The Complex History And Artwork Of Celtic Crosses
By Martin Mallett

The well known Celtic cross and Celtic Christianity is a thing of beauty and is also a possessor of very many meanings. In appearence, it resembles a traditional Christian cross but with a circle drawn around the joints of the two arms of the cross. It is also regularly referred to as the Irish Cross or sometimes the Cross of Iona (both an island and a Gaelic name).

One meaning that is possible is the cross is the unity of two types of belief systems. The cross symbolizes Christian faith, while the circle symbolizes a pagan moon Goddess. This coincides with the Irish legend of St. Patrick introducing this symbol when he converted the pagan people of the Emerald Isle. Some also say that the circle actually represents the Sun, another strong image in the pagan belief system.

Many times the cross and circle motif is only a small part of the picture. Complex designs and carvings are very prominent on Celtic crosses. One such common design is of an interweaving thread, actually interviewing figures of eight, which suggest chaos, death, order and rebirth. As you can see, four again which is such a significant number with the Celts.

The image, in some form or another, certainly dates back long-long before Christianity. The reason is, that a cross has arms facing in four directions. This could mean the four elements, four navigational directions, and so on. The circle is yet another ancient symbol, associated with perfection, even the ancient Egyptians have used it in their designs.

Regretfully, in these modern times, the ancient symbol has been abused and used by some extremely radical political parties. Usually they simplify the cross and circle design by just drawing a circle with a plus sign inside, extending outward (regularly referred to as the sun cross). The link between the symbol and radical factions have become so firm that in Italy they have even banned it from being publicly shown in stadiums.

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Martin Mallett is the webmaster and owner of www.shop4silver.co.uk - a UK based and family run online store with a new and exciting range of Celtic jewellery especially beautiful Celtic earrings.