Hmmph. And personal talismans

[cupcake_goth]

I am having something of a low day. Which, upon reflection, isn't terribly surprising, because even tho' I had a good phone call about something the other day and some fantastic socializing, those aren't enough to offset how this year has been so far.

Anyway, it's the sort of day where I feel the need to drape myself with talismans. In addition to the Necklace That Only Comes Off For Baths (silver ankh, flanked by silver skeleton keys from Rocklove^*), when I go run errands today I am going to be wearing my usual giant rings (I feel naked if I leave the house without them), the Big Jingly Key Necklace, and probably the mourning brooch that my beloved pix_kristin gave me. One of these is for fidgeting with when I feel agitated, one is for reminding me of my safety net of loved ones.

What sort of jewelry talismans do you wear, if any? I love hearing about other people's amulets or iconic jewelry.




^*Hello, I am a gothy girl of A Certain Age. I collect ankhs and skeleton keys, and have done for YEARS (even before I ever read The Sandman). I gleefully embrace my clichés, thankyouverymuch.

Comments

[chaoskitten-df.livejournal.com]

I always wear my celtic knot pentacle (its a pewter pentacle with a ring of celtic knotwork surrounding it) and my other slightly larger celtic knotwork pewter pendant.
(Can you tell I love pewter? :P And that I'm Irish? XD )

I feel naked without them and very uncomfortable without them to the point that I don't feel right leaving my house without at least one of them on. I've been wearing them both for years and they're practically part of me at this stage.

[javagoth.livejournal.com]

Since I didn't fit standard jewelry for many years and didn't start making my own until my late 20's - I didn't really have jewelry I connected with that way for a long time. Most of what I do have now, I made.

I have a simple hematite and white fiber optic bead necklace I wear when I feel the need for balance/calm and am generally feeling unsure of myself.

I have a necklace made of what they were calling black labradorite & moonstones with a tree & moon pendant that I like to wear a lot as well.

I used to wear a lot of rings but got out of the habit when I started driving a car with manual steering and haven't gotten back into the habit again yet. I have a hard time with rings at times. My fingers tend to swell at first and then relax and, unfortunately, this can lead to losing rings. Also, my fingers are large so it's hard to find rings to fit certain fingers that I like. I tend to futz with and spin rings when I wear them.

I made an amethyst snake pendant necklace for my friend and tattooist, Jill, that I wear sometimes when I'm thinking about her a lot.

The rest depends on my mood.

I'm more likely to dress up and put on make-up (aka war paint) when I'm feeling low/insecure and leave the house.

[icprncs.livejournal.com]

Drqgonflies. :) I don't have one very specific one and I don't wear them all the time, but they're definitely recurring. What's most interesting is that most of my dragonfly jewelry was gifts, so it's always reflective and a reminder of the people who gave it.

(K gave me a skeleton key on crimson velvet cord as an anniversary gift. Nah, not goth.)

[aniline.livejournal.com]

Mine's a little weird - it's a Tokidoki pendant (http://cf1.polyvoreimg.com/thing.345120.l.jpg) of the little skull guy in a star on a simple chain. It was the only thing I wound up buying at the 2008 NY Comic Con and it was the first time I spent a considerable amount of time with this one coworker I really liked outside of work. I'm trying to figure out if I can wear it at our wedding but it really doesn't go with anything and it's more than a little beat up. Maybe as a secret anklet. heh.

[boyastridgirl.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely piece for the something old, if you're doing that tradition, and it's a reminder of where it all began.

Lately, my partner and I have been talking wedding plans so this made me actually mush.

I think I'm gone to the darkside. (I'd always said I wasn't the marrying kind.)

[serenada.livejournal.com]

Much of my necklaces and quite a bit of my clothes function as talismans for me--to comfort me, or boost my confidence.

But I had an ankh tattooed on just so I'd never have to rely on anything external for my talisman. It's right there on my sternum the whole time. Anything with ankhs functions this way.

eta: icprncs just reminded me--dragonflies are the other symbol. I'd have that tattooed as well, if I could settle on a location and design.

[bijouxdejais.livejournal.com]

Oh, I really like the idea of your ankh tattoo; how beautiful. I haven't any, but if I ever did succumb to the urge it would have to be symmetrical in design, and placed symmetrically and somewhat discreetly.

[kambriel.livejournal.com]

I have an amulet that I've worn since 1990. I'll have to show it to you sometime and tell you the story of finding it...

I also have one which I got after C's father died. It's an opalescent glass Renee Lalique pendant with a woman gently cradling birds. Sometimes I wear it when flying as it has a protective and loving spirit.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

I wear a pent, for religious reasons, normally a sweet one about 20mm (3/4 of an inch) across. Being Discordian I sometimes substitute a huge tacky one when I want to annoy the fundamentalist hordes.

