THE AURYN JOURNAL
Notes on jewellery, materials, memory, style and the small details that make an object feel personal.
LATEST FROM AURYN
What does the Turkish evil eye mean? The blue glass nazar boncuğu, the belief in the envious gaze, and the glassmakers of Görece and Nazarköy.
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Is there an official Nyarlathotep symbol? What Lovecraft wrote about the Crawling Chaos, from the 1920 prose poem onwards, and where modern sigils ...
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What is Elma Çiçeği? The apple-blossom motif of Turkish carpets and needle lace, where it appears and what it has come to represent.
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What is the Başak motif? The wheat-ear design of Anatolian carpets and kilims, and its long association with harvest, plenty and abundance.
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What is the Koç Boynuzu motif? The ram's horn of Anatolian kilims and carpets, and its association with strength, heroism and fertility.
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Is the hamsa hand Hindu? Where the khamsa comes from, why Jews and Muslims call it the hand of Miriam or Fatima, and the Sanskrit word it is confus...
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What is Mēness krusts? The Latvian Moon cross, its link with Mēness, the male Moon of Latvian folklore, and its place in folk ornament.
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What is Slīpais krusts? The Latvian diagonal cross of folk ornament, its use at thresholds, and how it differs from other Latvian cross signs.
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Māras krusts, or Māra’s Cross, is a Latvian geometric “cross of crosses” motif associated with Māra in modern folk-symbol tradition. Explore its fo...
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What is Māras zeme? The Latvian sign of 'Māra's land', linked with Māra as mother of the earth, and why modern charts draw it differently.
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Who was Khors? The god set up by Prince Volodimer in Kyiv in 980, the riddle of 'great Khors' in the Tale of Igor's Campaign, and the sun-or-moon d...
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Who was Sventovit? The four-headed god of Arkona on Rügen, his sacred white horse and war divination, as described by Saxo Grammaticus.
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What do Latvian symbols mean? Māra's cross and Māra's land, the Moon cross and the diagonal cross in folk ornament, and where their names come from.
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Who was Belobog? How the idea of a Slavic 'white god' took shape, what medieval sources actually record, and why scholars now doubt him.
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What does the Bahá'í nine-pointed star mean? Why the number nine matters in the Bahá'í Faith, and why the five-pointed star is its symbol, strictly...
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Who is Kubera, and what is a Kubera yantra? The guardian of treasure in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain art, and the sacred diagrams made for him.
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What is a ghanta? The bell rung in Hindu puja at temples and household shrines, how it is used in worship, and how it differs from the Buddhist bell.
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What does the abhaya mudra mean? The raised open hand of reassurance in Buddhist and Hindu art, and why Jain Tirthankaras are shown differently.
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