Good luck charms

Abracadabra

This was used by the Gnostics in Rome to invoke the beneficient spirits against disease and death. Sammonicus, the Gnostic physician, believed that the letters of the magical triangle which he used for curing aches and fevers, were to be written on paper, folded into the shape of a cross, worn for nine days around the neck, and, before sunrise, cast behind the patient into a stream running eastward. It was also a popular charm during the Great Plague of 1665.