Pentagram with Bats Hourglass

The Pentagram with Bats Hourglass can be used as a functional timer or as a striking accent piece for any Altar, desk or shelf. The sides each display RIP gravestones, while the ends show off a pentagram surrounded by flying bats and skulls. Crafted from resin, thisPentagram Hourglasshas been hand painted to resemble stone. Sand colors may vary. Crafted from hand-painted resin, this sand timeroffers a unique piece to decorate your home decor with a functional twist. Approx. size 6.1" x 3.4" x 3.4.

Please be aware that this sand-timer is not meant for exact timing. It measures around 5-8 minutes, but the exact time measured can vary.

Both the mechanical clock and the hourglass found powerful symbolic roles during the Renaissance. The complex mechanical clock with its rotary gears became a metaphor for the heavenly spheres or for the wheel of fortune. But the hourglass, whose sands run out, was a thing of this base earth. It became a metaphor for the running-out-of-sands we all inevitably face. It became, and it remains, a universal symbol ofdeath.

Two technologies, one simple, one complex, running side by side -- the clock making a continuum of time, the hourglass segmenting it -- the clock speaking of timelessness, the hourglass showing us finality -- the clock evoking things celestial, the hourglass reminding us of base earth. They areYinandYang.

Hourglasses found their place in setting off blocks of time. The time between canonical hours in a monastery, or between watches on shipboard. They ran neither long enough nor accurately enough to be of much use in marine navigation. They were a poor person's timepiece -- a kind of clock for everyman.