Symbolic meaning of Cibeles collection

Significado Cibeles Balarmú joyería artesanal en porcelana Madrid

 

 

The inspiration

 

Since the dawn of civilization, many cultures around the world have identified the concept of Earth with the image of a creative mother, a deity who cares for every animal, plant, human, and divine being.

Among others: Astarte for the Phoenicians, Ishtar for the Mesopotamians, Hathor for the Egyptians, and Kubeleya for the Phrygians.

The origin of the cult of Cybele (Cibeles in Spanish) dates back to the Neolithic period, when she was worshipped in the Phrygian region - now Anatolia - first as Agdistis/Atargatis and then as Matar Kubeleya ("Mother of the Mountains").

Her primary image was the Black Stone of Pesinunte, a betilo said to have fallen directly from the sky. Centuries later, the goddess entered the Greek pantheon and was identified with Rhea, mother of the gods of Olympus. In 204 BC, the Romans brought the Black Stone to Rome and introduced the cult of the goddess into their empire under the nickname Magna Mater ("the Great Mother") and later Cibelis, from the ancient Greek Κυβέλη.

In more recent iconography, Cybele is mounted on a chariot drawn by two lions: Hippomenes and Atalanta. Two lovers who, according to the legend, desecrated a temple dedicated to the goddess with their passion and who were therefore turned into beasts and condemned to not be able to look at each other, even though they were together for eternity.

The cult of Cybele is very old and there are many different versions of her myth. We know, for example, that the Roman rites in her honor were very bloody and provided for the castration of her priests - the Gauls - in memory of Attis: the servant of the goddess who emasculated himself to ensure the fertility of the earth.

In this regard, something that is perhaps very little known about Cybele is that, although she was a mother, that is, a woman, she was actually considered a hermaphrodite deity (Atargatis or Agdistis) in her most ancient cult of Pesinunte, because she created every natural being alone, because if we look at it, nature cannot be pigeonholed, neither can it have gender nor limits.

It was we, human beings, who established by linguistic convention that a mountain is female and a river is not.

And all of this perhaps gives us much food for thought about the power of words in our social patterns.

 

 

Decorative motifs  

 

Our Cybele's profile was inspired by the majestic fountain dedicated to the goddess in the heart of Madrid: the Fuente de Cibeles, or "La Cibeles" as it is affectionately known by the people of Madrid.

The bas-reliefs engraved on the hook of this handcrafted jewel are inspired by the decorative motifs of the goddess's chariot and represent two ears of wheat, symbols of fecundity and fertility.

A crown in the form of towers emphasizes her divine strength and her role as the protective mother of the city and its fortifications.

 

 

Symbolic meaning

 

Our Cibeles collection aims to celebrate the concept of motherhood in all its manifestations.

From the fact of being a biological or adoptive mother, to the most diverse manifestations of the maternal instinct that every human being can experience, regardless of the fact of having children or being a woman.

In fact, as we have seen above, in her most ancient cult, Cybele had no gender, and this because motherhood in its most ancient concept did not only include procreation, but rather the care of the lives of others.

The digital society distances us more and more every day, physically and psychologically, not only from each other, but also from the very nature that generously welcomes us.

Therefore, caring for others, for our loved ones, for a pet, for friendships, for a partner, for the environment, for students, for the most fragile, for a dream, for a project... all this and much more can somehow encompass the universal and deepest concept of motherhood.

In fact, according to etymological studies, the word mother comes from the Sanskrit word mātṛ, whose root - ma - means to measure, to organize, to prepare, and to care for. Words such as measure, mind and matter are derived from this root. In Indo-European society, mātṛ was the one who had the function of caring for the life of the other, with only the matter and inexorable time of our existence as limits.

So we want this handmade jewel to be a hymn to your motherhood, however you express it on this wonderful and difficult journey on our earth.

 

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