Chapter 11: Some Common Symbols & Spells in Europe

Note: The writing is complete for “The American Peasant.” I am now cleaning up the work and adding illustrations. Today I finished Chapter 11.

Symbols that consist of straight lines and arcs have been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Attempting to catalog and understand them is something that archaeologists and ethnologists have been doing for almost as long as people have been creating them.

Aleksandra Dzērvītis, a chronicler of geometric symbols, says that human cultures first started using geometric symbols in connection with religion in the Neolithic Era (ca. 7,000–1,700 BCE). These symbols were later adopted and adapted by the Christian religion as that faith spread across Europe.

For this book, I focus on symbols that appear on decorative objects (especially furniture) in European peasant cultures.

When I use these symbols in my work, I do not mix and match symbols from one region, such as Scandinavia, with those from other cultures, such as the United Kingdom, Ital…