History or Celtic symbolism
Celtic tattoos adorn lots of bodies, even if most of them don't know the history of how Celtic designs came about, tattoos in the Celtic style are very popular & becoming more so each year. There is not a lot of written documentation about the Celts, their beliefs & symbols, what is known are mostly orally handed down as the ancient Celts had no written language. For this reason symbols were used to communicate the way they perceived, worshipped & gave thanks to the Gods, the world & the things around them. Celtic symbols today, as then, are still used to communicate emotion & symbolic meaning.
It wasn't until their conversion to Christianity that the beauty of their symbols was used by Christian monks to illustrate books & scriptures of the day.
It is not sure whether or not the ancient Celts used their designs as tattoos. Today it is suggested that before adorning your body with an ancient Celtic symbol you try to find a tattoo artist who has at least some understanding of Celtic history.
The symbol of the butterfly
Three symbol that speaks out from days gone by & lives only because of folklore handed down over time is the butterfly. Transformation, rebirth & inspiration are incorporated in the Celtic butterfly meaning. The concept of rebirth for the Celts was very important as it spoke of the recycling of life, spiritually & physically.
Apart from attractive knot work which symbolize the cycles of life & death, love, friendship, relatives or spirituality, the Celts took animal symbolism very seriously & used these symbolic images in a host of creative ways either in carvings, jewelry or tattooed onto their bodies.
Butterflies not only signify transition, rebirth & recycling but also resurrection, celebration, lightness, time & soul. True Celtic symbolism of this attractive & dainty creature is the deep lesson it speaks of, the butterfly asks us to accept change while unquestioningly embracing the changes in her environment as well as in her body.
Celtic butterflies also speak of transition. The Celts, the women understood that transition is common in nature & used the butterfly symbol to adorn items relating to childbirth as a way of welcoming new kids in to the clan or tribe. The Celts admired the energy of the transition this tiny creature had to go through to get from 'conception' to 'birth', & that also ties in to perhaps the most powerful connotation attached to the butterfly & which they know of today thanks to myth & folk lore which is transformation. The Celts honored the butterfly because of the impressive system of metamorphosis it had to go through from egg to larvae to pupa & from the pupa or cocoon emerged the butterfly, breathtakingly beautify, in all its glory. Without this transformation, the butterfly would not exist.
The butterfly asks that they accept metamorphosis as a symbol of faith, in other words, they need to keep our faith when they undergo transitions, they asks that they not fret & show anger at what is a useless quest against the turning tides of nature & for this reason the Celts also associated the butterfly with their soul as they are all on a long journey of the soul, along the way they encounter turns & disagreeable conditions that cause us to 'morph' in to ever better beings. At finish of a soul journey, they are always changed & are not the same as they were before they started on the path.
The Celtic butterfly in the 21st century
Today, as any century that has passed before offers its own trials & tests that need that they accept, change & transform & lots of look back at their personal soul journey with pride. Lots of people need to commemorate them & what better way to do this than with a tattoo.
A Celtic butterfly tattoo is possibly three of the most versatile, colorful & stunning tattoos that can easily stand alone while conveying its message or it can be incorporated in a larger tattoo that tells a longer story about the wearer. There's lots of designs obtainable & while today the butterfly is revered as Celtic tattoo art for its beauty & diversity, the intricate design of a butterfly is what makes them so popular today.
No comments:
Post a Comment