Talisman

A Gau (also spelled Ghau or Gao) is a Tibetan Buddhist amulet container or prayer box, usually made of metal and worn as jewelry. As a small container used to hold and carry powerful amuletic objects, the Gau is culturally equivalent to Latin American package amulets, African-American conjure bags or mojo hands, South American charm vials, and American wish boxes.

Because they are worn as jewelry, Gaus are made of metal and are often ornamented with semi-precious stones, but they vary enormously in style according to the taste of the designer. The one shown here is a contemporary clamshell-hinged Gau from Nepal, decorated with a double dorje design and a small piece of red coral. It is made with a ring at each end. One of the rings is the hinge, the other is the box’s opening catch, so this Gau can be strung sideways or hung as a pendant on a cord, either alone or among other beads and charms.

As used in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia, the Gau box usually contains a written prayer or a sacred yantra diagram such as the kalachakra. The prayers and yantras are usually hand inscribed or block-printed by a priest and they are always blessed before use.

Since the late 20th century, when trade with central Asia increased, Nepalese Gaus have became increasingly popular with eclectic practitioners of magic in Europe and the Americas, especially those who make their own talismans or prepare amulets for clients. Although perhaps not properly respectful of the Gau’s original spiritual function as a holder for Buddhist prayers, these Western mages and root workers — and i admit that i am among them! — find it intriguing that, when empty, the beautiful jewelry-like Gau boxes of Nepal are just the right size to hold a King Solomon pentacle seal and a variety of plant or mineral materials. Best of all, because Gaus are not flat like European or American lockets, their interiors are voluminous enough to hold the assorted symbolic objects that comprise a typical hoodoo “bottle spell,” albeit on a miniature scale. Thus we find modern root-workers and pagan witches using Gaus as holders for amulets designed to provide magical protection or to draw love or money or increase the wearer’s gambling luck.

LOVE-SPELL IN A GAU

This is not a traditrional use for an empty Gau box, but it is a powerful love spell in which you create an amulet inside a Gau that you can wear — or give — as jewelry. Depending on the herbs, oils, and personal items you select, it can be used to attract a new love, to add more passion to a relationship, or to strengthen the bonds of faithful love:

Dress a beeswax candle with a love-drawing type anointing oil, such as Love Me (for greater passion and committment) or Come to Me (to attract new love). Light the candle and then also light a love-drawing type incense powder, such as Love Me or Come to Me. (You need a pure beeswax candle for this spell rather than a parafin offertory candle, votive candle, or glass-encased candle because you will use some of the wax in making the amulet, and beeswax is easily warmed, softened, and moulded by hand; in addition, bees and their honey are associated with the sweetness of love.)

Name two tiny lodestones (grit sized) in the names of each of the lovers. Feed them with a pinch of magnetic sand and then cover them with one pinch each of a love-drawing type sachet powder and a love herb. (For instance, you could use Love Me Powder and two dried Rose Petals or Follow Me Boy Powder and Damiana herb.)

To all of the above items add one hair from each lover (it can be a head, armpit, body, or pubic hair, but pubic hair is the most powerful) plus, if you can get them, some bodily concerns such as semen, menstrual blood, or vaginal fluid from each lover. If you are trying to attract a new lover and cannot yet obtain hairs or more intimate items from both parties, then make a substitute: On a small piece of paper inscribe both lovers’ full names in a circle, in continuous form — that is, without lifting your pen from the paper, joining the names end-to-end. Draw a small heart around the names-circle, enclosing it. Written names will not be nearly as powerful as hair and personal concerns, of course, so the latter should always be used instead, if available.

To keep the lodestones, magnetic sand, sachet powder, and other small items together and prevent their rattling around or sifting out of the Gau, embed them all in softened beeswax taken from the burning candle. Tightly pack the Gau case with the resultant beeswaxed mass, which you can keep soft and workable by warming it gently over the candle flame as you mould it to fill the interior space.

When the amulet is completed and sealed, smoke it in the fumes from the burning incense powder as you speak aloud your sincere desire or prayer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the saint or deity of your choice. If your beloved is a woman, you can empower the spell further by reciting The Song of Solomon from the Bible as you smoke the Gau.