The history of jewelry in Europe is closely tied to pre-historic cultures and tribal communities that have roamed ancient landscapes and lived through the coldest of climates, from Ice Age tundra to the lush and green hardwood forests that have grown throughout Central Europe once the Glaciers retreated. Jewelry is an expression of art and symbolic thinking, and both are deeply intertwined with the world of ancient myths, of old lore and the shamanic worldview. It’s an expression of something that is sacred and divine. 

 

In traditional shamanic cultures all around the world, the divine is right here, with us, around us and within us. It’s nature that is divine. Even the mysterious Neanderthals made jewelry beads out of ivory, animal teeth and shells as long as 42 000 years ago. They have used natural ressources in order to express their inner and outer world. Ornamentation and the crafting of jewelry is a symbolic act and in the case of Europe, can be traced back to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. The mysterious Neanderthals used Eagle talons and claws, shells, bones in order to craft bracelets and necklaces, some as old as 82 000 years. This is how far we can trace back the crafting of Jewelry. 

Art, Ornamentation and symbolic thinking go hand in hand and the many Paleolithic Cave Art paintings from Spain, France and many more reveal a world with much more questions open than we have answers. 

 

Here at The Wicked Griffin, we’d like to both express and explore the ancient history of Eurasia and shamanic cultures all around the world. We explore the various cultures and find each and everyone of them equally as fascinating and mysterious. We craft Runic Jewelry for the expression of the Norse and Germanic Myths, yet we clearly and always have pointed out the importance of understanding this mythological world in its historical context: That there is so much more to explore and find out. That Germanic and Celtic people, too, had even more mysterious and equally as spiritual Ancestors. 

Even though it is still up to debate and further research, it appears as if the mysterious and equally beautiful Runic script can be traced back to Etruscan and Italic Alphabets, for example. Or that the Myths of the (Norse) Germanic Pantheon can be traced back, just like all Germanic languages that have developed from Indo-European, to the mysterious culture and language of the Proto-Indo-European people. We don’t favor one over the other, there is no such thing in our quest to understand the spiritual values of the traditional shamanic worldviews and learn about them. We do not claim to know the truth or understand all of them, either. We are not shamans ourselves, bearing in mind the difference between having an interest in it or being born into a traditional culture with such practice. Respect for these cultures and their spiritual traditions is always required.

 

This is what The Wicked Griffin would like to express:

Paganism isn’t something that belongs to a specific country or place, but it is a view of perceiving the spirit in nature. These beliefs and techniques can be found in ancient cultures all around the world, in the Americas, in Asia, Africa and Australia and it is also the very core and essence of European Paganism. It is because the people of Europe were once, a long time ago, also hunter-gatherers, early farmers and lived a life in symbiosis with nature and its powers. This is where the Myths ultimately stem from. Yggdrasil is such an ancient concept. We are searching for this ancient spark within Europe’s cultures, we look deep into them and their history and express it in our jewelry.

 

We are an international married couple, Kevin being native to Bavaria, Germany and Jackie being from Cleveland, Ohio. A young married couple with a passion to explore and find out about animistic, shamanic cultures that have maintained their traditions for thousands of years. We also do not forget to look right into the heart of Europe and its ancient history. Our passion is born out of a love for nature and its many symbols and powers.

 

Let’s mention a few cultures such as the Mari people from the Mari El Republic, марийцы, that honor their Gods in sacred Groves just like the Germanic people used to do. The Mari people are deeply bonded to nature and are considered the last surviving pagans of Europe. They are of Finno-Ugric origin and offer very special insight into European Paganism. They haven’t lost their traditions and don’t need reconstructionists. That alone is deeply fascinating. The Evenki people of Russia can survive in the coldest of climates and have many interesting myths that correlate with European myths, their world-tree called Turu as an example.

