In this era of radical upheaval, where old and new worlds collide, we stand witness to a cycle of destruction and rebirth. Tartaria Jewelry presents a Kali Yuga, a series crafted for this pivotal moment—a timeless testament to history in the making.
Our creative team is led by Wolraad J. Kirsten, an acclaimed designer of minted silver coins celebrated for his striking and thought-provoking works, including the renowned "2012 Debt & Death" coin. Beyond his mastery in numismatic artistry, Wolraad is also a published historical fiction author and screenwriter, best known for Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga. His multidisciplinary talents bridge the worlds of visual storytelling and immersive narrative, making him a unique voice in both art and literature.
The “Kali Yuga”, or the “Fourth Turning” is the final age of four world cycles described in ancient Hindu belief. We are currently passing through the final “Yuga/cycle” which is described as a dark age: a time of deceit, despair and general chaos reigning across the entire earth. The old, corrupted world must first be destroyed in an endless cycle of birth, growth, corruption, death and then rebirth again. We find ourselves in the tumultuous death throes of a dying world order. This series commemorates the passing of this epoch which will herald a new beginning and eventual Golden Age.
“Kali”, or “Kalika” is the Hindu goddess of time, change, the power of creation and destruction. She is the symbolic manifestation of this cycle of perpetual change, of death and rebirth, all in the form of a perfect deity. Although she might appear rather malevolent and even a force of evil to our sensitive eyes, she is in fact above good and evil, representing instead the necessary change required when the old must give way to the new so that life can thrive in our imperfect world. She is like the farmer that burns his fields to feed the earth and make space for new life. Then, after the rains come, his fields are far greener and abundant than ever before.
“Mori” translates to “Death” in Latin. Thus, the “Death Hound” represents the mythical dogs of destruction throughout history. There is Fenrir, the giant wolf of Norse mythology which brought on Ragnarök, the final death of all the gods. There is also the great “Black Hound” of medieval Europe reportedly seen right before tragedy or death, a forever omen of destruction. In this design the dog skull is biting through the Ouroboros snake (representing the endless cycle of time and creation), and so severs time itself, bringing on the final ending of all things. If “Kali” is the sentient force of change, then the “Mori Hound” is the blunt tool inflicting that catastrophic change in her name. The “Danse Macabre” skeletons depict a Medieval European concept of death as the great equalizer. Whether rich or poor, king or peasant, monk or thief, none of us will escape death. Therefore, if it is inescapable, we might as well sing and dance along in the great theatre of life. “Tempus Fugit” is Latin for the rapid passage of time. Every beat of that drum is a second gone that you can never win back again.
The “Jack of Blades” refers to the individual that allows blind ambition, the homicidal lust for power to take complete control of his/her heart and turn it to stone. Whether serial-killer, revolutionary, cut-throat industrialist or terrorist, this is a person whose sense of grandeur and need to “lord” it over others is so self-consuming that they have no qualms about destroying society to achieve their aims, and most often, that is precisely what they end up doing. They become the unwitting agents of their own destruction, Kali’s little scalpels obediently doing her work.
“Usurped” refers to the penultimate stage before the fires of destruction, when every institution, agency, edifice and all the halls of power have been utterly captured, corrupted and rotted inside out. When this decay has compromised each-and-every pillar upholding polite society, the social contract itself ripped to shreds, civilization will come tumbling down like a derelict cathedral, little by little at first, and then suddenly all at once…
After the fires of destruction burn out, in the chaos of the devastated world that remains, a new type shall emerge. Like the mythical Romulus and Remus, the orphaned twins raised in the wilderness by a she-wolf and then going on to be the founders of Rome, the most successful empire in antiquity, so too this new type represents the seeds searching for fertile ground, the conquerors and founding fathers who’ll establish the tentative beginnings of what will eventually become a new golden age… and so the cycle begins anew.
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