The fascinating meaning of the Sicilian ceramic pine cone

The ceramics of Caltagirone today represent an excellence of Sicilian craftsmanship, a precious art, exclusive thanks to its processing, which represents the Sicilian culture and tradition through objects such as decorative pine cones and the famous and beautiful moorish heads, which have become a must in the world of design and exclusive and trendy furniture.

Sicilian ceramic pine cones are certainly the most suitable gift for anyone who opens a shop, an activity as a wish for prosperity.

The Sicilian pine cones are exclusive souvenirs for births and weddings, they are very welcome gifts to anyone who inaugurates a house, they are exclusive objects to be given to congress participants at a conference.

ceramic pine cones favors and gift idea

According to an ancient Sicilian folk tradition that goes down to the present day, the ceramic pine cone is an ornament that cannot be missing in a house as a wish for health, good luck and prosperity, for this reason it is customary to decorate the house entrance with Sicilian artistic ceramic pine cones.

We also find the Sicilian pine cone on the pillars of the entrance gates of ancient villas, adorn balconies and terraces, in noble gardens, in monumental cemeteries, on the facades of churches and convents, artistic pine cones have also been depicted in the thrones of kings and popes as materialization of the soul, as a symbol of union between earthly and divine.

In the Sicilian peasant tradition it was used to adorn the bedroom of the newlyweds with pine cones, as a symbol of fertility, to wish the formation of a large family.

In addition to the classic ornamental pinecones, master ceramic craftsmen with their creativity have created wonderful furnishing accessories, such as lamps creating holes in the pine cone so as to filter the light, or very elegant and 'effect.

Increasingly, decorative pine cones lend themselves together with dark brown heads to embellish and make exclusive the arrangements for events, whether they are weddings, gala dinners, conferences, they are exclusive centerpieces, or table markers.

 Larger ceramic pinecones, or pinecone lights are in great demand as gifts for wedding witnesses.

Large or small, a Sicilian ceramic pine cone is always a welcome gift.

The various meanings attributes to the Sicilian ceramic pine cone, date back to several centuries ago, as we will explain later in the article, now we focus on the pine cone, as the fruit of the pine, always green coniferous tree, as such is a symbol of life force , immortality, divinity, the seeds that the pine cone contains are a symbol of fertility and regenerative force.

The Sicilian ceramic pine cone: between philosophy, geometry, history and art

Why is the Sicilian pine cone such a sought-after object, so much so that it cannot be missing in our homes?

The answer is enclosed in its symbolism, since ancient times the meaning of the cosmic egg linked to the birth of the universe, to the principle of everything, has been attributed to the pinecone.

The meaning linked to the Sicilian pine cone has its roots in the era of ancient Egypt, in the Greek and Roman ages to find it in other civilizations.

The main meaning attributed to the pine cone is undoubtedly that of fertility, in this article we went in search of the reasons, through a journey back through the centuries, which starts from the Lower Paleolithic (about 500,000 BC), continues with the study of the thought of philosophers of ancient Greece, we are of the VI century BC, up to the present day.

To better understand this excursus, we must specify that we have combined the shape of the pine cone with the geometric representation of the triangle, and in particular of the equilateral triangle

The Sicilian pine cone resembles an equilateral triangle

This geometric figure is closely related to the number three. Polygon of three sides, therefore with three vertices. The universal symbolism of the triangle is found in all traditions, it is the manifestation of the return to primordial unity.

A further strengthening of the meaning of the equilateral triangle occurs in its representation both with the vertex upwards and with the vertex downwards.

The presence of these two symbols has been found in cultures of every age and latitude, in European prehistoric cultures, in Greek culture, as well as in the cultures of the near and far East, the distinction of meaning is constant:

The triangle pointing upwards represents the divine, the fire and the masculine.

The triangle pointing downwards represents the human, the water and the feminine.

The Great Goddess and the Triangle

The first representations of the triangle as a symbol can be traced back to the Paleolithic.