Beltane - Green Cat and Magick Thorn.

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Unusual gallery, Margaret. I like it very much.

Thank you.

This picture is a feline version of the more usual Green Man. While the Green Cat is not as well known as the traditional Green Man, there are still numerous Green Cat images in manuscripts and carvings throughout Europe, and many ancient Green Cat carvings in Britain. There is a Green cat carved in stone in Tiverton Church and a Green Cat carved in oak on the overmantle of a seventeenth century farmhouse near Knighton (which is always believed, by those who have lived there, to bring good fortune to the house). A chain of Green Cats is carved in stone around the font in Stottesdon Church, but the Green Cat motif appears in the greatest numbers in North Yorkshire where it is generally thought to bestow good luck. Usually the Green Man stares out from amid oak leaves but this picture is inspired by the Sutton Benger Green Man and shows the white hawthorn - or "may" - with birds amid the foliage. The hawthorn was thought to be the most magical of trees. Witches' broomsticks were garlanded with "may", and the beginning of the Pagan festival of Beltane (or May Day), marking the death of winter and the beginning of summer, was not determined by the calendar date but by the blossoming of the "magic thorn". This little cat is crowned and garlanded with the flower of the thorn for Beltane. This painting was also featured on the cover of Pagan Dawn magazine for Beltane. ------------------------------ CARDS AND PRINTS AVAILABLE