What is your "ruby slippers"?

My camera takes me out of the big perspective , and shows me a smaller , more beautiful world

White Sage.
The smell takes me out of any mental funk and returns me to a grounded happy state

A necklace I got from someone a few months ago.
Just looking at it reminds me of how loving people can be. It gives me a sense of strength in motherhood.

I never thought about it that way...things that I hold onto that give me some hope, or in times of hope range from....

My 75 year old Bible....to my Grandfathers Lead Mine Pendant, to my Fathers wedding ring, to my mothers baby bracelet that she come home in....

Good question, Boomer! I seem to have given up on my various rubby slippers.

A wonderful little silver gemini necklace that my paternal grandparents gave me in 1967. It is all powerful.

And oddly enough - now I see the actual beauty of the pendant.

My drum sticks

thinking about it

i'm a great believer in shrines, i always set up little displays of stuff on book shelves and around my computer desk

on my keychain i have this little metal disc thing that i got while on a visit to the toronto islands with an old girlfriend, the disc is a soft metal and you put some money in a machine and you could print something around the perimeter of the disc by moving a dial and pulling a handle, the script is mostly worn off now but it says, joe and yvonne go to the island

I used to have shrines. I used to have a talismen, I had a token to st christopher when I drove across country. I probably still have it all, somewhere. Maybe this is why I feel so aimless.

once while heading up north to help afriend move, we stopped into this small store to get some pop and crap to eat, the entire store was empty, except for about four loaves of bread on one shelf and some cans of soup on another, we couldn't figure out what the story was and decided to leave, but on the way out i noticed that they had these weird rubber skeletons pakaged with some candy, so i bought one and we hung it from the rearview mirror of the truck, deciding that if death took a holiday with us then nothing bad could happen on the trip

i wonder what ever happened to that thing, and i still wonder what was up with that store

That store was a front for the russian mafia.

Oh wait! I have a Nepalese skull (carved of cow bone) which is supposed to protect from evil spirits. It's on a shelf over my bed. I also have a wooden 'happy' buddha which smiles down upon me. But, those are both about safety and peace, not so much power and hope.

the russian mafia, in nowhereville, ontario, canada, population about 50, the mind boggles

Of course!

Wow!

What fascinating responses. Thank you all.

I was cooking dinner and Mo was watching the "Wizard of Oz" when I hear the wicked witch saying to Glenda that she (the wicked witch) was the only one who understood the power of the ruby slippers and that she (WW) was the only one who knew how to use them.

And I started thinking...... I have things like that.

Things that nobody else really understands the power of.

And I think about my ancient Abuzz thread about "accidental altars"....

And my old A@K thread about Velveteen Rabbits....

And I think that maybe I'll mail littlek some crazy thing to represent power and hope.....

Something like a battery, or an acorn, or a shoelace.

Because it's crazy things like a drum stick or a gemini charm or a ..... whatever.... that remind us to wake up each morning.....

Wow.

Thank you.

Boomer! That would be funny, if you did mail something. But, I have plenty of items which, I think, could be power items. I have acorns and rocks, I have little black bead-seeds from the golden chain tree. I have chert flakes, petrified wood, beads, buttons, seaglass........ I just need a rite, or a ritual.

I'll be back.

I was coming up blank until I saw "shrines" -- I sort of have one on top of my bookcase, a few feet away from me right now. It contains:

- A gold biswo bazra (not sure of spelling) on a red background, a Sanskrit symbol of the lightning bolt that destroys ignorance, in a dragonfly frame given to me by a friend.

- A homemade mother's day card from sozlet (hearts cut out of a flower catalogue, etc.)

- A photo of me at the ribbon cutting of my new agency, beaming, in a stained glass frame from a colleague.

- A small bronze Ganesh statue that my roommates in London gave me, with a teeny gold goblet in front of him that was in a candle a good friend from Madison gave me, and that I put offerings in now and then.

- A small bronze Egyptian cat from my sister-in-law.

So how does one charge a power item?

Notice what's in the center of my shrine...

That was one of the best days of my life (all that work to make it happen, all of my wild imaginings coalescing into reality) and if I look at the picture it all comes back to me. Lots of power there.

What was the best day of your life so far? Doesn't have to be that kind of thing, could be an absolutely perfect sunrise, or a great trip, or anything.