Mayan-Themed Silver & Gold Cuff Links

These very unusual mirror image cuff links are embellished with a striking overlay design of Mayan origin.  It is the Quetzelcoatl or Feathered Serpent of the day as depicted in the many stone sculptures adorning the Temple of Quetzelcoatl, Teotihuacan.  

This structure with its particular style of rendering the serpent form (as reproduced in these silver and gold cuff links) was built between 150 and 250 A.D. with the creation of Teotihuacan, the city that ushered in the Classic Era of Mesoamerican culture.  To the Aztecs who followed, Teotihuacan and its temples remained a place of ritual importance, long after its destruction by fire in 650 A.D.  

The last Aztec ruler, Motecuhzoma II made pilgrimmages to this city and center of cosmic myth.  Quetzalcoatl was (and still is) astronomically identified as Venus or the Morning Star.  The power symbolized by Zuetzelcoatl transcended Mayan civilization worship into and through the Aztec culture to the arrival of Cortez who was thought by Motecuhzoma II to be the serpent deity's incarnation because he came from the east. The year was 1519.  In the "Borgia manuscript" (the single most complex surviving Mesoamerican codex, the Venus pages contain Quetzalcoatl's travels in the Underworld. Here the Feathered Serpent is also perceived to be a creator god.

There is more to these cuff links than a golden-eyed handsomely crafted creature. They are symbols of more than 1,500 years of cosmic spirituality and the power of light against darkness and life against death.  One exceptional accessory to wear to the next board meeting ! . . 

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