We have one special request to make of you in preparation for the event, which is that we would like you to bring along any talisman of sentimental or superstitious value. If you can't think of something to bring, we would like you to consider this... if you were to commission a votive painting of thanks, for deliverance from a difficult fate or for a personal accomplishment you may have thought beyond you, what would it be?
Surrounded as I am by charms and talismans -talismen? - I'm a bit stuck for choice. After my final exams I lost my lucky black ammonite with the print of Shiva's hair I found in the Kali Gandaki Gorge. So I can't take that. There is my Russian anti-fox charm that hangs in the window, but there is a risk foxes may break in while I'm away if I take that. My lucky Lapp knife that hangs from the bed post. Possible, but these days there is the risk of being arrested. Similarly with the kris. A wayang puppet would be too fragile. So would the one-eyed chestnut. My Vietnamese goat? That is more memento than talisman. It will have to be my tiger claw. I have had it since.... I can't remember but I know I was not yet eleven when I tangled with the tiger. A narrow escape and the claw has been with me ever since. It lives in a little silver box with an Ishtar lion on it that my Dad brought back from Syria after the war.
It is definitely a talisman.
I'm not sure what my votive painting of thanks would be, so just as well that I have the claw.
Perhaps the painting would be based on the picture on the Home Page of this blog.
I would be standing on the fallen Reynard waving a banner and broad brimmed hat while the animals dance around in a circle of celebration.
What do you think?