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The Mystery of the Double-Axe

The Place of the Double-Axe

The Place of the Double-Axe, or Labyrinth, was a mythical maze built by Daedalus on the island of Crete to house the Minotaur, the monstrous progeny of Queen Pasiphae and the bull (tauros) of King Minos.

“The place of the double-axe was the threshold period when the moon appeared to be inexplicably swallowed.. …synonymous with the inescapable womb of the Goddess.”

The Labyrinth represents the temporal realm of creation, and the cosmic riddle of unity with the divine. It is the beginning and end of all things, that the hero joins together from within the middle, via his own self-sacrifice, here, in the form of a Lunar bull.

Celestial Symbolism

In celestial terms, the place of the double-axe was the threshold period when the moon (every 29.5 days of its cycle) appeared to be inexplicably swallowed by the darkness, synonymous with the inescapable womb of the Goddess, and after three days (or thereabouts) miraculously reborn. The double-axe itself is an emblem of androgyny,

the regenerative power that sustains the universe

The Threshold between death and life

like the Caduceus of Hermes, connecting both phallus and womb between its old-and-new moon blades, the Double-Axe is representative of the regenerative power that sustains the universe.

“The Double-Axe is representative of the regenerative power that sustains the universe”

And like the many other weapons the mythological victim and his Mother-Lover are known to wield, it is the embodiment of destruction and creation.

It is the mysterious place where the head of the serpent devours its own tail, and corresponds with the period of menstruation and ritual emasculation. Also, like the caduceus of the two snakes entwined -their coils both converging and diverging- the double-axe symbolizes a paradoxical state of simultaneous unity and division.

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