White Copper Southern Dipper Talisman Script Pendant

The Six Stars of the Southern Dipper are the Dipper mansion: six stars joined in the shape of a ladle, hanging low in the southern sky near the horizon. The old texts say the Southern Dipper registers birth and the Northern Dipper registers death — the north governs the span of years, the south the ledger of who is born. The two systems run side by side, and the Daoist schools accept both. The mansion sits next to Sagittarius, which makes it easiest to find in summer, looking south. None of the six is bright, and in a city with light pollution you need a place without streetlamps to see the whole figure. Plaques come round and square; square looks tidier, round lies closer to the body.

The taboo characters are a separate matter. Daoist taboo script is not ordinary writing: divine names taken apart and stacked into secret forms whose reading is not passed outside the line. Engraving them, what counts is whether the forms are correct — a stroke too many or too few, and someone who knows will see it at once. Copyists often reverse the structure of two elements, so compare against a model book. A misspelled taboo character is worse than none at all, which is the rule of the trade. And the strokes have to connect; broken apart, the form becomes a different character altogether.

How the six stars are laid out is the crux of the plaque. In the sky the direction of the handle shifts with the season, so a plaque has to fix one angle; some arrange the stars as a ladle, some pull the six into a line. Judge the star positions first, then whether the lines between them read clearly. Dots that should be round are round, square are square; blur one and the whole chart goes slack. Some cut the joining lines as grooves, others only dot the stars and leave them unjoined. Both are accepted.

Engraved white copper collects grime in the recessed strokes, and summer shows it worst. Do not pick at it with a needle. Use a soft brush with a little clean water, then dry it immediately. Taboo characters are dense, so the brush has to be soft — stiff bristles will take the dark out of the hollows and flatten the form. If you would rather not bother, handle it less, or hang it as a display piece. Worn at the neck, the back fogs over with sweat; wipe it dry and leave the oil alone.

Wear it where you like, at the throat or lower down. Some people hold that taboo characters should not hang below the heart; that kind of rule varies from person to person, and if the customer does not raise it, there is no need to. It suits an elder as a gift. Younger buyers mostly come for the star chart, which is handsome on its own. The back is usually left blank, reserved for engraving later, so do not rush to polish it. If the hole is off-centre the plaque will always hang crooked; lift it by the cord and look before you buy.