New Art!

I have been working on handouts for my BlueRose F(a)eri(e) classes and finally got around to making a couple new pieces of art. My Mari is almost finished, but right now I am happy to unveil: Black Ana of the Forbidden Mysteries.

What we have come to know as Ana is a very ancient power. She has been known by many, many names. Anna, or Annys… The Winter Queen. Hecate. The Morrigu. As the Cailleach we know that She was already ancient when the pre-Christian settlers arrived in Ireland.  She is a primal Dark Goddess. She is the Crone; the Hag. The Queen of the Dead. She is the Spirit of Nighttime; the body of the sleeping Earth in Winter. She is the archetypal witch and all who practice the Craft are of Her order.

She may appear as a very old woman wrapped in a hooded black cloak. Her skin and Her hair are pure white. She holds a great curved silver sickle, and She is crowned with nine (or, sometimes strangely, “9 plus”) stars. Her emblem is a black raven, or the vulture.

Here she is shown spinning the golden threads of fate, Her scythe ready to make the fatal cut. She can also be seen in ‘Grandmother Spider’, the Native American Goddess of creation who steals the sun and fire for the world. As an otherworldy Goddess she is shown here with both belladonna (deadly nightshade) and with fly agaric, the mushroom that grants visions and was an ingredient in many recipes for ‘flying ointment’; a traditional hallucinatory assistant for astral travel.