Handmade, relief carved ceramic oak leaf border tile

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2x2 acorn and 2x5 oak leaf tiles shown here in a pine matte art glaze.

The sacred oak is deeply rooted in Celtic culture and lore and holds powerful symbolism in Wiccan belief and ceremony. To the ancient Celts, Greeks and Romans wearing oak leaves was a sign of status, symbolizing nobility, courage, strength, loyalty, family protection and honor. The oak is believed to hold extrordinary power due to it's ability to attract lightening, more oak trees are hit by lightening than any other tree. The element of fire and the gods Dagda ( Celtic), Thor (Norse) and Jupiter (Roman) are all connected to oak as well as Jupiters wife Juno, goddess of marriage, thus making the oak also a symbol of conjugal  fidelity & fulfillment. In the Drudic tradition the oak (Duir) is the tree of May, of June and Litha (summer solctice) in the Wiccan tradition.

It is in this time, as the earth begins to warm and come alive that we are reminded of life, fertility, birth and renewal. As we bear witness to the wisdom, strength and endurance found in the gentle persistance of nature, we are compelled to honor that which heals, comforts and protects us. All such earthly blessings are symbolized by the mighty oak.

Happy Mothers Day

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Happy Mothers Day

In 1858 Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, a young Appalachian house wife started what she called 'Mothers friendship day' as a means to promote awarness about the need for better sanitation. Through the 'Mothers friendship ' clubs she established,  Jarvis was able to teach thousands of women the basics of nursing and good sanitation practices durring the civil war. Mothers freindship day, though never widely celebrated, became known in some parts of the United States as Mothers work day, the day after it was safe to plant tomatoes outdoors. In 1908, Prompted by her daughter in Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis's honor and mainly as a memorial to her Mother,  the first mothers day was observed  in both Grafton West Virginia and Philidephia. Grafton is now home to the international Mothersday shrine. The idea of Mothersday caught on quickly and by 1912 it was celebrated throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico, South America, China, Japan and Africa with more to follow. It was on December 12, 1912 that the International Mothers day association was formed.

Happy May day relief carved hand painted ceramic tile set

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Relief carved, hand painted ceramic orange tree tile set available at earthsongtiles.com

 Happy May day!

The pre Christian custom of  rural comunities comming together after a long winter of isolation to welcome the abundance of a fertile earth has a long and often libidinous history.

In the Celtic pagan tradition May 1st known as Beltane, festival of fire is one of the two most celebrated festivals of the solar year, Samhain being the other. Depending on local customs Beltane has and is celebrated in many ways, but the focus is always fertility, purification and optimism. The return of vitality and passion. It's when the fertile earth mother opens up to the father sky and the union of earth, sun and rain brings about new life, strong crops and healthy livestock.

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6x6 relief carved Celtic tree of life ceramic tile

The Ash tree, also known as the world tree or tree of life figures prominently in both Celtic and Norse mythology. In the Druidic tradition it is known as the cosmic ash, associated with the month of March       and the link between inner and outer exsistance. To the Norse it was the world tree, with thick strong branches supporting the universe, earth at it's center and deep roots in hell. For the Celts the Ash tree represented the connection of the three circles of exsistance, confusion, balance and creative force, a continual rebirth as passage is made from circle to circle untill the land of the blessed is finally reached. Historically the ash has also been used to remove spells and hexes, cure warts and repell snakes.

Decorative relief carved ceramic lily fairy tile

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4 x 10 Relief carved ceramic Lily tile.

Some of the oldest traditions of mankind revolve around the rites of spring, celebrating growth and the renewal of life. Ostara, celebrated around the spring equinox, 20th-22nd of March in the northern hemisphere and around the 23rd of September in the southern, is one of the eight major Wiccan holidays.

In Welsh mythology it is the time when the god of light, reborn on the winter Solstice is now strong enough to defeat his rival twin of darkness and mate with the great mother goddess who every year at Imbolc ( February 1st) returns to virginity. The indigenous Mayan people have celebrated a spring equinox festival  for ten centuries. As the sun sets on the day of the equinox,  the great ceremonial pyramid,  El Castillo in Mexico, is bathed in late afternoon light. The lengthening shadows on the long staircase of the pyramid give the illusion of a diamond backed snake in decent. This is the return of the sun serpent to the land.

Most ancient rites of spring revolve around goddesses, many returned to virginity for the event and resurrection. The earth mother goddess Asasa Ya is honored by the Ashanti people along with the sky god Nyame at the spring festival of Durbar. Eostre is the ancient teutonic spring goddess who's name is the root of the present day spring celebration of Ostara. The Roman goddess of spring flowers Flora was honored at the festival of Floralia, April 28th - May 3. The Norse fertility goddess Freya returns every spring with her magical necklace representing the fire of the sun. Each spring in India the Hindu goddess of art, wisdom and learning , Saraswati is honored with prayers and music at the festival of Saraswati Puja. 

Handmade relief carved ceramic wind man

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The stormy March has come at last

with wind and cloud and changing skies;

I hear the rushing of the blast

that thorough the snowy valley flies.

Ah! passing few are they who speak

wild stormy month in praise of thee,

yet though thy winds are loud and bleak

thou art a welcome month to me.

For thou to northern lands again

the glad and glorious sun dost bring

And thou hast joined the gentle train

and wearest the gentle name of spring.

And in thy reign of blast and storm

smiles many a long, bright summer day

when the changed winds are soft and warm

And heaven puts on the blue of May.

Bryant

Decorative ceramic Celtic moon tile

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8x8 relief carved Celtic moon woman ceramic tile

One Night in Spain ( Full Moon at the Bullfight )

Tonight, the moon howls at the dogs; her silent screams
echo in their dungeon dreams
where wild ancestors pace the dust
of ageless patience for their prison walls
to slowly crumble, one day surely fall,
as all the worlds walls one day must

Pale the naked moonlight shines with empty lust
for all that she can never touch;
her shadows and the distant sun,
niggardly that grants her few weak beams,
enough to stir up dog’s and lover’s dreams
yet leave her barren still; the lifeless one

Just once, just once to stand beside the primal fire
its touch to melt her cold desire;
to swoop down from the astral plane
and hunt the fugitive pleasures of
mortality; hunger, fear; just once to love
and quaff its bitter ferments, hate and shame

As on the firmament now tilts her rays to rise,
from sultry summer loft she spies
blood ritual below, in final spurt:
then with obscene and desperate delight
entwines her glare within the fierce arc-light
and hurls it at the sacrificial dirt

The tortured bull, on seas of leaden agony adrift,
to submerge it’s only wish,
through twisted catacombs of mind
has crawled for shadowed corner, there to hide,
there to face alone the rushing tide;
for peace, if only with last breath, to find
In poor mockery of passion moon flings her spiteful rays

uselessly into the fray

Off sword and mirrored suit they fly,
shattered and unseen, except by chance
one single, thin, illuminating lance
finds it,s target true; the round bull’s-eye

Bloodied and supine, the beast, of rage bereft;
its eyes, though darkening windows, yet
still admit that slender shaft;
by which chaste lunar glow is there revealed,
in that last refuge, dim memories
of moonlit summer meadow, cow and calf

Softly now through time the bull’s lost life subsides
back unto the other side
In tranquility the beast now lies,
and innocent again with mother near,
her gentle lowing sounding in his ear
The bull takes one last loving look, and dies

Poor moon, frustrated still by what she’ll never know
Takes her sluggish tides in tow
And scribes her lonely arc above the earth
Tugging at the hearts of beasts and men
Though how, she cannot ever comprehend
For she feels not our pull, so strong though we feel hers

J. A. Gresham