Throughout the history of human civilization, people have sought to know good and evil. Even in ancient times, the sages noticed an inextricable connection between these opposite phenomena of the physical and non-material worlds. One is impossible without the other, like darkness without light, life without death, disease without he alth, we alth without poverty, mind without stupidity, etc.
Charms are an integral part of the life of various ethnic groups
Researchers, archaeologists and historians who studied ancient monuments found that in ancient manuscripts and on household items found in various parts of the world, next to the image of everyday events, there are repeated signs, as if fixing painted scenes or showing reasons for the observed phenomena. In some cases, these are bizarre icons, in others - living creatures with body parts from different animals, in others - the animals themselves.
One part of the characters looks static, the other, on the contrary, seems to contain movement. And although most of them gave the impression of detachment and neutrality, researchers did not always and not immediately manage to unambiguously characterize their essence and meaning: what is contained in them - good or evil, cause or effect? This applied to yin-yang, ouroboros, anchovy, kolokhort, ankh, molvinets, some symbolic animals, gods, etc.
It turns out that these signs are designed to balance antagonistic forces, to create equality between them.
It is known that too much good generates evil and, on the contrary, an excess of evil opens up opportunities for the manifestation of kindness. The preponderance of both one and the other force is fraught with great troubles. Since everything in the world is interconnected, and a person is small and defenseless, non-verbal magic of amulets comes to his aid.
Symbols of peace and good, equalizing the mutual influence of opposing elements, neutralizing evil and attracting good, it has long been customary to draw on the walls of houses and on utilitarian items. Charm amulets, embodying the desired intention, were worn on the body, hoping in this way to protect themselves from misfortune or achieve the cherished goal.
Hamsa
This symbol of goodness and mercy is considered a talisman of Jews and Muslims, but it appeared long before the emergence of monotheistic religions. According to some sources, the symmetrical palm, hamsa, belongs to the pagan cults of ancient Mesopotamia, according to others - to Egypt.
According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, the anchovy fingers are the divine spouses Osiris and Isis. The central finger is their son Horus, and the two extreme ones represent the spirits of their ancestors.
According to all traditions, an open palm - hamsa, symbolizes childbearing, he alth and protection from the evil eye. She, like a universal amulet, is hung in cars, in apartments, attached to bracelets and chains.
Jewellery - pendants and earrings in the form of a symmetrical palm, made of gold and silver, decorated with precious stones, enamel and engraving.
Hand of Fatima
In Islam, the hand of Fatima, or hamsa, personifies the five pillars of this religion - fasting during Ramadan, generosity to the poor, jihad, pilgrimage to Mecca and ritual ablution.
Fatima's palm is the national emblem of Algeria and is depicted on the national flag of the republic.
The history of the Muslim amulet sounds like this:
Fatima was the daughter of the prophet Mohammed. According to legend, she could heal the sick with the touch of her hand. Once, when she was cooking dinner, her husband entered the house with his mistress, Fatima dropped her spoon in surprise and continued to stir the hot food with her bare hand. Grief, jealousy and despair robbed her of sensitivity. Since then, Muslim women have resorted to the palm of Fatima when they need moral support and protection from various manifestations of evil.
Miriam's hand
According to the Jewish tradition, the hamsa personifies the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah, Tanakh) - the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, as well as five Hebrew letters and fivesense organs, which means that a person must constantly strive to know God with sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.
The hand of Miriam, or Yad A-Hamesh, is the hand of the sister of the divine Messengers - Aaron and Moses. On one side of the Jewish anchovy is the All-Seeing Eye of the Creator, and on the other, the Star of David or the words of Amida.
Chinese symbol for the balance of forces of good and evil
The Chinese symbol for good and evil, yin-yang, is a black and white circle divided into two identical parts by a wavy line. Black and white, as it were, flows into one another, and, at the same time, originates in each other. Inside each part there is a small circle of the opposite color.
According to the people of China, this drawing encodes the essence of the universe, the nature of Tao - the constant mutual penetration of opposites and rebirth. The world is harmonious and a person should understand this.
Contemplation of the yin-yang symbol gives a sense of the justice of the world order, the belief that a sad event is always followed by a joyful one, as night follows day - this is inevitable. It is only important to treat the changing realities correctly and not count on the possibility of eternal happiness and joy.
Yin-yang is not only a universal symbol of the harmony of the world. Sometimes young men and women in love use it to express love and devotion. They buy a yin-yang amulet, cut it into halves and give it to each other. Yin is black and symbolizes a woman, and yang is white and symbolizes a man. The girl takes a white half for herself, and the young man takes a black one. In this mannerthey commit themselves to being faithful to each other.
Chinese bird tradition
If yin-yang is designed to harmonize the entire surrounding space and balance the opposite elements, then to achieve the desired goal in any particular area, the Chinese use special symbols of a narrowly focused action. Centuries-old observations of the habits of animals and birds gave the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom knowledge about their characteristics and about what benefits can be derived from the symbols depicting these animals. According to the people of China, the bird is a symbol of kindness, love, material we alth and a successful career.
