A Talsiman for the Time Traveler

One of the legends of the true cross tells of the journey of Helena, Constantine’s mother, to find the cross upon which Christ was crucified, which she found; ever after throughout medieval Christendom, bits of wood were hawked to pilgrims as pieces of the True Cross. The pendant talisman of Charlemagne, first Holy Roman Emperor, contains a piece of the True Cross, enshrined beneath a rock crystal jewel, with which he was entombed. A cycle of legends about the tree that was the source of the cross includes the story that it grew from a seed placed in the mouth of Adam’s corpse. All, I think the effort of folk to give faith material substance, alas, not such a simple matter, and one that makes us vulnerable to charlatans.

This necklace began as an old rosary, of dusty dry wooden beads, with only a fragment of the broken crucifix left hanging, which did make me think of the true cross phenomenon. To this I’ve added a pendant of oxidized copper in the shape of an eye, with milagros below – leg, foot, arm and hand, with the fragment hanging below. It makes a rustic and mysterious talisman, which I have charged with the duty to protect its owner from charlatans, mountebanks, and liars of all kinds.

It just might help.  If you think about it.