The world is full of meaningful symbols. From the humble triangle to the sacred Om glyph, we work with symbols everyday whether it’s in our spiritual practices or mundane tasks such as reading a map or road signs. They are an important part of communication on a global scale, they help us understand the world around us, and they emphasise our intentions.
Alison Davies explores more than fifty glyphs and symbols in her new book Charms & Symbols: How to Weave the Power of Ancient Signs and Marks into Modern Life. It’s simply laid-out, split into eight sections from Balance and Centring to Healing, making it easy for readers to pull symbols depending on their potential use. Each page features three key words associated with each sign, a brief description and history, followed by instructions on using them in a spiritual fulfilling way.
It’s like a spellbook for the average person; you don’t have to be experienced in witchcraft, ritual work, meditation or any kind of New Age activity. This is a book of simple exercises that you can go and practise right away; anywhere, at any time. Few require more than a pencil and paper, and a quiet place to reflect.
As a practicing witch, my first thought was that the book was a bit simple. It’s easy to relegate a short hardback to the “fluffy” section of the witch’s library, but then I reminded myself of how much reading and studying I’d done lately compared with how much practice. Indeed, when it comes to putting anything I learn to practice, there is always an excuse: it’s not the right moon phase, I don’t have the space, the rituals are too complicated to execute, I don’t have all the right tools or ingredients. But the exercises in Charms & Symbols are so simple that to get anything out of the book at all you have to put them to the test.
And so I did. I carved out about ten minutes a day to work on some of the exercises and it was liberating. Instead of getting bogged down in details, I could just focus on one symbol and reflect on what came up for me. I can’t say much in terms of any results I found - these things take time to work - but I did find myself pondering the subjective side of charms and symbols rather than hyperfocusing on facts and history.
The book includes a lot of symbols that aren’t as well known as others: while we might find the Scales of Justice, the Triple Moon, the Feather, the Horseshoe and the Pentacle, we also find more obscure symbols (at least to the Western world) like the Unalome, the Hunab Ku, the Nteasee and the Denkyem.
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It’s a book for all cultures and all levels of spiritual practice. Simple as it may be, Charms & Symbols makes a refreshing change from the complicated spellbooks and meditation courses that flood the spirituality book market, only working for the few and not the many.
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