Please note: This necklace is Ready to Ship and will leave the studio in 3 - 5 business days. The chain is 18 inches in length. If you would like a different chain length you must email us with your desired length immediately after placing your order. 

If you purchase this item with any other jewel, please be aware that our jewelry is handmade to order and takes approximately 6-8 weeks to create before shipping, meaning your Ready to Ship jewel will ship with the rest of your order. This cuts down on multiple shipping costs for you, and unnecessary waste for the environment.  

Over 400 millions years old (older than the Dinosaur or the Spider) the ancient Scorpion has been an image of both destruction and healing over the ages. Like the Spider, it is both nocturnal and poisonous, carrying potent venom in its stinger as well as a fierce strength in its front pincers. Many species of Scorpion are subterranean, often waiting underground in solitude, emerging to ensnare and devour its prey. This links Scorpion the Underworld like Spider; its unconscious, instinctual nature helps him conquer transformation within the shadowy depths.

Selket is a Scorpion Goddess of antiquity via Ancient Egyptian times, whose roles including guarding the dead ( specifically the four canopic jars that held the viscera of the dead for the afterlife) and is associated with healing and magic. She is a threshold guardian, linking her to liminal spaces, much as Scorpion itself is linked with the seen and unseen realms. The venom of the Scorpion is seen as destructive but also self-healing, locking Scorpion in a circle of endless renewal and endless death, as Paracelsus said: ‘The Scorpion Cures the Scorpion.’

Often feared with venom strong enough in some species to mortally poison man, this Scorpion acts as a protective talisman and also a talisman of transformation. As an added layer of meaning: Scorpion also speaks to the Shadow Self of Carl Jung’s ideas on ‘Inner Alchemy’. Its ability to transform, its destructive and links to the underworld ( realm of shades and shadows) underline the idea of the Shadow; which is seen as the repressed, unwanted or unaccepted parts of oneself. ‘Darkling, I Listen’ is a collection of jewels urging the wearer to move towards self-acceptance through the jewels as talismans. The process of individuation or transmutation is the process of becoming ‘whole’. For Jung, this didn’t mean becoming ‘good’, but becoming complete in the sense that one accepts all of their unconscious ‘faults’ as well as their experiences (their pasts) to become whole or complete. In ‘Inner Alchemy’ each phase of the alchemical process from antiquity was re-assigned new meanings: i.e. the quest for the philosopher's stone is truly a quest to become whole. In the 'Nigredo' process, everything is blackened, putrefied, 'killed' in a sense, to allow for new growth. It is during this phase in 'Inner Alchemy' that we are confronted with the knowledge our darker aspects, a phase in which we must accept our shadow selves. When we accept and acknowledge our more shadowy aspects, the parts of ourselves we have been conditioned to suppress, the parts of ourselves we hide from others as well as ourselves, we are on the path to wholeness. We become more accepting of our flaws, our darknesses. Having struggled with my own shadow self for many years, this talisman represents not only that long tangle with ‘darkness’, but our ability to become whole.

Details:

- 58mm in length

- 23mm in width  

- pendant and chain are hand oxidized to achieve our shade of gloomy grey and highlighted to reveal the bright luminous silver beneath

- solid sterling silver

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If you have further questions, we are always here to serve you in a kind and timely manner: via bloodmilkjewels@gmail.com