INCLUDES
Pendant and necklace chain in a black velvet drawstring bag.
You can also purchase just the pendant alone, it will come with a hanging bail to use on your own cord or chain.
MEASUREMENTS
The pendant is about about 1.14" tall x .906" across (29mm x 23mm)
The necklace chain is offered in your choice of length from 16" to 36" (40cm to 92cm)
I can also swap out this chain with any other type or style of chain that I have in my shop, at your request!
MATERIALS
- The pendant, chain and all its components are made of pure 304 Stainless steel.
Stainless steel is non-tarnishing, hypo-allergenic, shiny, strong and durable. Waterproof - You can sleep, swim or shower in it!
ABOUT
Leviathan is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some translations, in the Book of Jonah; it is also mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos and threatening to eat the damned after their life. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin envy. According to Ophite diagrams, the Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material world.
The Leviathan of the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad. Parallels to the role of Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives such as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr. Leviathan also figures in the Hebrew Bible as a metaphor for a powerful enemy, notably Babylon (Isaiah 27:1). Some 19th-century scholars pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as the crocodile. The word later came to be used as a term for great whale, and for sea monsters in general.
Later Jewish sources describe Leviathan as a dragon who lives over the sources of the Deep and who, along with the male land-monster Behemoth, will be served up to the righteous at the end of time. The Book of Enoch (60:7–9) describes Leviathan as a female monster dwelling in the watery abyss (as Tiamat), while Behemoth is a male monster living in the desert of Dunaydin ("east of Eden").
When the Jewish midrash (explanations of the Tanakh) were being composed, it was held that God originally produced a male and a female leviathan, but lest in multiplying the species should destroy the world, he slew the female, reserving her flesh for the banquet that will be given to the righteous on the advent of the Messiah. A similar description appears in Book of Enoch (60:24), which describes how the Behemoth and Leviathan will be prepared as part of an eschatological meal.
Leviathan can also be used as an image of the devil, endangering both God's creatures—by attempting to eat them—and God's creation—by threatening it with upheaval in the waters of Chaos. A "Dragon" (Drakon), being the usual translation for the Leviathan in the Septuaginta, appears in the Book of Revelation. Although the Old Testament nowhere identifies the Leviathan with the devil, the seven-headed dragon in the Book of Revelation, is. By this the battle between God and the primordial chaos monsters shifts to a battle between God and the devil. Only once, in the Book of Job, the Leviathan is translated as Sea-Monster (ketos).
In the following chapter, a seven-headed beast, described with the same features as the dragon before, rises from the waters endowing a Beast of the Earth with power. Dividing the beasts into monster of water and one of dry earth is probably a recalling of the monstrous pair Leviathan and Behemoth. In accordance with Isaiah 27:1, the dragon will be slain by God on the last day and cast into the abyss. The annihilation of the chaos-monster results in a new world of peace, without any trace of evil.
Jerome comments on Psalm 104:26 that "that this is the dragon that was cast out of Paradise, that beguiled Eve, and is permitted in this world to make sport of us. How many monks and clerics has it dashed headlong! “They all look to you to give them food in due time,” for all the creatures of God live at His bidding."
St. Thomas Aquinas described Leviathan as the demon of envy, first in punishing the corresponding sinners (Expositio super Iob ad litteram). Peter Binsfeld likewise classified Leviathan as the demon of envy, as one of the seven Princes of Hell corresponding to the seven deadly sins. Leviathan became associated with, and may originally have been referred to by, the visual motif of the Hellmouth, a monstrous animal into whose mouth the damned disappear at the Last Judgement, found in Anglo-Saxon art from about 800, and later all over Europe.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible suggests in a footnote to Job 41:1 that Leviathan may be a name for the crocodile, and in a footnote to Job 40:15, that Behemoth may be a name for the hippopotamus.
