[Oak with walnut trim]

This archetypal design was uncovered by archeologists in the Sutton Hoo burial ship of King Raedwald, an Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia.  The design is characterized by ascending steps and trees, which connect earth and sky and lead to the Otherworld, a temporary resting place in the Celtic Cycle of Life, which is birth, death, and rebirth.  The Celtic poet, Amergin, about three centuries ago, wrote:

There never was and never will be

a time when we did not

do not

or will not

exist