tarot talismans

Do any members have "talismans" or objects they feel are somehow powerful or of intense personal value and which they store with their tarot cards or like to have nearby when reading?

I have a small Celtic stone head which I like to have nearby when reading. Also, a bronze Victorian fairy which must have come off a larger decorative piece. I don´t know why, but I love it.

I know the most common object to keep with tarot cards is crystals but do others have objects which are NOT crystal/stones?

Ive been reading John Mathews´s Celtic Shaman Pack book and was fascinated by the reference to the Shaman´s pouch of magical or mystical significance which Chesca Potter´s deck tries to emulate.

These things don´t have to be things of any worth, just objects which we feel have a certain "pull" or sentimental attachment.. Could be bone, a coin, anything... Something you store with your tarot cards or like to have nearby when reading. Or maybe there are readers who like to use something of the querent as part of a spread. Ive seen this somewhere too...

Im curious...

I saw the word "talisman" in the title so of course I had to respond!

I make talismans, and I also collect them, which means there's always some odd little random objects with me at all times...and many of them I keep with tarot cards too.

My main talisman bag goes with me to tarot readings, because I like to give them out after a reading. Especially when I do an event, because it's a nice way to bring an end to the proceedings. These are the little clay discs that I make. They have hand painted symbols on them, and i explain what they mean and what they are for to the client...

Now, for the other stuff...well, there's a tiny cow in my tiny tarot (Hanson Roberts mini) bag. It reminds me of my agenda when I do readings. Which is to give love and nurturing in every reading I do.

I also keep three charms...an hourglass, a roulette wheel, and a carnival mask in my medicine bag with my cards, as talismans for my triple Goddess of timing, fortune and luck.

And in my Celestial Wisdom oracle bag, I keep a small clay head that Satori made for me, and a beautiful rock from Fudagazi.

There are other random things I carry everywhere too!(not just with my cards) but some of those are harder to explain....

We all just think too much alike around here! I love creating an atmosphere when I am reading, so depending on the deck or the question or whatever I am working with inside of myself also dictates which talisman(s) I use. They range from statues, stones, amulets, Goddess figurines, coins (fey or celtic in nature), shark's teeth, carved stone animals, skulls (reproductions!!), feathers, and so much more. This topic has fascinated me for a while and really blew up to new interests after watching the series Rome! I started this thread a few days ago...

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=114091

I don't have any talismans that I keep with my decks - the decks themselves are talismans enough, IMO.
I do have a couple handfuls of crystals, and a way cool carved white jade Japanese dragon (and a wooden one, a netsuke, come to think of it), but I don't keep these with my decks.

One of my very very favorite objects is a 6-inch diameter polished ammonite. Just lovely.

But my fossils and crystals aren't kept with my decks. Maybe that's something I need to try?

Mugwort & Rue

I keep mugwort and rue in the bag with my cards. These herbs have a reputation for increasing psychic ability. I also have a crystal pendulum which I sometimes use in addition to the cards, and I pack that in these herbs both for that reason and to protect it from breakage.

Only a couple. My Thoth deck (large, bright, trimmed; as opposed to the other three copies of it I have ) is accompanied now by a beautiful chunk of ocean jasper that morticia monroe tumbled for me. She sent me a whole bunch of them, and this was the only one she didn't polish on one side - because she felt the same thing about it as I did, that it was special. When I held it the first time, I got the sense of density, impenetrability, depth and great wisdom and meaning. So of course it had to live with that deck.

My Tarot of the Secret Forest has a temporary talisman, too, on indefinite loan from the Froud's Faeries. This is a buckeye seed, also from morticia, which the Faeries claimed as soon as it arrived. It lived in their bag for a while, but when I started to use the Secret Forest for Shadow Work, the Faeries told me I could *borrow* it as a talisman for that work. Very kind of them

\m/ Kat

I like to set a scene when I'm reading. Don't get me wrong - if I'm eating junk food with a friend I can throw a few cards on a bare table. But if I'm out for the day or half-day reading, I will layer two cloths on the table (they look better than either of them do separately> I have a single terminator clear quartz with a ghost of its own external shape in its heart - I like to have that standing there. I also have a feng shui prosperity frog - it doesn't hurt (a former girlfriend of mine was totemistically a Frog). And I have a little replica of the Venus of Willendorf. I arrange them and an assortment of decks with the same major arcana card out of each showing for the querent to choose the most appealing artwork, and that sets my scene. I assume some of that stuff - including the two cloths I use and the order I layer them in - are talismans, for sure.

I have: an engraved stone, a pewter pendant in Celtic knot design, and amethyst point and a BC jade carved turtle. They are generally nearby when I read.

I don't have a talisman...but would like one. I often think I need something to focus on before I do a spread, but I haven't really found anything yet.

Hearthcricket! If Id seen that thread, I would have posted my thoughts there instead of starting a new thread! Just out of interest, how did the BBC series "Rome" get you onto talismans? What was their take? I never watched it (sounded too gory for me...)

It certainly looks, from the posts here, that stones/crystals/rocks are the most used talismans.. I was having a poke around my "cabinet of curiosities" this morning and saw loads of things which obviously I bought because I liked them, but really could work as talismans or "objects of focus". Archeological fragments, statuettes, a wonderful old carved, bone fragment of a pipe (looks African?), ivory trinkets, some tiny gilt Oriental figures. I really must get them out and have a proper search through.

teomat.. Im sure you´ve got things which have a certain "presence" for you.. A talisman, I guess, could be anything (although maybe Hearthcricket can define it better than I can). I suspect it is just anything which has "magical" power for you (whatever that means) and which would help you to focus and concentrate.

Does anyone ever do tarot readings with a personal object of the querent instead of a Significator? I don´t know, a watch or ring or key?