Courting the Stars

In my many years spent as a professional talismanic artist I have learnt that there is much more to talisman making than finding the right astrological election. It is not a race to the finish-line, or a crass game of catch and keep, but rather a slow and long courting ritual.

A dance of seduction.

For Millenia people have seduced the spirits with Art. Bodies writhed in dance, music made with mouths and hands, canvases caressed with wet loaded brushes, paper feverishly scratched with poetry. These are just some of the many ways for Art is multifarious.

The ways of the jewellery talisman maker are the ways of the Smith and the Sculptor.

It is with the deftness of her hands that the talisman maker works her seduction. With the mastery she has over her materials forged through years of devotion to her craft. A long lineage of ancestors of practise support her. Smith and Magician has been synonymous since our first stories. Since the gift of fire.

The talisman maker devotes herself to her craft. To hand crafting the most beautiful talismans she can make. Not because she wants to make “pretty things” but out of her respect and love for her consorts; the Stellar Spirits.

Taking scalpel to wax she endlessly carves and sculpts. Harnessing fire she turns silver to liquid. With metal on metal she hammers and files until the sweat drips from her neck and her body aches. This is her dance of seduction, her offering of beauty born of sweat and blood. 

She has learnt that the longer she spends in her devotions to the craft the more THEY respond. Talismans that are hand made slowly over months may start as her creations but they are finished as co-creations. And when her hands are guided by  whispered secrets she knows the courting is complete.