[A note from 2025: I still own this shirt, but don't wear it much anymore. I still wear specific items when traveling, for protection, but I have different things now that don't require as much cultural research!]
Last week, I recorded my Pagan Perspective video on the topic of Paganism and Eastern philosophies. I then realized that it was subs week, so I had really done THIS week's video, one week early! I will be posting it later today, for tomorrow (Tuesday). In the video, I am wearing one of my new favorite shirts. I got it on sale at a local store, it's incredibly comfortable, and it depicts a symbol of protection that goes by several names. Since this symbol is commonly associated with Islam and Judaism, and has similar links in other religions, I thought I would post about my shirt, the symbol, and why I choose to wear it.
The symbol is known, as I mentioned, by several names: Hamsa, Khamsa, Chamsa, or Hamesh Hand; the Hand of Fatima; and the Hand of Miriam, to name a few.
"Hamsa" comes from the Semitic root that means "five," and the symbol is a human hand, palm-outward, all five "fingers" held up, flat. I put that word in quotation marks because in most versions of this symbol, there are three central fingers and two balanced thumbs, one on each side, with no little finger. The symbol is neither a left hand nor a right hand, and it is both simultaneously. As such this could be seen as a symbol of Balance.
This is also a symbol of protection, the outward facing palm being a universal symbol of the idea "Stop" or "Come no further." A related symbol, the Jain Hand, uses this idea in several ways. First, as the link provided mentions, it represents the Jain doctrine of nonviolence. Second, this hand position (the Jain Hand does have one thumb and four fingers) is the "no fear" mudra, or hand position, shared between Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Finally, the article notes that there is a word written in the center of the Jain Hand: "Ahimsa," which means "Stop." The short article goes on to discuss this word in combination with the wheel symbol, and how these symbolize the "halting" of reincarnation through practicing nonviolence, or avoidance of harm, or as Wiccans and other Pagans might say, "Harm None."
