Crafted on the 18 September 2025 as Venus of the Morning moved through the constellation of Leo and was conjunct Regulus, the Heart of the Celestial Lion, known in Akkadian as Šarru ("The King"), four blood red carnelians were carved with Babylonian Lions along with bright-blue lapis-lazuli eight-pointed rosettes. These pendants will be set in fine silver. Two have already sold.

This piece is inspired by one of the oldest currents of celestial knowledge, reaching back to the sacred astronomy of ancient Mesopotamia.

Long before the zodiac became a system of planetary rulerships, the heavens were understood as a living landscape of divine manzāzū—celestial stations or sacred places—each possessing its own presence, mystery, and power.

Venus was known as Inanna, later Ishtar, the radiant goddess of love, beauty, desire, sovereignty, and ecstatic transformation, whose sacred companion was the lion.

Throughout Mesopotamian art she stands upon lions as an expression of her fearless majesty and untamed vitality.

In this light, the manzāzu of the Lion may be contemplated not merely as a place through which Venus passes, but as a celestial sanctuary whose leonine mysteries resonate with the very nature of the goddess.

This tasliman honours that ancient vision of the zodiac as a sacred geography, inviting the wearer to contemplate Venus not simply as a planet moving through the heavens, but as a luminous divine presence entering a place imbued with her power.