Many people today have come to love ancient Celtic symbols. We see the popularity of Celtic tattoos, as well as all kinds of calendars, t-shirts, murals and other artwork depicting Celtic knotwork, crosses and mandalas. Many of these designs are striking and beautiful, but what is their origin?

The ancient Celts were a mysterious people who did not keep historical records. Their tradition was mainly an oral one, passed down from generation to generation. Most of what historians know about the Celts comes from what others, primarily the Romans, said about them. Since the Romans and Celts were not exactly friendly, to put it mildly, this makes some of their reporting possibly less than reliable. Add to this the usual problems of verifying information from over a thousand years ago, and you begin to see how murky it can get.

The Celts appear in history around 600 BC. Some of the ancient megaliths that are commonly associated with them, such as Stonehenge, were built by pre-Celtic people whose exact identity is not known. Some of the symbols associated with the Celts, such as spirals and crosses were also made by pre-Celtic peoples. The cross, in one form or another, is a very common symbol that has been used by many ancient peoples, long before Christianity started using it as their symbol.

The Celts incorporated many of these older symbols into a unique and unmistakable style of art. Perhaps the most notable Celtic motif is their distinctive knotwork, which began to appear in the early Christian era. While we cannot say for sure exactly what meaning knots had for the early Celts, the patterns certainly suggest some spiritual meanings, such as infinity, interconnectedness and perhaps the blending of dualities.

Another distinctive Celtic practice was the use of animals, known as zoomorphic images, which often combine human, animal and mythical creatures. Many of these images can be found in the Celtic Christian manuscript, the Book of Kells. In fact, many contemporary designs have been inspired by this medieval illustrated book.

The ancient and medieval Celts did not exist in isolation, but were often in contact (and at war) with other tribes, as well as the Roman Empire. So Celtic art and culture is an amalgam of ideas and styles inspired by the pre-Celtic peoples of Britain who left us with their mysterious monuments and carvings, the surrounding influences, which eventually included Christianity, and of course what the Celts themselves created and changed to their own style.

This mixture of influences does not detract from the contributions made by the Celts. This, in fact, is common to almost all cultures. The Romans, for example, were strongly influenced by the Greeks, who in turn were influenced by the Egyptians, etc. Yet the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Celts alike all developed cultures uniquely their own.

If certain ancient Celtic symbols were originally created by earlier peoples, this is simply the way the world works. One symbol, for example, that we often see in contemporary Celtic design is the triskele, a triple spiral. This is a very ancient design found on monuments such as Newgrange in Ireland, which dates back to around 3,000 BC. We cannot say exactly what this design meant to the people who originally drew it. Later interpretations, however, have connected the triple spiral to the Trinity, while neo-Pagans say it represents the Triple Goddess.

The great thing about symbols is that they have so many meanings, and it is up to you to choose which is meaningful to you. Ancient Celtic symbols are especially rich in their ability to inspire contemplation and appreciation.