Occult lore
Cimaruta
Direct answer
Cimaruta: The cimaruta is a silver charm from southern Italy shaped as a sprig of rue, its branches ending in small symbols, traditionally worn by infants and women against the evil eye.
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At a glance
- Also called
- sprig of rue charm, cima di ruta, italian rue amulet
- Found in
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Related
- Evil Eye, Nazar, Hamsa, Amulet
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What does cimaruta mean?
Cimaruta is Neapolitan for sprig of rue. Rue is a bitter garden herb long trusted in the Mediterranean against poison and envy, and the charm turns a cutting of it into silver. A typical piece has three main branches, and each tip carries a little emblem: a crescent moon, a key, a hand, a flower, a serpent, a cock, a heart, a fish or a dagger. No two old examples are quite alike.
Cimaruta was a charm of the home. It was hung on a baby's breast or cradle, or worn by a mother, to turn aside the evil eye and the jettatura, the casting of bad luck by a look. Several protections are stacked in one object: the herb, the metal, and a cluster of signs that each had a protective name of its own.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Magic and protection.
What sets Cimaruta apart
The cimaruta is a compound amulet: one charm made by mounting many on a single stem. Its frame is always the rue sprig, cast flat in silver and usually dividing into three branches. The emblems at the tips vary from piece to piece, which shows that silversmiths assembled it from a stock of signs their customers already trusted singly. It is local, too, tied closely to Naples and its region.
- Name: Neapolitan cimaruta, from cima di ruta, sprig of rue
- Metal: silver, cast or cut as a flat sprig
- Typical emblems: moon, key, hand, flower, serpent, cock, heart, dagger
- Worn by: infants and their mothers, against the evil eye
- Key studies: Elworthy, The Evil Eye, 1895; Günther in Folklore, 1905
Often mistaken for something else: The cornicello is a single horn of coral or gold worn by anyone against bad luck; the cimaruta is a many-branched silver sprig made chiefly for babies.
The story behind Cimaruta
Frederick Elworthy described and drew the charm in The Evil Eye (1895), and R. T. Günther traced its forms in an article in the journal Folklore in 1905; both collected examples in Naples, where it was already becoming rare. Elworthy tied its symbols to the goddess Diana, a link that is his interpretation. From the 1990s writers on Italian-American witchcraft adopted it as a witch's emblem, a modern use.
Why Cimaruta matters
Cimaruta gathers most of the Mediterranean's evil eye defences into one object, which makes it a compact guide to that whole tradition.
How to read Cimaruta
Antique pieces are collected and studied in museums; new ones are worn as heritage jewellery by people of southern Italian descent and as a sign of identity by some modern witches.
Cimaruta in practice: an example
A grandmother from Campania might pin a small silver cimaruta inside a newborn's clothes on the day of the christening.
Where readings of Cimaruta go wrong
The pagan pedigree often claimed for it rests on nineteenth century guesswork; the documented charm is a Catholic household's amulet.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
Recorded here as history and lore. No rite is taught on this page.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Aliases
- cimaruta meaning, cimaruta charm, sprig of rue charm, cima di ruta, italian rue amulet
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does cimaruta mean?
It is the Neapolitan form of cima di ruta, sprig of rue. The charm copies a branching cutting of the rue plant in silver, with a small protective symbol at the end of each branch.
What do the symbols on a cimaruta stand for?
Common ones are the moon, key, hand, flower, serpent, cock and heart. Each was a protective sign in its own right in southern Italy; the detailed meanings given in modern books are mostly later readings.
Is the cimaruta a witch's charm?
Historically it was worn by babies and mothers against the evil eye, in Catholic households. Its use as an emblem of Italian witchcraft dates from books published in the 1990s and after.
