The Minish Cap: A leprechaun’s shillelagh.

A leprechaun’s shillelagh

Cane of Pacci: The cane is found while exploring the Cave of Flames. The bolts of energy flung by the cane flip objects upside down which can be helpful when dealing with carts that need to be emptied or well-armored enemies. The cane also uses its inversion magic to turn holes into trampolines. Instead of falling into a hole, the effect of the hole is flipped and it becomes a bounce platform. 

This walking stick makes its bearer magically lucky by stealing luck away from nearby folk, leaving them to suffer more of life’s little mischiefs. It doesn’t take long for people to realize the fellow with the stick is too lucky by far and deserves some evening out. This chaotic bit of magic was woven by a leprechaun who wanted to make sure that if their shillelagh was ever taken, it would cause enough mischief to find its way back home. 

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There are plenty of magic sticks to choose from in the greater fairy tale and folk story canon, but I think the shillelagh is the perfect balance between mundane and magical that typifies fairy tales instead of general fantasy.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charms Collected: Nine lucky charms to keep you safe from harm and attract prosperity.

 Nine lucky charms to keep you safe from harm and attract prosperity.

Here is the complete set of lucky charms.

Which lucky charm do you like the most?

You can grab all nine lucky charms in one pdf for printing in the links below.

Lucky Charm: A cricket talisman to lure happiness and prosperity.

 A cricket talisman to lure happiness and prosperity.

Lucky Cricket: Crickets have been kept as pets to attract luck and prosperity. Their pleasing songs remind us to be happy and appreciate the small things in life. They have also invited wealth to their owners, either through a beautiful song or victory in violent cricket fights.

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In researching various good luck charms from around the world I was not able to confidently connect crickets as good luck charms outside of my memory of Mulan getting one for good luck. Disney isn’t the best at authentic representations, so I didn’t want to rely solely on that.

Cricket fights are a real thing that people bred prized lines of crickets to compete in. Truth is wilder than fiction.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charm: A controversial lucky charm.

 A controversial lucky charm.

Figa charm: This charm shows a hand forever frozen in the fig gesture. The gesture is used as a lucky charm in some countries like Brazil and Portugal. Many cultures find this gesture offense. It is apparently similar to flipping someone off in America or the V-sign in the UK.

The charm’s protective powers are actually derived from the offensive nature of the gesture. It is so offensive as to rebuff bad luck or the harmful effects of, you guessed it, the evil eye.

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I’m sorry if I offended you, but this is just another situation where I learned something new in the research for a drawing project.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charms: Fight fire with fire, or in this case the eye with an eye.

  Fight fire with fire, or in this case the eye with an eye.

Nazar Eye: This lucky charm is another charm thought to protect the wearer from the evil eye, the curse cast through harsh staring due to jealousy or anger. While some peoples of the Mediterranian region fought the evil eye with the hamsa, other cultures in the Mediterranean and Asia combated the evil eye with these blue glass bead charms in the shape of an eye.

The protection offered by the Nazar is not limited to beads. The eye pattern is often painted on objects and buildings to ward them from ill fortune.

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I really wanted the blue sections of the drawing to look transparent but they did not in the end of all things.

This is another charm I had seen but had never had formally named before exploring this project.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charm: Protect yourself from the evil eye with this hamsa charm.

 Protect yourself from the evil eye with this hamsa charm.

Hamsa Charm: The hamsa, also known as the Hand of Fatima or Hand of other important deific female figures, is a charm that seems to have originated in and around the Mediterranian region. Wearing such a charm wards the wearer from the evil eye, a baleful curse cast by others through their hateful stare.

While predating Abrahamic Religions, this charm has been adopted by members of those religions; conceiving of it as representing the protecting hand of an important female figure of their beliefs.

Hamsa relates to the hebrew and arabic words for five, both referring to the five fingers of the hand.

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I had seen this charm often, but it wasn’t until I was doing research for this project that I found out what it was called and why it was work.

