DEER ANTLER sterling silver pendant

HAND CARVED STERLING SILVER (OXIDIZED) DEER ANTLER PENDANT

- Material: sterling silver

- Finish: oxidized

- Hand carved

- Height: ca. 4 cm (1.57 in)

- AVAILABLE WITH OR WITHOUT A SILVER CHAIN - 50 cm (19.7 in) oxidized silver chain

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
(William Blake, Proverbs of Hell)

Antlers are shed and regrown each year and function primarily as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons in fights between males for control of harems. Antlers grow from the heads of members of the deer family, or cervids. Normally only males have antlers, except among reindeer, which have antlers on both male and female animals. An antlered male is called a stag.

Male deer grow antlers when reaching adulthood, and adolescent deer’s antlers are covered with a fuzzy material called velvet. In temperate climates, deer shed their antlers seasonally. Experts believe that antlers probably evolved from tusks, which pre-historic herbivores used for foraging and defense.

For magical purposes, antler, horn, tusk, and bone are all related materials. They represent the spirit of the animal they come from, as well as larger forces of Nature. In Wicca, the male deity is often represented as Cernunnos, “the Horned One.” Technically, antlers are a type of fast-growing bone, not horns. The horns of cattle and goats are a “dead” appendage made of keratin (the same protein in hair and fingernails), while newly-sprouted antlers are very much alive with blood vessels and active cells.

The ritual use of antlers goes back at least 10,000 years. Antlered headdresses and rattles have been recovered from Mesolithic sites, and may have been used in rites to call forth deer for a favorable hunt.In the Babylonian cosmology, the celestial stag is associated with the life-giving power of the sun. The Norse Prose Edda mentions a kingly stag who sits atop Valhalla and drips bounteous dew from his antlers. Mythologies around the world portray the antlered deer as an elusive and noble beast. The mythic stag is often a shapeshifter or a harbinger of great destiny.

The usual magical correspondences for the antler are Masculine, Solar and the elements of Fire and Earth. Because deer shed and regrow their antlers, the antler has long been tied to the annual death and resurrection of the sun. The antlered stag represents wisdom, nobility, protection, and the cycle of death and rebirth.

Darkwood Jewelry is inspired by magic, nature, the mysterious aspects of history, traditional handcrafts and the esoteric.

Every Darkwood item is carefully hand-crafted and therefore unique.

Please note that due to its handmade nature, your personal piece might slightly differ from the one showed on the product page. We hope that you enjoy these individualized differences in your piece, made with passion by human hands.

Please don't forget to remove your jewelries before swimming (chemicals or salty water will damage them) and before going to sleep (silver is prone to bending and can break).

All the pieces are shipped from Warsaw, Poland. All packages are shipped with DHL Express, which includes tracking, of course!