In almost every Chinese house, in its southwestern part, you can see ceramic sculptures of a pair of mandarin ducks in love. Chinese philosophy ascribes to them such properties as fidelity, love and tenderness, because they create couples for life.
Rooster figurines are placed on the table located in the middle of the southern wall. These brave birds always protect their harems from offenders and vigilantly ensure that all the hens are fed, satisfied and none of them get lost or stray from the flock. It is believed that the rooster is the best assistant in matters of career advancement.
The south-east corner of the apartment is a zone that attracts material well-being to the house. Here you can find a figurine or image of a fiery phoenix bird.
In a Chinese house there is always a corner for other birds that bring good luck - owls (to protect against the bad influence of strangers), sparrows and pigeons (forpeace and harmony between spouses), herons (for longevity), eagles (for willpower and determination), capercaillie (for respectability and self-confidence), swans (for purity of thought) and falcons (for courage and victory in competitions).
Birds representing the forces of good and evil in ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, the mythical birds Great Gogotun and Venu were considered gods, and killing a falcon, kite or ibis was punishable by death.
God of the Moon, wisdom and justice, He had the head of an ibis. This bird foreshadowed the future for the Egyptians. It was believed that she controls the flood of the Nile, and this is directly related to what the harvest of the fruits of the earth will be like.
One of the three main Egyptian gods, Horus, who owned the ankh, the key that opens all the roads of fate, had the head of a falcon. This bird patronized the pharaohs and protected them.
The goddess Nekhbet had the wings and crest of a kite. She gave the pharaohs power and patronized the extraction of precious metals. Ordinary people also turned to Nekhbet for help. Her huge wings sheltered from any danger and dispersed the forces of evil.
Cat in Egyptian cult
The Egyptians worshiped not only birds, but also animals. The cat in the Egyptian cult symbolized goodness, fun and fertility. This animal is a gift from the gods to people. Her incarnation is the beautiful goddess Bastet with the head of a cat. Temples were built in her honor, and the city of Bubastis, dedicated to Bastet, was the first Egyptian city to which the Virgin Mary came with her DivineSon during their flight from King Herod.
If Bastet did not receive proper reverence, then she turned into an evil Sekhmet with the head of a lioness.
Cats in Ancient Egypt served as protection for the wheat crop, which the Egyptians supplied to many countries of the world. These animals prevented rodents from spoiling grain stocks and destroying barns. The man who killed the cat was stoned to death. In the event of a fire or flood, cats were the first to be taken out of the house to a safe place.
Cats in ancient Egypt were buried together with their owners in a common crypt. They were mummified or burned in special crematoria. If the cat died, then its owners observed mourning for several days - men shaved off their eyebrows, and women put on appropriate dresses. Bastet figurines, as symbols of goodness and material prosperity, still adorn the homes of modern Egyptians.
Ankh
In recent decades, ancient sacred symbols (in particular, the Egyptian sign of goodness, the ankh) began to be actively used by young people to express the exclusivity of their subculture. So goths, emos, punks, hippies and others are happy to wear amulets on their wrists and necks, copied from those found in the tombs of the pharaohs or peeped from the Slavic Vedas.
The Egyptian key of life, the ankh, is as profound as the Chinese symbol for good and evil, yin-yang.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the short life of a person in a corporeal shell is not only not final, but also not the most important. The main life takes place in the Duat, beyond the thresholdof death. Only a deity who owns an ankh can open the door to the afterlife. This key is meaningful. It symbolizes a man and a woman, the sunrise and the movement of vital energy inside the human body, as well as access to secret knowledge and protection from the forces of evil.
The first Christians of Egypt, the Copts, declared the ankh a symbol of their faith. Originally the key of life belonged to Osiris. Christ became his successor, and the ankh, along with other signs - two fish, alpha and omega, an anchor, a ship, and others, was strongly associated with Christianity until the beginning of the Crusades.
Ankh is a symbol of goodness, wisdom and victory over evil. It is also the tree of life, where the ring is the crown and the mountain world, and the rod is the trunk of the tree and the path of man.
In the Middle Ages, the ankh was hung over the bed of a woman in labor, so that the birth would be successful and a new person would come into the world, endowed with good he alth and a happy fate.
Ouroboros
The Chinese symbol of good and evil yin-yang is a late transformation of the ancient Middle Eastern ouroboros, similar in meaning and meaning.
Ouroboros is a snake coiled up and biting its own tail or regurgitating itself. This is one of the ancient signs, containing a lot of meanings, including the cyclical nature of everything in nature and the constant circular movement of the forces of the universe. The snake's head represents the inner world of a person, and the tail represents the surrounding reality. The essence of the symbol is that man, as well as all nature, create themselves and are in constant close relationship. Everything lasts, nothing ends, all processesunchanged and similar to each other.