Protect others from receiving mean looks by being excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charms: Medal of a holy icon

Medal of a holy icon

Prayer Medal: Many cultures and religions believe that it is lucky or protective to carry a medal depicting a great spiritual teacher, prophet, martyr, or saint.

Many of you may not know that the day of the week a person was born connects them to one of seven depictions of the Buddha. All of which are in a different posture and have different meanings.

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Starting back up with the last five lucky charms I drew for the mini palette cleanser project I undertook to shake some creative dust out of my system. Expect the rest soon.

The best luck a person could have is knowing others are looking out for them. Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charms: Its either a horseshoe or a hand grenade

A lucky horseshoe to ward away some misfortune.

Lucky Horseshoe: Different communities have different traditions on how best to use a lucky horseshoe. Some say it must be pointed open up to catch the luck, while others claim that it ought to be hung pointed down to let the luck fall onto those passing beneath the horseshoe.

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In researching lucky charms from around the world I found two explanations as to why horseshoes are lucky. One relies on the iron in the horseshoe to keep the tricksy fey at bay. The other tells a tale of how a blacksmith shoed Satan's hooved feet with such violence that Satan swore to avoid horseshoes ever after.

The US is still punching above its weight class in proving that things are not equitable and just for all people in the country. Fight for racial justice, be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: Wishing you better luck this Easter.

 Wishing you better luck this Easter.

Rabbit's foot charm: To create the most powerful lucky charm, one must ensure that the worst and unluckiest alignment of omens proceeds the charm's creation. The strongest charms are created from a wild hare’s back left foot, caught atop the unmarked grave of a murderer, in an unhallowed cemetery, beneath a new moon, on a jinx day, by a gambler on a losing streak. Some superstitious cultures say that catching a witch’s familiar is even luckier, but only fools think inviting a witch’s wrath is lucky.

I barely invented or tweaked any of the lore around the rabbit’s foot charm. I’m still not 100% sure where it came from originally as there are some conflicting sources, but the practice may have been independently created across the globe. 

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I am not a religious person but I grew up in a home that wanted me to be Christian so I am aware of a lot of those holidays and observances from the point of view of having learned about them only as a child. I have always wondered how we bunnies got wrapped up in the festival celebrating the story of a resurrection.

Bunnies, especially white ones, were seen as symbols of purity and fertility by the early Christian church because rabbits can get pregnant while pregnant with another litter which gives the impression that they conceived spontaneously. A feat that Christians claim also happened to Mary. This immaculate conception connection, in addition to the spring/rebirth/bunnies through-line, explains much of the connection.

Practice your personal beliefs as long as they don’t harm others, but don’t force others to align to your personal beliefs. Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: Have a lucky coin that is entirely fungible.

Have a lucky coin that is entirely fungible.

Lucky coin: Finding a coin heads up on the ground is an auspicious sign. The free clink in your pocket is a sure sign that you have someone or something’s favor. Remember to use that coin and its luck fast so that it doesn’t have the chance to sour.

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NFT’s are for fools. As today is a day for fools, I will waste a bit of my time on them. NFT’s, or non-fungible tokens, are a hot topic right now. I primarily think they are bad because they create a sense of value by creating false scarcity. Digital assets are infinitely reproducible and NFT’s just want to use art as a way to add legitimacy to the token collection craze. This also entirely ignores the real environmental cost of running supercomputers just to maintain a decentralized currency so that people can say they own a URL.

Crypto may be here to stay but I for one am not impressed by its impact on art.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Celebrating the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere with a little charm.

 A preserved Four Leaf clover to start Spring off with a bit of Luck.

Four Leaf Clover: While this lucky charm may not have thousands of years of folk history behind it, many know it as one of the main pillars of the lucky charm cannon. According to Wikipedia, they have about a 1 in 5,000 rate of appearance, which isn’t common by any means, but also isn’t the rarest thing either.

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The start of Spring is always an exciting time for me. It marks the beginning of life returning after Winter’s harsh grasp. I’m especially excited for the rains and the general vitality moving water brings into a landscape. 

See y’all tomorrow for some items from Oracle of Seasons.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph