From: adams@mari.acc-admin.stolaf.edu (Brynach ap Adda)
Subject: Re: free lionfood! (was: Celtic Cross)
Organization: St. Olaf College; Northfield, MN
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 20:14:41 GMT

In article <78863@ut-emx.uucp> evc@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Edward Van Cura) writes:
>From: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
>>Hang on dere, man. You mean there are _pre-Christian_ British crosses?
>>WHERE? I presume we're talking about a distinct quartered-circle design,
>>here, not a triskele or swastika.
>>
>>I mean I'd love this to be true ...

Me too! For those of us who have a love of Celtic culture, whether or
not we are Celtic by "blood", it's a great way of establishing continuity
with the symbols and practices that the Celtic peoples have preserved since
who knows when. (I'm a skeptic as to the overall importance of "the blood",
BTW - I know that the Celts and Nordic folk placed a great deal of 
importance on the clan, but like most of us, I'm a mixed-blood: part Welsh
and Somersetshire English, part Saxon (Hanover area) and part Pomeranian -
no, I'm not part canine, fools; Pomerania is a vanished nation in what is now
NE Germany and NW Poland. BTW, if anyone can recommend good sources on the
region's history, please let me know. I don't know much about Pomerania
at all, except that it's been repeatedly seized by one army or another and
has probably seen the sort of ethnic cleansing that the Teutonic Knights did
to Ciaran's ancestors. Anyway, I feel closest to Celtic spirituality and
make it the foundation of my Pagan practices - and as many scholars and
Celtic nationalists point out, the Celtic identity has always been based on
language, culture and religion, not on race or pedigree. Digression over.)

I wear a Celtic Cross, with the equal-length arms extending slightly beyond
a circle. It feels most appropriate to my spirituality, which is a sort of
eclectic Druidism that incorporates a fair amount of Christian thought. The
problem is that it's effectively invisible as a symbol of the Pagan 
Movement. Most people who see it just assume I'm a run-of-the-mill Christian, 
maybe an Irish Catholic. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with
Irish Catholics, but.... 

>The sun-wheel is a very old Indo-European symbol, prominently used
>by the Germanic and Celtic peoples.

There are some lovely examples of Bronze Age cloak pins from Ireland
containing what is clearly a "Celtic cross", or whatever it would have
been called then. There is a pretty clear consensus that it represented
the sun and perhaps the passage of the seasons as well; there is an
ancient ceremony performed at Samhain or Kalan Gaeaf in which a wooden
wheel was coated with pitch or tallow, set on fire and rolled down a 
steep hillside. They did this in Cornwall well into the 1900s, if I 
recall my sources correctly.  

Thorfinn provides informed but problematic passages:
>From Tadhg MacCrossan's *The Sacred Cauldron*:
>
><<<p.135-138>>>
>Another symbol sacred to the Celtoi of the elder faith is the rota
>Taranous [rota tah-RAH-nuh-ooss], "wheel of Taranus", also called a
>labaron, which is a chariot wheel of four, six or nine spokes, which
>symbolizes the sun and the thunderer, Taranus (one of the three sons
>of Lugus along with Esus and Teutatis), as a God of the sky. This
>symbol was incorporated into the Celtic cross. This symbol may be worn
>as a pendant or medallion also.
>
>Such symbols as pentatgrams were never Celtic and not associated with
>anything Celtic or druidic until the last few decades, when some
>people were trying to claim this originally Middle-Eastern or Hellenic
>symbol as a Celtic emblem. This is only because the Neopagan revival was
>started mainly by people who were actually cabalists or Hermeticists;
>that symbol is appropriate only to them but is alien to the Celts.

I think he lays it on a little thick here. There is a tendency in groups
devoted to reconstruction of "the Celtic tradition" to be, IMHO, a bit
overblown in their attempts to exorcize "alien" elements from their 
religion. In fact, one of the oldest characteristics of the Celts is
that of synthesis. They took plenty of "alien" elements and blended them
into their own distinctive culture, borrowing from the Greeks, the Scythians,
and the pre-IndoEuropean peoples they encountered as they moved west. I can
understand the desire to create a careful reconstruction, especially when
we consider how vicious and long-term the efforts have been to destroy any
political and spiritual independence for the Celtic peoples, AND how much
utter bullshit was, and continues to be, passed off as "Celtic" by people
who ought to know better. However, I still use the pentagram. I like it. 
I can wear it in any big city and any Pagan who sees it will feel a little
better for seeing me, just because it feels good to remember there are 
people outside your own little world who are in the same struggle you are
in a time and place that aren't friendly to us. That't the real world, 
something the authors of these reconstructions often don't seem entirely
in touch with.

>Thorfinn

Brynach Brawdfran ap Adda       (Sam Adams)   adams@mari.acc-admin.stolaf.edu

"I am the Wheel, I am the Turning..."    - Brian Eno and John Cale