Back in 2022, I wrote a post called “What Can We Learn from the Goddess Necklace Trend?” in which I looked at (with some screenshots) a few of the spirituality-adjacent jewelry places that have cropped up in recent years.
You can read the entire post on your own, but I will paste two of the meatier, towards-the-end paragraphs here because they’re somewhat important for the context:
But back to the topic of this post. One of the things I pick up on about our culture in the United States is the hunger for meaning. (This is not esoteric, as it’s a huge theme running through social commentary to the point of cliché.) Desiring to wear the image of a Goddess is a desire for the deity, no matter how much that is mediated by what people have going on and the mental blocks they have. We all know that divine images are sacred, and there wouldn’t be a market for wearable charms of the Gods if that were not the case. The expensiveness of many of these pieces points to their sacredness, too. They’re not something that most people buy just to have. Unless you’re ultra-upper-middle class or wealthy, you’re not going to simply drop a month or two’s worth of grocery money on an image like this. People buy these things at meaningful points in their lives, much like other expensive types of jewelry in our culture — promise and wedding rings (did you know chastity rings were pagan? I learned that in Damascius’ Philosophical History, and I bet a lot of evangelicals would lose their moorings if they knew that), a favorite watch, and so on. Sometimes they’re for us, and sometimes they’re for others.
So many people identify as “spiritual, but not religious.” As I learned when looking at self-help books on ritual, people in that category may even be setting up altars and shrines to Goddesses as focal points for meditations, yet still be treating the deities as personifications and not really thinking about offerings. Some people have blocks because actually worshipping Goddesses is associated with pop culture witchcraft and the occult in our society, while others have trauma associated with a religion they were raised in or a cult they fell into through birth or life-path. One big hurdle we have in the polytheist community is how to communicate that people can just worship on their own without having to identify as some word or other or do “witchy” things or get really into all of that. It’s not “weird” or “pseudoscientific occult stuff” no matter how much Llewellyn pushes the word magic in its book titles. (I just read one that was definitely not about magic. Sooner or later, theurgy is gonna grow into its own.) It’s a set of practices for Gods that billions of people already do, most of them not into magic or specialist practices. That’s the approach I took when putting together The Soul’s Inner Statues — it focuses on building sustainable habits that can be a cornerstone regardless of whether people join groups or not or what kind of polytheistic practice they find themselves involved in at some point in the future. One of my actual audiences is people who would buy a Goddess pendant out of fondness. I have hope for paganism and polytheism in part because wearing these images is becoming normalized, and that broadens the possibilities for people learning about piety as long as we stay on-message, focus on the essentials, and don’t assume that everyone interested in Goddesses wants to do specialist practices.
When I was looking at some of these websites — in particular, Awe Inspired and Common Era — I actually took the Goddess necklace quizzes. Awe Inspired has two (one for “real life” Goddesses, the other for “mythological” ones), and Common Era has one. (We will ignore the “real-life” Awe Inspired quiz.) Both matched me to Athene, which isn’t that much of a surprise considering the breadth of what each store offers. Awe Inspired gives you both an “outer” and “inner” Goddess. The “inner” it assigned to me was Kuan Yin. I guess that’s as close to Apollon in his fierce-know-thyself-compassion-center-of-a-singularity mode as one can get.
Because I took those quizzes, I ended up on the mailing list for each of them. And — full disclosure — I’ve actually purchased from Awe Inspired. Not the Athene necklace (or any necklaces; I do, however, have a similar-not-identical Etsy-purchased necklace of Athene), but it had a sale on some of the only well-designed snake earrings that I found while searching, so I bought them for wearing after my ear piercings healed. I associate snakes with Apollon due to both Delphi and the Cassandra story, so snakes are spiritually meaningful for me in connection with him and the Gods associated with him. The ring I wear on my left middle finger of a snake is for Apollon.
Were I to purchase a devotional necklace from either company, though, I’d save up my money and go for one from Common Era. This is based on months of reading their promos and getting a feel for what each company is about because I do have a lot of curiosity about both of them and what it means for polytheism that deity necklaces are so on trend.
