Celtic Mandala Calendar Archives Gallery

Celtic Knots - Spirals - Symbol & Meaning

BOANN’s HOPE

Hope is born in and of the darkness. Hope lights the way into the unseen, through an intuitive understanding of the deeper meaning in life. Boann (Bóinn) is the Irish goddess of the River Boyne. Boann represents poetic inspiration, fertility, and wisdom. As told in the Dindsenchas (lore of places) in early Irish literature – the myth of Boann explains the magical creation of the Boyne Valley in County Meath. In defiance of her husband Nechtan, Boann visited the forbidden sacred Well of Segais – tobar segais. Surrounded by nine magical hazel-trees, the hazelnuts (representing knowledge), fell into the well where they were eaten by the mythical Salmon of Wisdom. Boann challenged the well by walking around it counter-clockwise (tuathal). The sacred waters were angered, and rose up violently bursting forth to chase Boann toward the sea. The surging spiraling currents merged Boann’s spirit with the mystical waters, carving out the path of the River Boyne. By unlocking the power of the forbidden Well of Segais, new life was unleashed into the world. In this painting, the cosmic egg – symbol of potential – is held by soaring wings that protect and take flight of our hopes and dreams. Hummingbirds are seen as symbols of joy and hope. Native American and Navajo traditions view the tiny agile birds as sacred healers, bringers of good luck, and symbols of wisdom.

Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©

Celtic Knots - Spirals - Symbol & Meaning

Intertwined Celtic interlace and Spiral patterns express the Mystery of Life and the interconnection and balance of all things. With no beginning and no end, they weave an unbroken spiralling path between the inner and the outer, the seen and the unseen, the past and the present – life eternal. Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©

TRIBAL HEART Symbol & Meaning

Tribal Heart – Intertwined knotwork patterns express the Mystery of Life and the inter-connection and balance of all things. The tribal heart beats with the music of life, of love, of loss, courage and compassion, intertwined with the wisdom of the Ancestors. Celtic patterns represent the Mystery of Life and the interconnection and balance of all things. With no beginning and no end, the heart weaves an unbroken path – love eternal. Symbolizing the Celtic interconnection of all things, the heart represents the unbreakable bond between two souls, loyalty, and faith, with its interwoven lines suggesting a love that has no beginning and no end. Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©1996

Celtic Heart - Symbol & Meaning

Seed takes root in the warm earth, Love takes root in the open heart, Gentle Spirit seeks the light, Inhaling life from the soft wind. Celtic patterns represent the Mystery of Life and the interconnection and balance of all things. With no beginning and no end, the heart weaves an unbroken path – love eternal. Symbolizing the Celtic interconnection of all things, the heart represents the unbreakable bond between two souls, loyalty, and faith, with its interwoven lines suggesting a love that has no beginning and no end. Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©

Earth Labyrinth - Symbol & Meaning

A labyrinth, unlike a maze, has only one path, winding but branchless, leading from the entrance to the center. Often scratched or carved on Stone Age monuments and grave sites, the labyrinthine design represents the soul’s journey into the center of the uterine underworld and its return toward rebirth. One of the oldest archetypal symbols, the labyrinth is most sacred to the earth goddess. Early labyrinthine designs found on coins, caves and tombs, referred to the earth-womb. Similar labyrinth patterns have been found amongst many different cultures, Celtic, Minoan, Cretan, in Russia, Egypt, India, and in Peru and Arizona in the New World. The Hopi Indians consider the design a symbol for Mother Earth. this design is based upon the cretan labyrinth, which is at least 3200 years old, known from clay tablets dated to 1200 B.C.. Glastonbury tor – Ynis Witrin – has a maze-pattern similar to such Cretan mazes, created for ritual purposes long before the druids used it in their rites and initiation ceremonies. Inner labyrinth knot-work is a celtic “key Pattern”, which is itself a meander symbol, similar to the panels of the ornamented stones of East Pictland from Durham to Caithness, and those in the books of Durrow, Kells, Lindisfarne and other early Celtic manuscripts. Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©1992

Leaping Hare - Symbol & Meaning

This egg tempera painting 28″ x 18″ is inspired by a vision of the Hare Leaping through the flames of inspiration. In folk lore, it is said that when the farmers burn the stubble in the fields – to regenerate the earth in Springtime – the Hare is often seen to run into, rather than away from the flames, and yet is not burned, and is reborn. Here the magical Hare leaps through the window of our imagination, of our psyche, through the flames of inspiration that give us new life. The Hare was also believed to self-sacrifice himself within the fire – giving his/her life for the assured rebirth of the earth. The Hare is associated with Eostre (or Ostara) – an Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the dawning East, and of springtime (from whom we derive the name for Easter), who was believed to have taken the form of a rabbit, or white hare, which is her totem creature. Original EGG TEMPERA PAINTING and Text by Jen Delyth ©2005

TRIBES Symbol & Meaning

The early Celts of Britain and Europe – including the Scordisci, Boii, Senones and Norici, the Iceni, Belgae, Parisi, Brigantes – were clannish tribes who fought each other as often as they battled with those who did not speak their common language or worship their Mysteries of the earth.Boldly dressed and powerfully striking in appearance, they were considered fierce warriors who lived for the glory of battle with emphasis onpersonal bravery and honor to the tribe. Their brilliant boasts, riddled wit, generous insults and terrible battle screams haunt the mountains and rivers, the high hills and hidden valleys of ancient Britain and Europe. Something of their light and darkness lingers still within our veins, like the golden mead so favored by those warriors of life and death. Graphite Drawing of a small silver phalera from Manerbio sul Mella (Brescia) dating to the first half of the first century BC – Jen Delyth ©1990/2024

Solar Horse - Symbol and Meaning

The Horse was loved and worshipped by the Celtic people. Horses decorate bronze, gold and silver objects as creatures of grace, intelligence and beauty. Horses also serve as solar symbols, embodying the sun’s divine qualities of strength and fertility – and golden Celtic Coins were often minted with images of the Horse, and solar symbols such as the wheel..

TRIBES Symbol & Meaning

CELTIC TRIBES Tshirt by Jen Delyth

TRIBES
Keltoi is the Greek term meaning barbarian, or foreigner. The name was first ascribed to the Gauls and the European tribes who would most likely not have recognized what it meant, and would not have used it to describe themselves. We have continued to know them – those people whose culture is loosely defined by their language, religion, art and culture – as the Celts. Those who we know as the Celts are the fiercely independent tribes that the Romans referred to as the Gauls, Galli and Galatae, and the Greeks named Keltoi. Their brilliant boasts, riddled wit, generous insults and terrible battle screams haunt the mountains and rivers, the high hills and hidden valleys of ancient Britain and Europe. Something of their light and darkness lingers still within our veins, like the golden mead so favored by those warriors of life and death. We have remaining to us mere snippets of knowledge and more legend of the Scordisci, Boii, Senones and Norici, the Iceni, Belgae, Parisi, Brigantes: clannish tribes who fought each other as often as they battled with those who did not speak their common language or worship their Mysteries of the earth. Boldly dressed and powerfully striking in appearance, they were considered fierce warriors who lived for the glory of battle with emphasis on personal bravery and honor to the tribe. They made war and conquest among other Celtic tribes and against the Etruscans, the Romans, and the Greeks. The warriors of the ancient European Celts once threatened the might of Rome and the sanctity of Delphi, the sacred oracle of Greece. But it is in the islands of the Atlantic that their culture took root, continuing to evolve through their language and traditions to the present day.
Artwork and Text by Jen Delyth ©2003