CELTIC MYTH & SYMBOL
JEN DELYTh
Page 5
STONE MYSTERIES
Stone is the bone of the world, under moor, under loam.
Under ocean and churchyard-corruption of buried bone;
Floor of the mountain, pound of the ocean, the worlds’ cord.
—Robert Farren, “The Mason”
CASTLERIGG STONE CIRCLE
The Great Stone Builders belonged to a civilization that spanned twenty-five hundred years, leaving little record of its existence beyond the remains of its ceremonial centers, gathering places and burial sites, and an ethereal presence in the mythology and religion of the tribal Celts.
The great stones and barrows were raised in the shadowy megalithic or Great Stone culture of the second and third millennia BC.
Dolmens and quoits are the exposed lintels of the ancient covered cairns (mounds of stone).
Menhirs are long, single unhewn or slightly sculpted stones, and cromlechs are great circles of menhirs.
Today the ancient stones of the megalith builders remain permeated with mystery and the folk memories of many thousands of years.
NEWGRANGE
Newgrange in Ireland is another magnificent megalithic tomb that channels the winter solstice sun through its uterine passageway. This place was connected with the sacred energies of the ancient Goddess long before the Celts arrived in Ireland.
Built about 3200 BC and known as Brugh na Boinne, Bend of the Boyne, the great circular mound of earth and stone sits astride an elongated ridge in a large curve in the Boyne River about five miles west of the town of Drogheda.
The Boyne, said to reflect the heavenly river the Milky Way, is named for Boann, the Celtic river goddess.
The entrance stone at NewGrange is covered in carved spiral forms, including the significant triple spirals that are among the most sacred symbols of Neolithic Europe, and that are so well known to us today. They offer a beautiful example of an archetypal symbol that represents the infinite spiraling forces of nature.
The design seems to symbolize the three patternings of life: birth, life and death; spring, summer and winter; the time before, the now and that yet to come.
GAVRINIS'
The Gavrinis megalithic temple on the Île de Gavrinis in the Golfe du Morbihan is dated around 3500 to 4000 BC.
This ancient monument is built with a passage through which the winter solstice rays of sun fertilize the chamber beyond.
The first rays strike upon deeply engraved patterns of spirals and key labyrinth motifs, awakening the power of the living earth.
Folklore and mythology surround the weathered outcroppings,
the fossil – and quartz-embedded boulders that were
tossed by giants and brought by magicians of old to their resting places.
SPIRIT IN STONE
The great cromlech in the Duffryn Woods was an unlucky place to sleep in on one of the ‘three spirit nights’ for the person who did so would die, go raving mad, or become a poet.
Duffryn, near St. Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan, has Druid stones scattered about in various places. Some of these have stories attached to them.
Old people in the beginning of the nineteenth century said that once a year, on Midsummer Eve, the stones in Maes-y-felin Field whirled round three times, and made curtsies; and if anybody went to them on Hallowe’en, and whispered a wish in good faith, it would be obtained.
Marie Trevelyan, Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales, 1909
Rocks and stones are the ancient bones of our natural landscape.
For the early people, power adheres to the rocky places.
Their great raised stones penetrate the earth, conducting the receptive energies upward and outward.
Long-enduring features of the land, rocks are natural gathering places
often known by name and endowed with spiritual and ritual purpose.
MEGALITH
Among the mountains called The Rivals in North Wales, is the beetling and furrowed Craig Ddu, with its almost black rocky surface and inaccessible sides rising sheer against the sky.
In the eighteenth century people said that the apparition of an old man with long white hair and flowing beard used formerly to be seen wandering down the valley, and pausing to mutter unknown words beside the Craig Ddu.
Sounds of strange music were heard, and magic signs were made by the old man. If anybody fell asleep in the shadow of Craig Ddu he would sleep for ever, and be carried away by unseen hands so that his resting place could not be known.
Marie Trevelyan, Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales, 1909
Cefn Carn Cavall
On the summit and sides of Cefn Carn Cavall, a mountain near Builth, in Breconshire, there are several carns scattered here and there.
It is said that King Arthur when hunting the swine named Twrch Trwyth, Cavall his favorite dog impressed the stone with his footprint.
The warrior king collected a heap of stones together and on the top he placed the curiously marked one, and called the mountain Carn Cavall.
Marie Trevelyan, Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales, 1909
Text & Illustrations from Jen Delyth’s Full Color Hardbound Coffee Table Book
Celtic Folk Soul – Art, Myth and Symbol
Signed Copies Available Here
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JEN DELYTH
ARTIST, AUTHOR, DESIGNER
Since 1987, artist Jen Delyth has illustrated and designed a wide range of books, textile products, stationary.
Celtic Art Studio is HOME STUDIO SITE of Jen Delyth – and Celtic Mythic Line
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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..
