What Religious Statues Or Symbols Do You Have?

[Deva]

I have quite a few religious type statues and symbols around my house. I left xianity a few years ago, and then I went exploring!

 

I have the following statues: Kali and Siva, Krishna, Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, Selket, Bastet, a voodo doll.

Pictures: Majushri, a Tibetan OM plaque over the front door, and last but not least, my framed Certificate of Membership in the Theosophical Society. I love all my stuff. Probably enough to drive any xian fundie nuts, though, don't you think? Glad my fundie parents live 1000 miles away. How about you all? If you have things like this, do you take any of it down when fundie relatives visit?

 

Oops, forgot to mention my statute of Cthulhu.

[LithaB]

I have kept a couple christian artworks around because they have sentimental value (one especially lovely madonna painting was my mother's) and also because I can now see all the pagan symbolism that was woven into the supposedly christian themes.

 

I do have my eye on these two sconces though, and would love to hang them in either my bedroom or dining room.

 

Earth Mother Wall Sconce

 

Cernunnos Wall Sconce

[Deva]

I do have my eye on these two sconces though, and would love to hang them in either my bedroom or dining room.

 

I think they are beautiful, I hope you get them. I still have a couple of Christian things also, but not on display. Eastern Orthodox Icon reproductions (I still think icons are beautiful), and items that were given to me that have some sentimental value.

[The Sage Nabooru]

I have a lovely statue of Saraswati, one of Kuan Yin and another of Tara. There is also a jade statue of a currently unknown Chinese deity. I'll try to get a picture of the writing on the back to see if anyone recognizes it.

 

My aunt on my mother's side just puts a big frown on her face when she sees anything on my house that's even remotely non-Christian spiritual. I remember I once cut out an article in the newspaper on a exhibit about Peace in a local college that was sponsored by a Japanese religious foundation. She read it and touched it as though it were written in goat's blood. Oh no! Pagan Peace! Gah!

 

My relatives on the other side are considerably more fundamentalistic, but I won't let them see my room, mostly. Because I don't want a confrontation, number one, and number two, just because you're a fundamentalist Christian doesn't mean that you won't sink to the level of stealing CDs and books and what-not from your own relatives.

[Luke Wolf]

I have a pentagram pendant. My mom flipped the fuck out first time she saw it.

[Grandpa Harley]

Numerous Tibetan Buddhist artefacts, made in Burma/India (I refuse to touch Chinese provenance stuff, despite it being generally cheap, and definitely old, I also know how it's obtained).

 

Some Maitreia figures from China (Ch'an style) also three Confucian sages, late 19th C, hand carved in boxwood.

 

In my 'icons' collection Buddy Jesus is on the list to get, but I also have several Cthulhu statues, a votive Bust of H.P. Lovecraft and a custom made Calvin and Hobbes (the C&H and one of the Cthulhus have sentimental value, since they were made by people I liked)

[Grandpa Harley]

BTW the closest thing to 'freaking out' my mum was the time I bought a set of Venetian glass rosary, in the Vatican. I have numerous malas and rosaries.

[Rev R]

A couple of gautama statues and a small collection of pu dai/hotei figures (that's the fat guy with a goofy grin or as known in some circles the Rev R action figure). Nothing antique just baubles.

[Astreja]

In our household we currently have many items which are religious or which could easily be mistaken for religious artifacts:

• Two statues and two pictures of Guan Yin
  
• A statue of Shakyamuni Buddha... He does his meditating under the Christmas tree every holiday season.
  
• Bastet, currently sitting in a Very High Place near a window on the third floor.
  
• A postcard portraying Ganesha.
  
• A tiny medallion of Mary, in a change purse somewhere.
  
• General Guan Yu, halberd in hand, riding on a galloping horse.
  
• A small turquoise and silver brooch portraying an unidentified Aztec goddess.
  
• Two statues of Confucius.
  
• Literally dozens of dragon pictures and sculptures and stuffed toys.
  
• An EvolveFish.
  
• An Invisible Pink Unicorn (mHhhnbs!) and a pink-but-visible unicorn stuffed toy.
  
• A Flying Spaghetti Monster (currently in the back window of my car)
  
• A Cthulhu hand puppet.
  

The actual Significant Stuff tends to live in a drawer beside my bed... That's where I keep my Mjollnir and valknut pendants and my rune bag.

 

But wait, there's more! When I broke up with my ex seven years ago, in my haste to get out of the old house I left behind a small menorah, a statue of Bodhidharma, a Gohonzon, a bundle of yarrow stalks, and a truly impressive collection of Tarot decks.

[Thurisaz]

Let's see, what do I have...

 

...my Mjolnir necklace, and the stuff on my small altar - that's about it. And on the altar, the most prominent symbol is a hammer.

 

Oh wait, a collection of books on Germanic mythology, magic, the Poetic Edda et cetera.

