Labrys Double headed Axe Sterling Silver 925 handmade pendant

Size: 3.5cm x 2.1cm

Double headed axe (Labrys)

Inspired by the double-axe of the matriarchal Minoan civilization.

This colorful, artistic and sophisticated culture, flourished on Crete and on Santorini ca 2700-1500BC.

The labrys was a recurrent motif in the art and jewellery of the Minoans and was often found during the Bronze Age archaeological recovery at the Palace of Knossos.

It had a strong religious significance, and was especially associated with priestesses.

To find a labrys in the hands of a Minoan woman indicated that she held a powerful position.

The labrys today is a symbol of feminist strength, strong women around the world. The word “labrys”, a word of Minoan origin is a double headed axe, known as well as “pelekys” or “sagaris”.
Its symbolism is related to the labyrinth and it is believed that the meaning of the world labyrinth is the “house of the double axe”.

Labrys was used by female priestesses only, for bull sacrifices.
The moon-like shape of the double axe and the belief that it was used in the battlefields by the Amazons makes it a symbol associated with female and the female empowerment till our days.
The two moon-blades of the labrys, one crescent (waxing) and the other decrescent (waning) , correspond respectively to all the oppositions and complementarities which are the necessary condition of manifest existence: life and death, summer and winter, pleasure and pain, activityand rest, day and night, etc. The labrys is strictly equivalent to the far-eastern yin-yang symbol, itself a device of matriarchal origin.

Yet the crucial point of the labrys is not the axe-head, but the central haft that passes through it.

This haft represents the world-axis that passes through the Centre of the cosmos, and upon which maid, the “central” being on her own plane of existence, takes her station (provided she is true to her own nature, or thamë).

This is made abundantly clear by the fact that in the Mythos the labrys is hung upon the Pillar of Hell, which is in truth the lowest section of the World-Axis.