Quotes:Sistrum

H. P. Blavatsky

Sistrum. Egyptian ssesh or kemken. An instrument, usually made of bronze but sometimes of gold or silver, of an open circular form, with a handle, and four wires passed through holes, to the end of which jingling pieces of metal were attached; its top was ornamented with a figure of Isis, or of Hathor. It was a sacred instrument, used in temples for the purpose of producing, by means of its combination of metals, magnetic currents, and sounds. To this day it has survived in Christian Abyssinia, under the name of sanasel, and the good priests use it to “drive devils from the premises”, an act quite comprehensible to the Occultist, even though it does provoke laughter in the sceptical Orientalist. The priestess usually held it in her right hand during the ceremony of purification of the air, or the “conjuration of the elements”, as E. Lévi would call it, while the priests held the Sistrurn in their left hand, using the right to manipulate the “key of life” — the handled cross or Tau.

Source: H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary, art. Sistrum