Māras zeme means "Māra's land". In Latvian sign lore it names the earth in the keeping of Māra, the mother figure of Latvian folklore, and it is also a poetic name for Latvia itself.
The sign
Modern Latvian sign charts do not all draw Māras zeme the same way. One Latvian folklore resource explains that a simple horizontal line is traditionally read as Māra in her aspect as Earth Mother and calls this sign Māras zeme; other charts show grid or field-like patterns under the same name. The AURYN design follows one of these modern forms.
Māra and the earth
In the folksongs Māra is associated with the earth, with cattle and with the everyday life of women and households. "Māra's land" gathers those associations into an image of the nourishing, cared-for earth.
A name for Latvia
The phrase also works as a name for the country: "Māra's land" appears in poetry, song and public celebrations as an affectionate name for Latvia, which gives the sign a patriotic as well as a folkloric meaning.
