ORIGINS :
Southern Cross is a constellation, it draws a pattern which is the origin of southern cross drawing.
The indigènes of the south hemisphere (Berbers,
tuareg, kabyles, chleu) uses to find the South Pole but also by those
of the Mediterranean Sea who saw in her only a party of the Centaur (Greeks notably in antique).
Mimosa, Acrux and Becrux not to be merged
with the constellation of the Swan which, it, indicates the crucifix of
the North...
Leaving the symbolization of this essential crucifix to the navigators,
passengers, explorers from there by an Africain and Mediterranean
crucifix, central stone of which can be one onyx, a turquoise, a
cornelian, or, when it is only silver, engraved by symbols having a
meaning.
Since then a different message is interprétable for every crucifix. It
is about a specific and timeless language.
The Crucifix of the south in
form of jewel became so from time immemorial a protection, an
inheritance, a search, for those who travel on the south hemisphere and around the Mediterranean Sea and by extension, everywhere.Materials:
The women touareg have a superstitious fright of gold: they
never carry it.
This fright of gold is linked
in ancestral one allocation of the woman to the moon, both by its menstrual
cycle and by its changeable and fluctuating moods, and by the magic which it
suggests and the women of which are the teachers.
Si le motif de cette répulsion à l'or
est aujourd'hui peu connu, il a été repris dans le Coran interdisant aux hommes
réputés « solaires » de porter de l'or, car cela aurait stimulé des
qualités guerrières déjà présentes dans leur gènes.
If the motive of this repulsion in gold is known not much today, it was taken
back in the Koran forbidding the "solar" renowned men to carry some
gold, because it would have stimulated the already present warlike qualities in
them genes.
The woman on the contrary is
wholly authorized to carry some gold which is the complément of its lunar
nature and « silver ».
Silver therefore supplanted
gold in touaregs traditions.
The silver jewellery is part of the heritage of every touareg family.
They have a symbolic value, but also very real, because they also act as
currency of exchange. The crucifixes of the south or crucifixes of Agadez or
Iferwan (which fair-haired woman fault, are considered to be the main
crucifixes of the South Touareg), in the past being exclusively carried by the
men and being passed on from father to son during the puberty. They made
allusion to the manliness of the young man and to its traditional nomadism.
The touareg language is part of
the big berber linguistic family, it contains of Arabic, of the chleuh, and the
kabyle.
Their alphabet is
24 letters and includes common signs in Phoenician alphabet
Name of the 21
Tribes Touareg:
AGADEZ
ABALAK
MADAOUA
IFEROUANE
TAHOUA
TACHMERT
BARTCHAKEA
AIR
IN-ABAGRET
BAGAZEN
TAKADENDA
CRIP-CRIP
TIMIA
KARAGA
TILYA
IN-WAGAR
ZINDER
BILMA
IN-GALL
TCHIN-TABARADEN
TCHIMOUMENENE
The crucifix represents the knob
of saddle of the chameau or else which four cardinal directions function three
the reference constellation about which we speak higher.
The transmission of the
jewel is made in an irremovable tradition:
The father transmits this crucifix by pronouncing this
(true sentence magical expression):
" My son I give you the four directions of the world,
because they do not know where you will go to die ".
Trade and workmanship of symbols
Inventive mind and clever hands of touareg are renowned for
their trade and especially their silver jewellery which are the demonstration
of a workmanship of the marvellous jewellery-making, the time belongs to them to control the art
of symbol and silver and this time has no same economic stocks as in the
western world.
Every jewel is a message which carries a sometimes forgotten
symbol, material will give indications one more time on what « is told by the
cross ».
The addition of a stone and its nature, or of a pearl
will give us precious indications on destination and origin.
Every necklace carried by a touareg woman recalls various
anecdotes and sometimes all history of people, of a city.
Often the pendant
represents a palace (that of a sultan), a city, a card, the pearls which
constitute it represent quarters, in their positions relating to the recalled
place and always respecting cardinal directions pointed out by the crucifix.
Engraved symbols:
-triangles: indicate the nomadic tribes living in jungle,
-the insulated points: in the centre of the pendant represent
the Leader himself and his ministers.
-the spiral: life and its progressive cycle of growth
- They find various symbols of the man so colourful in
form of pictogram,
-of the woman in pictogram there also,
-of the pregnancy (circle with in the centre),
birth pictograms of two different sizes
In summary:
Material points out a will, an action.
Symbols draw a history
The form of the crucifix, a directional aspect for the
passengers and nomads.
The noble subjects 
