I have a silver Hand of Fatima necklace. When I was engaged to my husband, his boss went on a trip to Israel and brought it back for him, and of course he promptly gave it to me. It was at least a year later that someone told me what it was, and I’m not at all sure that the boss who bought it knew. I still wear it, though.
Is your hand specifically Muslim? I’ve seen generic hands, Jewish hands, and Christian hands.
Gosh, I don’t know. I didn’t know they came in different flavors. Mine is silver with little curlicues all over; nothing obviously religious. It’s got the 3 fingers and a thumb on each side. I was told about it by a Middle-Eastern lady, I figured she knew what she was talking about.
Yup, I find many religious symbols both aesthetically pleasing (really, they’re great shapes from a design standpoint) and appealing in an abstract sense - I tend to think of everything in such a sense - in this case, feeling the historic power behind them and remembering the suffering as well. Thus, I am completely agnostic (though baptized when young) but I own crosses, ankhs and pentacles, and rotate them - I did take a great interest in each religion associated with them at some point, but I never gave my heart to any of them. Some particular pieces are meaningful to me, others are just pretty, and I address this with each occasion.
Some of my crosses are obviously meant to be “goth” but I do have one that’s dainty and silver and could probably be mistaken for a real religious symbol to me. I like to temper it by wearing pentacle or ankh earrings at the same time.
I don’t know whether this thread was started to ridicule/vilify people like me or not, but I don’t associate myself with anyone else who wears symbols for whatever reason. I have a deep-seated sort of gestalt connection to a number of different religions and ideas, and can taste the flavor of each in the fog, if that makes any sense. I perceive their strengths and weaknesses and respect them, for the most part, greatly. I don’t mean to imply that I follow them myself or use them religiously, nor do I mean to ‘cheapen’ the symbols of people who do. I wear them for myself and don’t bother anyone else with them, and expect the same in return. Things might be different if I personally knew people so devout that it offended them - I certainly wouldn’t do it in their presence, at least, perhaps ever, if I came to understand their offense sensically enough.
I do feel like it would be too weird to wear a Star of David, although I like them too. My best friend at one point was a Jew, maybe that contributed. And I hung out with enough Buddhists to feel weird about wearing my beads, even though they were given me as a gift by one. So they stay in my box. I also try not to mess with symbols I don’t understand the meanings of.
It looks like crosses are major fashion accessories/popular motifs in Japan right now (actually for the past year or more), so there may be some related trickle down explaining their prevalence in casual wear.
I used to have a necklace with a cross on it that i managed to turn upside down. I wore it a few times but it always got questions from people. I’m far form a religious person i dont beleave in any of that crap.
When i finally get the rest of the tattoos on my arms finished there will be a crusafix on there. My reason for that is it my favorite instrument of torture and death.
I have a dorje (Buddhist/Tibetan thunderbolt) that is actually now my wedding ring. I’m not really a tibetan buddhist although I love hanging out in the monastaries, love the tantric chanting, like the art, etc.
I was a teenager when Madonna started wearing crosses back in the mid-80s. Several of my Hebrew school classmates had started wearing crosses because Madonna was doing it, not because they knew what they meant. We got a stern lecture from the rabbi about it because the logical assumption would be that we were Christian, and that’s kind of a no-no when you’re Jewish.
Robin
I touched on this in the presumptuous/patronising gift thread.
I wouldn’t wear a Christian, Jewish or Muslim religious symbol (I’m an atheist Jew, or a Jewish atheist) but I wouldn’t object to an Eastern symbol like an Om, a Yin-Yang or a Buddha. These are nothing to do with my roots - although I might also wear a Hamsa (the hand symbol mentioned earlier, which is a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern amulet against the evil eye). I might not wear an Ankh because of its similarity to a cross. I’m aware of the inconsistency up to a point. In any case it’s theoretical because I hardly wear jewellery anyway.
When I visited Colombia for the first time (late 1980s) almost everyone seemed to wear a star of David. It was clearly a fashion thing, but it did strike me as strange. I still occasionally see people here in the Caribbean region who are almost certainly not Jewish wearing stars of David, which could also be something to do with the fact that some evangelical Christian sects in this part of the world seem to have appropriated lots of Jewish terminology and symbolism.
An occasional Star of David-wearer here.
Atheist, and I have worn any and sevaral of - christian crosses, hand-of-fatima, pentangle, ankh, swastika, thor’s hammer, runestones, yin/yang, pilgrim’s badge, rosaries (both Catholic and Buddhist), ohm symbol, eye of horus, kokopeli, the crescent moon&star, a Haida Raven and a shirt with several Mayan god’s glyphs block-printed on it. All as fashion items, 'cos I don’t care.
Never wore a Star of David yet. Mmmm, don’t want the Jews to feel left out…
I wonder what Zoroastrians wear? Baha’i?
I don’t even wear religious jewelryof my own putatitive faith. I did have a gold cross that I found on the ground one day while out shopping. I wore it for a while, then it left me the same way it came…I hope someone’s enjoying it.
I stopped wearing the cross pendant I own when I stopped considering myself to be a Christian. (I still have it, as it was a gift from my mother.)
I’ve got a pentacle that I wear every once in a while now.
I am a Catholic who collects elephants. I wear around my neck a gold chain with a gold pendant depicting the Hindu elephant-headed god of good luck and fortunate beginnings, Ganeesh.
May I ask where you live? I’m atheist Hindu, as I mentioned earlier, and I’d never wear a swastika in the States. It doesn’t fly around here.
Matter of fact I had a Jew once tell me that they would never, ever get over what the offensiveness of the swastika, which I both understood and which kind of offended me at the same time. It was used for thousands of years and by thousands of cultures, and now forever it’s stained by the Nazis? But then again, I certainly understand why it’s stained. 
South Africa. I think, outside of shul, I’d get hassled a lot more for the pentacle than the swastika here - it was more rounded and of opposite rotation to the common Nazi one - more like the symbol of the Thule Society, but reversed. I don’t think to many of the locals would have recognised it for what it was.
Nope. If I don’t believe in it, I don’t wear it.
That being said, I wear no jewelery at all.
I’m unmarried and unlikely to get married, so I wear no wedding ring. I used to have an earring, but it fell out one day and I never reinserted it, and the hole has now closed.
I went through a kind of proto-new-age phase during which I wore a transparent crystal, but it broke and I never replaced it. Later, I became a Neo-Pagan, but I’ve never worn any jewelery related to that either.
No jewelry, but the t-shirt I’m wearing right now has Ganesha on it.
I have a few things with a Baphomet on them, but I don’t consider myself a satanist. I think of it as the symbol for wisdom personally even though I know the name to be a bad interpretation of “Mahomet” or “Mohammed”.
What is he doing? I mean, what’s the pose? Does he have his Mouse? I’m faintly envious. I don’t think i have a Ganesh t-shirt.
MrDibble, thanks. Makes sense it might be more OK there. I know there are a lot of Indians in Africa, do you see them in S. Africa, too?
I don’t wear jewelry. If I did and I saw something that I liked I don’t think I would let the religion aspect stop me from buying it.