Awe Inspired‘s mailings make it clear that its customer persona is the kind of person who goes to ecumenical spiritual-but-not-religious events and who may even do moon altars or astrological workings or some other things on occasion, like that whole “manifesting” aesthetic with the moths-and-moons doodles (and the company often leans into that vibe for its Instagram posts). This person is into summer festival culture (it offers discounts for people going to Coachella and such to “stock up” on jewelry for fancy partying). It distinguishes among “real-life” Goddesses (historical figures), “mythological” Goddesses, and currently-worshipped-in-large-numbers Goddesses and other religious figures, including many divinities from a few Christianities. In its marketing materials, it also shows images of celebrities that are boosting the brand (like Demi Lovato, the person who had a meltdown and tried to put an ice cream shop out of business because the shop had special options for diabetics and people with other types of medical diets in order to be disability-inclusive; the sign said “special diets” or something), and it generally presents a vibe that people who purchase Awe Inspired’s jewelry are hip and connected to pop culture in a spiritual-ish way, just like their favorite celebrities. The company is very pop occulture, and it encourages consumerism. Awe Inspired has signed something saying it won’t do blood diamonds, and it does donate a significant amount to charity, but there isn’t much information on how it sources its gold and silver. Due to its fast growth, Awe Inspired has a wide breadth of deities, so there are situations where pendants it has may be the only option, especially for someone with limited choices due to a metal allergy, as many pagan and polytheist jewelry-makers use materials that may contain nickel. (Jorie Breonn has a lot of Norse jewelry, and she’s a quality-materials alternative to Awe Inspired’s Norse pieces, although she focuses more on runes.)
Common Era‘s marketing is very different. It is a far smaller company. Just going to its website, there is a much clearer emphasis on ethical production of jewelry, including FAQs on cost and what it takes to produce ethically clean pieces that pay people for production labor. On the front page, it even says, “We use only conflict-free gems and 100% recycled gold and silver. All collections are crafted in our RJC-certified studio — the highest level of ethical and sustainability certification there is.” The business gives 3% to animal welfare projects. Its Instagram is filled with stories about each of the pieces, including one about a recently-released $800 Vestal Virgins pendant that holds deep personal meaning for the person who I’m guessing is the founder. While it sends some email marketing materials based on the outcomes of one’s quiz, its marketing is focused on getting readers to understand what ethical jewelry means and why buying a personally meaningful piece from a company with strict standards is important. I was absolutely floored and stunned to see a blog post from Common Era about Thargelia (written by Sara Long, who isn’t the founder, but who is probably either contracting or working as the company’s marketing person). I’m a bit iffy about their SATOR square piece because I would never do anything with a magical talisman thing that I didn’t understand, but overall, the descriptions of deities and the company’s blog post vibe and its emails are surprisingly harmonious with piety. The company does seem to avoid past tense for the Gods, too.
The people purchasing from Common Era, insofar as one can determine from product reviews, don’t seem to be caught up in a consumerist cycle — as I noticed when initially looking into this, most people are purchasing its pieces to mark something extremely significant. I could definitely see someone doing a lifetime dedication to Vesta dropping money on an $800 pendant — or someone who is Athenaic doing the same for Athene dropping similar on the Athene one — to mark out something that is as significant as a wedding. (Note: I’d say more significant than a wedding because we’re talking about the well-being of the soul and her statement of commitment to her God, but I’m probably in the minority here with that opinion.) If Common Era were to do an Apollon piece (one that’s not based on the coin that everyone does or the Belvedere, which are so overdone and not what I’m looking for; I’d love one of the Kylix of Apollon), I would strongly consider getting it. That is very effective marketing and a positive feedback loop, and all because they’re making someone who is a devotee of the Gods feel comfortable with them. It must take a lot of work to be respectful when marketing to an audience of both polytheists and atheists — people who are buying occasion-significant jewelry for a variety of reasons.
Those are my appended thoughts. Again, I don’t think that any of this jewelry is inherently problematic, just that it’s important to be mindful of consumerism when we think about how we use physical signifiers like jewelry as part of our devotional practice and to be critical of the messages that these companies are sending. Ideally, we would be buying from polytheist artisans; however, there are additional considerations (ethical sourcing, metal allergies, durability, specific product availability, and so on) that complicate this space. It’s been so interesting to watch what these businesses are doing and to think critically about the differences between selling spirituality and selling spirituality-supporting products.
KALLISTI 