The raven is a member of the Corvidae family, as are the crow and blue jay. These birds mate for life; when you see one, stay still for a moment and you will likely see its mate.
They symbolize the eyes and ears of nature, watching us. In Native culture, the raven is the trickster who looks after humankind. Raven even stole the sun, moon and stars from a greedy wizard so that the earth could have light.
In Celtic mythos, Lugh the sun god is depicted with two ravens. And Odin, the Viking equivalent of Zeus, has two ravens as familiars as well. Their names Munin and Hugin translate into Memory and Thought. They would tell him the past and the future, but only in riddles.
Despite its dark appearance, the Raven is often a solar symbol. In Greece he was sacred to Apollo, the god of light. In China, a three-legged raven lives in the sun. His legs symbolize dawn, noon, and dusk. There used to be ten sun-ravens but they gave off such intense light and heat that an archer had to shoot nine of them in order to preserve life on earth. A red raven is the emblem of the Chinese Chow dynasty. In Korean it’s known as Sanjokoh and in Chinese, Sanzuwu.
I made this design in 2002 after researching a whalebone discovered in Greenland ~900AD. It had two crows on it with a simple triangular knot (triskele) between their beaks. If you stare at them, it appears to be one crow. It represents seeing the past and the future.
Catalog Info
R13 – 10mm
Available in gold, sterling silver or platinum
