THE AURYN JOURNAL
Notes on jewellery, materials, memory, style and the small details that make an object feel personal.
LATEST FROM AURYN
Why are Chinese cash coins auspicious? The round coin with a square hole, charm coins and coin-swords, and how money itself became a lucky motif.
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What does the double happiness symbol mean? Why the doubled character 囍 decorates Chinese weddings, how it differs from 喜, and the story told about...
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Where do the twelve zodiac signs come from? From Babylonian astronomy to Hellenistic astrology, the long history behind Aries to Pisces.
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Did the Knights Templar guard the Holy Grail? What the medieval Grail romances say, where the Templar link comes from, and what history can confirm.
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What does the Templar cross mean? The red cross on the white mantle, the black-and-white Beauséant banner, and what we know about Templar shields.
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Who was Pan? The goat-legged Greek god of shepherds and flocks from Arcadia, his reed pipes, and how his name gave English the word 'panic'.
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What does the Jolly Roger mean? The skull and crossbones of the Golden Age of Piracy, Richard Worley's black flag, and why pirates flew such flags.
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What does the double spiral mean? The spirals carved at Newgrange and Knowth predate the Celts by thousands of years, and their meaning remains unk...
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What does the sheaf of corn mean in Freemasonry? Explore its symbolism of plenty, the biblical shibboleth story and the role of corn, wine and oil.
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Jachin and Boaz are the two bronze pillars named in Solomon’s Temple. Learn what their names mean and why the pillars became important in Freemasonry.
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What do Freemasonry symbols mean? The square and compasses, the 47th Proposition of Euclid, the pillars Jachin and Boaz and the sheaf of corn.
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The Ceres symbol, ⚳, is a sickle derived from the Roman goddess of grain and harvest. Learn how the same sign came to represent the dwarf planet Ce...
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The Aquarius symbol is ♒, two parallel wavy lines linked with the Water-Bearer. Learn what the glyph means and why Aquarius is an air sign, not a w...
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Who was Cernunnos? The antlered god named on the Pillar of the Boatmen in Roman Paris, the Gundestrup cauldron, and what the evidence can and canno...
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What is the difference between Aphrodite and Venus? The Greek goddess of love, her Roman counterpart, and why Venus mattered to Julius Caesar.
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What do alchemy symbols mean? The seven metals and their planets, the four elemental triangles, and where these signs come from.
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What does the alchemy lead symbol mean? Why alchemists linked lead with Saturn, used the planet's sign ♄ for the metal, and saw it as a starting po...
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The alchemical symbol for fire is an upward-pointing triangle, 🜂. Learn what it meant as a classical element and why fire mattered in the alchemist...
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