Secret Celtic Symbols

The triskele, or triple spiral, a symbol closely related to the triquetra, is a tripartite symbol composed of three interlocked spirals. The spiral is an ancient Celtic symbol related to the sun, afterlife and reincarnation. This symbol can be found at the Neolithic tomb at Newgrange, where it is supposed by some to be a symbol of pregnancy (the sun describes a spiral in its movements every three months; a triple spiral represents nine months), an idea reinforced by the womb like nature of the structure. The symbol also suggests reincarnation- it is drawn in one continuous line, suggesting a continuous movement of time.

Triskeles are one of the most common elements of Celtic art; they are found in a variety of styles in both ancient and modern Celtic art, especially in relation to depictions of the Mother Goddess. They also evoke the Celtic concept of the domains of material existence- earth, water, and sky, and their interrelations.

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Early 16th century legend tells us that a man from the village of Claddagh, Co. Galway, Richard Joyce was enslaved to be shipped off to the West Indies. Captured the same week he was to be married, his bride-to-be was inconsolable. While at sea, the slave ship was attacked by Moor pirates. Its contents intercepted, Richard became a Moor slave. As the years went by he became a master of his trade (Goldsmith). His skilful hands shaped a unique ring for the woman he could never forget at home. Two hands cradling a crowned heart, the heart for love, the hands for friendship and the crown for loyalty. The design represented the wish that love and friendship should reign supreme. After eight years he was released. He returned to his native Ireland and to his great joy, her heart remained with his, never to be separated again.

Originally a great traditional wedding ring among the people of Claddagh, in Galway, two centuries ago, today it is commonly accepted that the joining hands, heart and crown represent a perpetual bond of friendship, love and loyalty.

Traditionally the Claddagh ring can be worn three ways. When placed on the right hand with the heart facing out the wearer's heart is still searching. When placed on the right hand with the heart facing in, there are possibilities When worn on the left hand with the heart facing in, the wearer's heart is promised forever.

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Tradition tells us that as a young girl, Brigid (or, more modernly, Bridget) sat beside her dying father and began weaving a cross from the rushes growing along the banks of the River Shannon in Ireland. Her father saw the cross and asked her to explain its meaning. After Brigit explained it's significance, her father wanted to join the Church and was baptized by St. Patrick before he died. Today, people place a "St. Bridget Cross" in their homes and farm buildings believing that, with their faith, it protects them and their animals from evil and deprivation.

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Luckenbooths were shops in Edinburgh, situated on the Royal Mile from St Giles' Cathedral down towards the Canongate. They were the city's first permanent shops that housed jewelery workers and other trades, dating from the 16th century.

The luckenbooth brooch is a traditional Scottish wedding brooch given to the bride by the groom on their wedding day, and subsequently pinned to the shawl of the first baby to protect it from "evil spirits". By the 18th century it had also became a common decorative symbol in Native American costume.

The luckenbooth brooch has figures very similar to the Claddagh ring, and a similar purpose of being a love token. The luckenbooth charm also continues the traditional theme of heart and crown.

Another legend of the luckenbooth is that it was a symbol of love and devotion, which Mary Queen of Scots is said to have given to Lord Darnley. It has the St. Andrew Cross, the Scottish thistles, and entwined hearts.

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Ogham inscriptions date primarily from the 4th to 5th centuries and are found mainly on standing stones; evidence for inscriptions in wood exists, but examples do not survive. The greatest concentration of surviving ogham inscriptions is in southern Ireland; a 1945 survey found 121 in Kerry and 81 in Co. Cork, while others are scattered throughout Ireland, Great Britain, and the Isle of Man, with five in Cornwall, about thirty in Scotland, mainly in 'Pictish' areas, and more than forty in Wales. South Wales was an area of extensive settlement from southern Ireland, including the migration of the De'isi. Ogham was also used for Pictish. In Wales, ogham inscriptions have both Irish and Brythonic-Latin adjacent inscriptions.

Most ogham inscriptions are very short, usually consisting of a name and a patronymic in the genitive case. They are of linguistic rather than literary interest, because they show an older state of the Irish language than found in any other written sources. Many appear to be memorials to the dead, while others mark the border between two lands. Although the knowledge of ogham was never lost to scholars (at least one 19th-cent. grave-marker uses it), the notion that ogham was employed for occult or magical purposes dogs critical commentary. As late as the 1930s the eminent archaeologist R. A. S. Macalister proposed that ogham was part of the secret language of 'druidic freemasonry'.

