With Valentine’s Day only a few days away, thoughts naturally turn to love in all its forms. It can be platonic or romantic, enduring or short-lived – whatever it is, it’s valid and special in its own way.
But there’s another kind of love that we don’t often talk about, although we do enjoy whispering about it: Forbidden love.
The subject of countless songs, poems, plays, books, and other art, forbidden love inspires, fascinates, and titillates. It’s certainly inspired us at Awe to create some unique and gorgeous pieces that not only tell a story but also start a conversation. They certainly evoke emotion as well, and often deeply so. Our Forbidden Love Edit can help you remember that love isn’t always a fairytale.
Romeo and Juliet
“Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou?”
When Juliet uttered these famous words, she was asking WHY Romeo was a Montague and not from some other family that wasn’t at odds with her own Capulet family. She was essentially wishing she could be with him without conflict. And yet conflict was precisely what made their forbidden love so intriguing.
SPOILER ALERT: They both die at the end, but the essence of their love and the fact that they were willing to sacrifice it all keeps us seduced and mesmerized by their love story to this day.
The Awe Inspired Romeo and Juliet Necklace Set is the perfect memento of their love. As our own account executive, Shala, said about the piece, “Sword represents a love worth fighting for, rose thorn represents the beauty and pain love can bring, and the starburst diamond heart shows how brightly you can shine when loved right.”
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were literally made for each other and given a gorgeous home in the Garden of Eden. Though also given free rein in the Garden, they were strictly forbidden from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Tricked by a serpent, Eve took a bite of the proverbial apple from this tree and got herself and Adam banished from their idyllic home.
We can’t be fully mad at Eve for wanting to taste something forbidden. Haven’t we all at some point yearned to break the rules? Temptation is one of the core aspects of forbidden love. Like coveting someone you shouldn’t but not being able to resist temptation. It’s a feature, not a bug.
The Awe Inspired Garden of Eden Necklace Set features a serpent coiled to strike and the Apple of my Eye pendant to represent Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. In Eve’s eternal defense, big, juicy red apples were meant to be bitten.
Persephone and Hades
When the God of the Underworld wants you, it’s hard to resist his dark allure. Abducted by Hades with the approval of Zeus, Persephone was forced to stay in the Underworld while her mother Demeter searched for her far and wide above ground. As Demeter did not allow any plants or crops to grow during her search, humans implored Zeus to return Persephone to her. However, Persephone also tasted forbidden fruit, a pomegranate, before leaving the Underworld, forcing her to spend a third of the year (the winter months) with Hades.
Some say Persephone ate the pomegranate seeds because she secretly wanted to be Hades’ queen. Others say she was an innocent who knew no better and was tricked by Hades. The Awe Inspired Pomegranate Amulet Necklace goes great layered with the Persephone Goddess Pendant if you want to celebrate this dark and captivating love story.
The Mermaid
In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, a mermaid lives in the sea with her father, grandmother, and five mermaid sisters. As each mermaid sister gets a turn to visit the human world above the water’s surface, the littlest mermaid longingly awaits her turn. Fatefully, when she ventures above the water, she immediately falls in love with a handsome prince celebrating his birthday on a ship and then rescues him from drowning during a storm.
Though Disney has done its own interpretation of the story, in the original tale, the little mermaid and the prince do not get their happily ever after. The prince marries another, the mermaid’s heart breaks, and she becomes a daughter of the air. This forbidden love story is perhaps the most heartbreaking of them all, but actually signifies hope and selflessness through sacrifice.
The Awe Inspired Mermaid Amulet Necklace can symbolize the story of the little mermaid and also represent individuality, independence, and the sacred feminine.
