Philosophical Musings

Saturday morning.  I'm melting sitting in traffic after walking the boys.  While waiting for the light to change, I untangle the twisted chains of two talismans that hang from my rear view mirror.  After I get them sorted, I glance at the other cars around me and notice that at least half of them also have mementos/charms/talismans dangling from their mirrors.

As I'm looking, I realize these interesting embellishments reveal something about the person--not the whole story, just a little glimpse...

-- High school girl, recent graduate, tassel from her mortarboard hanging with a golden "2013" attached

-- 20-something woman with Hawaiian lei and a necklace of kukui nuts (I recognize those dark brown pods because I had a necklace just like it, once upon an adventure)

-- Older woman with several very tiny beanie baby-like critters hanging from colorful ribbons, plus an entire dashboard crammed with stuffed animals

-- Forty-ish woman with a multitude of Mardi Gras necklaces, the beads sparkling in rainbow hues of green, purple and blue

I didn't see any men with rear view accoutrements, though every single man-vehicle had a bumper sticker.  Not judging, I'm just sayin'...

So.  What do my talismans say about me?  To my mind it's easy and perfectly clear, though to a stranger...?

Does anyone remember that scene in The Mummy (Brendan Fraser version), where Benny the doofus is confronted by the mummy?  He grabs all the talismans around his neck, babbling words in every language of the world's religions, in the hope that one of them will work against the evil dude.

Mine aren't necessarily for the same reason, though there's protection and spells and charms involved.

-- A raven, my totem animal--and oh, the stories I could tell about my relationship with this bird.  (It's the long silver Celtic knotwork piece behind all the others)

-- An old, and well-loved jade Buddha

-- Ancient piece of amber, to draw out negative energy and purify the spirit

-- A jade rat, my Chinese astrological symbol (I always wanted the dragon)

-- Tree of Life disk attached to a silver cylinder; inside are the components for a spell I cast a few years ago

-- Hamsa for peace and protection

Each one of my enchantments represent a part of me, an amalgam of ideas, beliefs and concepts I've gathered over the years to combine into a personal philosophy of my own.  There's a dab of wiccan, a dash of pagan, a gentle stirring of Buddhism with a dollop of Native American wisdom and a generous sprinkling of eastern spice.

As the light finally changes and I head for home, I wonder for a minute if I'm more like Benny than I thought: in a way I'm covering all my bases, too.  Then I tap my talismans, set them swinging in the sunlight, and think that's not such a bad thing.  How much better to embrace a bright, diverse universe, than peer into a narrow, one-way tunnel. 

At least in my philosophy...