The Celtic Cross

Although today the symbol we usually think of when we hear the word cross brings to mind the Christian cross, the Celtic cross is much older. The oldest example of crosses are those engraved or painted on flat pebbles, dating from 10,000 B.C.E., found in a cave in the French Pyrenees. It has been surmised that these ancestor stones may have been believed to contain the spirits of the dead.

A true Celtic cross is not just any cross that has Celtic knot work on it. Celtic crosses are equal-armed crosses, normally enclosed or backed by a circle. The Celtic cross symbolizes the four roads or the four corners of the earth (forerunners of our parallels of latitude and longitude). The meetings of these roads at a central point formed a cross, indicating the center of the world body.
The center of the cross is also representative of the center place where all forces of Life meet, the source of the four mystic rivers, summit of the world mountain, etc. The circle is a symbol of eternity and the path of the sun in the sky and also the shape of the sun itself and so they are solar symbols and symbolic of the source of light and ultimate energy.

Crosses symbolize the bridge to the "other world" or "worlds" and also to higher energy and knowledge. This is shown by the vertical axis which represents the celestial world, and the horizontal axis that symbolizes Earthly world.

After the introduction of Christianity, it became more common to see the equal-armed cross atop a matching pedestal, which gave it a more elongated form. The circle on the Celtic cross is another good demonstration of a pagan symbol being absorbed by Christianity, for it is known that the early monks placed the pagan circle symbol on the Celtic cross to try and convert the native pagans more easily.