According to some sources, the ouroboros, as a symbol of good and evil and their eternal cycle, as a model of the real world, was invented and drawn by a student of the famous scientist Mary the Jewess during the time of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. According to other sources, he was known from 1600 BC. e. and also from Egyptian burials.
Ouroboros is the most accurate and most famous symbol of good and evil, death and rebirth, eternity and infinity, the universe and stars, heaven and hell, earth and water.
Pre-Christian symbols of good and evil in Russia. Kolokhort
The idea of good and evil, of the cyclicity and inconstancy of the material world among the ancient Slavs did not differ much from what we know about other peoples. Even the main symbol of goodness in Russia, the kolokhort, is a circle, from the center of which eight oppositely directed rays emerge, personifying movements that balance each other - s alting and anti-s alting. This echoes the Chinese symbol for good and evil, as well as ouroboros.
Kolohort symbolizes the sun and the eternal cycle of natural phenomena. The god Yarila was also associated with him, who was born, flourished and died every year at the same time. Yarila gave the Russians a rich harvest of the fruits of the earth, victory in military affairs, harmony and love in families.
Yarila, embodied in the colohort, as a Slavic symbol of good and evil, also had power over the spirits of ancestors, over life and death.
Molvinets
Molvinets -Slavic symbol of goodness, a gift from the god Rod, an analogue of hamsa and ankh. It is similar to a colochort, but does not include movement. This amulet in its execution looks static, as it consists of two closed broken lines crossed and intertwined with each other, resembling the number 8. Molvinets is a powerful amulet against the evil eye, evil thoughts, illness and misfortune.
Molvinets endows with the gift of words and beliefs, and also protects from evil rumors and gossip. It is most suitable for lawyers, writers, journalists, politicians and managers of various ranks, although it also helps representatives of other professions.
Birds in the Russian tradition
"Birds are the freest and happiest creatures on earth" - our ancestors, the Slavs, thought so. Birds are not tied to one place, they have the ability to travel around the world. Sky-high, divine expanses are also open to them. It is no coincidence that the symbol of goodness in fairy tales is the white swan. Often the main character, when in trouble, found protection and shelter under the wings of this beautiful bird.
A pair of swans remain faithful to each other throughout their lives, and how they take care of their chicks deserves a separate story, because both spouses hatch eggs in turn. Together they get food for the chicks, together they fight off enemies.
Rooster is another character that takes pride of place in the pantheon of Slavic birds that bring goodness and peace. With a loud cry, the rooster disperses the forces of evil. After the third crowing, the evil spirit leaves the audibility of this sound. Economic andAn attentive rooster sets up its owners for a responsible attitude to household chores.
Modern science has proven that the sounds of poultry voices have a calming effect on the nervous system and relieve accumulated stress.
Symbols of good and evil in the Christian tradition
The original Christian symbolism was directly related to the Middle East. Ancient attributes of goodness, equality between people, eternal life after physical death, and others were actively used by Christians, but were not invented by them. This statement does not apply only to the cross on which Jesus was crucified. The crucifixion was approved as an official symbol of the victory of good over evil only after Queen Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine 1, excavated in Jerusalem in 326 and found miraculous sacred relics associated with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with them Life-Giving Cross.
Before that, the emblems of Christians were more than two dozen different objects, including plants, animals, etc. The ship was associated with Noah's ark and reminded Christians of the need to be able to wait, endure and believe in salvation. The anchor hinted at the strength and stability of the new doctrine.
In the symbolism of the early Christians, birds occupied a large place. So, the dove meant the holy spirit and purity of intentions (it is still used in this sense), the rooster symbolized the birth to a new life after the baptismal ritual in the name of the Holy Spirit, the peacock personified the immortality and incorruptibility of the holy relics, sohow the meat of this bird does not decompose in the ground, and the phoenix is the resurrection from the dead.
Modern use of amulets
Despite the fact that the modern official Church considers the use of amulets to be pagan fetishism, it is difficult to understand why only the cross, which is also a kind of amulet, can protect against various manifestations of evil, because the contemplation and comprehension of ancient symbols, personifying the universe, sets up on the spiritual and philosophical attitude to the changes taking place in our troubled world, and gives rise to a positive mood.
It is doubtful that the contemplation of yin-yang, ouroboros, anchovy or colochort would have provoked condemnation from Jesus Christ or Mahomet, as merchants who traded in the temple with some dubious sacred relics, similar to how they sell in today's churches gold rings and chains, dishes and other luxury and utilitarian items for the so-called "recommended fixed donation".
The purpose of amulets, symbolizing the victory of good over evil, is the establishment of peaceful relations between people. It is very commendable that the ancient symbols of harmony have again become in demand and popular among a variety of people, regardless of their nationality and religion.
