The Lost Pleiad Earrings

6 days ago

2 min read

In tarot, when you pull a card from the deck and the image is upside down, the meaning is often reversed. The North star with these earrings is not at the top like a guiding star. Instead, it sits at the bottom, lost, hidden, disoriented.

That’s where this design started and the story of the Lost Pleiad unfolds.

The Pleiades constellation is a cluster of seven stars, six of them shining brightly, with the seventh appearing dimmer.

According to Greek mythology, this cluster represents seven sister goddesses. The dimmest star tells the story of Merope, the sister who doesn't shine as brightly because she married the mortal King Sisyphus. In later tellings, her dimness is often understood as shame for her husband's actions.

Sisyphus was a bit of a trickster and is said to have cheated death twice. After his first death, he arrived in the Underworld and chained Thanatos, the personification of Death, preventing any other mortals from dying.

When he died again, he convinced Hades to release him so he could explain to his wife the proper burial rites he wished to receive. Once back among the living, he simply decided not to return, instead living to old age.

When he finally did die, Zeus stepped in and punished the persistent trickster. Sisyphus was condemned to push a great boulder uphill for eternity, only for it to roll back down each time he reached the top.

Merope, his goddess wife, dims her light. I find this myth wonderfully funny. There's something oddly admirable about a mortal who challenged the gods and the natural order of things.

Some years back, while learning more about Homer, I became fascinated by the oral tradition behind The Iliad and The Odyssey. These stories were performed by traveling bards who carried the epics from place to place. With each retelling, there was room for variation, allowing the stories to evolve as various motifs were woven into them.

Lately, I've found myself drawn not just to Greek mythology, but to stories more broadly. I love the symbolism of numbers, the stories hidden within the constellations, and especially the trickster. There's something deeply human about the character who disrupts the natural order of things, reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously.

As I made these earrings, I found myself drawn to certain parts of the story. This became my own small retelling of the Lost Pleiad.

Sterling silver, bronze, brass, dendritic agate, rutilated quartz, pink spinel, green and pink tourmalines.