Collection: Animal Totems

Three jobs, and the animal tells you which

Every piece on this page is built around one creature, and the creature is not decoration — it is the instruction. Read across the shop and the animals sort themselves into three groups with almost no overlap.

Shedding. The snake earns its symbolism honestly: it grows by leaving its old skin behind, whole, and walking away from it. The luna moth lives about a week and has no mouth — it emerges, it finds a mate, it dies, and the entire adult life is a single errand. The butterfly is the oldest visual shorthand for transformation there is. Malachite is sold as the Phoenix Stone for the same reason. Four different makers, one idea.

Holding your nerve. The panther has been jewelry's favorite predator since the 1920s, and always for the same reason: it is a way of wearing composure. The seated lion is the same argument in wax — the candle's own text notes that the lion sits rather than prowls, and that courage here is not the charge but the calm of an animal with nothing to prove.

Reaching what you cannot see. The skull is a reminder with a face, and it turns up as wisdom, memory and the ancestral dead across a striking number of unconnected traditions. The psychic cat borrows a reputation for second sight. The magic fish is a wishing figure out of Germanic and Slavic folktale.

What the price is buying

Not the meaning. The clearest lesson on this page is the snake, which appears at $15.95, $18.95, $23.95, $39.95 and $418.95 — a factor of twenty-six for one animal. Stainless steel, carved stone, sterling silver, beeswax and herbs, and enamel over gold. The symbolism does not improve as the number rises; the material and the workshop do.

Within a line, the variation is free. Six panther cuffs, six colors, all $143.95. Three double-headed snake cuffs, three enamel finishes, all $418.95. The line sets the price and the color costs nothing, so pick the one you will actually wear.

Worn, placed or burned. Fifteen of these are jewelry, and four unconnected makers describe them the same way — not as ornament but as the small object you check for before you leave the house, meant to be worn daily and eventually inherited. Four are carvings and prints for a shelf or a wall. Four are spell kits and figural candles that are used up: the eight-day skull taper is worked one knob a day for eight days, the intention restated each time.

Honestly named

Four things in this shop are named after animals and are not animals: Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye are quartz, Serpentine is a mineral, Dragon's Blood is a tree resin and Lion's Mane is a mushroom. They are not on this page, and a search for the animal will find them first. The familiar roster most people arrive with is largely absent too — no owl, raven, wolf, bear, fox, deer, bee or spider anywhere in the catalog. The one butterfly you can wear, an enamel ear cuff, is currently unavailable, so the butterfly is buyable as a framed print at $137.95 or $184.95 and not as jewelry. And there is nothing between $418.95 and $7,705.95: above the cuffs the page jumps straight to two architectural antiques, a nineteenth-century Tibetan dragon panel and a set of four early twentieth-century Chinese dragon screens at $12,609.95.

Frequently asked questions

Which animal should I choose?

Choose by the job rather than by the creature you like the look of. If something in your life has to be left behind, the shop points you at the snake, the luna moth, the butterfly and the malachite phoenix — all four are sold as transformation pieces. If you have to walk into a room and not flinch, that is the panther and the seated lion. If you are working with memory, the dead or the part of a decision you cannot see, that is the skull, the psychic cat and the magic fish.

Why is the same snake $15.95 in one place and $418.95 in another?

Because you are paying for the material and the workshop, not for the symbolism. The snake appears here five times: stainless steel hoop earrings at $15.95, a carved gemstone serpent at $18.95, an adjustable 925 sterling ring at $23.95, a hand-poured beeswax spell kit with herbs and oil at $39.95, and a double-headed enamel-over-gold cuff, hand-finished, at $418.95. That is a factor of twenty-six for one animal. The meaning is identical in all five.

What is the difference between the six $143.95 panther bracelets?

The color of the resin, and nothing else. All six are gold plate with crystal detailing, hand-set in Paris by the same family-owned workshop, and they come in bright pink, lavender, navy, pearl, turquoise and white. They are all the same price, so the color choice costs nothing. The two $418.95 panther cuffs are a different line altogether — heavier, enamel over gold, one of them set with genuine amethyst.

Is Tiger's Eye an animal stone? What about Dragon's Blood?

No, and this is worth knowing before you search. Four things in this shop are named after animals and are not animals. Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye are both quartz. Serpentine is a mineral, not a snake carving. Dragon's Blood is a tree resin used in incense and oils. Lion's Mane is a mushroom sold as a powder. Searching this shop for "tiger" returns a stone every time; the animals are on this page instead.

Do you carry owls, ravens, wolves or bears?

No. We checked the whole catalog rather than guess: there is no owl, raven, crow, wolf, bear, fox, deer, hare, horse, bee, spider, frog or eagle anywhere in the shop. The creatures actually stocked are the snake, the panther, the lion, the luna moth, the butterfly, the skull, the cat, the fish, the phoenix and the dragon. If you arrived looking for a familiar from the usual list, it is probably not here.

What is a crystal skull for?

It is a memento mori — an object that says the day in front of you is finite and therefore worth something. There are two here. The $19.95 carved skulls stand 1.5 to 2 inches and weigh 95 to 110 grams, in stones from black obsidian to lilac lepidolite. The $73.95 Brazilian purple fluorite skull is larger at 2.75 inches and 200 to 225 grams, banded violet running into clear. Fluorite is a soft, layered stone, which is why the banding follows the face instead of fighting it. These are traditional symbolic objects and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent anything.