Celtic Jewelry: Spiral Symbol Pendants

"Celtic" refers to the culture of the Celts who lived in Britain and Western Europe from about 500 BC and 400 AD. Celts were of the Iron Age and lived in small villages which were led by warrior chiefs.

The written records remaining from the Celts of Europe are scant, therefore signs and symbols can be hard to determine and trace. Many symbols have been determined to have one meaning in one period of time and then in later times they came to have other meanings. Many historical facts of Cletic symbols come from the conquering Romans, who invaded the Celtic lands during the rise of the Roman Empire.

Eventually the primary concentration of the Celts was in what is now know as the UK: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Whales.

There are a great many classifications of Celtic Knots and symbols. Inside those classifications are many symbols with geometric designs.

The Class of symbols that this post will focus on is the Spiral. There can be double spirals, triple spirals in the spiral symbol. The spiral symbol is a very big part of Celtic jewelry.

Some symbologists have assigned meanings to the Celtic spiral symbols. Their ideas come from assumptions based on historical records from the Romans and the way the symbols were used in digs and ruins.

The Spiral symbol suggests: Balance, Progress, Direction, Initiation, Centering, Expanding, Awareness, Connection, Journeying and Development. These are nice meanings for the spiral symbol in use with Celtic Jewelry.

Based on how these various types of Celtic Spirals were used in the decorating of myriads of Celtic artifacts Symboligists have come up with more definitions of the Celtic spiral:

Evolution and holistic growth
Letting go, surrender, release
Awareness of the one within the context of the whole
Connectivity and union with deific and cosmic energies
Revolutions of time, stars, planets and the way of natural progress

In terms of spirituality, the spiral symbol can represent the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness). Movements between the inner (intuitive, intangible) world and the outer (matter, manifested) world are mapped by the spiraling of archetypal rings; marking the evolution of humankind on both an individual and collective scale.

Understanding, at least impart, about the various Celtic symbols makes Celtic Jewelry all the more rich in meaning and makes Celtic jewelry fun to wear.