 

No need to make much of a fuss about it - as long as the chalice on the altar is always filled with some good stuff

 

And as I don't have any fundie relatives, I don't have to care about getting the stuff out of sight.

[Lycorth]

I have four Mjolnir amulets of varying sizes (one hangs on my rearview), a plain pentacle ring that can double as a Satanic pentagram if I'm feeling saucy, a Greek Eye charm (also on my rearview), a mojo bag for luck my wife made (again, on the rearview ) and my wife has a pair of generic Goddess earrings and a pretty dryad pentacle ring she never takes off.

 

My parents are rather clueless about Pagan symbols and jewelry, and they don't even notice them. Her folks are already a bit nervous that our souls are in danger, so if they notice any of our jewelry, they keep hush about it and pray like hell at church for us

 

We've both gotten questions or compliments on our jewelry in the past, but never any trouble about it.

[Deva]

IMy parents are rather clueless about Pagan symbols and jewelry, and they don't even notice them. Her folks are already a bit nervous that our souls are in danger, so if they notice any of our jewelry, they keep hush about it and pray like hell at church for us

 

We've both gotten questions or compliments on our jewelry in the past, but never any trouble about it.

 

Well, my fundie parents are also clueless about pagan jewelry and a lot of the items I have. I am sure they realize that a lot of the items I have are Hindu in origin. Since I also like to do Indian cooking, and they know that, once my dad asked me why I was so attracted to India. It was an inopportune time for discussion (in a car, driving) so I sort of said something dismissive. They have not really given me any problems over it.

 

The only things I have taken down when they have visited are the Kali statue and the T.S. certificate. I left the certificate up the last time they visited and never got a comment.

 

I also have a Mjolnar pendant. I don't know much at all about the"Asgard gang" but I put it on when I think I need a bit more courage than normal. Seems to help. Also, my great-grandfather came over from Norway the latter part of the 19th century and I think of my heritage.

[perianwalsh]

let's see-

a voodoo doll

and i think some buddha ones(those on necklaces)

nothing more really.i am thinking of purchasing a yin-yang symbol.

 

anyone got a real gargoyle in their homes?

[Kirangel]

I have a Horus pendant and an Isis pendant. haha, I actually used to wear the Isis one to church when I went with my family. My mom saw it and was really angry. I just said I like it, and I like what she stands for. I didn't wear it just to make her angry though, and I would tuck it in at my grandparents house. I did it because it had meaning for me but I caved, I started feeling guilty about religion and thought God would be angry. That was a confusing time in my life, I definitely still believed but at the same time I didn't really believe. I don't even know how to explain it to people.

 

I also liked the symbol of the chaos star and what it stands for so I used to draw in on my hand. With that one people just didn't know what it was.

[Former Follier]

We don't have any religious "statues" or "symbols", per se, but do have numerous religious and so-called holy books. We have multiple copies of over a dozen translations of the bible, several biblical encyclopedias, concordances, the Qu'ran, Book of Mormon, a manuscript on Taoism, Dianetics (I suppose that loosely fits) and several other books I can't think of.

 

We also have scads of books on appologetics as well as a good number of books on freethought. We're book people, not really statue/symbol people. We do like framed art but none of it is religious in nature (mostly M.C. Escher, Van Gogh and pop art advertisements).

[The Sage Nabooru]

Oh, I forgot about jewelry. I own several crosses and one ornate crucifix - for two reasons: 1. I do have a weak spot for ornate religious jewelry, especially when it looks kinda mideval, and 2. cross pendants have lost a lot of their specifically Christian emphasis in the past thirty years, depending on their exact purpose - religion or fashion. I have one cross that I'm particularly proud of, a gigantic piece that looks kinda like it's made out of stained glass, which is either gorgeous or hideous depending on your taste.

 

I have a Saraswati pendant and a Kali pendant, a Chinese jade pendant with some kind of symbolism, an Eye of Horus pendant, a Buddha pendant, an Ankh pendant, and a pair of Buddha earrings.

[Deva]

I have a Horus pendant and an Isis pendant. haha, I actually used to wear the Isis one to church when I went with my family. My mom saw it and was really angry. I just said I like it, and I like what she stands for. I didn't wear it just to make her angry though, and I would tuck it in at my grandparents house. I did it because it had meaning for me but I caved, I started feeling guilty about religion and thought God would be angry. That was a confusing time in my life, I definitely still believed but at the same time I didn't really believe. I don't even know how to explain it to people.

 

I also liked the symbol of the chaos star and what it stands for so I used to draw in on my hand. With that one people just didn't know what it was.

 

 

Kirangel, I thought that was pretty brave wearing the Isis pendant to church! That's cool.

 

I don't know what the chaos star looks like or what its significance is. Can you show me a picture of one? It sounds interesting.

[Deva]

I have a lovely statue of Saraswati, one of Kuan Yin and another of Tara. There is also a jade statue of a currently unknown Chinese deity. I'll try to get a picture of the writing on the back to see if anyone recognizes it.

