the person whose worn it for 20 years over what a website might have to say about the properties of owls/ivory. Also, the fact that it belonged to your mother and you obviously feel a strong connection to it, is magically potent in itself regardless of the amulets symbolism, which I'd read as almost secondary.
I'd speculate that it now functions as a kind of ancestral heirloom, a link between you and the power of your ancestors. I wear my Grandad's wristwatch and think of it like this. It's a potent protective amulet. I think any item passed down to you by your parents or grandparents, functions as a kind of mini-ancestral altar as it represents the link between you and where you came from.
A question occurrs to me. What constitutes "magical properties" in an object or substance? Thoughts?
That's an interesting one, isnt it. From a hoodoo point of view, an objects properties are generally linked very closely to their apparent nature. For instance, if you want to sweeten someone, you might cover a picture of them in honey or mollases. If you wanted to heat a situation up, you would use chilli. If you want to curse someone, you'd use things like sulphur, graveyard dust, black pepper, dead insects and the like. It's often very instinctive.
From a hoodoo angle, I'd say the properties of the owl amulet can be read in the same way. Owls, within our culture, tend to be associated with wisdom and perhaps by extension magic. This is probably rooted in the association with Athena, but we all grew up with stories featuring wise old owls. I don't think you can really discount that connection between owls and wisdom, when working with the amulet. Ivory, within our culture, is scarce. It's a white precious substance, and that in itself suggests concepts like purity, rarity, spirituality, and so on. The set of ideas that a Quabbalist might attribute to Kether and a Santero might associate with Obatala.
So perhaps what you have is an ancestral totem object that helps your ancestors to bring you the blessing of their wisdom as you walk along your path of spiritual attainment.
Peice of piss. Next?
* I am currently sitting in the crow's nest of a pirate ship, drinking champagne pillaged from cruder, less stylish pirates, while a beautiful girl with an eye patch and a hook for a hand feeds chocolate to my parrot familiar, as it recites the rite of the bornless one in an irritating mockney accent. |
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