Seán O'Boyle suggested (1980) that the key to explaining ogham is harp notation. The god of rhetoric and eloquence, Ogma, is an attributed creator; his name and the word appear to be philologically related.

In Ireland, it is a popular myth that the Celtic Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that Saint Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun.

In Celtic regions of Ireland and later in Great Britain, many free-standing upright crosses (or high crosses) were erected by Irish monks, beginning at least as early as the 7th century. Some of these 'Celtic' crosses bear inscriptions in runes. There are surviving free-standing crosses in Cornwall (famously St Piran's cross at Perranporth) and Wales, on the island of Iona and in the Hebrides, as well as the many in Ireland. Other stone crosses are found in the former Northumbria and Scotland, and further south in England, where they merge with the similar Anglo-Saxon cross making tradition, in the Ruthwell Cross for example.

The most famous standing crosses are the Cross of Kells, County Meath, Ireland; Ardboe Auld Cross, Ardboe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland; the crosses at Monasterboice, County Louth, Ireland; and the Cross of the Scriptures, Clonmacnoise, Ireland.

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The prickly purple thistle was adopted as the Emblem of Scotland during the rein of Alexander III (1249 -1286). Legend has it that an Army of King Haakon of Norway, intent on conquering the Scots landed at the Coast of Largs at night to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen removed their footwear.

As they drew near to the Scots it wasn't the only thing hiding under the cover of darkness. For one of Haakon's men unfortunately stood on one of these spiny little defenders and shrieked out in pain, alerting the Clansmen of the advancing Norsemen. Needless to say the Scots who won the day.

The first use of the Thistle as a royal symbol of Scotland was on silver coins issued by James III in 1470.

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A long time ago in ancient Ireland lived an Irish Chieftain named Lir. He was married to Aobh daughter of King Bodhbh (also called Bov the Red) of Lough Dergh. They had four beautiful children; Fionnula, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. Unfortunately Aobh died giving birth and Lir was devastated with grief.

When King Bodhbh heard of Lir's loss he offered another one of his daughters to Lir in marriage. Lir choose Aoife as his new wife and stepmother to his children. At first, all when well with the marriage, Lir doted on his four children. Soon Aoife became intensely jealous of her stepchildren. She even pretended to be sick for a whole year in order to look for special attention. One day Aoife told the children that they we going with her to visit there Grandfather King Bodhbh, as they had done many times before. Along the way they stopped at Lough Dairbhreach (lake of the oaks) and Aoife ordered the children to wash themselves in the lough. Once they were in the water, Aoife cast a magic spell turning the four children of Lir into beautiful white swans. Fionnuala cursed her but implored her to put some limits on the spell. Aoife regretting what she had done agreed to allow them keep their beautiful singing voices. But the spell still imposed a harsh sentence on the swan children. They were to spend 300 years on Lough Dairbhreach, 300 years in the Straits of Moyle and the final 300 years at Erris. They spell would only be broken when they heard the first bells of Christianity and when a King from the north marries a Princess from the south.

When King Bodhbh found out what Aoife had done to the children of Lir, using a Druids rod he turned her into a "Witch of the air". As the legend goes Aoife still blows in the howling wind and her screams can be heard when a storm blows.

Over the years Lir and many others continued to visit the swan children. They listened to their enchanting, magical singing that was said to calm even the most savage beast.

Over the 900 years of the spell they faced extremely harsh weather conditions. Near the end they traveled to Inish Gluaire where they first heard the Christian bells and met a Christian missionary called St. Mochaomhog. They told him of their plight and that they were the children of Lir. At this time a King from the north King Lairgnean was due to wed Deach, a daughter of the southern Muster King. King Lairgnean had heard of the swan's lovely singing voices and wanted to give them to his wife as a wedding present. But while King Lairgnean was trying to capture the swans he touched one of them and the spell was broken. The swans turned back into their human form, but they were very old and Withered looking. Fionnula the oldest asked St. Mochaomhog to baptize them and soon after they died. They were buried the same way they lived, together. Later that night St. Mochaomhog dreamed that he saw four beautiful white swans flying over the sea straight up to heaven.

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