Square metal talisman (probably bronze) dating from the 16th or 17th century, inscribed on one side with the Square of Mars and spirit names, and on the other side with the Seal of Mars, spirit names and other sigils and symbols.
This finely inscribed talisman is a metal-detector find, discovered about 18" deep in a field in East Anglia. Given its purpose to bring protection and victory, it may have been worn by a soldier. What could be traces of a small hole in one corner may indicate that it was worn around the neck. The Square of Mars is a 5 square grid of the numbers 1 to 25, arranged so that each line (horizontal and vertical) adds up to the number 65. The spirit names on the side inscribed with the Square of Mars are Ielahiah, Friagne, Mathon and Lana. The spirit names on the side inscribed with the Seal of Mars are Phaleg, Madimiel, Camael and Dagon. The symbols also inscribed on that side of the talisman include the astrological symbols for Mars, Aries and Scorpio, the character of the Spirit of Mars (Phaleg), and the sigil of the Archangel Samael.
The creator of the talisman seems to have drawn on Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s ‘Three Books of Occult Philosophy’, the ‘Heptameron’ attributed to Pietro d’Abano, and the anonymous book of magic ‘Arbatel’. The significance of the spirit names is as follows:- Friagne – Angel of Mars ruling at the East; Lana – Angel of Mars ruling at the West; Ielahiah – Angel of the Schemhamphoras (the Name of God concealed in the Book of Exodus), associated with warfare; Mathon – Name of the 5th hour of the night (probably a mistake for Machon, the name of the Sphere of Mars); Phaleg – Ruling Spirit of Mars; Madimiel – Spirit of Mars; Dagon – God of the Philistines (in the Bible, King Saul was defeated by the Philistines as a punishment from God, and his head hung in the temple of Dagon); Camael – Angel set over Mars.
William Lilly, writing in the 17th century, describes a female friend wearing several metal talismans in a scarlet cloth bag under her armpit. This would have avoided defacing the talismans and perhaps affecting their magical power by drilling a hole in them for wearing. However, there are also accounts of people wearing talismans strung from red or green thread, preferably made by a virgin.
(Peter Hewitt, ‘The Material Culture of Shakespeare’s England’ (PhD thesis), citing ‘William Lilly’s History of His Life and Times 1602 to 1681’, and the late medieval Austrian theologian Nikolaus von Dinkelsbuhl.)