Celtic Symbols

The White Goddess, by Robert Graves, is a difficult book to describe, as it is to read. However, it contains a storehouse of knowledge and inspiration about mythology, poetry and, specifically, Celtic tales, which makes it of special interest to this blog.

Graves wrote this in the 1940s. He is putting forth a very complex argument, though the book is almost like an epic poem. He is trying to prove that the Goddess is the inspiration for all true poetry. He uses ancient Celtic tales, especially the Welsh poem, The Battle of The Trees to decode the symbolism of Ogham (the Celtic Tree Alphabet) and how it relates to ancient gods and goddesses. For people interested in Celtic symbols and Ogham in particular, the material about the meaing of tree names makes it worth reading.

This book is actually a root source for much of the modern neo-Pagan movement. It has been criticized by scholars as inaccurate. I don’t know if it’s meant to be taken literally, but I don’t think it should be approached in this manner. The difficult style, that jumps from subject to subject and from one culture to another, is all about connections and synchronicities. As best I can understand, Graves is giving an inspired example of how everything at one level is connected through poetry and mythology.

Although I don’t think he mentions Jung in the book (I haven’t read it in a while -and it really needs more than one reading anyway), but it definitely relates to some of Jung’s ideas about synchronicities and the collective unconscious. I would recommend anyone interested in poetry or mythology to give The White Goddess a try and not try too hard to understand it all.

Ogham is the ancient Celtic alphabet that was inscribed on stones and trees. The letters of this alphabet were all actually based on trees. Some researchers have connected this practice with the Druids, the pre-Christian priests of the Celtic lands and compared it to various forms of shamanism around the world. The poet Robert Graves bases a great deal of his book, The White Goddess on the intricate meanings of the Celtic Tree Alphabet.

One fascinating but controversial belief is that the ancient Celts visited America and left evidence of this in the form of Ogham. This blog will go into more detail about many of these subjects, but for now I wanted to post this short video about this. It is certainly not inconceivable that the Celts, like the Vikings, came to the New World at some point.

Thanks for visiting the Celtic Symbols blog! This site is inspired by the beauty and enduring popularity of Celtic symbols such as knotwork, zoomorphic images (those depicting animals, both real and imaginary, such as sea monsters and dragons) and other images. These images are very commonly seen today in many art books, in jewelry, as tattoos and fantasy art (paintings, book covers, CD covers, etc.).

Celtic art goes way back in history, and I’ll be exploring some of this fascinating tradition. There will also be links to other interesting sites and resources. I think Celtic symbols and artwork has such appeal, not only for its intrinsic beauty, but because it expresses something of the infinite, as in a Celtic knot. There is both a spirituality and earthiness to Celtic art.

I’d like to explore the many ways Celtic symbols have been used over the centuries, including languages. For example, one of the earliest Celtic languages was the Irish Tree Alphabet, known as Ogham. This, and other aspects of Celtic or Gaelic languages have also become very popular recently, especially in music.

So please visit this site often and keep up with this fascinating aspect of Celtic culture!