 

Well, Sage, it seems you have two statues of Kuan Yin, the other one being the "unknown Chinese diety" (see thread on "Trying to Identify a Chinese God on this forum). I have seen some beautiful Kuan Yin statues. The only thing I have of her is a very small silver pendant and it looks like a small statue of her. I was in a New Age bookstore once and after having my first and only psychic reading, the psychic told me to get it because she "saw me with the Buddha." I guess she was talking about a past life. Not saying I believe in it, just saying how I got it. I know she was selling stuff for the store too!

 

I have not gone too much into my jewelry collection. I also have a Kali pendant, an OM pendant, Garuda (Hindu), and Durga. I also have a plaque of Durga on the wall downstairs. No one would really recognize who she was, I think, unless they really knew their Hindu gods.

 

Yesterday I was taking my evening walk and ran into one of the neighbors. I was wearing my Mjolnar pendant. The neighbor noticed it, said it was pretty and asked me what it was. I told her it was a Thor's hammer, a Viking thing, and that was good enough. I am glad because I know she goes to church.

 

I still have a bunch of my Christian books in the closet. I went through a ton of them as part of my deconversion.

[perianwalsh]

General Guan Yu-isnt this general is in the time of three kingdoms?

[perianwalsh]

General Guan Yu-isnt this general is in the time of three kingdoms?

[Deva]

General Guan Yu-isnt this general is in the time of three kingdoms?

 

She is a Buddhist bodhisattva. See thread "Trying to Identify A Chinese God" on this forum for a picture. There are several different spellings of her name.

[Rev R]

Guan/Kwan Yu was also a character in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He was a powerful combatant and very loyal to Liu Bei. His signature weapon was what we know now as the Kwan Dao. In the novel he split a man in half for disrespecting Liu Bei.

 

He also happens to be one of my favorite playable characters in the Dynasty Warriors video games.

[perianwalsh]

sorry-deva-i spoke chinese so normally i read chinese translated english with accents,like the guan yu,a boddhisatva you mention above,the first word should be pronouciated as guan(1)，and we called it guan yin（观音）,and people normally treated her as deity.guan yu is a general in the three kingdoms era,as rev r write above-i just wonder why every one translate -the original "romance of the kingdoms"should be read is "san guo yan yi"back to the topic,guan yi is treated as god/deity along with famous people such as bao qing tian(the red faced judge)

san guo means three kingdoms,and yan yi means something like history.

hehe-rev r,you play the game?i never knew anyone here played it.

[Bluescreen]

I've got a small Buddhist shrine set up in my bedroom. There's a beautiful wooden statue of Guan Yin from Japan (Zen style) at the center, with a smaller statue of Jizo on the platform next to her. Tibetan ship-style incense burner, two lotus candleholders with candles, and an abalone shell as an offering bowl pretty much round it out. I've got a small box on the shelf below it where I keep my mala, spare incense, and a set of antique Tibetan hand cymbals inscribed with sanskrit of the short form of Guan Yin's mantra (they're like overgrown tingsha, with a deeper tone). My zafu and zabuton cushions are set up in front of it for meditation. Elsewhere I have a small statue of Ho Tei and a sculpture of Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of justice. (Everyone in the legal field seems to have a depiction of Themis somewhere, but I wanted to be different...)

 

As far as jewelry, I've got a pair of wrist malas (love 'em because they're so discreet, not many know what they are in the US it seems), a small copper and brass dharma wheel pendant, an ankh pendant in hematite, and a chaos star pendant. Devalight, the chaos star is drawn roughly like this: (Cue bad ASCII representation, ignore the periods, this stupid thing cuts off initial spaces at the head of each line...)

 

..._\|/_

...../|\

 

4 lines intersecting to make 8 points, and the points are usually tipped with arrows. So it's a lot like a compass rose, really, representing the 8 directions scattering from a center. Love that symbol, especially since I find chaos theory fascinating. <g>

 

Otherwise... books aplenty. Bunch of Buddhist sutras and some commentaries, the Dao De Jing, the Zhuangzi, Confucius's Analects, miscellaneous writings of later Daoists and Confucianists. And if you consider mythology to be close enough, I have virtually every book, journal article, essay, theatre play, thesis, or individual folktale regarding the worship of Inari and the hu-li-jing/kitsune (fox shapeshifters) of China and Japan that has been published/translated into English since about 1880. Amounts to a couple thousand pages of material... yes, I'm a bit obsessed...

 

BTW, perianwalsh, cool that you speak Chinese (Mandarin, I'm guessing, by the way you Romanized some of those names?). Do you know Cantonese as well as Mandarin? I'm trying to pick up Cantonese currently, though I really wish there was more published instructional material for that dialect and the Yale romanization sucks compared to pinyin. Gah.

[Deva]

Bluescreen: Your Buddhist shrine sounds beautiful.

 

Thanks for describing the Chaos Star. I don't think I have ever seen one. Does it relate specifically to chaos theory?