[jessybxx.livejournal.com]

The only piece of jewellery I never take of (not even for showers) is one half of a silver heart. The other half is in my best friend's possession (the guy in my user pic). Yeah, he's a bit older than me (24 years to be exact) but he's one of the most important people I ever met and I love him madly (literally, though that is entirely one-sided :|).

[ghostworld00.livejournal.com]

Diamond clover ring and several silver stacking rings.
https://cakeknife00.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dscn3488.jpg

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Most of my "everyday" jewelry has some kind of meaning (these are the pieces I wear every day with every outfit). My wedding & engagement rings, for obvious reason. I twirl them & fuss w/them when I'm nervous or bored or, well, any time. A silver & garnet ring I bought in Jaipur, India, which reminds me of travel & specifically of India, which is the closest thing to a spiritual connection to anything I have. The upper earrings I always wear are a pewter peace symbol, bec. I'm a damn hippie, & a pair of tiny cloisonne ying-yangs, both bec. I'm part Chinese & bec. I'm a damn hippie. And I always wear a leather studded cockring that isn't so much talismic, but it's my token 'always goth, dammit' item, no matter what else I'm wearing ;-)

[cherry-faery.livejournal.com]

I have a pentacle that I got when I was a teenager just learning about witchcraft and a piece of amethyst that was given to me by a friend of my mom's on the night of my high school graduation. (He collected stones and said that this stone would help with creative energies. He passed away a few years later.) They both lay under my pillow when I sleep and I refuse to sleep without them.

I have a rosary that I wore when my niece was born and a second one I made for the autumn season in memory of my dad. I wear the second one on the first day of fall, October first and close to Halloween every year.

In the ring department, I have a poison ring with a pentacle painted on top and a skull inside the hidden compartment that I got a long time ago. I like this one because it makes me feel like I am carrying a secret and though I have no will to poison anyone, I like the fact that it exists for that purpose. I also have a ring that my mom gave me that used to belong to my grandmother on her side.

The more recent editions are a key pendant with red stones that I wear whenever I feel vampy. :)

[gloomsan.livejournal.com]

I try and wear odd socks, I tend to have bad luck otherwise :(

[oddnumbereven.livejournal.com]

I have a gold bangle on my left wrist that's been there since I was 7; it is, literally, part of me now, and can't be removed - unless you have a hacksaw handy. It was my Mum's first, but she had to have it cut off as a child at boarding school.

[pencat.livejournal.com]

One, now two rings consistently - the one I've had since college and is on my finger more often than it isn't, and a ring I discovered at Norwescon and bought in a moment of impulse. It made me feel better when I put it on, and thus, why bother taking it off. :)

Am thinking of you today and hope your errands go well.

Stripes, stripes, and eccentric keys

[starpolish.livejournal.com]

I wear some form of stripes nearly everyday, even if others can't see them. Obviously the cliche stripey stockings come in to play very often, but I also have many pin striped tops, striped arm warmers, and a plethora of stripey underwear (comes in handy for times when stripey socks are supposedly inappropriate). Stripes are my personal armor.

Wearing makeup is a type of meditation and armor for me, as well. You can tell I am not doing well work wise when I don't even bother to put on cat eye eyeliner. I don't mind how I look without makeup, but the act of putting it on prepares me for the day and leads to a type of zone-out meditation that helps ground me.

I also have a very special piece of jewelry that I don't wear often, but it is near and dear to me. My boyfriend commissioned a solid silver replica of the Key to Hell from Gaiman's Sandman for our anniversary and put it on a chain. It's quite large, but I wear it when I will apart from him in times when his support would be a great help. I also enjoy the odd looks that people get when they ask if it's the "key to his heart" and I reply jovially, "No, it's the key to hell!" It sums up our relationship quite well.

Re: Stripes, stripes, and eccentric keys

[starpolish.livejournal.com]

I would love to wear rings but I have ridiculously small fingers. I also always have two hair ties on my wrists. My body jewelry (lip ring, helix, anti-tragus, orbital, and 2g swans) are also always in. I feel like if I take out my 2g lobes (whether I'm wearing plugs or swans) things go badly for me. If I leave them out for job interviews I never get the job.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

I have a trinity knot that I often wear that way - partly for the knot, partly for the fact that it came from *home* - and a pentacle with a peridot as well as an African Jade Traveling whirl - all three of those get worn as talismans at one tie or another.


________

[winneganfake.livejournal.com]

It'd have to be my bracer- always worn on the right wrist, and all leather, aside from buckles, rivets, and the hematite donut worked into it. Just plain feel far too naked without it.

[torreybird.livejournal.com]

What - I'm not wearing a giraffe charm because it has any particular meaning of course I'm not that would be ridiculous I can't believe you'd think such a thing. /sarcasm

Icon has one from an earlier time. I tend to have them for particular times/stressors/ideas, then let go of them.

