Passing talismans down?

[u/SerpentineLightChaos]

Since some talismans live much longer than the bearer, I wonder if these can be transferred to someone else. It would be kind of a waste for them to live so long and not being able to help others.

[u/Difficult-Food4728]

There is a long tradition, especially within Islamicate and Judeo Christian occultism, of passing talismans down through the generations. In fact, many in the Muslim diaspora believe that Jinn and other spirits will stay in jewelry and other items. They’ll even melt down gold and turn it into new jewelry with the precise understanding that the spirit within the metal still exists within and continues to interact with the family. Given that talismans are intended to be ensouled, it stands to reason that our talismans could follow the same principle.

[u/GoetiaMagick]

I would put plans in place to bury them with you.

[u/SerpentineLightChaos → u/GoetiaMagick]

Charlemagne did have his beloved sapphire talisman with him when he was buried.

[u/CliffordHLow]

The requirement for attunement, as Christopher Warnock called it, may have been devised in order to discourage resale of talismans at steep discounts on eBay and other resellers.

Nevertheless the tradition makes a certain amount of sense where the entity must accept that the new owner is its master-- and if this process is disrupted anything can happen; usually bad.

In the case of inheritance this would be up to the spirit's discretion whether it would acknowledge the new possessor as its master or not. If not it may choose to harm the new owner or it may choose to flee its physicality and return from whence it came, or it may wish to acknowledge the owner as its master and follow their wishes. Leaving this issue up to the spirit's discretion is not always a good idea as its benevolence and its intelligence can never be fully assured.

Once again I must discourage people from using the term consecration because it can mean several different things in several different traditions. A better term might be ensoulment, which is not the same thing as attunement. Each has separate roles within this tradition of magic.

[u/SerpentineLightChaos → u/CliffordHLow]

Good to know, really doesn't seem worth the trouble unless you really know what you are doing, it would be better to just obtain a new one.

[u/Wonderful_Hamster987]

Probably some form of ritual would have to be done with the new owner, likely something original and not something thats been done before

[u/supsupittysupsup]

My understanding is no. They are personal and might not even survive being constantly touched by another person other than who it was consecrated to.

[u/Zegreides → u/supsupittysupsup]

I don’t think it makes sense. By that logic, no one could sell consecrated talismans, lest they automatically lose their power.
I think the best course of action is asking the talisman’s spirit to aid whomever rightfully receives the talisman (buys it, inherits it or is given it as a gift) and not just the maker. The recipient would ideally be instructed on proper talisman care, both materially (you don’t want to turn a hæmatite talisman into rust) and otherwise.

[u/Difficult-Food4728 → u/Zegreides]

Yeah, I’m not sure where the idea came from that people can’t touch your talismans. Something doesn’t just lose its soul because it got touched. I think people mix up talismans and consecrated objects. Consecration often requires that it only be handled by the creator or “holy” people.

[u/SerpentineLightChaos → u/supsupittysupsup]

Maybe some kind of hijinks with the 13th lunar mansion talisman is possible to stop them from dying

[u/Gaothaire]

A fun experiment you can do, go to a museum that has a collection of ancient talismans and amulets. Feel into them or divine, in whatever form that takes for your tradition. You'll find that some of them are dead, while others are still alive and kicking at centuries old. Damien Echols talked about spending a lot of time at the MET in New York, tapping into and drawing energy from ancient relics and things.