The beauty of the Saami mythology in Fenno-Scandinavia, their joik-singing and the tales of the Saivo-Underworld are deeply fascinating. Many of these Uralic and Siberian cultures know a sacred world tree, often referred to as Axis Mundi, which very often closely resembles Yggdrasil. Isn’t that interesting? This is why we express what we express. Let’s not forget the Ishigaq people belonging to the Inuit tribe, the Crow Nation and their tales of the Nirumbee dwarfs, the Pueblo Kachina spirits, and how they resemble the many tales and myths of Kevins home state of Bavaria, Germany, a world of nature spirits, gnomes or how they are known in Scandinavia as “Tomte” and the infamous “Huldufólk” living in Iceland.

It is said that the Kachina can bring fertility into nature. That reminds me of why in German culture, people put little garden-gnomes, Gartenzwerge, into their yards. They overlook the landscape and help out on the land. In some rural areas in Tyrol, Austria, farmers used to offer flour, beer and herbs to the Bergmandl. The Bergmandl are spirits living in the Alps. They can play tricks on hikers and can help the Bergbauer, the alpine farmer, to maintain healthy livestock.

Yes, indeed, some of these tales are thousands and thousands of years old. They have a message.

 

For the first time, we will be working with the ancient symbols of the Danubian Civilization of Neolithic Europe. Maybe you have heard of it before, or maybe not since it is not a everyday subject. There was a time before Indo-European cultures such as Celtic or Germanic. The Danubian Civilization does belong to a time and culture older than Indo-European languages. We will, for the first time ever, craft Jewelry with ancient symbols of the so called Old European script from the Vinča-Turdaș culture. This culture has shown the earliest examples of workings with copper tools, beautiful jewelry and figurines that scholars connect to a pagan fertility Mother Goddess. 

The Tărtăria tablets found in Transylvania are archaeological artifacts that have been uncovered and have revealed some of the mysterious symbols. 
This culture dates back to the 5,500 BC to 3,500 BC in Central and Southeastern Europe, an Area that would be today known as the Balkans. The Danube has had an important role in Central Europe, we can learn from the Western Linear Pottery culture that it was a fertile place to establish Agriculture and production of many crops. It is believed that these symbols could have been some type of an archaic writing system. But the true meaning of these symbols still remains a mystery. The Neolithic Revolution and the change of lifestyles and cultures, from hunting and gathering to Agriculture, also marked a change in jewelry, shifting from shells, bones, stones and clay to earrings, necklaces and rings made out of silver and gold in the late and final Neolithic.

 

We believe that if we treat these cultures and symbols with enough respect, we can encourage the quest and search in other people to find out, to dig deeper, and to dive into the earliest cultures of Europe. We’re going deeper than ever before into the past and with our new handcrafted jewelry, we explore a time so unknown, a world that existed long before modern cities. The symbols also remind of us something important. 

 

That we must be humble when we explore such a wide subject as European Paganism and Pagan cultures. We don’t know everything at all, we hardly know the spiritual understanding of the Germanic and Celtic people because of their orally shared tradition. It’s important to understand the difference between a reconstruction and what once truly was. The beauty, the mystery, and the many questions of these cultures remind us that Europe once was a continent of western hunter gatherers, of neolithic farmers and steppe pastoralists. There are many shamanic traits in these cultures and Europeans once, too, probably had a shamanic culture and worldview. It’s in our fairy tales, myths, in the writings of the Roman Empire, the many traditions of Europe such as Perchten und Krampuslauf from Bavaria, the Nuuttipukki of Finland, the Joaldunak of Ituren, and many more. Our Jewelry is there to express, to remind, to inspire, to invoke beauty, mystery and nature. Our newly handcrafted jewelry will underline our journey in not stopping at a specific period of time or age, but the cultures and various worldviews that existed far before our time and place. In some traditional shamanic worldviews, though, we can remember and nothing is ever lost because the spirit itself does know of a place beyond time.

For the ones who are completely new to Paganism and European history: Fear not! I have taken the time to write up “Intro to Paganism” which can be found on this website while scrolling down to “the world of runes” on our mainpage. Feel welcome here at The Wicked Griffin and explore with us!