Except washers. Washers I find in the road always find a pocket to come home in.

[bijouxdejais.livejournal.com]

Haha, I do the same with washers. I find it amusingly reassuring that I'm not the only one out there with this habit :o)

[bijouxdejais.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, certainly. Days when I need to battle the Evil Eye, I wear one (or more) of several hamsas in my collection (one of which literally snared me my husband :o} ). I do feel armored in a way by my hamsas.
I also tend to wear favored stones when I need to acknowledge sad feelings, inner struggles or gain some clarity; I love looking into moonstones, labradorite, moss agates and various types of quartz, especially amethyst. So I tend to wear those stones as rings, though sometimes as pendants.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I drape myself in garnets. But you already knew that.

I always wear a ring when I go out (anymore I have gone back to my eternity setting garnet) on one of my ring fingers, or I feel naked. When I am feeling particularly agitated I will often wear the little silver ankh ring I got from you or the silver spiderweb poison ring (I think also came from you).

When I am feeling hostile or dangerous I will wear my silver mirror shard jewelry set that Jesse Skellington made for me.

When I am feeling the need for the reminder, I wear my "I'm a special little" snowflake jewelry set, which I made for myself.

And when things are particularly sucktacular I wear a necklace that is a plain black satin cord with a pendant made by my Xavier for me of the raw garnet that John Alverez gave me (which he dug himself) while I was a teenager. The garnet is about the same size as a d12. It is probably my most powerful amulet.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

oh, and, of course, my charm bracelet that holds charms which represent people, moments, or things that are important to me. Mostly it is people though. You are on their a few times (as are Mickey, Thea, and Alexia). There are a few dozen charms I still need to find for it before I will be satisfied, though.

[witchdollie.livejournal.com]

I have a Raven that I wear almost daily and since I am dealing with health problems, I also have a La Santisma Muerte charm that I wear. On this charm in particular she is draped in white for peace and healing.

[lanenkylar.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm a gothy girl of a slightly younger age and it shows.

I have two pendants I rotate through: one is a lovely snake piece my MIL gave me some years ago. The other is an order of the dragon copy, silver in enamel (it's the Hungarian standard, but what is a girl to do?). I also put on a moonstone held by a snake ring, a dragon, a little coiled snake, a *gigantic* aventurine ring, wedding bands, and my grandmother's wedding band. With a pair of snake earrings.

[fyrdrakken]

I've gone through phases in my life when I was wearing a particular bit of jewelry or two every day, until I finished with that phase of my life. (Like, always wearing my high school and then university ring on one hand, and a particular silver twist on the right hand, or a pair of plastic dangles I clipped to hoop earrings, or my enameled Badali Jewelry One Ring on a chain after I finished off the Wolverine dogtag phase.)

Right now, though, I'm going through a maximal jewelry phase, where every morning I get the necklace that goes best with today's outfit and have had to give myself a five-ring limit (maybe six, if one is a pinky ring) because of the buying spree I went on after losing two of the three rings I'd been wearing every single day in a moment's carelessness. I took it as a sign that I needed to expand my ring collection (and was incredibly thankful that the lost rings were etched stainless steel that cost me only about $10 apiece, while the university ring was the one I still had). And I would be wearing the sapphires-and-opals ring I found on eBay pretty much every day if it went with all my outfits.

EtA: Talismans, in particular -- there's one necklace I haven't worn for years, of a hologrammatic eye in a pewter frame that looks like twining branches. In high school and college, I started making a special point of wearing it whenever I had a big test -- SATs, for example, or a midterm or final I wanted some extra reassurance on. Even lent it to my freshman roommate a time or two. Haven't worn it for years -- but then, I graduated college in 1999 and haven't been taking many exams since then.

[theblackdeer.livejournal.com]

It's silly, but one of my besties ever (Kristin) wears the same Tiffany floating heart pendant as me. It's cool to know she's on the opposite coast rocking the silver heart, too.

Of course, before that I wore a necklace all year that was given to me by my ex - I cut that thing off with a knife when we broke up.

So yeah, some things are quite personal to me.

[theblackdeer.livejournal.com]

OH! And my nose ring! I've had it for 20 years. It's my little "fuck you" to the world, plus it's cute as hell.

[hearmesnark.livejournal.com]

I have a necklace that my dad and I made together at the beginning of last year. It's a choker made from used gun shell casings of various sizes arranged in a design reminiscent of an Egyptian collar strung on black satin ribbon. My dad collected the shells, polished them, and joined the metal bits together. I collected the jewelry bits and did the design. I wear it when I need a boost in confidence, and it usually works (although that might be from the fact that anyone seems more confident when the people around them are freaked out by someone wearing bullets...)