My Cimaruta....

I don't know how many of you have ever seen an antique version of one of these so I thought I'd post it for you all to see. This is a very, very old, as in near 100 years old Cimaruta, Sprig of Rue pendant made in Italy by a silversmith firm named Fratelli Coppini which has been around a very long time. The way it's marked I can tell it's from before the time they standardized sterling rules and also it has their earlier silver mark.

It was probably made somewhere between 1900 and 1925 or so. I have seen slightly later versions but they are nowhere as detailed as this one and they lack certain charms which are on this one. This one has all 13 symbols, which is traditional Etruscan. On some charms the symbol below the fish and child is a lamb, but on some of the earlier ones, and I do believe this is one, for some reason they used a cat instead either that or the original lamb mold looked awfully like one because the later ones I've seen it's very different and definitely looks like a lamb vs a feline. The charms on it do change a bit with the times. Some of the very earliest were double sided. This one is not. Some later ones only have 5 or 9 charms instead of 13. You can find new versions in occult shops but most of them don't have this many and some of them don't look much like this.

The symbols on this one can be read a couple of ways. It's very much a symbiosis of Catholicism and earlier Etruscan Diana worship. There are definite references to both The Virgin Mary and to Christ in this pendant and to Diana and to the Child of Light depending upon which way you look at it. It's a protective folk magic charm that is now often worn by Witches of the Stregheria traditions much like the pentagram is by other traditions, but this one is the real deal. It was probably actually worn by someone in the 1900's to 1920's who was a hereditary Italian witch, who probably did her spells and said her prayers to both Diana and the Virgin Mary. Maybe not, by the 20's many people in Italy were wearing them as a more general charm against negative witchcraft. Like the horn and hand symbols you often see Italians wearing today.

Normally with the proper chain these pendants will command close to $800-1000 if and when you can find them. This particular silversmith does fine work and these antique pendants are actually fairly rare. Most of them do not look near this nice. Some of them I think are recasts of this one because the detail is just not there. This one is about the best I've ever seen, though it did lack a complimenting Fratelli Coppini chain which I have seen and feel could be considered a work of art in it's own right.

I'm not quibbling. I am very, very happy to have this one regardless and no, I didn't pay $1000 for mine, though I did just about break my wallet for a week or so getting it. I love silver and in particular I have a real thing for protective charms. This one, the minute I saw it I knew it was meant to be mine. Major mojo going on here as they say. It was really calling to me and I just knew I could not leave it.

The lore on pendants like these is quite fascinating. There's a book by a guy named Frederick Thomas Elworthy called "The Evil Eye" that explains most of the symbols on such pendants and what they all mean. I believe Raven Grimassi has also written a book. Elworthy's is in the public domain and can be found in several esoteric libraries of such books online if you Google it. Or found in print and ebook editions on Amazon. The language is older and the book can be dry but it's a good read, very informative.

This is my pendant...

Gorgeous isn't it? As far as I am concerned that one symbol is a CAT and while the bird looks a lot like a Raven it's actually a Roman Eagle or so this book claims. In any case I love it and likely once I put it on I( will never take it off. Seriously. I've been looking for this all my life. I'm probably going to be buried with this talisman, grin....

The wiki for Cimaruta, for a faster read....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimaruta

[Jenny Crow]

It's beautiful, thanks for sharing! Do you follow the Stregheria tradition?

My own beliefs they encompass a lot of things. I do lean more towards various Pagan-Buddhist beliefs mostly but I really don't like labels. I have studied it yes, pretty extensively, but also among other traditions. I've studied Celtic Wicca a lot too, Traditional British, etc. The Stregheria stuff that came first though. I was just a kid when I studied that. The Wicca, that came much later and it wasn't much like what I'd learned before that. Grimassi's version there's definitely a lot of Wicca mixed in that tradition I think. What I learned early on was definitely Witchcraft, not Wicca, and very folk oriented. This pendant means a lot to me. It's got a lot of symbolism I really relate to. This is the only Cimaruta I've ever wanted and the only one like it I've ever been able to afford. It was a spiritual gift. It really was.

I actually took my forum name from a friend who had Sicilian roots who practiced a personal form of it. We had the ravens and crows in common as spirit animals. I had not seen him in a long while but I was very fond of him. For a while he was like a big brother to me. Hearing of his death made me very sad so I took this name "Ravenspirit" which was one of his Craft names and I carried it on to honor him. Maybe he had a little something to do with acquiring this, smile...

[Jenny Crow]

Well I hope you enjoy it

AH! (You can't see this but I'm nearly tap dancing all over the room.) Finally I find a proper Fratelli Coppini chain for this lovely! One that I can afford, even better. Fratelli Coppini pendants they came on these lovely sculptural chains. This one is like the ones I've seen with their Cimaruta pendants. It's very Art Nouveau. It's got Gothic masks, Bambino figures, large silver and carnelian beads.

It's probably been shortened, alas. These chains were usually quite long so I'm thinking whoever had this originally wanted it shorter and had it customized. I'm going to take it to an estate jeweler here and see if I can get an extender chain for it or maybe have them add some more carnelian or silver beads or something. I haven't quite decided, but I will have to do something as it's about 3 or 4 inches too short for me to wear it comfortably. I have thyroid disease so a choker style necklace is uncomfortable for me. I don't want to wreck the original design of the necklace though so whatever is to be done must be handled with a lot of care.

Ask and ye shall receive. I asked my angels the other day to help me find a good antique chain that I could afford and that would look good with my cimaruta. Not only did they deliver, they got me the exact type of chain that BELONGS to this kind of cimaruta. FYI, I am also very fond of carnelian so this just amuses me. Other than the length it might as well have been customized for me, and it didn't break my wallet either. For one of these is a little miracle as they usually run several hundred dollars and I didn't pay anything like that. :)

So now my cimaruta has what might as well be it's original chain....

[Jenny Crow]

That's awesome - enjoy!

...and today (bought for a pittance) a very similar and same vintage Peruzzi bracelet with the extra bit of length I needed to make the chain comfortable for me. I cannot believe this. This is just amazing. Somebody, somewhere really wants me to put this baby back together. Normally a Coppini or Peruzzi chain like this would set me back several hundred dollars but I've paid practically nothing for the short chain and this bracelet. Together they make up about a 20" chain and while that's a good length, for me about 22-24" would be better.

Since I am going to have to take it all apart to combine it I may rearrange and add a few more gem stone beads to this to make it more mine. My favorite stones are labradorite, garnet, carnelian, peridot, and amethyst. I'm pretty sure the carnelian beads were added on anyway so what I am thinking of doing is using one of each bead as accent beads. I have enough bambino connectors now to make that work I think. It will be very delicate work but I'm up for it. Because of the age of these pieces I had considered taking it to an estate jeweler here but I think I am going to do the work myself.

I just feel like I should be putting all the work in on this piece. I actually create and assemble jewelry all the time, and while I don't generally work on pieces this old I don't think this task is beyond my skill level. This piece it is a talisman after all and I just feel the more I have to do with it, the better. It's just my task to do it, to take care of it.

This is going to sound weird but this cimaruta it just feels almost alive to me when I wear it. There is some serious heat coming off it when it touches my skin and I do feel VERY protected by it. I know it wasn't. It's somewhere between 100-125 years old, but this piece it really feels like it was made to protect me. I don't think it was an accident that I found it or that I found the parts to make it whole at a price I could actually afford. Right now it's on a very plain chain but soon I'll have it back on it's own chain and that just feels...right...to me.

Talking about this it's made me wonder if any of you have your own protective talisman? If so tell me about it here. I'd like to hear about yours...Thanks!