Many reference books will tell you what scholars know about the Celts. They will tell you that the Celts spoke a language of their own, of which Cornish, Welsh, Breton, Manx, Irish and Scottish Gaelic are the modern descendants of the original Celtic languages. They will tell you that the Celtic languages form two major groups, the Brythonic, or those found primarily in Britain--Cornish, Welsh, and Breton (the latter because of emigration across the English Channel--and Gaelic--those primarily found in Ireland and Scotland. The major difference, you will be told, is the pronunciation of certain letters, among them hard or soft Cs. Perhaps this is where the sehltic or is it kehltic issue comes from. The word Celt is not a word from the Celtic people, it is from the Greek who referred to them as the Keltoi with a hard C.

You will also be told that the Celtic countries today include Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland. You will be told that the Celts, or Britons, in what we now call England, were the native peoples before the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from the area around modern Denmark in about 400 to 500 C.E. The Britons were quite used to invasion from Scandinavian Nordic peoples and even by brother Celts from Ireland; however, up until the arrival of the Saxon, Angles, and Jutes, the invasions were raids of plunder and the raiders rarely stayed behind to settle.

The Anglo-Saxon invasion was different; they were farmers, and wanted to settle permanently on new, fertile land. The land of eastern and southern England (today) was perfect for their purpose. A Cornish Prince, Arthur, a Briton, fought the Saxons fiercely and set them back for forty years, so it is told. But the tide of emigration was inevitable. Eventually, the Anglo-Saxons overtook the fertile plains of England and drove the native Britons to the less desirable hills and mountains of Wales and Cornwall. England means Anglo Land, or Land of the Angles. The word Wales is not Celtic or Briton; it is Anglo-Saxon and means stranger. Similarly, Cornwall is an Anglo-Saxon term meaning stranger from the mountains.

You will be told that Julius Caesar fought and conquered the Celtic people of Gaul, now France, from the Francs, a Teutonic tribe; and that Julius Caesar invaded and conquered much of England. The Romans changed and influenced the lands that they conquered, but the Romans never conquered Ireland or much of Scotland, so those areas retained more of the Celtic heritage in a less diluted form. Rome retreated from Britain just before the rise of Arthur. It is the withdrawal of Roman power from Britain that many scholars attribute to the rise of invasions by the Saxons and, therefore, to the rise of power by Arthur.

You will be told that the Celtic people were among the first in what we now call Great Britain to embrace Christianity. Arthur is popularly characterized as Christian and often remarked about the lack of Christianity of the Saxons. It is popularly believed that the Celts were Druidic. Much nonsense has been written about the Druids, most of which comes from their adversaries, mainly, Julius Caesar, who had his own agenda and limitations. But, much of what we 'know' about the Druidic system comes from the Christian Church that sought to supplant the Druidic way of life with its own. The Celtic people relied on oral tradition and only on written documents until very late. The Celtic Bard, or poets, had to memorize verbatim tens of thousands of poems, sagas, genealogies, and legends before acquiring that rank. It is said that Saint Patrick destroyed most of what few Celtic manuscripts existed in Ireland when he converted it to Christianity.

The Celtic people, who were now Christianized, held many gifted artists who had crafted exquisite jewelry, household implements, and weapons. Now these people also turned to illuminating manuscripts. Much of what we know of Celtic design comes from a few surviving old pieces (some of which are displayed on this page), but much of it comes from the intricate knotwork, spiral, and zoomorphic (or animal forms) designs woven into illuminated manuscript work.

We believe that the Celtic Spiral symbolizes the Celtic concept of the continuity of life and spiritual growth; that Celtic Knotwork symbolizes the journey through an eternal maze--but no one alive today knows that for certain.

As we said above, we believe that the Celtic Spiral symbolizes the Celtic concept of the continuity of life and spiritual growth. It is the constant flow of nature's processes moving outward and then back inward as Heaven and Earth are joined. The tri-scael, or three stories, represents the natural, human, and divine aspects of life.

We believe that the Celts saw life as a riddle, and as a eternal journey. The Celts believed in reincarnation or continuous birth, death, and rebirth until complete spiritual fulfillment is achieved. The Celtic Knot symbolizes the journey through an eternal maze, interweaving with itself or with others, and the Celtic understanding of various spiritual levels in the search for purification of the soul.

We believe that it is quite possible that the Celtic Knotwork and Spiral patterns were what we today call a Mandala or a representation of a divine and eternal symbol seen by grace of a vision of the divine through meditation, or in rare cases, spontaneous vision. The designs are both logically perfect and intrigue the imagination and allow the mind to wander over the designs and take aesthetic delight in them. We believe that it is quite possible that the Celtic monks wove these ancient symbols of an eternal knowledge into the Christian texts they were illuminating.

We also believe that the Celtic Cross symbolizes the bridge from this world to the Otherworld and to higher energy and to higher knowledge. The horizontal axis of the cross represents this mundane world; the vertical axis of the cross represents the celestial or divine world; and the usually accompanying circles symbolizes that the two worlds are but two aspects of the one world. Celtic Crosses are often considered to be solar symbols, sources of light and eternal energy.

It is quite possible, to us, that the Celtic zoomorphic and anthropomorphic, or animal and figure forms, are an attempt to symbolize that all human and animal beings are interwoven among, in harmony with, and identical to the world, to Heaven, to the Otherworld, and to the universe as a whole.

We prefer to look at the examples of Celtic art and craftsmanship while attempting to intuit their meanings as they effect our own consciousness. After all, there is but one consciousness: that of the awareness of self. And, there is but one self. If these designs contain some glimpse of truth from the divine self, then their message will be valid for us as well as for a Celt who lived twenty-eight centuries ago.

If we study the Celtic Bell pictured at the left, we observe Celtic Spirals and Celtic knotwork designs on a bronze bell with gold and jewels. It is a marvelous piece of craftsmanship. But, more to the point, the Celtic state of mind appears to us unique and alien in the sense that we have seen nothing else like it produced by the various cultures of humankind. It is as if a race descended from the stars, or from the Otherworld, and took up residence here, sharing their insight with the rest of the inhabitants of our planet. To us, it seems a pity that other beings felt compelled to destroy and discredit this work through non-understanding or through misunderstanding, and to supplant the tangible manifestations of another, perhaps more advanced and freethinking culture, with a narrower and more restrictive culture of its own. It seems, to us, a shame to reject such a precious gift to our humanity.

In conclusion, we at Celtic Metaphysical Jewelry dot Com are pleased to offer examples of the Celtic craft and wisdom. We are pleased to offer beautiful jewelry and gifts from Celtic Cornwall, Celtic Wales, Celtic Ireland, and Celtic Scotland, to name a few. We are also pleased to offer excellent examples of the Celtic Craft and motif from other countries because the appeal for Celtic art is an ancient one and, we expect, a worldwide one. The designs are ancient, but fascinating and satisfying to all of us today. One does not have to trace his or her ancestors to a Celt in order to be pleased by the Celtic design. We encourage you to wear the Celtic Spirit proudly and answer questions about it and its meaning if asked; otherwise, enjoy our heritage from the Otherworld.