Tile for Spring, Growth, Passover, Easter & Heart-Center

I set out to make a Sedar plate for passover, and took some severe diversions. The more I thought about it, the more it seems that everything is related. I know that’s corny, and I’m stretching my understandings a bit here, but it’s hard to overlook.

First, it occurred to me that the Fourth Chakra (Anāhata) has some outstanding conceptual crossovers with Passover. Passover remembers the Jewish people’s escape from centuries of slavery.

On the one side, the Pharaohs completely lacked compassion - one of the Fourth Chakra’s associations. Oh the other hand, the Jewish people had to have unceasing “heart” - unconditional love - to endure such hardships, and upon their escape these feelings must have been overwhelming. Similarly, the Chakra encompasses the ability to follow your heart, to be your own person -- something one couldn’t possibly do under slavery.

Physically, the symbol for the Fourth Chakra prominently features a six-point star, called the Shatkona, which looks much like the Seal of Solomon or the Jewish Star of David. The Passover plate usually had six divisions for foods, though that varies by community. The Fourth Chakra has twelve petals, which I split into two divisions of six.

In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the middle Sephirot, Tiferet, has associations with the Heart Center, and as such runs parallel to Anāhata . There is a reconciliatory component to Tiferet -- a middle ground, if you will -- between giving and receiving, between the corporeal body and the spirit. Unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness are all associated with Tiferet. In Christian Kabbalah, not surprisingly, Jesus Christ is associated with Tiferet.

The Easter connection to Passover is also strong -- the Last Supper IS Passover. The outline of my tile mimics the Crown of Thorns.

In Chinese Medicine, Green is associated with Spring. Likewise, the Fourth Chakra features green. Passover has no official color, but it is unmistakably a Spring holiday, celebrating rebirth, so green fits in nicely. The same goes for Easter.



d=11". Glazed stoneware fired to Cone 10.

Note: this is the first casting, and developed a crack. A bunch more are on the way, hopefully intact, but they might not show up until Summertime. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing one of these. I am also working on designs that mate so the tile can fill a field. Photos of my other tiles can be found on my flickr page