The cowrie shell is a natural, biological curio that has been used as a magickal object because it has a unique vulva-like appearance, comes from the ocean, and it is sacred to many  love and ocean deities such as Yemaya, Aphrodite, and Venus. It is also sacred to the Orisha. There are hundreds of species. They have been utilized as money, used for divination, and worn in jewelry to guard against the evil eye. They can also be used in magic spells to symbolize the genitalia of a specific woman, both in love work and in enemy work. When working for love, anoint one with patchouli oil and toss in your mojo bag or nation sack.

I find Yemaya and Oshun love these as offerings, they can even be used to represent yourself (if you are female) in a working you are doing and work really well when used in a healing spell. Often, I just throw a new cowrie in my nation sack for the hell of it and to keep me connected with the goddess. These wonderful natural charms symbolize life and cycles. 

I am including 21 gold ring cowries in this set. "Gold ring" describes the eye marking on top of the cowrie. Divination with cowrie ranges from using 5 to 21, but 16 is the most commonly used number for casting while the other 5 are read in a different manner by the practitioner. Divination by cowrie is an extremely broad type of divination throughout Africa, there are thousands of variations. If you are interested in using them for this purpose I suggest you do a search on-line and see which casting method fits you best. These cowries are whole, not cut likes the ones typically used for divinations.

thanks for looking!

curio only.