Sacred Art: The Minoan Seal Ring Project

Inspired by ancient ritual

This is the first in an occasional series in which I share my sacred art with you. Find all the posts in this series here.

I’m beginning with a group of paintings I made based on ancient Minoan seal rings. These gold rings are tiny works of art that depict rituals performed by Minoan clergy. Some of them also show deities appearing to the ritual participants.

The image above is the first one I painted in this series. It’s based on a gold seal ring found in the Isopata Minoan chamber tomb near Knossos. Here’s a photo of the top of the ring:

This incredible work of art is just over 2 cm (slightly less than an inch) long. It would have been made from a tiny carved stone mold which was filled with molten gold. The images are recessed in the top of the ring. Here you can see how the actual ring part that goes around a person’s finger attaches underneath the oval top, in a drawing from Sir Arthur Evans’s Palace of Minos book series that chronicled his excavations at Knossos:

The Isopata ring is made like the image on the far right (figure d). Several dozen gold seal rings have been found in excavations at Minoan sites, but several thousand (actually about 12,000 and counting now) carved stone seals have also been found, most of them with holes drilled through them for a cord so they could be worn on the wrist or around the neck.

Seals were a big part of Minoan culture. They were like a person’s signature and were impressed into nodules of clay when a person donated goods to the temples and sacred houses of ancient Crete, and probably for other purposes as well. But it’s clear that the gold rings were special, not just because of the value of their material, but also because they were much bigger than the stone seals and showed intricate, detailed scenes instead of smaller, simpler images.

The gold seal rings depict rituals.

This is an exciting glimpse into Minoan religion, since most other Minoan art doesn’t show actual rituals being performed by human beings. Here, we have an image of a ritual that involves four female-presenting people in poses that could represent singing, dancing, or ecstatic postures (or all three).

To me, the Isopata ring expresses the joy of Minoan religion and culture. It also gives us tantalizing clues about some fascinating details. I blew up a photo of the ring so I could see all the details really well, to use it as a reference for the painting.

Besides the obvious details like the lilies, suggesting that this ritual takes place outdoors, there are a number of shapes that archaeologists call ‘floating objects,’ which may represent images the ritual participants saw while in trance. There are two snake-like shapes, which I find interesting, since snakes are the most common visions seen by people who are using entheogens. The Minoans had poppies and alcohol, and may have had other ecstasy-inducing substances as well.

What do you think the other shapes are? At the time that I created this painting, I interpreted the long, narrow, textured shape as a spinal column, but now I think it may be an ear of grain. There’s a small beehive with bees coming out of it, just above the head of the rightmost figure. There’s a small shape to the right of the central figure. I wasn’t sure what it was when I made this painting, but now that I’ve studied a number of different seal rings, I think it’s probably an eye. Floating eyes and ears appear on a number of seal rings and may be indications that the people in the ritual are seeing and hearing things while in a trance state.

I’ve left the most obvious and remarkable floating object for last: the tiny female figure floating just to the left of the central dancer’s shoulder. This is an epiphany figure, the representation of a deity appearing to the participants in the ritual. We find both male and female epiphany figures on Minoan seal rings, in connection with both male and female ritual participants.

Which deity is this? We don’t know. There are no distinguishing features beyond feminine clothing and hair. But I’d be willing to bet that any Minoan who looked at this ring would recognize the collection of symbols and know which ritual or festival is represented here. Given the lilies and the ear of grain, I think the deity might be Ariadne or Rhea, but I can’t be sure.

There’s so much context that we simply don’t have.

One other detail that fascinates me is one I didn’t even notice until I enlarged the photo of the ring: three of the skirts look like they have bells on them! They’re not just dots; they’re clearly hanging from short or long strings. I can imagine the sound of small bronze bells jingling as the women danced in ritual space. Beautiful!

What we can see from this and other Minoan art is that singing, dancing, ecstatic postures, visions, and probably trance possession were significant aspects of Minoan religion. We’ve incorporated these activities into our modern rituals in Ariadne’s Tribe, linking us back to the ancient Minoans through sound, motion, and direct connection with the deities.

I’ll leave you with a thought to ponder. What if the depictions of rituals in Minoan art are “alive” in some way, inspirited with the energy of the ritual that’s being represented? If that’s the case, interacting with them — by viewing the ancient objects or making modern art inspired by them — may be a way to enact the ritual all over again in the modern world.

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About Laura Perry

I'm an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. I'm also the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, a worldwide inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. My spiritual practice includes spirit work and herbalism through the lens of lifelong animism. I write Pagan / polytheist non-fiction and fiction across several different subjects and genres. I'm currently working on an illustrated book of modern Minoan myths and a Minoan entry in the Moon Books Pantheons series (available for pre-order, release date 26 August 2025). I’m also an avid gardener and living history demonstrator.