Anton LaVey in The Satanic Bible (1969) has Leviathan representing the element of Water and the direction of west, listing it as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell. This association was inspired by the demonic hierarchy from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage. The Church of Satan uses the Hebrew letters at each of the points of the Sigil of Baphomet to represent Leviathan. Starting from the lowest point of the pentagram, and reading counter-clockwise, the word reads (Nun, Tav, Yod, Vav, Lamed) Hebrew for "Leviathan".
The Church Father Origen accused a Gnostic sect of venerating the biblical serpent of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, he calls them Ophites, naming after the serpent they are supposed to worship. In this belief system, the Leviathan appears as an Ouroboros, separating the divine realm from humanity by enveloping or permeating the material world. It is unknown whether or not the Ophites actually identified the serpent of the Garden of Eden with the Leviathan. However, since the Leviathan is basically connoted negatively in this Gnostic cosmology, if they identified him with the serpent of the Book of Genesis, he was probably indeed considered evil and just its advice was good.
According to the cosmology of this Gnostic sect, the world is encapsulated by the Leviathan, in form of a dragon-shaped archon, biting its own tail (ouroboros). Generating the intrinsic evil in the entire universe, the Leviathan separates the lower world, governed by the Archons, from the realm of God. After death, a soul must pass through the seven spheres of the heavens. If the soul does not succeed, it will be swallowed by the Leviathan, who holds the world captive and returns the soul into an animal body.
In Mandaeism, Leviathan is regarded as being coessential with a demon called Ur.
In Manichaeism, an ancient religion influenced by Gnostic ideas, the Leviathan is killed by the sons of the fallen angel Shemyaza. This act is not portrayed as heroic, but as foolish, symbolizing the greatest triumphs as transient, since both are killed by archangels in turn after boasting about their victory. This reflects Manichaean criticism on royal power and advocates asceticism.
The word Leviathan has come to refer to any sea monster, and from the early 17th century has also been used to refer to overwhelmingly powerful people or things (comparable to Behemoth , also a biblical term), influentially so by Hobbes' book (1651).
As a term for sea monster, it has also been used of great whales in particular, e.g. in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick - Although in the first Hebrew translation of the novel, translator Elyahu Burtinker chose to translate "Whale" to "Tanin" (intending to refer to another sea monster although in Modern Hebrew usage Tanin more commonly translates to "crocodile"), and leave the word "Leviathan" as it is, nodding to the ambiguity of the word in modern Hebrew – in which the word now simply means "whale".
The extinct genus Livyatan bears its name.
The Leviathan Cross is sometimes referred to the cross of Satan, which means the "Satans Cross". Depicted on the bottom is an infinity sign (∞), and above is a double cross (‡). The Double cross symbolizes protection and balance between persons. The infinity sign underlines the constant and infinite nature and most likely symbolizes the eternal universe, this may have been used by Anton LaVey in The Satanic Bible to as a mockery of the cross, to show that humans are their own centrum of balance, and truth. This is what the ideology of Anton LaVey and the followers of the Church of Satan believe, and this is what this symbol represents in this association.
In Alchemy, the Leviathan's cross is a symbol for sulfur, which is one the three essential elements of nature.
In Asia, its name is the Brimstone Symbol.
The association with the Leviathan makes it a symbol of depth and surfacing. The multiple crossroads of two crosses can be interpreted as a sign of free choice, it can also be seen as a stroke-through "equal-to" (=) to show that every person has their own life.
Sulfur (“Leviathan Cross”) A symbol for the alchemical element Sulfur, (Brimstone) which is spiritually analogous to the human soul. Alchemically, sulfur has the qualities of masculine, hot and dry. Combined with Mercury (feminine, cool and moist), the pair were considered the parents of all metals.
Alchemical drawings often portray Sulfur as the sun. (In some views, sulfur and salt are the parents of Mercury) The symbol of sulfur is often used as an identifying symbol by Satanists, due to sulfur’s historical association with the devil.
The Leviathan Cross was created by The Knights Templar. The symbol was then adopted by Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan. Previous associations with the cross and Satanic foundations are unable to be identified.