Evil & the Demonic
Symbol · Science & Alchemy
The Cross
The Intersection of Divine Grace and Human Suffering
An instrument of execution turned, in Christian reading, into the sign that love meets suffering.
What it meansA vertical meeting a horizontal: the divine axis crossing the human, with the intersection at the point of suffering. The Christian reading is that the instrument is not transcended but kept — the sign of the faith is the thing that killed its founder, left legible.
Symbol · The Ancient World
Gorgoneion
The Visage of Protection
The severed head of the Gorgon Medusa, utilized as a powerful apotropaic amulet to ward off evil.
What it meansIt works by looking at you. The head is set facing outward on shields, doorways and cups — the only frontal face in an art of profiles — so the thing that turned men to stone is aimed at whatever approaches. Protection by threat, kept after the monster was killed.
Symbol · The Ancient World
Hamsa
The Hand of Protection
An open hand: blessing offered, the evil eye turned back — or a life lived braced for harm.
What it meansAn open palm, which is the gesture that halts — and an eye set in the middle of it, looking back. The evil eye is held to work by envious looking, so the counter is not concealment but a returned gaze: the amulet answers a look with a look.